rupee

Etymology

It is partly borrowed from Portuguese rupia, recorded from 1608, and partly borrowed from Hindi रुपया (rupayā, “silver coin, rupee”),^[2][3][4][1] the Hindi word being the source that most dictionaries give.^{[3][5][6][4][7]} Etymonline, Hoad and Weekley give the Urdu form instead,^[8][9][10] and the OED notes that Persian had borrowed the Hindi word by the mid-16th century and probably helped to pass it into European languages.^[2] The Hindi word is a vernacular pronunciation of Sanskrit रूप्य (rūpya, “worked, stamped; wrought silver, coin”),^[2][1][9][6] formed with an adjective suffix from the word for shape, form or beauty, which is of unknown origin.^[2][7][5][3] Etymonline suggests that the coin was originally "something provided with an image".^[8] Weekley thought that the English form might come from a plural.^[10] The OED's second sense, the gold mohur, came through French roupie, recorded from 1663.^[2] Rupiah and rufiyaa are from the same source.^[1][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The principal monetary unit of India: 1612, in the travels of N. Withington.^[2][7] Barnhart records rupie in 1612 and rupee in 1615;^[7] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates the word to 1610 and Etymonline to the 1610s.^[5][8]

Semantic evolution

Hobson-Jobson calls the rupee the standard coin of the Anglo-Indian monetary system, as it had been of the Muslim empire before it, and notes that it is commonly said to have been introduced by Sher Shāh in 1542, although a coin of nearly the same standard, about 175 grains of silver, had been struck by the sultans of Delhi in the 13th and 14th centuries.^[11] Wiktionary likewise credits the coin to Sher Shah Suri.^[1] From 1678, in a translation of Tavernier's Indian travels, the word could also mean the gold mohur.^[2] As the currency spread beyond India, the word passed into Urdu, Nepali, Sinhala, Tamil and Divehi, and through French into Seychelles Creole.^[2] Today it names the monetary units of India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Mauritius and the Seychelles.^[2][5][12]

Timeline

• 1612 – the Indian silver coin and monetary unit, as rupie.^[2][7] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates it to 1610.^[5]
• 1615 – the spelling rupee.^[7]
• 1678 – a gold mohur.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The basic monetary unit of India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Mauritius and the Seychelles, divided into 100 paise or 100 cents.^[5][12][2]
2. A coin or banknote worth one rupee.^[5]

Related words

• rupiah
• rufiyaa

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
11. ^ Yule, Henry; Burnell, A. C. (1903), Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, new ed. by William Crooke, London: John Murray
12. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins