50 words English owes to India

50 words from India

  • A - atoll, avatar
  • B - bandana, bangle, bazaar, Blighty, bungalow
  • C - cashmere, catamaran, char, cheroot, cheetah, chintz, chit, chokey, chutney, cot, cummerbund, curry
  • D - dinghy, doolally, dungarees
  • G - guru, gymkhana
  • H - hullabaloo
  • J - jodhpur, jungle, juggernaut, jute
  • K - khaki, kedgeree
  • L - loot
  • N - nirvana
  • P - pariah, pashmina, polo, pukka, pundit, purdah, pyjamas
  • S - sari, shampoo, shawl, swastika
  • T - teak, thug, toddy, typhoon
  • V - veranda
  • Y - yoga

Sources: Hobson-Jobson, Oxford English Dictionary

Another author who has drawn inspiration from the dictionary is Tom Stoppard. In his play Indian Ink, two characters compete to use as many Hobson-Jobson words as possible:

  • Flora: “While having tiffin on the veranda of my bungalow I spilled kedgeree on my dungarees and had to go to the gymkhana in my pyjamas looking like a coolie.”
  • Nirad: “I was buying chutney in the bazaar when a thug who had escaped from the chokey ran amok and killed a box-wallah for his loot, creating a hullabaloo and landing himself in the mulligatawny.”
Source: penamerican