English words from Hindi and Sanskrit
Words from the Indian subcontinent, many picked up during British rule, and older ones from Sanskrit that had already traveled west centuries earlier.
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- Candy
Trace candy back far enough and you land in Sanskrit: khanda, "a piece of sugar," rooted in a verb meaning "to break into pieces." That became Persian qand, then Arabic qandi, then Old French sucre candi, before English clipped it down to just "candy" — a…
From the Sat, Aug 8, 2026 roundup → - Himalaya
"Himalaya" is Sanskrit for "abode of snow," from "hima," snow, and "alaya," dwelling. "Hima" descends from the same ancient root as Latin "hiems," winter, which is why "hibernate" is a distant cousin of the mountains, and why the Greek "chimaira," a she-goat…
From the Mon, Sep 28, 2026 roundup → - Juggernaut
Since at least the 12th century, worshippers in the eastern Indian city of Puri have hauled an enormous wooden chariot carrying an image of the Hindu deity Jagannath, a form of Krishna, through the streets during an annual festival, with crowds pulling ropes…
From the Sun, Sep 20, 2026 roundup → - Jungle
Sanskrit "jangala" meant dry, arid, sparsely wooded land, and its Hindi descendant "jangal" meant uncultivated ground of any kind. When British administrators borrowed the word in 1776, they applied it to the wild land beyond the fields, which in Bengal…
From the Tue, Sep 29, 2026 roundup → - Khaki
"Khaki" simply means "dust-colored," from a South Asian word for dust that entered English through the British Indian Army in the 1840s. British officers, tired of their bright white uniforms making them highly visible targets, began dyeing their cottons with…
From the Mon, Aug 17, 2026 roundup → - Lacquer
Lacquer has one of the longer paper trails in today's set: English picked it up from French lacre, which came from Portuguese laca, which came from Arabic and Persian lakk, which traces all the way back to the Sanskrit lākshā — the reddish resin secreted by a…
From the Fri, Aug 21, 2026 roundup → - Loot
Hindi "lūṭ," from a Sanskrit root meaning to rob or break, was one of dozens of words East India Company soldiers carried home. "Loot" is recorded in English from 1788, first as a noun for plunder taken in war, then as a verb, and by the 20th century it had…
From the Tue, Sep 29, 2026 roundup → - Nirvana
In Buddhism and Hinduism, "nirvana" comes from a Sanskrit word meaning "blown out" or "extinguished," describing the state of liberation reached when the flames of craving and suffering are finally snuffed out like a candle. Kurt Cobain borrowed the word…
From the Mon, Aug 24, 2026 roundup → - Pajamas
Before they were sleepwear, "pajamas" were just loose, drawstring trousers worn across South Asia, adapted from Hindi and Urdu. British colonists adopted the garment as comfortable at-home wear, brought the word home with them, and English eventually narrowed…
From the Fri, Sep 11, 2026 roundup → - Yoga
The word "yoga" traces back roughly three thousand years to the Sanskrit root yuj, meaning "to yoke" or "to join together" — the same basic image used for harnessing a pair of oxen to pull a cart. Vedic poets borrowed that everyday farm image as a metaphor…
From the Tue, Aug 18, 2026 roundup →