A.W.A.D. - Places From India

Namaste from India! I've just landed in Mumbai, where I'm planning to spend the rest of this year.

Mumbai was formerly known by its anglicized spelling, Bombay. The name of the city is derived from Mumba (name of a goddess) + ai (mother in the Marathi language). Each place has a story, and this week we'll visit five places from India that have become words in the English language.

golconda
PRONUNCIATION: (gol-KON-duh)
MEANING: noun: A source of great wealth

ETYMOLOGY: After Golconda, a ruined city in southern India, once known for its diamond mines in the nearby hills.

doolally
PRONUNCIATION: (DU-lah-lee)
MEANING: adjective: Irrational, deranged, or insane

ETYMOLOGY: After Deolali, a small town in western India. It's about 100 miles from Mumbai with an unusual claim to fame. It's where British soldiers who had completed their tour of duty were sent to await transportation home. It was a long wait -- often many months -- before they were to be picked up by ships to take them to England. Consequent boredom, and heat, turned many a soldier insane, and the word doolally was coined. At least that's the story.

More likely, soldiers who were going soft in the head were sent to the sanatorium there. At first the term was used in the form "He's got the Doo-lally tap", from Sanskrit tapa (heat) meaning one has caught doolally fever but now it's mostly heard as in "to go doolally". In Australia, they say "Calm down, don't do your lolly".

jodhpurs
PRONUNCIATION: (JOD-puhrz)
MEANING: noun: Riding breeches loose above the knees but close-fitting from the knees to the ankles

ETYMOLOGY: After Jodhpur, a city in northwestern India, earlier a princely state.

calico
PRONUNCIATION: (KAL-i-co)
MEANING: noun:
1. A brightly printed coarse cotton cloth
2. (Mainly British) A plain white cotton cloth
3. An animal having a spotted coat, especially with red and black patches
adjective:
1. Made from such a cloth
2. Having a spotted pattern

ETYMOLOGY: From Calicut, former name of Kozhikode, a city in southern India from where this cloth was exported. Other words for clothes with Indian origins are bandana, cashmere, chintz, dungarees, jodhpurs, khakis, madras, pajamas, and seersucker (not all are toponyms).

tamarind
PRONUNCIATION: (TAM-uh-rind)
MEANING: noun: The pod of the tree Tamarindus indica, the pulp of which is sour in taste and used in preparing food and drink

ETYMOLOGY: From Latin tamarindus, from Arabic tamr (date) + hindi (Indian), owing to the date-like consistency of its pulp.

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