Tamil words in English
C.R.Selvakumar - Electrical Engineering
lists of Tamil words "exported" to English.
It appears, the following 14 words have been identified:
anaconda, bandicoot, betal, cash, catamaran,
coir, copra, cury, ginger, mango,
mulligatawny, patchouli, rice, sandhanam
and vettivEr was also quoted as being used in a perfume.
I know off-hand about 6 more. They are as follows
anicut = dam [used in Oxford Dictionary 1968 edition]
tope = grove, garden [< toppu]
toper = drunkard [ not identified to be from Tamil but it is from tope]
Note "tope" as a verb to mean 'to drink an intoxicating liquor
excessively' is also used !!
tire = yogurt [ can be seen in Oxford Dictionary 1968 edition]
coolie or cooly = porter
pandal = temperory shelter
Apart from the above list, the word 'pundit' is certainly from Tamil
but the dictionaries claim that it is from Sanskrit. There are more
than 85 words in tamil related to paN, puNduvam, puNdam with a few
significant verb forms [verb forms are considered more difficult to be
borrowed and hence less likely to be borrowed generally although you can
see a couter example right in the above list !!]
Another word is pilaf or pilau which is identified by dictionaries to come
from Turkish. This again a mistake I think. The word "pulal" and "pulavu"
are ancient words in Tamil from Sangam period ( 2-3 century AD) and numerous
Tamil words are related to "pul" related to the semantic sense of pilaf.
As can be seen most of the words which have gone to English are names of
food items which are not available in native English lands.
Words such as anicut are interesting borrowing but they are not used
much ( or not at all) today. Earlier they might have adapted because many
people used this term in the Southern India then.
I'm sure one can find more number of words than the presnt list but
then it has to be a more systematic search. One of the methods is to
read the English daily Hindu regularly and collect (!!). Also a number
of words (not all) claimed to be from Hindi, Sanskrit,
Oriya, Bengali and other Indian languages in the dictionaries can be
shown to be originally derived from Tamil.
It is important to note that more than 1000 ( one
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
thousand words) have been shown to be exported to English through
Greek and Latin - as shown by Gnanasampandha Nadar (??) and published as a
book with a foreword by a US "scholar" ( amature ??) [ I remember he
was a US Consulate General or something like that].
Consumate Scholars like Thomas Burrow (late) and Murray Emmeneau ( now
professor Emiritus at UC Berkeley) have concluded that as many as
150 words have been exported to Sanskrit ( right from the Rg Vedic
period) but certainly more work has to be done and as I understand
neither of these two great scholars are , I understand, sufficiently
knowledgeable in Tamil ( to the extent as Devaneyan or ILankumaran
of "Senthamizh Selvi" fame). When the etymological Tamil dictionary
started by the late Devaneyan is completed ( now continued under the
direction of Ira MathivaaNan) there will be some idea of how many
Tamil words roots have gone to English thru Sanskrit, Latin, and Greek,
Portuguese etc.
I'll try to add more thoughts on this later.
Selva
Asokan
>Recently there were quite a few netters who have supplied
>lists of Tamil words "exported" to English.
>It appears, the following 14 words have been identified:
>
> anaconda, bandicoot, betal, cash, catamaran,
> coir, copra, cury, ginger, mango,
> mulligatawny, patchouli, rice, sandhanam
>
> and vettivEr was also quoted as being used in a perfume.
>
>I know off-hand about 6 more. They are as follows
> anicut = dam [used in Oxford Dictionary 1968 edition]
> tope = grove, garden [< toppu]
> toper = drunkard [ not identified to be from Tamil but it is from tope]
> Note "tope" as a verb to mean 'to drink an intoxicating liquor
> excessively' is also used !!
> tire = yogurt [ can be seen in Oxford Dictionary 1968 edition]
> coolie or cooly = porter
> pandal = temperory shelter
>
>I'm sure one can find more number of words than the presnt list but
>then it has to be a more systematic search. One of the methods is to
>read the English daily Hindu regularly and collect (!!). Also a number
>of words (not all) claimed to be from Hindi, Sanskrit,
>Oriya, Bengali and other Indian languages in the dictionaries can be
>shown to be originally derived from Tamil.
The computerized version of the New OED has 158 occurrences
of the word "Tamil". A new OED entry consists of a definition
and etymology section and a quotes section consisting of usage
examples. The above number includes *all* occurrences.
I took a quick look and found the following additional words
that are fairly commonly used in English and are originally
from Tamil.
pariah teak
In addition there were numerous words which are hardly used in
regular English prose. Examples include:
areca chunam kangany(overseer)
pongal idli kabadi
sambar godown(f. kidangu) pettah(f. pEttai)
portia (f. poovarasu)
And some others which make you go "Hmmm"! I don't recall ever seeing
them in English writings. Most of them were apparently used during
the Madras Presidency period:
piney, pinnay. Also piny [ad. Tamil pinnai or punnai ... ] Then name of two
East Endian resinous trees. piney tallow (Tamil punnaitailam)
chunam [Tamil chunnam] Cement or plaster largely used in India
poonga-oil [f. Tamil punga, name of the plant] A dark-yellow oil expressed
mohini-attam [f. Tamil]
palay. Also pala [Tamil pAlay] Name of two East Indian shrubs or trees.
cholum [Tamil] A grass, the Indian millet or Guinea corn.
yercum [Tamil] An East Indian shrub... used medicinally.
conicopoly [Corruption of Tamil Canakka-piLLai account-man ...]
illupi [Tamil iluppai or iruppai] An evergreen tree ...
cawney [a. Tamil kANi property, land] A measure of land.
kavadi [ad. Tamil kAvati] A decorated arch carried on the shoulders
as an act of penance.
conjee [ f. Tamil kanji ] The water in which rice has been boiled...
kartel [ f. Tamil kattil ]
corundum [ f. Tamil kurundam ] A crystallized mineral.
mamootie [ f. Tamil maNvetti ] A digging tool
manjelin [ f. Tamil manjAdi ] A weight for weighing precious stones.
modeliyar [ f. Tamil mudaliyAr ] A head-man, chief...
nartjie [Afrikaans, f. Tamil nArattai ] The tangerine or mandarin orange.
poonac [Tamil puNNAkku] The oil-cake or mass left after the oil
has been expressed from coconut pulp.
olla [ ... Tamil Olai ... ] A palm-leaf
shola. Also sholah [Tamil chOlai] A thicket or jungle, in Southern India.
BTW, none of the above are complete verbatim entries from the New OED,
just to avoid any copyright restrictions.
As Dr Selvakumar pointed out, several words whose origins may
have been in Tamil are not listed as such in the New OED.
Examples are:
coir (malayalam)
copra (malayalam)
bandicoot (telugu)
rice (arabic)
ginger (malayalam)