Last week, we discovered that English had borrowed a good number of words from Kannada. While doing my research on the same, I discovered that English had borrowed words from other southern languages too. Some of the words that figures in English from languages like Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu are given below:
Words from Malayalam
English word Malayalam Root Word Description
Areca adekka belonging to betel nut family
Copra kopra copra: kernel of coconut
Jackfruit chakkaa tasty fruit
Words from Tamil
English word Tamil Root Word Description
Cash kaasu cash, money, coin
Catamaran kattumaram raft made of tied wood
Cheroot suruṭṭu Indian cigar
Culvert kalvettu carved/cut stone
Mulligatawny milagai-thanni rasam
Patchouli pachchai ilai kind of mint leaf
Pandal pandhal temporary shelter
Words from Telugu
English word Telugu Root Word Description
Bandicoot pandi-kokku kind of large rat
Pitta pitta small green colored bird
Well my friends, this what I could find this week. If you know more words and could add to this list please do let me know.
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