Vol. 09 · Loanwords ·South Asia ·1670s
Bungalow
from bāṅglā
- Meaning
- A Bengal-style house — single-storey, thatched, veranda on three sides.
- Source word
- bāṅglā
- Route into English
- British East India Company officials adopted the design for upcountry postings; the word travelled back to Britain by the 1870s.
- Arrived
- 1670s
From South Asia
Three centuries of British colonial contact — East India Company, Raj, military, domestic life — deposited a distinct Hindi/Urdu/Bengali/Sanskrit layer in everyday English.
English borrows.
Browse the full loanword atlas or explore another source language.