Vol. 09 · Loanwords ·South Asia ·1610s
Nabob
from nawāb
- Meaning
- A person of great wealth or prominence; originally a provincial governor.
- Source word
- nawāb
- Route into English
- Urdu *nawāb* (honorific plural of Arabic *nāʾib*, deputy) → English via British East India Company officials who returned wealthy from India. Eventually used sarcastically for any rich man.
- Arrived
- 1610s
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.
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