Vol. 09 · Loanwords ·South Asia ·1630s
Punch
from pañch
- Meaning
- A mixed drink typically of fruit juice, spirits, spices, sugar, and water.
- Source word
- pañch
- Route into English
- Hindi/Sanskrit *pañch* (five) → English via sailors of the East India Company in the 1630s, referring to the five original ingredients. The name is not English "punch" as in strike.
- Arrived
- 1630s
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.