You are here

Home

etymology

"Car of Juggernaut" (1851) (Source: The Illustrated London Reading Book)
Did you know that the word Juggernaut has its roots in Odisha?
Cyclone Catarina from the International Space Station (Source: WIkipedia (Cyclone))
Did you know that the mysteries of tropical cyclones were unravelled in India?
The Colour Orange (Source: Serendip)
A Norange hypocrisy: Did you know that the fruit and the colour have their roots in our humble corner of the world?
The dickey of a 1955 Hudson Rambler (Source: Wikipedia)
What the hell is a 'dickey' anyway?
He-Man during the transformation sequence in the intro to He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. (Source: Wikia)
What links He-man, the Chinese silk trade, Tamil, and the perfume industry?
Pakistan Declaration (Source: Wikipedia)
Pakistan is an acronym coined in 1932 in Cambridge

Did you know?

The terrible beast of Punjab

Hugh Falconer, a 19th century Scottish palaeontologist, named a species of extinct elephant-like creatures Dinotherium pentapotamiae which, translated from Greek means "terrible beast [of the] five rivers". The pentapotamiae (penta = five, potamiae = rivers) is a translation of Punjab (panj/panch = five, ab = river/water) which is where the fossils were found.

Belur and brilliant beryls

The name of the gemstone, beryl, probably originates from the Prakrit veruliya and Sanskrit vaidurya- which might be of Dravidian provenance. One theory points its source to the city of Velur (modern Belur, Karnataka). Derivatives such as brilliant and beryllium share these origins.

Saffron

The word saffron, a colour often associated with Hinduism, is believed to have its root in the Arabic word, az-za'faran which is itself of unknown origin.

Teapoy

A tea-poy has very little to do with tea. It was originally the name for an Indian three-footed, i.e., a tī-pāī table which could be used for many things including serving tea.