Hindi Diwas: From Jugaad & Chamcha To Dadagiri, These Hindi Words Now Feature in Oxford Dictionary | See List

Hindi Diwas 2022: Hindi Diwas is celebrated every year in India on September 14 in order to mark the adoption of Hindi as the official language by the Constituent Assembly of India on September 14, 1949. The objective of this day is to create awareness about the rich history and importance of the Hindi language. The language which has been a force behind uniting Indians, has also now shot to global popularity. There are so many words that people who don’t even speak the language have picked up and used on a regular basis. That’s probably why there are many Hindi words that have been added to the Oxford Dictionary! In 2020, ‘Aatmanirbharta’ implying self-reliance was named by Oxford Languages as its Hindi word of the year.

LIST OF COMMON HINDI WORDS IN OXFORD DICTIONARY:

Jugaad: In 2017, the word was added to Oxford Dictionary. The dictionary describes the word as “a flexible approach to problem-solving that uses limited resources in an innovative way”.

Dadagiri: This popularly used word was also added to the Oxford Dictionary in the same year. The Oxford dictionary translates the meaning of this word to ” the act of using strength and power to frighten or hurt weaker people.”

Jungle: One of the most commonly used words in Hindi and English is Jungle, which was one of the very few first words to be picked up from India by the Oxford dictionary. The word originated from Sanskrit and came to the English language via Hindi.

Chamcha: Well, this one is everyone’s favourite, it’s a very regularly used Hindi word and has been described by the dictionary as “a person who tries too hard to please somebody, especially somebody who is important”.

Chakka Jam: This one was also added to the dictionary in 2017. The dictionary describes the word as ” a protest in which people block a road or cause a traffic jam.”

Didi: Another word we commonly use as Hindi speakers! Oxford describes it as simple as it gets – “older female cousin”.

Achcha: Oxford added this word among 90 other words it picked from various languages in India in 2017. The dictionary describes the word as “used to show that the speaker agrees with, accepts, understands, etc. something.”

Timepass: To all those who thought it was an actual English word, you’re wrong! There wasn’t any such English word in the dictionary until 2017. The dictionary describes the word as “the action of spending time doing something, especially something that has no aim or is not very useful”.

Few other words that the English dictionary picked are – Bas, Jhuggi, Funda, Nivas, Gully, Natak, Sevak, Sevika, Chup, Surya Namaskar, Desh, Diya, Bada Din among many others.