Words English borrowed

The River says ships are too big to come up the river: "Chandu's catamaran is good enough for me." A catamaran is a kind of boat, and the word has a story!

It comes from the Tamil words *kattu maram*, meaning 'tied wood'. That's exactly what the boat is: logs tied together. English borrowed the word from Tamil, kept the sound, and changed the spelling a little.

English has borrowed lots of words from Indian languages, and you use them without noticing! Karma and guru (a teacher) come from Sanskrit.

Your book lists more to find out about: sahib, chutney, guru, verandah, jungle, areca and palanquin. Each was an Indian word first.

Why do languages borrow? When English speakers met something new (a boat of tied logs, a spicy chutney, a covered seat carried on poles) and had no word for it, they simply took the word already used for it.

Borrowing goes both ways: Hindi and Tamil have taken many English words too (think bus, train, school). A living language is always trading words.

The catamaran is one of several boats used in India. The book names four: the canoe, the catamaran, the coracle (round like a basket, for crossing rivers) and the shikara (on the lakes of Kashmir). Each suits its own water.