Talk:verandah

Etymology

• From Portuguese varanda < Hindustani बरण्डा / برنڈا (baraṇḍā) < Sanskrit वरण्ड + कः
• From Portuguese varanda < Hindustani बरामदा / برامدہ (barāmada) < Persian برآمده (bar-āmadeh) < verb برآمدن (bar-āmadan) (to ascend, to rise, to come up)

There seems to be little dispute that this word came to English from an Indian language, perhaps Bengali[1] বারান্দা, Hindi[2] बरण्डा, Urdu[3] برآمدہ, or Persian[4] برآمدة (Persian was the Mogul court language.)

The ultimate origin of the word is far less clear. There appear to be three major theories: 1. It originates from Sanskrit (or Prakrit) and spread to Europe from India during the colonial period. 2. It originates in Persian and became part of various North Indian languages sometime in the last 1000 years or so, wherafter it spread to Europe. 3. It originates in Iberia (Spanish or Portuguese) and spread through India and back to Britain during European colonization.

A detailed account of the various proposals is found in the entry[5] for verandah in the Hobson-Jobson[6] Glossary of Anglo-Indian Colloquial Words and Phrases. The authors state "This is one of the very perplexing words for which at least two origins may be maintained, on grounds equally plausible. Besides these two, which we shall immediately mention, a third has sometimes been alleged, which is thus put forward by a well-known French scholar..." --Dieresis 10:49, 16 August 2006 (UTC)