Hathi

/ˈhɑːti/ noun

Definition

An elephant, especially used in Indian languages and in English when referring to elephants in India or South Asia.

Etymology

From Hindi/Urdu 'hathi' (हाथी), derived from Sanskrit 'hastin' meaning elephant. The word was adopted into English from colonial India and appears in English literature set in or about India.

Kelly Says

Hathi became famous worldwide through Rudyard Kipling's 'The Jungle Book,' where Hathi the elephant is a patriarch figure—many English speakers first learned this word without realizing it was Hindi! It's a perfect example of how stories can import words from other languages into English.

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