A water pipe used for smoking tobacco, with a long flexible tube that draws smoke through water in a bowl.
From Arabic ḥuqqa meaning 'small box' or 'container,' referring to the water vessel at the base of the pipe. The word entered English in the 18th century through British colonial contact with Arabic and Persian smoking culture in India and the Middle East. The smoking device itself originated in India but spread throughout the Ottoman Empire with its Arabic name.
This elaborate smoking device got its name from the Arabic word for 'little box' because of its distinctive water container! British colonists encountered it in India and the Middle East, where Arabic had become the international language for describing this sophisticated smoking apparatus.
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