Hindi
nounThe principal language of northern India, written in the Devanagari script and one of the official languages of India.
How to spell hindi
5 letters · 2 syllables
How to pronounce hindi
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does hindi mean?
- nounThe principal language of northern India, written in the Devanagari script and one of the official languages of India.
Hindi in a sentence
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She signed up for evening classes to learn hindi before her trip to Delhi.
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The film was shot in hindi with English subtitles for the festival audience.
Where does hindi come from?
Language of origin: Sanskrit
This word travelled a long way before reaching English. It begins with the Sanskrit word Sindhu, the name of the great river now called the Indus, which simply meant 'river' or that specific waterway. Ancient Persian speakers, who could not easily pronounce the initial 's' sound, turned it into Hind, and used Hind as their name for the land beyond the Indus, that is, India. Adding the Persian adjectival suffix -i produced Hindi, meaning 'of India' or 'Indian', and the term came to name the principal language of northern India. English borrowed Hindi in the early nineteenth century during the colonial period, keeping the Persian-derived spelling with its tell-tale single 'n' and final 'i'. The same Hind root sits inside the words Hindu, Hindustan, and even India itself.
How the word is built
- Hind (the land of India, from the river Sindhu)
- -i (adjectival suffix meaning 'of or relating to')
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