Vol. 09 · Loanwords ·South Asia ·1670s
Sahib
from साहब (sāhab)
- Meaning
- A respectful form of address for men, originally used by Indian speakers addressing Europeans.
- Source word
- साहब (sāhab)
- Route into English
- Arabic *ṣāḥib* (companion, friend) → Urdu/Hindi *sāhab* → English via the British Raj as a form of address. "Memsahib" (from "ma'am sahib") is its feminine counterpart.
- Arrived
- 1670s
From South Asia
Three centuries of British colonial contact — East India Company, Raj, military, domestic life — deposited a distinct Hindi/Urdu/Bengali/Sanskrit layer in everyday English.
English borrows.
Browse the full loanword atlas or explore another source language.