Vol. 09 · Loanwords ·South Asia ·1890s
Swami
from स्वामी (svāmī)
- Meaning
- A Hindu religious teacher or ascetic.
- Source word
- स्वामी (svāmī)
- Route into English
- Sanskrit *svāmī* (lord, master) → English through Hindu revivalist teachers speaking in the West, notably Swami Vivekananda at the 1893 Chicago Parliament of Religions.
- Arrived
- 1890s
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.