On Mon, 3 Aug 1998 20:24:51 +0100, Adrian Midgley wrote:
>* Etymological note: Wallah was imported from the Raj, the Indian Army
>of the Imperium, and means "man". eg Punkah Wallah man pulling punka,
>or string.
The Raj, in turn, imported 'wallah' from the Arabic 'walad', meaning
'boy' and pronounced colloquially as 'wallah'.
Like in the old South Africa and America's deep south, the Raj, of
course, would have used the word in its derogatory function: boy!
Ahmad
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Dr Ahmad Risk
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