Word of the Day

: October 1, 2009

pukka

adjective PUCK-uh

What It Means

: genuine, authentic; also : first-class

pukka in Context

Ellingsworth stood framed in the door of his club, the picture of a pukka gentleman, immaculately groomed, upper lip appropriately stiff, perfectly genteel.

Did You Know?

"Pukka" tends to evoke the height of 18th- and 19th-century British imperialism in India, and, indeed, it was first used in English at the 1775 trial of Maha Rajah Nundocomar, who was accused of forgery and tried by a British court in Bengal. The word is borrowed from Hindi and Urdu "pakkā," which means "solid." The English speakers who borrowed it applied the "sound and reliable" sense of "solid" and thus the word came to mean "genuine." As the British Raj waned, "pukka" was occasionally appended to "sahib" (an Anglo-Indian word for a European of some social or official status). That expression is sometimes used as a compliment for an elegant and refined gentleman, but it can also imply that someone is overbearing and pretentious. These days, "pukka" is also used as a British slang word meaning "excellent" or "cool."