Gymkhana

Gymkhana (Hindi: जिमख़ाना, Assamese: জিমখানা, Bengali: জিমখানা, Urdu: جِمخانہ, Sindhi: جمخانه) is an Indian term which originally referred to a place of assembly. The meaning then altered to denote a place where skill-based contests were held. "Gymkhana" is an Anglo-Indian expression, which is derived from the Persian word "Jamat-khana".[1] Most gymkhanas have a Gymkhana Club associated with them, a term coined during British Raj for gentlemen's club.

Karachi Gymkhana Club in 1890.

More generally, gymkhana refers to a social and sporting club in the Indian subcontinent, and in other Asian countries including Malaysia, Thailand, Burma and Singapore, as well as in East Africa.

Etymology

Bombay Gymkhana or Bombay Gym

The first element of Gymkhana comes from gend meaning ball in Hindi/Hindustani/Khariboli. This element is distinct from English word gym, short for gymnasium and gymnastics which has Greek and Latin roots.[2] The second element, khānā (ख़ाना) has Indo-Persian or Indo-Arabic origin meaning a place or a compartment. In the Persian (خانه) it's a term for dwelling, house.[3]

gollark: I don't do coffee (although it apparently is fine health-wise, unless in vast quantities) or "soda", so meh.
gollark: What is a doctor meant to *do* about it exactly? I would hardly want to be stuck on drugs forever to avoid procrastinating, or something.
gollark: I *definitely* do the procrastination thing, not sure what to do about it really.
gollark: And the longer term your planning the more external factors will affect things, and those are very hard because it's nigh-impossible to predict future technology or politics or anything.
gollark: Devastating life changing events aren't really all that likely, but unexpected somewhat bad or good or just extremely weird ones will crop up with *some* frequency.

See also

References

  1. MacMillan, Michael (1895). The Globe Trotter in India Two Hundred Years Ago: And Other Indian Studies. S. Sonnenschein & Company. p. 91.
  2. Oxford Dictionaries Gymnasium etymology
  3. From Loghat'nāmeh-ye Dehkhoda, Third Edition (Tehran University Press, 2006), quoted from Borhān-e Ghāte' by Mohammad Moin.
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