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Pukka tends to evoke the height of 18th- and 19th-century British imperialism in India, and, indeed, it was first used in print in English in 1776, in transcripts of the trial of Maha Rajah Nundocomar, who was accused of forgery and tried, in 1775, 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."
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Examples of pukka in a Sentence
Anand Giridharadas, New York Times, 13 Jan. 2016
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'pukka.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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“Pukka.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pukka. Accessed 23 Apr. 2024.
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