gymkhana

English

Etymology

From Hindustani گیند خانہ (gendxānā) / गेंदख़ाना (gendxānā, “racquet court”), from گیند / गेंद (gend, “ball”) + خانہ / ख़ाना (xānā, “court”). Influenced by gymnastics and gymnasium.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d͡ʒɪmˈkɑnə/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑːnə

Noun

gymkhana (plural gymkhanas)

1. (equestrianism) A competition where riders and horses display a range of skills and aptitudes.
   • 1900, Winston Churchill, chapter 13, in London to Ladysmith via Pretoria:

     In the afternoon the British held athletic sports, an impromptu military tournament, and a gymkhana, all of which caused much merriment and diversion, and the Boers profited by the cessation of the shell fire to shovel away at their trenches.

2. (India, Myanmar, dated) A place of public resort for athletic games, etc.
   • 1914, John Law, chapter XVI, in Modern Hyderabad (Deccan), Calcutta: Thacker, Spink & Co:

     These privileged gentlemen have a fine club on the Fateh Maidan, a suburb of Hyderabad city, and they enjoy sports and races at the local gymkhana, in fact, they have a very good time, if one may judge by their appearance.

3. (India, Myanmar, dated) A meeting for such sports.
4. (motor racing) Synonym of motorkhana.
5. (figurative) Any event, situation, etc., with a broad array of elements.
   • 1951, John Wyndham, The Day of the Triffids, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, published 1954, page 41:

     There was argument, public, private, and bar-parlor, with heated championship of one term or another on near-scientific, quasi-etymological, and a number of other grounds, but gradually one term began to dominate this philological gymkhana.

Derived terms

• icekhana
• motorkhana

Descendants

• → Catalan: gimcana
• → Italian: gincana
• → Portuguese: gincana
• → Spanish: yincana

Further reading

• gymkhana on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Gymkhana in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʒim.ka.na/

• Audio (Switzerland (Valais)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Agen)):

  (file)

Noun

gymkhana m (plural gymkhanas)

1. gymkhana

Further reading

• “gymkhana”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012