lakh

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English

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WOTD – 15 August 2024

Etymology

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English numbers (edit)
[a], [b] ←  10,000  ←  50,000 100,000 1,000,000 (106)  →  100,000,000 (108)  → 
10,000[a], [b]
    Cardinal: hundred thousand, one hundred thousand, lakh
    Ordinal: hundred-thousandth, one-hundred-thousandth
    Germanic collective: lakh
    Number of years: centimillennium

Borrowed from Hindustani लाख or لاکھ (lākh), from Sanskrit लक्ष (lakṣa),[1] from लक्ष् (lakṣ, “to mark; to sign; to observe, perceive”), possibly from रक्ष् (rakṣ, “to observe (a duty, law, etc.); to guard, protect”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂lek- (“to protect”).

Pronunciation

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Numeral

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lakh (plural lakhs or lakh) (South Asia, Myanmar)

  1. One hundred thousand (100,000; or, with Indian digit grouping, 1,00,000).
    • 1613, Samuel Purchas, “[Asia.] Of the Great Mogor.”, in Purchas His Pilgrimage. Or Relations of the World and the Religions Observed in All Ages and Places Discouered, from the Creation vnto this Present. […], London: […] William Stansby for Henrie Fetherstone, […], →OCLC, book V (Of the East-Indies: And of the Seas and Ilands about Asia, with Their Religions), page 406:
      They ſay the VVorld ſhall laſt foure Ages; or VVorlds, vvhereof three are paſt. The firſt laſted ſeuenteene Laches (euery Laches containeth a hundred thouſand yeares) and 28000 yeares. Men in that VVorld liued tenne thouſand yeares, vvere of great ſtature of bodie, and great ſinceritie of minde.
    • 1693 January 2 (date written; Gregorian calendar), J[ames] Talboys Wheeler, compiler, “Governorship of Mr. Nathaniel Higginson. 1692–1698.”, in Madras in the Olden Time: Being a History of the Presidency from the First Foundation of the Governorship of Thomas Pitt, Grandfather of the Earl of Chatham. 1639–1702. […], Madras: […] J[oshua] Higginbotham, […], by Graves and Co., Scottish Press, published 1861, →OCLC, page 262:
      [T]he Mahrattas having offered Alimerdy Khan his liberty for a lak of Pagodas [a unit of currency]; he does in the Nabob's name desire that the Governor of Madras would receive jewels and money to that amount into his custody, […]
    • 1972, Patrick O’Brian, Post Captain, London: HarperCollinsPublishers, published 1998, →ISBN, page 18:
      [S]he had gone out to India to keep house for her expensive, raffish father, and she had lived there in splendid style even after her marriage to a penniless young man, her father's aide-de-camp, […] But they were both killed in the same engagement against Tippoo Sahib, her father owing ten lakhs of rupees and her husband nearly half that sum.
    • 2012 November 13, Neeraj Chauhan, Dwaipayan Ghosh, “Couple from Maharashtra held for Rs 1,100 crore stock scam”, in The Times of India‎[1], Mumbai, Maharashtra: The Times Group, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-09-22:
      After a hunt lasting more than a year-and-a-half, police have arrested a couple for duping around 2 lakh people in one of India's biggest investment frauds involving an estimated Rs 1,100 crore.
    • 2013 January 3, N. Gopal Raj, “Polio free does not mean paralysis free”, in The Hindu‎[2], Chennai, Tamil Nadu: THG Publishing, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2013-01-05:
      According to data published in WHO's Weekly Epidemiological Record, India's annualised non-polio AFP rate for 2011 stood at 15.06 per one lakh children below 15 years of age, compared to a global rate that year of 5.48.

Alternative forms

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Coordinate terms

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Derived terms

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  • LPA (“initialism of lakhs per annum”)

Translations

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Noun

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lakh (plural lakhs or lakh) (South Asia)

  1. One hundred thousand rupees.
    • 1615 September, Thomas Coryat, “[Coryats Letters.] From the Court of the Great Mogul, Resident at the Towne of Asinere in the Eastern India, on Michaelmas Day. Anno 1615.”, in Coryat’s Crudities; […] To which are Now Added, His Letters from India, &c. […], volume III, London: […] W. Cater, […]; J. Wilkie, […]; and E. Easton, […], published 1776, →OCLC, pages 158–159:
      Since my arriual heere, there vvas ſent vnto this King one of the richeſt preſents that I haue heard to be ſent to any Prince in all my life time: […] the vvhole Preſent vvas vvorth ten of their Leakes, as they call them; a Leak being ten thouſand pound ſterling: the vvhole, a hundred thouſand pounds ſterling.
    • 1625, [Samuel] Purchas, “Captaine William Hawkins, His Relations of the Occurrents which Happened in the Time of His Residence in India, in the County of the Great Mogoll, and of His Departure from thence; Written to the [East India] Company”, in Purchas His Pilgrimes. […], 1st part, London: […] William Stansby for Henrie Fetherstone, […], →OCLC, 3rd book, § IIII, page 217:
      INprimis, of Rupias Ecbery, thirteene Crou (euery Crou is an hundred Leckes, and euery Leck an hundred thouſand Rupias) or one thouſand three hundred Leckes.
    • 1857–1859, W[illiam] M[akepeace] Thackeray, “Fortunatus Nimum”, in The Virginians. A Tale of the Last Century, volume I, London: Bradbury & Evans, […], published 1858, →OCLC, page 331:
      Who has not admired that noble speech of my Lord [Robert] Clive, when reproached on his return from India with making rather too free with jaghires, lakhs, gold mohurs, diamonds, pearls, and what not: "Upon my life," said the hero of Plassy, "when I think of my opportunities, I am surprised I took so little!"
  2. (figurative) Often in the plural: an indefinitely large number; a zillion.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:zillion
    • 1804, R[obert] Montgomery Martin, quoting Yashwantrao Holkar, “Section II. European Intercourse—Rise and Growth of British Power.”, in The Indian Empire: […], volume I (History, Topography, Population, Government, Finance, Commerce, and Staple Products), London; New York, N.Y.: The London Printing and Publishing Company, published [1858], →OCLC, page 399, column 2:
      […] Lake [i.e., Gerard Lake, 1st Viscount Lake] should not have leisure to breathe for a moment, and calamities would fall on lacs of human beings in continued war by the attacks of his army, which would overwhelm like the waves of the sea.
    • 1878 August, “Contemporary Portraits. New Series.—No. 8. Charles Darwin, F.R.S.”, in The University Magazine: A Literary and Philosophic Review, volume II, London: Hurst & Blackett, […], →OCLC, page 154:
      The Laccadives and Maldives, for instance, meaning literally the "lac of islands" and the "thousand islands," are a series of such atolls; […]

Alternative forms

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Translations

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References

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  1. ^ Compare “lakh, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, July 2023; “lakh, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading

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Anagrams

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French

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Etymology

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Borrowed from English lakh, from Hindi लाख (lākh), from Sanskrit लक्ष (lakṣa).

Pronunciation

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Noun

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lakh m (plural lakhs)

  1. lakh
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