Adda is one of the growing list of words which have entered English from the Indian ( Indo-Aryan and Dravidian families of ) languages ( like yoga, guru, avatar, etc). Adda was incorporated into the OED in 2004. The Indo-Aryan languages form a subgroup of the Indo-Iranian languages, thus belonging to the Indo-European family of languages. ... The Dravidian family of languages includes approximately 73 languages[1] that are mainly spoken in southern India and Sri Lanka, as well as certain areas in Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, and eastern and central India, as well as in parts of Afghanistan and Iran, and by overseas Dravidians in other countries... A woman practising hatha yoga Yoga (Devanagari: योग) is a family of ancient spiritual practices originating in India. ... Guru - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... The ten avatars of Lord Vishnu, copyright BBT In Hindu philosophy, an avatar, avatara or avataram (Sanskrit: , IAST: ), most commonly refers to the incarnation (bodily manifestation) of a higher being (deva), or the Supreme Being (God) onto planet Earth. ... The Oxford English Dictionary print set The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is a dictionary published by the Oxford University Press (OUP), and is generally regarded as the most comprehensive and scholarly dictionary of the English language. ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

An adda may be viewed as a form of intellectual exchange among members of the same socio-economic strata.^[1] It is most popular among the youths belonging to the so-called "middle-class intelligentsia". Although many Kolkatans boast of the city being the birthplace of adda culture, Satyajit Ray (in his film Agantuk) traces back the origin of the tradition to regular intellectual dialogues prevalent in ancient Greece at the time of Socrates or Plato. Agantuk (or The stranger) is a 1991 film directed by Satyajit Ray. ...

The Indian adda has shades of meaning attached to different languages:

In Hindi, adda is a noun, with the nominal form of the word meaning the location or nest of a group or community, usually shady people. The etymology can be traced to the original meaning of the word, which means the "perching spot or perch for birds". Hindi (Devanagari: हिन्दी or हिंदी; IPA: ), an Indo-European language spoken mainly in northern and central India, is the official language of the Union government of India [1][2]. It is part of a dialect continuum of the Indic family, bounded on the northwest and west by Punjabi, Sindhi, Urdu, and Gujarati... A noun, or noun substantive, is a part of speech which can co-occur with (in)definite articles and attributive adjectives, and function as the head of a noun phrase. ...

In Bengali, adda is both a standalone noun and a noun in a noun - verb compound. The nominalization of the word has 2 senses - one being the Hindi sense, and the other being the place of ritual meeting and/or conversation of a group of people. The verb form means informal conversation among a group of people, often for hours at an end, and usually accompanied by food. The word has a laid back feel to it, like the Italian siesta. Bengali or Bangla (বাংলা, IPA: ) is an Indo-Aryan language of the eastern Indian subcontinent, evolved from Prakrit, Pāli and Sanskrit. ... A noun, or noun substantive, is a part of speech which can co-occur with (in)definite articles and attributive adjectives, and function as the head of a noun phrase. ... A noun, or noun substantive, is a part of speech which can co-occur with (in)definite articles and attributive adjectives, and function as the head of a noun phrase. ... A noun, or noun substantive, is a part of speech which can co-occur with (in)definite articles and attributive adjectives, and function as the head of a noun phrase. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... // Definition A nominalization is a word that has been changed from a verb or an adjective into a noun. ... Hindi (Devanagari: हिन्दी or हिंदी; IPA: ), an Indo-European language spoken mainly in northern and central India, is the official language of the Union government of India [1][2]. It is part of a dialect continuum of the Indic family, bounded on the northwest and west by Punjabi, Sindhi, Urdu, and Gujarati... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... A siesta (IPA: ) is a short nap taken in the early afternoon, often after the midday meal. ...

The Bengali institution of the adda has also been the subject of recent scholarly attempts to reconstruct alternative histories of modernity in South Asia. [1]

It is not uncommon for word meanings to vary slightly from language to language inside a language family. /m/a/t/l/a/v/a/ ( in the Indo-Aryan family) is another such word. The Indo-Aryan languages form a subgroup of the Indo-Iranian languages, thus belonging to the Indo-European family of languages. ...

The official etymology in OED is marked as Hindi, which sparked off severe discussion in India after the inclusion of the word in the OED. Hindi (Devanagari: हिन्दी or हिंदी; IPA: ), an Indo-European language spoken mainly in northern and central India, is the official language of the Union government of India [1][2]. It is part of a dialect continuum of the Indic family, bounded on the northwest and west by Punjabi, Sindhi, Urdu, and Gujarati...

References

1. ^ New York Times article