The word “accha” meaning okay, commonly used in India, just made it to the Cambridge Dictionary, and people are taking to social media to share the news.
If you live in the UAE and have friends from the Indian subcontinent, you probably know that the word “Accha” can mean good, okay, or be used as an expression of astonishment, depending on the tone of the speaker. If you only learn one word of Hindi, make sure it is this.
The word Accha appears in both the Hindi and Urdu languages and has roots in the Sanskrit language.
Tagging the word as ‘Indian English’, the Cambridge Dictionary website entry that was published just last week defines accha (also achha) as: “Used for showing that you agree with something or understand something.”
Further defining the word, the UK-based lexicon said that the word could be “used for showing surprise or happiness”.
Explaining how the new addition can be used in sentences, the web entry showed the following examples:
“Accha, that’s good. Go ahead!”
“I managed to buy it for half the price.” “Accha!”
Twitter user @ChinmoyAIH posted: “Accha? Accha! Acchaaaa… It was about time it made it to the dictionary.”
Meanwhile, Facebook user Ketaki Devani commented: “… they missed like 90 per cent of the definitions of accha, it’s such a versatile word!”
And, Shikhsha Mudun wrote: “I’m using this word in our next scrabble game! I don’t care if it’s in scrabble dictionary yet or not, it’s in the Cambridge Dictionary, so a valid word.”
The word was also included in the Oxford Dictionary a few years ago.