punkah

American  

[puhng-kuh] / ˈpʌŋ kə /

Or punka

noun

1. (especially in India) a fan, especially a large, swinging, screenlike fan hung from the ceiling and moved by a servant or by machinery.

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adjective

1. of, pertaining to, used on, or working a punkah.

   punkah ropes.

Etymology

Origin of punkah

First recorded in 1615–25, punkah is from the Hindi word paṅkhā

Example Sentences

The section Punk, for example, lists 43 definitions of that word, and then goes on to define punkah, punkateero and punkatunk.

From Time Magazine Archive

Over his head waved a punkah, drawn by a white-clad woman disciple.

From Time Magazine Archive

He is on all the first-night lists, Leon at L'Aperitif salutes him as 'Highness,' he is reputed to travel with his own linen sheets, punkah wavers, court chamberlains and sauce cooks .

From Time Magazine Archive

So for several days with the punkah swinging over him the convalescent lay stretched out upon his steamer chair, the very picture of comfort and pleasant dreams.

From In Kali's Country Tales from Sunny India by Sheets, Emily Churchill Thompson

Good people under the punkah, think for a moment of cloud-veiled headlands running out into a steel-grey sea, crisped with a cheek-rasping breeze that makes you sit down under the bulwarks and gasp for breath.

From From Sea to Sea Letters of Travel by Kipling, Rudyard