I won't add more words, but I do have interesting fact to share..
During British rule in india, when the generals and Administrative persons were sent to India, they had to go some basic training of few English sentences in different intonation, so that they could use them to ask the servents for a particular job to be done.
For example
To shut the door.
They had to say- There was a Cold day.
Which if pronounced in particular intonation will come close to Hindi sentence- Darwaaja Khol de.------ Meaning" open the door"
Similarily to close the door.
There was brown crow. ........ coming close to " Darwaaja ban krow/karo" meaning " Close the door"

Ha! Interesting stuff

Hi all,
I've already written somewhere else addressing Anita that the word "khaki" is originally Persian, but I guess it's borrowed by the British from Indians. And as I read Elena's message trying to define the Indian-origin (actually this one is introduced as Urdu) words here, I noticed that "pajamas" has also a Persian root, with the exact division that you have done here :"pay" and "jama", just in modern Persian we use "pa" and "jame". The Urdu word for cummerbund, "kamar-band", is also Persian with the meaning of "belt" in English. Notice that Urdu, Hindi and Persian all belong to the Indo-Iranian languages, and Pakistan was a part of Iran for a long time. So, it's not strange to see the similarities, as you can see another similar words in Hindi, Persian, English and other Indo-Euroupean languages. (I've studied linguistics, so you can trust me on the things that I insert here.) If you are also interested in English words with the Persian roots, here are a few that are on my mind now: paradise (from Persian /pardis/ originally meant a royal garden, I think), bazaar (with almost the same pronounciation in Persian), caravan (pronounced /karavan/ in Persian with the same meaning of a group of people or animals traveling together that is used in English).

Thanks Elena, for welcoming me and your encouragement. The number of English words with Persian roots actually is very limited. As you know, Iran and Britain had a short contact period, not at all comparable with what India had. However, I'll think about it to try to add few words and sort the list. Here are a few other words follow as a list, hope it helps:

paradise: from Persian ( I do not know Old Persian, or Middle Persian, its only trace in modern Persian is a female name with the same meaning) "pardis", originally meant a royal garden, I think (Persian royal gardens are very famous for their unique architecture and beauty), then referred to the garden of Eden, I think

caravan : from Persian "karavan" with the same meaning: agroup of
people with or without animals traveling together


bazaar : from Persian "bazaar" with the same meaning


band : from Persian band( a strip of fabric, plastic, thread, nylon,... that is used for binding things together, or tying its both sides together)

magi(the three wise men who brought gifts to the infant Jesus(actually they were from Iran)
The word "magic" is driven from the same root!: from Persian "magi", priests in Zoroastrrian religion(Iran's religion before Islam)

lylac : from old Persian "nilak", now "nil,nili" meaning a shade of blue, often used to describe a dark blue sky

zircon (a gemstone ) : from "zargun" in Persian, the same gemstone, literally
meaning "like gold" referring to its goldish colour

mummy : from Persian "mumiyayee", "mum" means bee's wax

pistachio : from middle Persian "pista", now it is "peste"

lemon : from Persian "limoo", the same meaning

orange : from Persian "narange", another member of the citrus family, interestingly the word "narangi" is used to describe the colour

sugar : its origine is definitely either Persian or Indian, I do not know which one used it first, "shekar" in modern Persian


There are also a few other words that I do not know if Iranians or Indians used them first, like "shawl" that in Persian we say "shal"; there are other similar words that I do not know wheather the similarity is based on borrowing process, or because the same origin of the both languages, like "cow" and "gav". Since I do not live in Iran, I do not have any access to any related books to make sure which one is the case, or to detemine Indians used "sugar" first or Iranians. Sorry guys, but I do my best to give you the authentic information, and check for the words in doubt whenever I pay a visit to Iran.
PS: Sorry Ellena, I couldn't write them as a list, I didn't know how to. I suppose, I have to use the Microsoft Word first!

Thanks, Elena,
It was interesting to know that you were curious about "magi"! And I am happy that you found some kind of satisfaction with the information I presented here. Thanks for the link "etymoline", I wasn't aware of that. According to "etymoline", "sugar", "orange" and "lemon" were borrowed from Sanskrit by Persians! However, it was confirmed that "pajamas" and "khaki" have Persian roots. Good suggestion, I''ll start a thread about Persian soon. I've also thought about some proverbs that have very similar structure and meaning in Persian and English. For example the equivalent of the proverb "to burn one's bridge" in Persian is "to destroy one's bridge at one's back" (so that it won't be any bridge to return to where you were before!). Or "to lay an egg" with the exact phrase means "to do something wrong" in Persian, that has some similar sence with the English one (to fail in something).
Cheeres,