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An adda ( bn, আড্ডা) is a "conversation" among members, who were originally of the same socio-economic strata, but the process has democratized in modern times.
''Adda'' was incorporated into the
An adda ( bn, আড্ডা) is a "conversation" among members, who were originally of the same socio-economic strata, but the process has democratized in modern times.
''Adda'' was incorporated into the Oxford English Dictionary
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a com ...
in 2004.
The Indian adda has shades of meaning attached to different languages:
*In Hindi
Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of North India, northern, Central India, centr ...
, adda is a noun
A noun () is a word that generally functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas.Example nouns for:
* Organism, Living creatures (including people ...
, with the nominal form of the word meaning the location or nest of a group or community. The etymology can be traced to the original meaning of the word, which means the "perching spot or perch for birds".
*In Bengali
Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to:
*something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia
* Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region
* Bengali language, the language they speak
** Bengali alphabet, the ...
, adda is both a standalone noun and a noun in a noun-verb
A verb () is a word ( part of speech) that in syntax generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual descr ...
compound. The nominalization
In linguistics, nominalization or nominalisation is the use of a word that is not a noun (e.g., a verb, an adjective or an adverb) as a noun, or as the head of a noun phrase. This change in functional category can occur through morphological tr ...
of the word has two senses — one being the Hindi sense, and the other being the place of ritual meeting and/or conversation of a group of people (i.e., a symposium). The verb
A verb () is a word ( part of speech) that in syntax generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual descr ...
form means informal conversation among a group of people, often for hours at an end, and usually accompanied by food.
In 2011, filmmakers Surjo Deb and Ranjan Palit made a documentary on the subject. The film, '' Adda: Calcutta, Kolkata'' has been screened at several festivals around the globe and won the Golden Palm Award at the Mexico International Film Festival 2012.
References
{{Reflist Bengali culture Bengali words and phrases