wallah

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 26, 2007 is: wallah • \WAH-luh\  • noun : a person who is associated with a particular work or who performs a specific duty or service -- usually used in combination Examples: "Location, location and location. That's what it's all about, trumpet the real-estate wallahs." (Tony Baker, The Advertiser, August 3, 2005) Did you know? "Wallah" comes from the Hindi suffix "-vālā," meaning "one in charge." Like its Hindi counterpart, "wallah" is commonly used in combination with other nouns. The first use of "wallah" appeared as "lootywallah" in a narrative penned by Officer Innes Munro describing his time deployed on the Coromandel Coast of India in the 1780s. "Looty," or "lootie," was a noun sometimes applied to a member of a band of marauders or robbers. In the narrative, Munro used the term to describe looting cavalrymen. In current writing, "wallah" is typically accompanied by words like "office" or "marketing." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.