# Urdu/Hindi: kachra



## lcfatima

I have a non-native Hindi speaker friend who frequently turns the noun kachra (rubbish) into an adjective and describes people with the word.

"Iski saas bahut kachri hai,"

"Yeh kachri aurat ..."

etc.

Can kachra become and adjective, or is she using the word incorrectly?


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## BP.

_kachri_ is actually a spice/dry fruit!


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## lcfatima

Long ago when this question popped into my mind (before I had found this forum in which to pose my questions), I googled and also found Kachra/Kachri to be a surname (at least as it is spelled in English, don't know if the r/R is different in the surname) as well as a food. 

Is kachri (the food) like meva?


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## BP.

Its like a fig with a tougher skin, and is used to tenderise meat in order to reduce its cooking time. An alternative to raw papaya. I saw it for the first time only last weekend!


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## Illuminatus

No, Icfatima. _Kachra_ as an adjective sounds really awkward to me.


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## Faylasoof

Icfatima, I agree with Illuminatus. This turning a noun into an adjective is odd here. It may reflect this person’s attempt, conscious or otherwise, to translate an English expression like, “His /her mother-in-law is rubbish! = His /her mother-in-law is useless / awful / terrible etc.”

In English these days you can have rubbish as a noun, an adjective and even as a verb!

In Urdu you’d say something like: _Iski saas bahut vaahiyaat /vaahiyaat khurafaat /vaahiyaat o khurafaat hai_. 

So any of one the following may be applied in this context:

_vaahiyaat /vaahiyaat o khurafaat /vaahiyaat o khurafaat aurat / mard etc. etc._


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## lcfatima

This person's native language is Hyolmo, not English (she doesn't really speak English either). Her spoken Hindi is quite fluent, but she has some unusual idiosyncrasies in her speech, as well as some occasional mistakes common to speakers of her ethnic background. I guess this is one of her idiosyncracies. 

Faylasoof: Can you please provide these words written in Urdu so that I may search for their precise meaning in the dictionary?


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## Illuminatus

When/how was she exposed to Hindi?


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## panjabigator

Sounds like a peculiar usage to me.  There is a wonderful word to describe dreadful, rubbish folk in Panjabi: <paiRaa>.  Great word!


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## Faylasoof

lcfatima,  my remark about the English expression was just a guess as I had considered the possibility that it might even be non-English speaker!    Anyway, as you requested, here are the words:  واہیات  and    خرافات . They have fairly synonymous meanings and though their literal meaning is more like ‘nonsense’ and  ‘silly’, their usage is wider. We use them for describing both ‘silly remarks’ as well as other things that meet our disapproval. Persons who are either being difficult or plain nasty are also described by the use of these words. BTW, the Hindi-Urdu word(s) for rubbish is/ are : كوڑا   (kooRaa) and  كركٹ  (karkat). Often used together as  كوڑا  كركٹ.


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## lcfatima

Okay, thanks all.

Illuminatus: She moved to New Dehli from Nepal when she was around 10 and lived in Dehli for about 20 years. She is good with languages and her Hindi is very good compared to other Hindi speaking Nepalese whom I know. But she does make some mistakes. Another word she says that I am not sure if she has made up is: dikhauri. She says that instead of dikhava. I wasn't sure if this was a Punjabi word or what. (She learned Hindi in a Punjabi environment in Dehli and sometimes mixes Punjabi with Hindi, but I do that, too.) She also makes up words in English somehow. e.g. She combines the word immediately and emergency and ends up with something like immergiately. Quite a character. I guess kachra/i as an adjective is one of her made-up usages.

PG: okay good, next time I will use that for choogli.


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## BP.

Did you mean_ choog*h*li_?


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## lcfatima

I meant choogli woogli


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## BP.

That must be some kind of girl-talk I surmise. Anyway, laisses-tomber.


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## lcfatima

I just looked up chooghli. Never knew that was a _ghain. _Must be from Farsi? Thanks for the correction.


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## Qureshpor

lcfatima said:


> I have a non-native Hindi speaker friend who frequently turns the noun kachra (rubbish) into an adjective and describes people with the word.
> 
> "Iski saas bahut kachri hai,"
> 
> "Yeh kachri aurat ..."
> 
> etc.
> 
> Can kachra become and adjective, or is she using the word incorrectly?


I think Faylasoof SaaHib (#post 6) might be on the right track.

There was a recent thread on kachraa recently.

http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=2740466&highlight=کچرا

Now, just a guess..

I have heard the word کھچری used by Punjabi speakers to denote a girl or a woman who is "naT-khaT" or "mischievous". I wonder if this lady/gentleman has this word in mind. (I think this is a corrupted form of the feminine of the word خچر.


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## eskandar

lcfatima said:


> I just looked up chooghli. Never knew that was a _ghain. _Must be from Farsi? Thanks for the correction.


It's not from Persian. My guess is a Turkic origin, don't have a Chaghatay dictionary on hand to verify though.


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## eskandar

Correcting my years-old mistake above: چغلی _chuglii_ is indeed from Persian. The transcription threw me off at the time.


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## amiramir

Faylasoof said:


> كوڑا كركٹ



A non-helpful comment, but maybe of interest-- on British Airways, the air sickness bags in the seat back pockets are labeled in Hindi: कूड़ा करकट i.e. كوڑا كركٹ


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## littlepond

amiramir said:


> A non-helpful comment, but maybe of interest-- on British Airways, the air sickness bags in the seat back pockets are labeled in Hindi: कूड़ा करकट i.e. كوڑا كركٹ



Interesting and funny! Someone should notify them of this extraordinarily bad translation.


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## Jafri

I think to call a person 'kachra' is slang (بازاری زبان).


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## littlepond

^ Never heard of it, though as an adjective for a person it can exist, but in that case it's not slang. Of course, there's Kachra from the film Lagaan.


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