# Urdu: khidmat



## Todd The Bod

I learned khidmat/xidmat meant "service", but can it be used to express service from a business?  As in: "The service at this restaurant sucks!", or is it limited to expressions like "At your service."?


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## Birdcall

I think it can mean service as a business. In a Bollywood movie I heard something like "vo mere hi dhandhe ki khidmat karegaa"


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## Faylasoof

Todd,

_xidmat_ خدمت indeed means _service_ but in this context I wouldn't use it as:

_is restoraan kii xidmat bekaar / bakwaas / adnaa hai_  --I think _xidmat_ really doesn't work here!!

I would modify it as: 

_is restoraan kii kaar guzaarii  bekaar / bakwaas / adnaa hai_  
اس رستوران كى كار گزاری \ بیكار \ بكواس \ ادنی ہے
-- this sounds more like it. 

_kaar guzaarii_   کارگُزاری =  discharge of duty / business duty, performance, efficiency, service (as in good / bad service).

_bekaar_ بیكار (here) = _bakwaas_ بكواس = useless  
_adnaa_ اَدْنٰی  = inferior, lowly; “lousy”.


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## Todd The Bod

Thanks so much Birdcall and Faylasoof.  If you have time, would you give a few sample sentences of how xidmat is idiomatically used, Faylasoof?  And Birdcall, what does "vo mere hi dhandhe ki khidmat karegaa" translate to?


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## panjabigator

اَدْنٰی can also mean ordinary, if I'm not mistaken, correct?


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## Birdcall

"vo mere hi dhandhe ki khidmat karegaa" would mean "He will only serve our business" but maybe I misunderstood the sentence. I assumed khidmat = sevaa


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## panjabigator

Birdcall said:


> "vo mere hi dhandhe ki khidmat karegaa" would mean "He will only serve our business" but maybe I misunderstood the sentence. I assumed khidmat = sevaa



I think this is a sound translation.  <khidmat>, I believe, translates nicely into <sevā>.


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## Faylasoof

panjabigator said:


> اَدْنٰی can also mean ordinary, if I'm not mistaken, correct?



Yes!  اَدْنٰی also means <inferior / mean / petty/ contemptible / base / ignoble etc. Exact usage depends on the context.



Birdcall said:


> "vo mere hi dhandhe ki khidmat karegaa" would mean "He will only serve our business" but maybe I misunderstood the sentence. I assumed khidmat = sevaa


 
Yes, as PG confirms the two are equivalent as you used it. In the Urdu the same sentence will normally be: _voh mere hii kaar o baar kii xidmat anjaam de gaa_

But this usage is different from what Todd is asking. Of course  خدمت_xidmat_ (service) has other synonyms in Urdu, _sevaa_ being one of them:
خدمت گزاری_ xidmat guzaarii_
 ملازمت_ mulaazimat_
  سیوا_ sevaa _
   کارگزاری_ kaar guzaarii_
  نوکری_ naukarii_
چاکری_ chaakarii_


_I don’t think we should start discussing dhandaa in any detail in this thread. But briefly, in Urdu it is has many meanings, including <squabble / quarrel>.  _


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## Todd The Bod

I have learned so much from everyone here in the past few weeks, wow!  I only wish the site hosted audio files so people could add the pronunciation of the words, and I could here the proper tonality during delivery of the phrases.  My Urdu notebook's really filling up.  Thanks to everybody.  Any examples of how "xidmat" is actually used since the thread is titled "xidmat"?


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## drkpp

Faylasoof said:


> Yes!  اَدْنٰی also means <inferior / mean / petty/ contemptible / base / ignoble etc. Exact usage depends on the context.
> 
> 
> 
> Yes, as PG confirms the two are equivalent as you used it. In the Urdu the same sentence will normally be: _voh mere hii kaar o baar kii xidmat anjaam de gaa_
> 
> But this usage is different from what Todd is asking. Of course  خدمت_xidmat_ (service) has other synonyms in Urdu, _sevaa_ being one of them:
> خدمت گزاری_ xidmat guzaarii_
> ملازمت_ mulaazimat_
> سیوا_ sevaa _
> کارگزاری_ kaar guzaarii_
> نوکری_ naukarii_
> چاکری_ chaakarii_
> 
> 
> _I don’t think we should start discussing dhandaa in any detail in this thread. But briefly, in Urdu it is has many meanings, including <squabble / quarrel>.  _


I was astonished to see that the word sewaa is used in Urdu, too.
It is a word purely of Sanskrit origin.
The root verb is सेव्‌ [sew] 1st conjugation aatmanepada meaning to serve, care for. सेवा [sewaa] meaning service is a noun derived from it. Also another noun derived from it is सेवक [sewak] meaning servant.


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## Birdcall

I was also shocked by this. I doubt sevak/sevika and sevan are used in Urdu, though.


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## Faylasoof

drkpp said:


> I was astonished to see that the word sewaa is used in Urdu, too.
> It is a word purely of Sanskrit origin.
> The root verb is सेव्‌ [sew] 1st conjugation aatmanepada meaning to serve, care for. सेवा [sewaa] meaning service is a noun derived from it. Also another noun derived from it is सेवक [sewak] meaning servant.


 ... and 


Birdcall said:


> I was also shocked by this. I doubt sevak/sevika and sevan are used in Urdu, though.


 Well my friends, we do use a lot of Sanskrit / Prakrit or Sanskrit / Prakrit-derived words - even some Braj words, I'm sure, in Urdu. So I'm a little surprised at your astonishment! 

_sevaa_ came into Urdu either in the 15th or the 16th century and while it is true that in daily speech it may not be common (we use _xidmat_ all the time),  you do come across it in some prose and I wouldn't be surprised even in Urdu poetry. At times our poets opt for Sanskrit or Sanskrit-derived words for effect! 

Here are some more surprises for you, I think: 

 True that _sevika_ I haven't come across in Urdu, yet! But the following _are_ part of the Urdu lexicon:

 سیوَن_ sevan_ =  خدمت_ xidmat_. But also _< 3amal  and __3ibaadat _> = worship

 سیوَک_ sevak_ =    خادم _xaadim_ / خدمت گار_ xidmat gaar_ /  نوکر چاکر _naukar chaakar_ . Also used to mean an _attendant / votary_. 

 As a special usage for _sevaa_, we have: سیوادار_ sevaa daar_ = an attendant at a shrine, usually a non-Muslim shrine. Equivalent to the words خادم_ xaadim_ (sing.) / خدام_xuddaam_ (pl.) used by us to refer to attendants at Muslim shrines.  Actually, in our speech, and as a matter of showing respect we refer to even a single person with the plural _xuddaam_! Used as follows:

 _woh is mazaar ke xuddaam hai.n_ – the polite way to say _woh is mazaar kaa xaadim hai_ / ( _sevaadaar hai_).
_
He is the attendant of this shrine_


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## drkpp

Great...Nicely explained!!!


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## Faylasoof

You are welocme, drkpp!!


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## Birdcall

In Hindi, sevan can mean usage, as in "tambaakuu ka sevan yahaa.n manaa hai"


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## panjabigator

Birdcall said:


> In Hindi, sevan can mean usage, as in "tambaakuu ka sevan yahaa.n manaa hai"



Is "sevan" a different word?  <sevā> is feminine.


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## Birdcall

Yes, they're different words. Sevan is masculine, and Platts says it can also mean addiction. I don't think you can claim that all Sanskritic -an words are all masculine or all feminine, because I'm pretty sure that suujan (swelling) is feminine while chalan is masculine.


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## panjabigator

Birdcall said:


> Yes, they're different words. Sevan is masculine, and Platts says it can also mean addiction. I don't think you can claim that all Sanskritic -an words are all masculine or all feminine, because I'm pretty sure that suujan (swelling) is feminine while chalan is masculine.



New word for me. Thank you.

And yes, it's hard to categorize these words based on gender.  Too many exceptions!


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## drkpp

panjabigator said:


> Is "sevan" a different word?  <sevā> is feminine.


सेवन is also a noun derived from the same root verb सेव्‌ 
as it also has the alternate meaning of to use or enjoy.
Source: http://freetranslationblog.blogspot.com


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