> jangal, wasteland, which comes itself from the Sanskrit word Jangala, meaning wild or arid.
Gosh that is news to me. I got to go check that up. Jungle is derived from a sanskrit word as all the north Indian languages are (South indian languages are derived from Tamil). But I really don't think the word originally meant wild or arid. But I could be wrong ...
jun·gle ( jungÆgÃl), n.
1. a wild land overgrown with dense vegetation, often nearly impenetrable, esp. tropical vegetation or a tropical rain forest.
2. a tract of such land.
3. a wilderness of dense overgrowth; a piece of swampy, thickset forestland.
4. any confused mass or agglomeration of objects; jumble: a jungle of wrecked automobiles.
5. something that baffles or perplexes; maze: a jungle of legal double-talk.
6. a scene of violence and struggle for survival: The neglected prison was a jungle for its inmates.
7. a place or situation of ruthless competition: the advertising jungle.
8. Slang. a hobo camp.
[1770–80; < Hindi jangal < Pali, Prakrit jangala rough, waterless place]
Ted you're right! Well - one lives and learns.
In this defination it says that the original word comes from languages Pali and Prakrit - them - I know a bit about. They were people's languages round about the time of Gautam Buddha and earlier. Sanskrit was always the language of learned and not spoken by the common people. And so the language Buddha preached in was Pali. Of course nobody speaks Pali in India anymore. And sankrit is also not spoken by the common people - although it not as dead as Pali. India has 15 major languages and some 700 or more dialects. (numbers off the top of my head, subject to correction) You have to be multi-lingual in India to get by. Almost every Indian knows at least 3 languages. I really don't know how a waterless place got to mean what it does (a forest) even in Hindi. Maybe the chief Anu would know?
