Adda (South Asian)

For other uses, see Adda (disambiguation).

Adda conversation, Kolkata

An adda (Bengali: আড্ডা) is a term in Bengali referring to when several individuals 'Hangout'. This originally took place between members of the same socio-economic strata, but the process has become more heterogeneous in modern times.[1]

Adda was incorporated into the Oxford English Dictionary in 2004.

This word is both a standalone noun and a noun in a noun-verb compound, in Bengali. The nominalization 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 form means informal conversation among a group of people, often for hours on end, and usually accompanied by food.[2]

  1. ^ The Chattering Masses The New York Times, 15 May 2005.
  2. ^ "Adda" on Newschool.edu Archived 18 November 2005 at the Wayback Machine