Do the needful

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Do the needful" is a phrase which means "do that which is necessary", and carries the respectful implication that you trust the other party to understand what needs doing without being given detailed instruction. It is commonly used in India and widely attributed as an Indianism, being used frequently by Hurree Jamset Ram Singh in the Billy Bunter stories of Charles Hamilton, but the phrase may have its origins in British English instead, according to the Universal Dictionary of the English Language of 1932.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines "the needful" as, "that which is necessary or requisite." One of the earliest quotations provided as an example is from 1710 from Verney Letters of the Eighteenth Century, published in 1930: "Waiting on proper persons and doing the needful in all places."

[edit] See also

• Indian English

[edit] References

• K S Yadurajan. "Do the needful", Deccan Herald, September 15, 2005. Retrieved on 2006-11-01. 

[edit] External links

• An example of early non-Indian usage of the phrase can be found in "To Do the Needful", TIME magazine, August 15, 1949. Retrieved on 2006-11-01.