Gymkhana

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This article is about Indian subcontinent culture. For other uses, see Gymkhana (disambiguation).

Gymkhana (derived from the Urdu, Hindi or Hindustani languages) word for "racket court"[1]) is an Indian term which originally referred to a place where sporting events take place and referred to any of various meets at which contests were held to test the skill of the competitors.

In India, the term gymkhana is commonly used to refer to a gym. More generally, Gymkhana referred (and still refers) to a social and sporting club in the Indian subcontinent, and in other Asian countries including Malaysia, Thailand, Burma and Singapore, as well as East Africa.

The word Gymkhana consists of Gym, which is the abbreviation of both Gymnasium (Latin from Greek Gumnasion) and Gymnastics (from the Latin Gymnasticus and the Greek Gumnastikos),[1] and Khāna, or Khāneh, meaning Home, which originates from the Old Persian word Āhana, changing into Xānak in Pahlavi.[2]

In English-speaking countries, a gymkhana refers to a multi-game equestrian event performed to display the training and talents of horses and their riders.


[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Oxford English Dictionary, Third Edition (Oxford University Press, 2004).
  2. ^ From Loghat'nāmeh-ye Dehkhoda, Third Edition (Tehran University Press, 2006), quoted from Borhān-e Ghāte' by Dr Mohammad Moin.

[edit] See also