hookah

English

Alternative forms

hooka, hooker, houka, hukka, hukkah, huqqa, huqqah

Etymology

From Hindi हुक़्क़ा‎ (huqqā) and Urdu حقہ‎ (huqqā), in turn, derived from Arabic حُقَّة‎ (ḥuqqa, “pot, jar”), from حُقّ‎ (ḥuqq, “cavity, hollow”).[1][2]

Pronunciation

(UK) IPA^(key): /ˈhʊ.kə/
- Homophone: hooker (non-rhotic accents)
(General American) IPA^(key): /ˈhu.kə/, /ˈhʊ.kə/
Rhymes: -ʊkə, -uːkə
Hyphenation: hook‧ah

Noun

hookah (plural hookahs)

(recreational inhalants) A pipe with a long flexible tube that draws the smoke through water, traditionally used for smoking tobacco, which is often flavored.
Synonyms: waterpipe, hubble-bubble, hubbly bubbly, narghile, shisha
- 1831, The Mirror of Literature, Amusement and Instruction:
  In India, the lower orders use a hookah or hubble bubble, which is made of a cocoa-nut shell well cleaned out, having a hole through the soft eye of the shell, and another on the opposite side, a little lower down, the first of which is used for the chauffoir, and the other to suck or draw the smoke from.
- 1954, Alexander Alderson, The Subtle Minotaur, chapter 18:
  The lounge was furnished in old English oak and big Knole settees. There were rugs from Tabriz and Kerman on the highly polished floor. […] A table lamp was fashioned from a silver Egyptian hookah.
- 1960, Harper Lee, chapter 9, in To Kill a Mockingbird:
  When Uncle Jack caught me, he kept me laughing about a preacher who hated going to church so much that every day he stood at his gate in his dressing-gown, smoking a hookah and delivering five-minute sermons to any passers-by who desired spiritual comfort.
(diving) A tank-less surface air compressor pump and umbilical piping system that supplies air to a diving mask

Derived terms

diving

hookah air compressor
hookah air pump
hookah compressor
hookah dive
hookah dive compressor
hookah dive pump
hookah diving
hookah pump

Translations

pipe

Arabic: شِيشَة‎ f (šīša), نَارْجِيلَة‎ f (nargīla), أَرْكِيلَة‎ f (ʾargīla)
Egyptian Arabic: شيشة‎ f (šīša)
Hijazi Arabic: شيشة‎ f (šīša), أرقيلة‎ f (ʾargīla)
South Levantine Arabic: أَرْجيلَة‎ f (ʾargīle)
Armenian: նարգիլե (hy) (nargile), ջրամորճ (hy) (ǰramorč)
Azerbaijani: qəlyan (az), hoqqa
Bulgarian: наргиле n (nargile)
Chinese:
Mandarin: 水煙／水烟 (zh) (shuǐyān), 水煙筒／水烟筒 (shuǐyāntǒng), 水煙袋／水烟袋 (zh) (shuǐyāndài)
Crimean Tatar: nargile
Danish: vandpibe (da) c
Dutch: waterpijp (nl) c
Esperanto: akvopipo, nargileo
Finnish: vesipiippu (fi), hooka (fi)
French: houka (fr) f, narguilé (fr) m, chicha (fr) f
Galician: narguilé (gl) m
German: Wasserpfeife (de) f, Schischa (de) f, Shisha (de) f
Greek: ναργιλές (el) m (nargilés)
Gujarati: હૂકાહ (hūkāh)
Hebrew: נרגילה‎ (he) (nargíla)
Hindustani:
Hindi: हुक़्क़ा m (huqqā), हुक्का (hi) m (hukkā)
Urdu: حقہ‎ m (huqqā)
Hungarian: vízipipa (hu)
Italian: narghilè (it) m
Japanese: 水タバコ (mizu-tabako), 水煙管 (みずぎせる, mizu-giseru), 水パイプ (mizu-paipu)
Karakalpak: qor-qor
Kazakh: қорқор (qorqor)
Korean: 수연통(水煙筒) (suyeontong)
Lithuanian: kaljanas m
Low German: Schischa
Macedonian: наргиле n (nargile)
Nepali: हुक़्क़ा (huqqā)
Norwegian:
Bokmål: vannpipe m or f
Nynorsk: vasspipe f
Persian: قلیان‎ (fa) (qalyân), غلیان‎ (fa) (ğalyân), (colloquial Tehrani) قلیون‎ (qalyun), نارگیله‎ (fa) (nârgile)
Polish: nargile (pl) n, fajka wodna f, szisza (pl) f
Portuguese: narguilé (pt) m, xixa (pt) f, arguile (pt) m
Punjabi: ਹੁੱਕਾ m (hukkā)
Rohingya: húkka, úkka
Romanian: narghilea (ro)
Russian: калья́н (ru) m (kalʹján)
Sanskrit: नारिकेला (nārikelā)
Sindhi: حقو‎ m
Spanish: narguile (es) m, shisha f
Swedish: vattenpipa (sv) c
Thai: มอระกู่ (th) (moraku)
Turkish: nargile (tr)
Vietnamese: shisha
Zazaki: nargile f

References

“hookah”, in (please provide the title of the work)‎, Online Etymology Dictionary, 2022: “hookah (n.) also hooka, 1763, via Hindi or Persian or directly from Arabic huqqah "small box, vessel" (through which the smoke is drawn), related to huqq "a hollow place."”
The Ceylon Antiquary and Literary Register, Volume 1, 1916, page 111:
It has even drawn largely on English, and such words as daktar and platfarm, isteshan and tikat, trem-ghari and rel-ghari, registran karna and apil karna are as common as similar words are in Ceylon. To make up for it Hindustani has not only enriched the vocabulary of Anglo-Indian English with such words as topi and pugre, oheerot and hookah, dhoby and sepoy, ghary and tamasha, durbar and bukshish, Kachcheri and Punkah, but has contributed to it words like jungle, bazar, [and] loot.