pukka
Part of speech: adj
Morphological type: simple
Etymology: From Hindi पक्का (pakkā, “certain, sure”), Punjabi ਪੱਕਾ (pakkā, “mature, ripe; cooked; strong, substantial; genuine, sound, true, valid”) and Urdu پکا (pakkā, “mature, ripe; cooked; strong, substantial; genuine, sound, true, valid”), from Sanskrit पक्व (pakva, “baked, cooked, roasted”), from पचति (pacati, “to bake, cook, roast”).
Inflected forms:
form: more pukka
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: most pukka
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: pacca
pos: adj
tags: alternative
form: pakka
pos: adj
tags: alternative
form: pucka
pos: adj
tags: alternative
form: pucca
pos: adj
tags: alternative
Senses:
gloss: Genuine or authentic; hence of behaviour: correct, socially acceptable or proper.
pos: adj
examples: Maha Rajah said it was necessary to witness it to make it pukka; and they said so too, and then signed it.
The measures which resulted in the crushing of the mutiny within the Five Rivers, were unquestionably pukka. […] Pukka and kucha statesmanship are, indeed, two things which time rarely fails to detect, just as it tries the durability of a public building or a bridge.
Mrs. S[mart].— […] Are you not aware, Fanny, that he [Lieut. Marsden] is only Acting-Assistant Sub-Deputy Inspector? Do you imagine that I should give my child to a man whose appointment was not pucka? / F[anny].—But, Mamma, is Mr. Cholmondeley's appointment pucka? / Mrs. S.—How can you talk such nonsense, child? […] Mr. Cholmondeley is a landed gentleman, and draws twelve thousand rupees a month from his estates in Derbyshire, besides holding Government paper to a large amount.
'No one else here?' he said. 'I thought we were going to have a pukka consultation with all the crowd present – decorations, banners, and salute of guns!'
But let's assume it's a real pukka rare bird.
Among [Max] Le Blond's exhortations was the need for Singapore theatre to internalise "the conviction that our lives as Singaporeans possess the same theatrical validity, […] [as] the English literary tradition"[…]. This would involve ridding ourselves of a residual colonial consciousness, even at the subliminal level, and revising our perception of the vernacular idiom and local accents, hitherto regarded as non-pukka.
gloss: Constructed as a permanent building, with high-quality materials (especially fired clay bricks and tiles as opposed to unfired mud and thatch).
pos: adj
tags: South-Asia
examples: The popular classification of wells is, however, into pukka and kuchcha. Percolation wells are usually pukka or brickbuilt. Spring wells are of three kinds—(1) pukka, where the sub-soil to the spring is sandy, and masonry is necessary througout; […] (3) kuchcha wells, made of clay throughout.
In some cases, the sericulturists avail of credit facility and construct a pukka shed for the silk worms. It is ironical, however, that they have to accommodate themselves and their children in a shabby hut.
The kutcha house made of mud, bamboo, and thatch and its modern replacement the pukka house, constructed of fired bricks, cement, and steel.
gloss: Superior or of high quality; first-class; excellent.
pos: adj
tags: UK
slang
examples: Mind you, it was a pukka, respectable opium-house, and not one of those stifling, sweltering chandoo-khanas, that you can find all over the City.
Jamie Oliver prepares a "pukka" picnic of strawberries, champagne and lobster for a sail through the royal borough of Windsor on his mate's splashy new motorboat.
Antonyms: kutcha
Related words: pukka fever
Derived words: kutcha-pukka
pukka sahib
pukkaness
semipukka
Translations: