Pukka

Part of speech: adjective

Pronunciation: /ˈpʌkə/

Definitions

1. Genuinely authentic, reliable, and of high quality, often used to describe something built or made to a solid, permanent standard
2. Authentic and of superior quality, typically referring to something that is genuine or made with great care and craftsmanship
3. Denoting something that is both legitimate and of high caliber, often implying trustworthiness and excellence in construction

Etymology: Among British colonial officers and their families in India, "pukka" became a marker of status: a pukka sahib was a properly turned-out gentleman, and anything that was not genuine or well made was called "kutcha." The contrast came from the building trade. "Pakka" (the Hindi form) originally meant "cooked" or "baked," so a brick that had been fired was pakka, while sun-dried mud was kacca, "raw" or "unripe." The root behind all of this is Sanskrit "pakva," meaning "baked, cooked, roasted," from the verb "pacati," "to cook." From that basic idea of something properly finished by heat came the sense of "mature" and "ripe," then "strong, substantial," and finally "genuine, sound, true, valid." Hindi, Punjabi and Urdu all carry these meanings, which is how a word about cooking came to describe a solid wall, a sound deal or a true expert. When English speakers borrowed it, the sense of quality and reliability stuck, and the word kept the sense of solidity that the original brickwork image gave it.

Synonyms: genuine, authentic, real, quality, superior

Antonyms: fake, imitation, inferior, substandard, shoddy