Khud
Executive summary
“Khud” is a short word with at least two distinct senses in modern reference works: in English-language dictionaries it appears as a noun meaning a ravine or steep cleft—particularly in Indian English—while in South Asian languages such as Hindi and Urdu it functions as a reflexive pronoun meaning “self” or “myself.” The lexical picture is complicated by older Sanskrit forms that look and sound similar but convey different verbal roots and by varying etymological notes across authorities [1] [2] [3].
1. Two primary modern senses: ravine and self
Major English dictionaries record “khud” principally as a physical landform: a deep ravine, chasm, or steep hillside, often marked as Indian English usage—definitions to this effect appear in Merriam‑Webster, Collins, YourDictionary and bilingual lexica [1] [2] [4] [5]. At the same time, South Asian dictionaries and language resources list “khud” (खुद/خود) as a common pronoun meaning “self,” “himself,” or “myself” in Hindi/Urdu; resources like Hinkhoj, Rekhta and UrduPoint document this reflexive meaning in everyday usage [3] [6] [7].
2. How English dictionaries frame the landform sense
Authoritative English lexicons treat the landform sense as established and historically attested: the Oxford English Dictionary notes two noun senses for khud and cites evidence back to the 1830s, indicating the term’s presence in English usage for nearly two centuries [8]. Collins and other contemporary online dictionaries mirror that entry, labeling khud explicitly as “a deep ravine or very steep hillside,” often with regional labels that link the term to South Asian contexts [2] [9].
3. Sanskrit and classical attestations complicate the picture
Scholarly Sanskrit dictionaries and etymological compendia show similar-looking forms—transliterated khud, khuḍ, or खुड्—used as verbal roots with meanings such as “to push” or “to break in pieces,” and these appear in Vedic and classical citations assembled by sources like Wisdom Library [10]. Those Sanskrit entries are not simple cognates of the English “khud” but do indicate a layered South Asian linguistic history in which homophones and near-homographs have multiple grammatical roles across time and languages [10].
4. Two words, one spelling in romanization; watch the script
The overlap in romanized spelling masks that English “khud” (ravine) and Hindi/Urdu “khud” (self) are represented by different scripts and etymologies: the ravine sense is an anglicized lexical borrowing recorded in English dictionaries, whereas the reflexive pronoun is written खुद in Devanagari or خود in Perso‑Arabic script and functions syntactically as a pronoun in modern Indo‑Aryan languages [2] [3] [6]. This orthographic and functional separation explains why bilingual speakers may switch meanings easily while lexicographers treat them as distinct entries [8] [4].
5. Usage, regionality and potential confusion
In practice, the landform “khud” shows up in regional Indian English and local reportage about terrain and hydrology—dictionary examples on sites like bab.la and The Free Dictionary echo real‑world examples such as bridges over a khud or accidents near a khud [5] [9]. Conversely, in everyday speech and literature, “khud” as “self” is ubiquitous across Hindi and Urdu idioms and formal prose [6] [3]. Because romanization conflates distinct scripts and histories, readers unfamiliar with South Asian languages can easily conflate the two senses unless context or script clarifies which word is meant [4] [10].
6. Limits of available reporting and final assessment
The sources collected establish the twin senses and document historical and lexical details, including OED dating back to the 1830s for the noun and Sanskrit glosses for related verbal roots [8] [10]. What the assembled reporting does not provide is a single, unified etymology linking the English noun sense to the Sanskrit verbal forms or a corpus study showing contemporary frequency across registers; those would require deeper historical linguistics or corpus evidence not present in these sources [10] [8]. On balance, the clearest and safest reading of the evidence is that “khud” has two common, separate meanings in current usage—ravine in English references to Indian topography, and “self” in Hindi/Urdu speech—linked in romanization but distinct in script, grammar and usage [1] [3] [2].