ਖਿੜਕੀ

What does khidki mean in Punjabi? Khidki (ਖਿੜਕੀ) is the Punjabi word for a window: an opening in a wall that lets in light and air and lets people inside see out. Khidki kholna is to open the window, and the plural is khidkiyan.

What does khidki mean in Punjabi?

A khidki is the window of a house or a room, and by extension the window of a bus, a train or a car. It is a feminine noun: khidki khulli hai, the window is open, and khidki band kar do, close the window, are among the first house sentences a child hears, in summer for the breeze and in winter against the cold. Wiktionary's Punjabi entry also lists baari and taaki as words for a window, and baari is heard a great deal in parts of East Punjab. A jharokha is a fancier word, used for a decorative or overhanging window opening rather than the everyday khidki.

Where does the word khidki come from?

Khidki is an old word of the land itself, not a borrowing from Persian or English. Wiktionary's etymology tree for the word traces it back through Prakrit khadakki to Sanskrit khatakkika. The middle r of the modern word, the flap sound in khir-kee, is what centuries of everyday speech did to that older shape. The same word serves across the region's languages, in Hindi and Urdu as khidki, which is why a traveller hears it from Punjab to Delhi with barely a change.

What is a chor khidki?

A chor khidki, literally a thief window, is the word's secretive cousin. Rekhta Dictionary defines chor-khidki as a secret wicket or back door: a small hidden window at the back of a house, one that nobody outside the household knows about. The compound tells its own story about the old house, where a quiet second opening was worth having. In ordinary speech today khidki keeps its plain meaning, but the compound survives as a reminder that a window was never only for light: it was also a way to watch, to listen and, if needed, to slip away.