'Timepass, prepone, out of station': Desis defend Indian English words that need global recognition

A tweet celebrating Indian English words has gone viral, highlighting terms like 'timepass' and 'prepone' that uniquely capture desi culture and experience.

English as a language has taken on a life of its own in India, evolving and growing beyond its colonial origins into an expressive language which incorporate unique words and phrases created by desis that simply make sense to most of us.

A recent tweet sparked a viral appreciation for Indian English terms.(Representational)

Recently, a tweet by X user Sukhada reignited appreciation for these uniquely Indian English words, with people celebrating the ingenuity behind them. “I love Indian English. I mean just look at the word timepass. What an exquisite word. It’s just brilliant!” she wrote.

"Truly elite. Captures boredom, entertainment, and existential dread all at once. Sure Shakespeare wishes he came up with it," opined one user.

Take a look at the post here:

The post, which garnered over a million views, set off a flurry of posts praising words created by Indians for anything from "timepass" to "prepone". While these words may confuse non-Indians, they just make sense for desis in our everyday conversations.

Indians react

"I work for a Swiss company. We have colleagues across Europe who dont speak English as a first language. They picked up ‘prepone’ from Indian colleagues and have been using it ever since!" shared a user.

"Timepass. prepone. brinjal. out of station. good name," read a comment, listing common Indian English words all of us have heard of and use regularly.

"To do the needful is lovely," added another user.

"This has made me realise that prepone and timepass are not used all over the world what," wrote a confused user.

Sandeep Mertia, an assitant professor at Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey even shared the screenshot of an article written by him titled, "Timepass Development - Situating social media in rural Rajasthan".

One user legitimised the use of these words by saying that India has more English speakers than England. "English is... an Indian language," he added.