I was in northern Thailand a couple weeks ago sitting in a car with 3 Thais talking about the mountains, and I heard the man talk about the Himalayas, and pronounced it as "hee maa lay aaas" instead of the way I normally hear it as "him aah lay aaas". This made me wonder if the Thai word for snow, หิมะ, and derived from the Himalayas, which is perhaps what Thais think of when they think of big mountains with snow.
Does anyone know the origins of the word?
Does the word หิมะ come from the Himalayas?
Re: Does the word หิมะ come from the Himalayas?
It comes from the Sanskrit word हिमालय (hima-layah), which means snow-abode. So, หิมะ is simply a Sanskrit word for "snow" taken directly into Thai.
Re: Does the word หิมะ come from the Himalayas?
Ah, thanks, good info.farang84 wrote:It comes from the Sanskrit word हिमालय (hima-layah), which means snow-abode. So, หิมะ is simply a Sanskrit word for "snow" taken directly into Thai.
Re: Does the word หิมะ come from the Himalayas?
No problem. Google assisted.