George Orwell
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Wallah comes from the Hindi suffix -vālā, meaning "one in charge." Like its Hindi counterpart, "wallah" is commonly used in combination with other nouns. The first use of "wallah" appeared as "lootywallah" in a narrative penned by Officer Innes Munro describing his time deployed on the Coromandel Coast of India in the 1780s. "Looty," or "lootie," was a noun sometimes applied to a member of a band of marauders or robbers. In the narrative, Munro used the term to describe looting cavalrymen. In current writing, "wallah" is typically accompanied by words like "office" or "marketing."
Examples of wallah in a Sentence
Harsh Mander, Quartz India, 28 Apr. 2020
Such a system would be welcome in Brussels, where EU wallahs are pondering the fate of its flagship European Green Deal.
—The Economist, 5 Mar. 2020
Cite this Entry
“Wallah.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wallah. Accessed 3 Nov. 2025.
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