maharajah. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

The American Heritage^® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

maharajah

SYLLABICATION:	ma·ha·ra·jah
PRONUNCIATION:	mäh-räj, -zh
VARIANT FORMS:	or ma·ha·ra·ja
NOUN:	1. A king or prince in India ranking above a rajah, especially the sovereign of one of the former native states. 2. Used as a title for such a king or prince.
ETYMOLOGY:	Sanskrit mahrja : mah-, great; see meg- in Appendix I + rj, king (variant of rj, king; see reg- in Appendix I).
WORD HISTORY:	Countless Indian restaurants are named Maharajah, from a Sanskrit word (mahrja) that means “great king.” The element mah– is related to Greek mega– and Latin magnus, both meaning the same thing as the Sanskrit. All three forms derive from Indo-European meg–, “great.” This root became mik– in Germanic, where an adjective, mikila–, “great,” was formed to it. This became mikils* in Gothic, and micel, pronounced (mchl), in Old English. The Old English word survives today in much (shortened from Middle English muchel) and in the family name Mitchell.


The American Heritage^® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.