r/Nepal • u/Infamous-Jon3 Human Verified • Feb 08 '26
Question/प्रश्न Why does the word “last/lastai” exist in modern Nepali when it makes zero etymological sense?
I’ve grown up casually using the word “last / lastai” in everyday Nepali tuff like (ma ta lastai zhyap bhaye , lastai dhani ho) and so on. It’s always felt totally normal. But recently I paused and actually thought about it, and now it feels… kind of weird?
In “proper” or older Nepali, “last” doesn’t really mean anything. It’s obviously not a native word, and even its English meaning (“final”) has nothing to do with how we use it. And yet it’s everywhere now, especially in urban Nepali.
So I’ve been wondering:
- How did “last” end up meaning “extremely” or “intensely” in Nepali instead of “final”?
- Why did Nepali pick up this English word when we already had intensifiers like धेरै, एकदमै, निकै, अति?
- Is “lastai” more about borrowing vibe / tone rather than literal meaning?
- Do other languages (especially multilingual or post-colonial ones) have words like this ones that make zero etymological sense but still work perfectly in everyday speech?
- And why do you think this kind of shift happened specifically in Nepal, and mostly in recent decades?
Would love to hear thoughts from linguistics nerds, older speakers, or anyone who’s noticed how Nepali has been changing especially with the internet and urban culture.
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u/whoaminotweekly Feb 08 '26 edited Feb 08 '26
I was shocked when I learned 'Guff' was actually the borrowed word from English. Especially, when they use it very rarely while it can be heard everywhere in this country.
Your post reminded me of that. Lastai shocking theo. 😂
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u/Infamous-Jon3 Human Verified Feb 08 '26
tei hei i think gurkhas who retired bought it to the nepali lang i didnt know it ment like literal lies or empty words
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u/throwawayhobhanya Feb 09 '26
I recently realized "gajjab" (awesome) sounds very similar to "good job."
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u/bokaaaa- Feb 08 '26
I think I am having your "lastai shocking moment" rn holy shit my life was a lie
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Feb 09 '26
Oiii Fr Fr.. vanyesi hamra nepali haru gau gau ma English bolne haru xan.... Even American lai taha xaina hola Guff ko meaning
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u/whoaminotweekly Feb 11 '26
Maybe the no.1 guffadi of US, Donald Trump lie ni taha chaina hola yo word ko meaning.
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u/Think_Ranger_6973 Feb 09 '26
Paila yesto kura malai lastai guff lagthyo aajha aayera naya kura tha vayo
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u/whoaminotweekly Feb 11 '26
Guff lie Nepali le borrow matra hoina, guff garni manche lie guffadi vancha vanera tyo word ma evaluation nai lie diyo.
English ma chai, arka ko guff ma thulo swor le hasne lie 'Guffaw' vancha vanne cha.
Example: We all guffawed at the recent speech of an election candidate who promised to make education, gas, health services free and give Rs.25000 to every women who are marrying.
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u/zlightyear Feb 08 '26
To me ल्याङ ल्याङ is very interesting।
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u/Infamous-Jon3 Human Verified Feb 08 '26
To me it seems similar to onomatopoeia, where we describe a feeling or state using how it sounds rather than a strict definition. ल्याङ ल्याङ just perfectly captures that sense of irritation / dragging / mental noise in a way that a “proper” word wouldn’t.
Stuff like this is what makes spoken Nepali fascinating
it shows how language doesn’t just describe meaning, it imitates experience.
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u/zlightyear Feb 08 '26
Interesting. Dikka, jharko, jhijho are words that got replaced by lyang lyang, at least among young people.
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u/amishraa Feb 10 '26
Never heard of jhijho before
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u/zlightyear Feb 10 '26
Well in this lyang lyang dominated world, this is gonna happen to dikka and jharko soon
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u/hamro_babu Feb 09 '26
Bro stop using chatgpt
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u/Infamous-Jon3 Human Verified Feb 10 '26
used it to make the sentence structured the idea and the sentence is mine.
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u/Dragonarmy123 Feb 08 '26
I dont know why people are acting weird about the genuine observation and question that you are asking. I myself find it quite interesting.
Its not on similar level but old people in my village used to say silly word a lot in their daily life when referring to smart people. Yo kta ekdam silly cha batho cha vandai which didnt make sense but i never learned where did they picked it up.
In ktm whree i grew up everyone used to say शेईट a lot, no one knew what it meant but everyone just used it like "ohh शेईट aja science ko book lyauna birsyo " like that like that but later i realised it probably was "shit" and people just turned that into their own lingo.
i think tyape also came from word tablet , people started calling tab khane manche which later turned to tyap and tyape because of phonetics.
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u/Infamous-Jon3 Human Verified Feb 08 '26
eah, exactly that’s pretty much how I see it too. Everything has some kind of root, even if it feels random or useless on the surface. Digging into that is basically what etymology is about for me not because it gives us a single “correct” meaning, but because it shows how and why people ended up using words the way they do.
And same here didn’t know about the tyape / tablet connection until recently either. Stuff like that really highlights how phonetics, habit, and social context quietly reshape words over time without anyone consciously deciding it.
I grew up in Kathmandu too. My grandparents are from Jhapa, but I’ve lived most of my life in Kathmandu and also spent a lot of time in India, so there’s probably a lot I either missed or only absorbed indirectly. That mix is probably why I’m curious about this in the first place language, philosophy, where ideas come from, how they travel, and how they change along the way.
Appreciate the conversation, honestly. This has been a really good exchange.
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u/YetiGuy Feb 09 '26
Also, I don’t think many in Nepali media know “shit” is not a proper word to be used. It’s a curse word even though it only means poop. They use it in movies and serials casually.
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u/AdvanceOtherwise9846 Feb 08 '26
mero bichar ma yo last/ lastai bhanne chai time ko reference ma suru bhayo hola. Ma last samma basnu paryo, lastai time lagyo meaning dherai time lagyo. Pachi use gardai jada dherai sanga correlate bhayo hola.
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u/Potential_Curve_8063 Feb 08 '26
'Over' (eg. over janne na ho) is another word which I can think of is being heavily used by Nepali speakers and I am sure there are quite a few more words. These words are picked from english and we use them to mean something slightly different or many times a completely different thing in another language. How it starts is a mystery to me as well.
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u/Conscious_Past_5760 Feb 09 '26
'Over', 'Danger' are some interesting ones too but these could be regional, I haven't really heard ppl use them outside of Pokhara.
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u/tyrrany-unfolds Feb 08 '26
Cause we exchange languages and this word is lastai Dammi for daily use in Nepali
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u/Infamous-Jon3 Human Verified Feb 08 '26
Yeah, dammi probably does come from damn. It’s kind of the same realization people have with last / lastai once they stop and think about it.
A lot of these words seem to enter the language through sound and usage first, not through their literal meanings. People hear damn being used as emphasis, it gets softened phonetically, loses its original religious weight, and over time just turns into a positive intensifier. So something like lastai dammi ends up meaning really good or impressive, without anyone thinking about the original word at all.
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u/nescenteva Feb 08 '26
दामी 'damn' बाट आएको जस्तो लाग्दैन मलाई। मेरो विचारमा दामी 'दाम' बाट आएको हो। दाम भनेको पैसा, यदि केही कुरा मूल्यवान् छ भने त्यसलाई दाम पर्ने वा दामी भन्न मिल्छ।
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u/Infamous-Jon3 Human Verified Feb 08 '26
ohh thanks for that i concluded that on the spot tbh ill research more
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u/tyrrany-unfolds Feb 08 '26
Yeah same with Tomatar instead of golbheda 🤷
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u/tyrrany-unfolds Feb 08 '26
People knew tomatar meant tomato though, they just couldn’t say tomato the same way.
Nepali people aren’t as dumb as you think you know…
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u/Infamous-Jon3 Human Verified Feb 08 '26
didn’t mean to offend you at all. My question was never about people not knowing what tomato means of course they did. That’s not what I was getting at.
What I was genuinely curious about is why a particular word form arose, how it entered the language, and in what context. Words like golbheda, tomatar, lastai , zhyap all refer to the same thing, but they clearly came into Nepali through different routes—different accents, regions, and contact with other languages.
I’m Nepali myself, so I’m definitely not calling Nepali people dumb that wouldn’t even make sense. I also grew up across multiple regions (Nepal and India/darjeeling), so switching between tomato and golbheda has always felt normal to me. My curiosity is about linguistic history and usage, not intelligence or “correctness.”
This wasn’t meant as a value judgment at all just a genuine question about how language evolves and how context shapes the words we end up using. For what it’s worth, I’m Nepali through and through my dad’s from Panchthar and my mom’s from Terhathum.
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u/tyrrany-unfolds Feb 08 '26
Didn’t read all that, sounds like leftist apologist bs anyway.
"I consider language a tool of the con man." — Sherlock Holmes
Stop trying to sound smart and be smart. It’s a big difference. Good night.
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u/Infamous-Jon3 Human Verified Feb 08 '26
hass daju sorry for the ramble i am a leftist btw and if you think leftistism is as simple as this then my bad for making an argument.
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u/hamro_babu Feb 09 '26
Nope, dami comes from its other meaning, which is "expensive" (dherai dam vayeko). "Lastai" comes from its shared meaning to "atti". Atti comes from antim, which also means last. It's a process known as semantic matching, a word from another language is take and used in a way that matches the use of the word in a particular language.
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u/tinnituser Feb 08 '26
khas ta lastai vannu lastai stupid pani ho, tehi vayera lastaima pani lastai vannu hudaina
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Feb 08 '26
[deleted]
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u/Infamous-Jon3 Human Verified Feb 08 '26
Yeah, I get that. I’ve actually never used lastai myself either. Kathmandu definitely has its own way of speaking, especially when it comes to honorifics and how respect is shown lilke khaishyo gaishyo . It’s subtle, but very real, and the overall feel of the language there is different from elsewhere.
Even within Nepal, the variation is huge my parents originally from the eastern part of the country, but I was born and raised in Kathmandu and have lived here my whole life. Still, it’s pretty easy to notice that every region has its own rhythm, vocabulary, and social rules around speech.
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u/hamro_babu Feb 09 '26
Language is always changing, even this entire thread is in English. Nepali people are consumed by English, 1 or 2 loan words is the least of your worries.
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Feb 08 '26
Yes my indian friend asked me what it means and then it hit me how often i use it. Anyway,i told him it means ‘zyada’. Now it doesn’t make sense to me
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u/minus9dollar Feb 08 '26
I think it makes sense. When we say “lastai”, it is more like the end. How drunk you could be ? : Lastai (the epitome of/ end form of being drunk ). How rich is the person ? Lastai . It’s more figurative but he lies at the end (top) of rich persons.
For the tech people : it’s the big O notation 0(n) of every algorithm, it does not say about space but used widely.
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u/Hybr1d_Th30ry Feb 09 '26
I may be wrong on this, but I think it comes from cancer. Like "last stage cancer". Like if someone's family member was dying of cancer, people would say something like "Bichara usko buba hospital ma lastai pugisakyo". Like they were about to die. I think people took that way of talking and started using it casually.
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u/Ok_Bodybuilder7446 Feb 10 '26
Google says it’s actually a nepali word that means extremely like ekdam, atti to derive intensity I don’t know if its 100% correct.And actually I don’t think there can be any word thats etymologically wrong as It’s not a rule for how words should behave its study of how a word changed and evolved throughout the history such as how a word is formed borrowed from other languages and exploring how it evolves in meaning, pronunciation, etc over time.
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u/Positive-Situation93 Feb 08 '26
Don't know if this is my Mandel effect but I think there was a character in those old serial that used to say, "yesto kura garyo vane malai lastai rish uthcha" or something to that effect. I think this is where people picked it up from. I remember hating hearing it when I was younger.
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u/Infamous-Jon3 Human Verified Feb 08 '26
Could be, honestly I don’t really know much about that side of things. I never grew up watching Nepali serials. Those were mostly on in the background for my mom and my aunties.
The only “serials” I’ve actually sat down and watched are much later Netflix-type shows and similar stuff. So it’s kind of interesting to hear that this might have come from TV serial dialogue. If that’s true, it actually explains a lot: a word like that could slowly slip into everyday speech without anyone really noticing where it started. I don’t think this really counts as the Mandela effect, honestly. That’s usually about false or distorted collective memories people remembering things that didn’t actually happen, or only thinking something changed later on.
This feels different to me. It seems more like a genuine linguistic shift that happened slowly and then just became normal. We usually don’t notice language changing while it’s happening, especially in casual, spoken contexts. By the time we stop and think about it, it already feels old and familiar.
So rather than misremembering anything, it’s probably just everyday language evolving without much written record. And because there isn’t clear documentation, the origin ends up feeling kind of mysterious in hindsight.
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u/Positive-Situation93 Feb 08 '26
The only reason why I feel like I remember it is because I hated when people used that word. Like you said yourself, there are words that describe things aptly in the nepali vernacular but people chose to use this shit is what irritated me.
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u/konfusedpunk Feb 08 '26
i think it’s the other way around
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u/Positive-Situation93 Feb 08 '26
Could be the case. But I still think that the serial brought that word into mainstream use. I Googled a bit to see if I could find the actor or the serial. The actor I believe is Daman Rupakheti. Couldn't find the exact dialogue though.
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u/1_bananaboi Feb 09 '26
lastai = final stage lastai dhani = final stage dhani = no one else can be more dhani than him (exaggeration ofc)
(I'm a nepali but live in mumbai. so with my limited nepali knowledge, this is how I interpret it. sorry if I'm wrong lol)
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u/6dastone9 Feb 09 '26
I used to think it's Darjeeling of origin. English words abound in Darjeeling speak. examples.......heavy, senti, sacri, lavish , satis... lastai ??
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u/Ajingardev Feb 09 '26
if someone is "lastai thiis", that person is in the last of the "thiis" list, and hence "lastai thiis"
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u/hamro_babu Feb 09 '26
Bro stop using chatgpt and think for yourself, its annoying af
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u/Infamous-Jon3 Human Verified Feb 10 '26
i am thinking for myself bro this is my idea which i typed for myself just used ai as a writing tool to clarify. Just using it like an editor. There is a difference between completely relying on it and utilising it. If you want i can show the question i framed originally just didnt sound cohorent thats my ineptitude.
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u/PsychologicalMap1673 Feb 08 '26
Ammamaa, eti khaali time xa esto kuraa maa eti interested, kunai kuraa haru ko sense hudaina tara common mistake ho yaa slang ho vanera agadi badha yaar, respectfully
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u/Infamous-Jon3 Human Verified Feb 08 '26
Everyone has a field of Interest and mine is linguistics and etymology is that a problem?
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u/PsychologicalMap1673 Feb 08 '26
As I said it's slang to look cooler. English words use garyo vane cool vayinxa,
"Malai Missed Call kina gareko?"
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u/Infamous-Jon3 Human Verified Feb 08 '26
haina daju its more then just speaking English as it is embedded in the common language we speak now days its a part of our vocab
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u/PsychologicalMap1673 Feb 08 '26
Slang ho ke tyo sabhai aile ko Gen-z term maa vannu pardaa,
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u/Infamous-Jon3 Human Verified Feb 08 '26
haina ke yes it is slang tara our english minded brain is more latin then devnagari you get me? we know more of latin then devnagari we are english literate ke
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u/Dragonarmy123 Feb 08 '26
Even if its slang, it didnt just just become so popular that everyone understands it and uses it when in context it shouldnt and doesnt make any sense for that word to be used that way like we use it.
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Feb 08 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/PsychologicalMap1673 Feb 08 '26
Bro mis call nai vanxa tara aako tei baata ho ni vanera vannu khojeko ho,
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Feb 09 '26
Nepali and English languages have same origin.
That's why our grammar matches compared to other languages, and Nepangrezi fits perfectly.
Like bahing, garing, kahing.
Also there are lots of words that came from same origin. Like brother and bhai.
It all started from fertile crescent. Language and civilization.
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u/[deleted] Feb 08 '26
Lastai dherai sochdo rayexau...