بندہ

Borrowed from Classical Persian بَنْدَه (banda). By surface analysis, بَنْد (band, “close; confined”) +‎ ـَہ (-ah). Doublet of بَنّھݨا (bannhṇā, “to tie”) and بانھا (bānhā, “slave”).

Sense 1 is probably a back-formation from رَبّ دا بَندَہ (rabb dā bandah, “pious man”, literally “servant of God”).

• (Standard Punjabi) IPA^(key): /bən.d̪äː/
• Hyphenation: بَنْ‧دَہ

بَنْدَہ • (baṉda) m (female equivalent بَنْدی, Gurmukhi spelling ਬੰਦਾ)

2. man, person
3. human
4. (dated) slave, servant
5. (figuratively) male partner

• Iqbal, Salah ud-Din (2002), “بندہ”, in vaḍḍī panjābī lughat (in Punjabi), Lahore: عزیز پبلشرز [ʻazīz pabliśarz]
• Bashir, Kanwal (2012), “بندہ”, in Punjabi-English Dictionary, Hyattsville, MD: Dunwoody Press
• “ਬੰਦਾ”, in Punjabi-English Dictionary, Patiala: Punjabi University, 2026

Borrowed from Classical Persian بَنْدَه (banda). By surface analysis, بَنْد (band, “close; block; confined”) +‎ ـَہ (-a). Doublet of بَانْدْھنَا (bāndhnā, “to tie”). First attested in c. 1649 as Middle Hindi بندہ (banda).^[1]

• Sense 5 is a semantic loan from Punjabi بَنْدَہ / ਬੰਦਾ (bandah, “person; man”).

• (Standard Urdu) IPA^(key): /bən.d̪ɑ(ː)/
• Hyphenation: بَنْ‧دَہ

بَنْدَہ • (banda) m (female equivalent بَنْدی (bandī), Hindi spelling बंदा)

1. slave, servant, bondsman

   Synonym: غُلام (ġulām)

2. worshipper, man of God
3. human, creature
4. male partner, man (in a relationship)
6. (colloquial, earlier chiefly Punjabic Urdu, Delhiite) person, man, guy, bloke

   Synonyms: آدَمِی (ādamī), شَخْص (śaxs)

7. (formal, polite) servant (used to refer to oneself humbly)

   Synonym: خَاکْسَار (xāksār)