Spot the Frippet: chowk.

This is a word of the Indian sub-continent, but it's got an entry in the Collins English dictionary so I don't see why we all shouldn't use it.

You say it, as you'd expect, to rhyme with...actually, I can't think of anything that rhymes with it, but the ow bit is like the vowel sound you find in in owl or howl or jowl. The ch as in church.

What is it?

A chowk is a market place:


Lajpat Nagar market, Delhi, photo by Ville Miettenen

or a courtyard:


Jaipur, photo by Richard Moross  https://www.flickr.com/people/74974144@N00

a road junction:



or a roundabout:


Old Street Roundabout, London. Photo by Jack Torcello https://www.flickr.com/photos/stonechat/

But all these places seem become much livelier and more full of promise when you know they're also called chowks.

Well, they do to me, anyway.

Spot the Frippet: chowk. This word comes from the Urdu caukīdār, from caukī, toll house and -dār keeper.