myloon
n.— «The word he used in Parsee Gujarati which I have rendered as “chicks” was “Mylaaon.” It’s a word which has come to mean in the demotic argot ‘girls’, ‘chicks’, ‘totty’ etc.…”I think it comes from an imitation and simple corruption of the phrase ‘my love’ which the Parsees heard the sahibs use when addressing the memsahibs.” Whereupon ‘my love’ became ‘myla’ and was made more endearing by being turned into the diminutive as ‘myloon’, the single, sweet thing.» —“Budding language” by Farrukh Dhondy Mid Day (Mumbai, Maharashtra, India) May 8, 2004. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
What’s up with ketchup? The shifting history and spelling of the name of this condiment. For centuries, ketchup was a fishy sauce originating in Asia—the tomatoes came only later! Plus, a new book shows what’s lost when a language dies: when there...
Amid a 1796 heat wave, Jane Austen wrote to her sister, “What dreadful hot weather we have! It keeps me in a continual state of inelegance.” This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Jane Austen’s Continual State of Inelegance in a 1796...