Bangladesh
/ˌbæŋ.ɡləˈdɛʃ/noun
A country in South Asia, bordered by India and Myanmar, with a coastline on the Bay of Bengal.
Did you know?The final element -desh comes from Sanskrit deśa, meaning “land” or “country,” the same root behind many South Asian place-names, so the name is a deliberate Sanskrit-style nation name rather than an English invention.
Etymological Timeline
Ancient Indo-Aryan
Sanskrit
deśa
“land, country, region”
Ancient/Medieval
Persian
Bāṅgāla
“Bengal”
20th Century
English
Bangla- + deśa
“Bengal + land, used to form the modern national name”
1971
English
Bangladesh
“The sovereign state established after independence from Pakistan”