Adda (South Asian)

An adda (Bengali: আড্ডা) is a term in Bengali referring to when several individuals hang out (informally socialise). This originally took place between members of the same socio-economic strata, but the process has become more heterogeneous in modern times.

Adda was incorporated into the Oxford English Dictionary in 2004.

This word is both a standalone noun and a noun in a noun-verb compound, in Bengali. The nominalization of the word has two senses — one being the Hindi sense, and the other being the place of ritual meeting and/or conversation of a group of people (i.e., a symposium). The verb form means informal conversation among a group of people, often for hours on end, and usually accompanied by food.