Short answer: Indian English idioms and expressions include "do the needful" (do what is necessary), "prepone" (move something earlier), "revert" (reply), "out of station" (away from home), "timepass" (killing time), "cousin brother" (a male cousin) and "What is your good name?" (a polite way to ask a name). They are standard in Indian English, not mistakes. Some are translations from Indian languages. Others, surprisingly, are older British or American English that India kept after the rest of the English-speaking world moved on. This page gives each one a meaning, a register label and a named source.
Indian English is a variety, not an error
Indian English is one of the major varieties of English, alongside British, American and Australian English. Its expressions follow their own rules, the way "arvo" does in Australia or "touch base" does in the US. A phrase that sounds unusual to a London or New York reader is not wrong; it is regional.
That point matters because many online lists of "Indianisms" are written to mock. This one is not. The useful questions are the ones a reference can answer: what does the phrase mean, where did it come from, and where will it be understood? Those are different questions from the ones on our page about commonly misused idioms, where the speaker has genuinely swapped one form for another.
The quick table
| Expression | Meaning | Source type | Register | Understood outside South Asia? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| do the needful | Do what is necessary | Older British English, kept in India | Formal, office | Yes, but sounds old-fashioned |
| prepone | Move to an earlier time | Coined 1913, adopted in India | Neutral, office | Often not |
| revert | Reply | Indian use, now spreading | Business | Often misread as "go back" |
| out of station | Away from home, out of town | Indian English | Neutral | Often not |
| timepass | Killing time; a waste of time | Indian English compound | Casual | No |
| cousin brother, cousin sister | A male or female first cousin | Loan from Hindi and Punjabi | Neutral, family | Usually, from context |
| What is your good name? | What is your name? (polite) | South Asian English | Polite | Usually, from context |
| eat my brain | Pester me | Translated from Indian languages | Casual | Usually, from context |
The register and "understood outside" columns are our own guidance, not measured figures. Meanings and regional labels come from the sources named below.
Indian English idioms that are really old English
Do the needful
To do whatever is necessary: "please do the needful and send the signed copy." Wiktionary's entry for "do the needful," which we read on September 27, 2026, labels it Indian, Nigerian and Malaysian English and marks it dated in British English. Its oldest quotation is from Sir Walter Scott's Rob Roy (1818): "it was his practice to 'do the needful' on every occasion, without wasting words about it."
So the phrase that is often held up as the most typical piece of Indian office English was used by one of the most famous British novelists of the nineteenth century. It faded in Britain and stayed in India. The politician and author Shashi Tharoor, in a July 21, 2018 column for The Week, reported that the Oxford English Dictionary told him the phrase is still accepted as being in current use.
Register: formal, mostly in office or official writing. In an international email, "please take care of this" or a specific request ("please sign and return by Friday") is clearer, because "the needful" leaves the task unnamed.
Prepone
To move an event to an earlier time, the opposite of postpone: "the meeting has been preponed to 10 a.m." Wiktionary's entry for "prepone," read on September 27, 2026, labels the modern sense chiefly Indian and explains it as a blend of "pre-" and "postpone," from around 1913.
The 1913 date has a story behind it. In the same 2018 column, Tharoor wrote that he had once believed the word was an Indian coinage, and that the Oxford English Dictionary corrected him: its earliest example is from 1913, and "it is not, alas, Indian." The citation is a 1913 piece by J.J.D. Trenor in The New York Times proposing "prepone" as a partner for "postpone." Tharoor then quotes an Indian use from the proceedings of the 1952 Indian Science Congress. The word was proposed in New York; India is where it caught on.
Register: neutral and very useful. Outside South Asia, "bring forward" or "move up" is safer.
Indian English expressions translated from Indian languages
Cousin brother and cousin sister
A male or female first cousin. Wiktionary labels "cousin brother" South Asian English and calls it a semantic loan from Indo-Aryan languages, with equivalents in Hindi and Punjabi. It quotes a 2006 source explaining that in Punjabi joint families "first cousins are considered siblings." The phrase is not redundant: it tells the listener the cousin's gender, which plain English "cousin" does not, and it reflects how close cousins are in many Indian families.
What is your good name?
A polite way to ask someone's name. Wiktionary lists this as a South Asian English sense of "good name," with the example "Your good name, please?" In standard British and American English, "good name" means reputation, so the question can sound odd to a newcomer. It is courteous, not strange: the "good" is a mark of respect.
Eat my brain, sit on my head
To pester or nag someone: "stop eating my brain!" Tharoor gives both "stop eating my brain!" and "the teacher is sitting on my head" as expressions translated directly from Indian languages. They are casual and vivid, and most English speakers can work them out from context.
Timepass
Killing time, or something not worth your time. Wiktionary labels it Indian English and gives two senses: "aimless or unproductive activity; killing time," as in "Why are you doing timepass with your friends?", and "an activity which is boring or not worthwhile," as in "Don't go see that movie; it's just timepass." It compares the compound to a Tamil word built from "time" and "passing." Casual, and one of the most useful Indian English words to know.
Expressions shaped by Indian offices
Revert
In Indian English, to "revert" is to reply: "I will revert by Monday." Wiktionary labels this sense "originally India, now global," with the example "Please revert before Monday." It also lists "revert back" as a synonym. Outside South Asia, many readers still take "revert" to mean "go back to an earlier state," so in international email "reply" or "get back to you" avoids confusion.
Out of station
Away from home or out of town: "he is out of station until Thursday." Wiktionary labels it Indian English. It is neutral and widely used in Indian workplaces, but "traveling" or "away" is clearer for readers elsewhere.
Tharoor also names "airdash" and "history-sheeter" as purely Indian coinages, the kind of word a newspaper reader in Delhi knows and a reader in Chicago does not.
The historical layer: words India gave English
The borrowing has run in both directions for centuries. The standard historical record is Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, compiled by Henry Yule and Arthur Coke Burnell and first published in 1886, with a new edition by William Crooke in 1903. Wikipedia's article on it says it has over 2,000 entries and that James Murray used it extensively for South Asian entries in the Oxford English Dictionary.
Even its title is a lesson in how phrases travel. Wikipedia explains that British soldiers turned the Muharram mourning cry "Ya Hasan! Ya Hosain!" into "Hobson-Jobson" through a string of mishearings.
Two everyday words show the result:
- Cushy (easy, comfortable): Wiktionary traces it to the Hindi and Urdu word for "happiness," from Persian. Most English speakers who say "a cushy job" have no idea it came from India.
- Doolally (crazy, or carried away): Wiktionary labels it British and Irish slang from "doolally tap," after the Deolali army transit camp near Bombay, where soldiers waited to sail home. Its earliest quotation is from 1920.
Both are now ordinary British English. Neither is thought of as an Indianism, which says something about which borrowings get labeled and which do not.
Using Indian English idioms at work
- Inside India: use them freely. "Prepone," "out of station" and "revert" are normal business English there.
- In an international team: swap "prepone" for "move up," "revert" for "reply," and "do the needful" for the specific action you want. The meaning stays; the misreading goes.
- For ESL learners: learn both forms. Indian English and international English are both correct in their own settings.
- Never as a joke about the speaker: these are regional standards with long histories, as "do the needful" and "prepone" show.
For more on how a reference decides where a phrase came from, see how a phrase origin is traced.
Frequently asked questions
Is "do the needful" correct English?
Yes. Wiktionary labels it standard in Indian, Nigerian and Malaysian English and dated in British English, and quotes Sir Walter Scott using it in 1818. It is correct, but vague for international readers.
Is "prepone" a real word?
Yes. Wiktionary labels it chiefly Indian and dates it to around 1913. According to Shashi Tharoor, the Oxford English Dictionary's earliest example is a 1913 piece in The New York Times, not an Indian source.
What does "timepass" mean?
Killing time, or something not worth your time. Wiktionary labels it Indian English.
Why do Indians say "What is your good name?"
It is a respectful way to ask someone's name in South Asian English, listed by Wiktionary. "Good" here signals politeness.
What does "revert" mean in an email?
In Indian English it means "reply." Wiktionary labels this sense originally Indian and now global, but many readers elsewhere still read "revert" as "go back," so "reply" is clearer.
