juggernaut

Origin

Borrowed in the 17th century into British English in India, either through Hindustani جَگَنَّاتھ (jagannāth) / जगन्नाथ (jagannāth) or directly from Odia ଜଗନ୍ନାଥ (jagannātha), ultimately from Sanskrit ज॒ग॒न्ना॒थ (jagannāthá, “lord of universe”) (Jagannatha), a title for the Hindu deity Vishnu's avatar Krishna. The sense comes from witnessing the Rath Yatra (chariot parade) at Puri, Odisha, a huge annual procession which features a wagon of the idol of Jagannath; pulled with ropes by hundreds of devotees, the wagon develops considerable momentum and becomes unstoppable. The r was not originally pronounced: for non-rhotic dialects of British English, the spelling with -er- accurately suggests the Hindi-Urdu pronunciation of the second vowel (a schwa ə); compare e.g. gorm. The spelling of the ending was influenced by the suffix -naut (“traveller, voyager”). Doublet of Jagannath.