An adda (
Bengali: আড্ডা) is a 'conversation' among members, who were originally of the same socio-economic strata, but the process has democratized in modern times.[1]
The Indian adda has shades of meaning attached to different languages:
In
Hindi, adda is a
noun, with the nominal form of the word meaning the location or nest of a group or community. The etymology can be traced to the original meaning of the word, which means the "perching spot or perch for birds".
In
Bengali, adda is both a standalone noun and a noun in a noun-
verb compound. 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.[2]