U.S. condoles with India over soldiers killed in clash with China, tensions stay high

[conuly]

Condoles?

That's a usage I'm unfamiliar with!

The Ngram viewer does suggest it's very rare, and getting rarer by the decade. However, that only checks American + British English - further googling revealed, unsurprisingly, that it's much more common in Indian English.

Comments

[swingandswirl]

Yep! Indian English has a bunch of archaic words/phrases like that - condole, stepney, and others I can't think of right now - that were in common use during the British occupation of the subcontinent that have passed out of common use in the UK but are still around here.

BTW, book rec if you want to know more about Indian English, Kalpana Mohan's An English Made In India is really good.

[fred_mouse]

Adding the book rec to my reading wishlist - definitely something I'd like to know more about.

[conuly]

Thanks for the rec :)