What is a shisha called around the world?

Walk down Edgware Road, through Green Street or into a lounge in Wembley and you will hear the same thing called by half a dozen names. Shisha, hookah, nargile, arghileh, kalyan: they all mean the water pipe. Here is what it is called around the world, and where each name comes from.

Shisha

Shisha (Arabic شيشة) is the name used in Egypt and the Gulf, and the one most people in the UK use. It comes from the Persian word shisheh, meaning glass, after the glass base that holds the water.

Hookah

Hookah is the name most English speakers outside the UK use, especially in the United States. It comes from the Hindi and Urdu huqqa (हुक्का, حقہ), from an Arabic word for a small pot or jar. The same word is used in Bengali (হুক্কা). Many histories trace the water pipe to 16th-century India, which is why the Indian name travelled so far. In older British English you will also find the nickname hubble-bubble, after the sound it makes.

Nargile, arghileh and their cousins

A whole family of names comes from the Persian nargil, meaning coconut, because early water pipes were made from coconut shells.

• Nargile: Turkish
• Arghileh (أرجيلة): Arabic in Lebanon and Syria, with the first letter dropped
• Nargilés (ναργιλές): Greek
• Nargjile: Albanian
• Narghilea: Romanian
• Narghilè: Italian
• Narguilé: Portuguese, used in Brazil too

Ghalyan and kalyan

In Iran the water pipe is the ghalyan (قلیان). The word travelled north into Russian as kalyan (кальян). Russian makers have since become some of the most inventive in the world, which is why you will see Russian shishas as a style of their own, with heavy steel bodies and precise airflow.

Cachimba and chicha

In Spain it is a cachimba, an older Spanish word for a smoking pipe that came through Portuguese. In France it is the chicha, simply the French spelling of shisha. France also has a strong shisha-making scene of its own: see our French shishas.

Water pipe, water smoke, water tobacco

Some languages simply describe what it is:

• Wasserpfeife: German, "water pipe" (and Germany makes some of the best: see our German shishas)
• Fajka wodna: Polish, "water pipe"
• 水烟 (shuǐyān): Chinese, "water smoke"
• 물담배 (muldambae): Korean, "water tobacco"

Japanese has a native term too, but in Tokyo's shisha cafés most people now just say シーシャ (shīsha).

One pipe, many names

Whatever you call it, the parts are the same: a bowl for the tobacco, a stem, a base filled with water, and a hose. London is one of the few cities where you will hear every one of these names in a single evening.

Browse all our shishas, or start with a shisha starter kit. We deliver across London and the UK, and ship worldwide.