Bombay or Bambaim

Bom Baim

A widespread popular etymology of Bombay holds that it was derived from a Portuguese name meaning “good bay”. This is based on the facts that bom is Portuguese for “good” and baía (or the archaic spelling bahia) means “bay”. However, this literal translation would have been incorrect ingrammatical gender, as bom is masculine, while baia is feminine; a correct Portuguese rendering of “good bay” would be boa ba(h)ia. Having said this, baim is an archaic, masculine word for “little bay”.

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