The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was redirect to Indian English#Vocabulary. J04n(talk page) 13:58, 21 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Do the needful[edit]

Do the needful (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) – (View log · Stats)
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Article consists mostly of original research, and the subject doesn't really have enough coverage to be notable. The only linked source doesn't help either. It might be good enough as a dictionary entry, but it's hardly appropriate for an encyclopedia. Smtchahal (talk) 16:34, 13 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This discussion has been included in the list of Language-related deletion discussions. The Mighty Glen (talk) 16:38, 13 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Based on Andrew D's sources, I think there may be enough for an article, or at least a redirect to Indian English#Vocabulary. power~enwiki (π, ν) 22:52, 13 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Apparently "Transwiki" isn't a thing at all anymore. Switching vote to Redirect. power~enwiki (π, ν) 17:59, 14 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]
  1. Don’t prepone it – do the needful. in The Guardian
  2. 10 classic Indianisms at CNN
  3. Doing the Needful in the New York Times
  4. Literacy as Translingual Practice, Routledge, 2013, p. 217, ISBN 9780415524667, Needful is another Indian English term, a direct translation from "zaroori," Urdu for something that needs prompt attention.
Those are all articles defining it. How it is not a dictionary term then? Natureium (talk) 18:52, 13 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Please see WP:DICDEF which explains our policy and difference between dictionary entries and encyclopedia articles. Definition is not a difference because "Both dictionaries and encyclopedias contain definitions". Andrew D. (talk) 23:09, 13 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Andrew, as usual you have either misunderstood or are deliberately misrepresenting the policy, which reads such articles must go beyond what would be found in a dictionary entry (definition, pronunciation, etymology, use information, etc.) Nothing currently in the article falls outside these dictionaric parameters, despite your strawman argument here that it is everyone except you that is misunderstanding the policy excluding stub articles that define a word or phrase. Hijiri 88 (聖やや) 09:02, 16 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]
@TheGracefulSlick: Are you aware that Transwiki means Delete and move to wiktionary? Prince of Thieves (talk) 21:18, 13 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]
  1. Needful people – the needy
  2. As "needfuls" meaning necessities
  3. As "the needful", especially in the phrase "to do the needful", meaning that which is necessary
  4. The cash or money required for something
It gives many examples of usage but few of them seem to relate to the modern Indian English usage. The closest seems to be from 1929, "The conspirators at Delhi..sent orders..‘to look out and do the needful at once’." I don't think that source helps us much with the main point of the article which is about the way that this phrase is so characteristic of modern Indian English as a separate dialect. I am myself very familiar with this and it's part of a small set of words which tend to stand out when used to communicate with UK or US speakers. The sources I provide above explain this in detail. What we really need is some equivalent of Comparison of American and British English and the page in question would be a start in building this. Andrew D. (talk) 22:46, 13 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

(1998). Indian English. In McArthur, T.(Ed.), Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language. : Oxford University Press. Retrieved 13 Mar. 2018, from http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780192800619.001.0001/acref-9780192800619-e-597.

'Vocabulary: hybrids, adaptations, and idioms'

The great variety of mixed and adapted usages exists both as part of English and as a consequence of widespread code-mixing between English and especially Hindi:

...

(3) Words more or less archaic in BrE and AmE, but used in IndE, such as dicky (the boot/trunk of a car), needful (‘Please do the needful, Sri Patel’), stepney a spare wheel or tyre, and thrice (‘I was seeing him thrice last week’).

Needful. (2014). In Collins Dictionaries (Ed.), Collins English Dictionary (12th ed.). London, UK: Collins. Retrieved from https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/hcengdict/needful/0.

needful (ˈniːdfʊl)

from Collins English Dictionary

adj

1 necessary; needed; required

2 archaic needy; poverty-stricken ▷n

3 the needful informal money or funds: do you have the needful?

4 do the needful to perform a necessary task

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.
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