Etymology

From / .
Essentially 'Desi' comes from the word - Des or Desh, which means Country in Hindi or Sanskrit. Thus, a 'desi' is 'a person from or originally belonging to' 'Des'. Since almost all the South Asian nations (along with their thousands of dialects can somehow relate to the word 'Des', I call all South Asians as 'Desis' - Venkat Manda

Usage notes

• Essentially 'Desi' comes from the word - Des or Desh, which means Country in Hindi or Sanskrit. Thus, a 'desi' is 'a person from or originally belonging to' 'Des'. Since almost all the South Asian nations (along with their thousands of dialects can somehow relate to the word 'Des', I call all South Asians as 'Desis' - Venkat Manda

• For South Asians abroad, it has become a term that mainly identifies other fellow Indians.

e.g.: Desi food refers to South Asian food like rice, daal, chappati etc.

Desi dance can refer to the popular dances in the movies to Punjabi dance, Bhangra to classical dances like Bharathnatya, Kuchipudi etc.