- "orda" used almost exclusively for the Golden Horde. _IIRC_ that's where the form with "h" appeared first and propagated to other western languages. (I'm not saying that you're incorrect, I just haven't heard about a direct route from Mongolian to English.)
The word "Urdu" (as in the "Urdu language") has the same, Turkic origin (meaning "military camp"). It also exists in Persian, which influenced the development of the Urdu language.
Comments
In Polish this word took two different forms:
- "horda", meaning horde, and
- "orda" used almost exclusively for the Golden Horde. _IIRC_ that's where the form with "h" appeared first and propagated to other western languages. (I'm not saying that you're incorrect, I just haven't heard about a direct route from Mongolian to English.)
The word "Urdu" (as in the "Urdu language") has the same, Turkic origin (meaning "military camp"). It also exists in Persian, which influenced the development of the Urdu language.