Purdesee

English

Noun

Purdesee (plural Purdesees)

1. (India, historical, archaic) In the Bombay army, a sepoy from northern India.
   • 1875, Sketch of the Medical History of the Native Army of Bombay, page 154:

     The diet of the Christian and Jew privates is but little richer than that of their Brahmin and Purdesee comrades; but the men are more robust-looking, and are certainly less frequently inmates of the hospital.

Related terms

• Paradesi

References

• Henry Yule, A[rthur] C[oke] Burnell (1903) “Purdesee”, in William Crooke, editor, Hobson-Jobson […] , London: John Murray, […].