dubash

English

Charles Gold's 1806 depiction of a Hindustani dubash with his chatta, jalidar chowpaul, and attendants

Etymology

From Hindi दो (do, “two”) + भाषा (bhāṣā, “languages”).

Noun

dubash (plural dubashes)

1. (India, chiefly historical) An Indian translator or interpreter, particularly in their role as a household steward for British colonizers.
   • 1808–10, William Hickey, Memoirs of a Georgian Rake, Folio Society 1995, p. 90:

     This I learnt was the captain's dubash, a native man acting as general steward who provides every household article as well as of merchandise, and engages all inferior servants.

   • 1844, Arthur Wellesley Duke of Wellington, John Gurwood, The Dispatches of Field Marshal the Duke of Wellington, page 1625:

     […] inhabitants complain to him, and as he does not understand the language he is obliged to call for his dubash to interpret what they say; […]

Alternative forms

• debash, dobash

References

• John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary
• Henry Yule, A[rthur] C[oke] Burnell (1903) “dubash”, in William Crooke, editor, Hobson-Jobson […] , London: John Murray, […].