gharry

English

A horsedrawn gharry in Kolkata, circa 1903

Etymology

Borrowed from Hindi गाड़ी (gāṛī) / Urdu گاڑی (gāṛī, “wheeled cart, carriage; car, truck, bus”), from Sauraseni Prakrit 𑀕𑀟𑁆𑀟 (gaḍḍa), 𑀕𑀟𑁆𑀟𑀻 (gaḍḍī), from Ashokan Prakrit *𑀕𑀸𑀟𑁆𑀟- (*gāḍḍa-).

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˈɡæɹi/

Noun

gharry (plural gharries)

1. A wheeled cart or carriage (usually horsedrawn), used especially in Myanmar.
   • 1900, Joseph Conrad, chapter 5, in Lord Jim:

     A ramshackle gharry, all dust and venetian blinds, pulled up short opposite the group, and the driver, throwing up his right foot over his knee, gave himself up to the critical examination of his toes.

   • 1934, George Orwell, chapter 10, in Burmese Days‎^[1]:

     He thought of Rosa McFee, the Eurasian girl he had seduced in Mandalay in 1913. The way he used to sneak down to the house in a gharry with the shutters down […]

   • 1952, Norman Lewis, Golden Earth:

     There were ranks of gharries that appeared to do no serious business, although occasionally a group of Shans would wake up a driver, bundle into one and go for a quick spin round the bazaar, much as in the old days one took a five shilling flip around the aerodrome in a plane.

   • 1977, Pablo Neruda, chapter 4, in Hardie St. Martin, transl., Memoirs, New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, page 86:

     My British friends saw me in a gharry, a little horse-drawn cab used mainly for ephemeral trysts in transit, and offered me the kindly advice that a consul should never use these vehicles for any purpose.

2. (South Africa, military, slang) A jeep or small truck for conveying troops.

Alternative forms

• garry, gharri, gharrie