khansamah
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English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Borrowed from Urdu خانسامان, from خان (xān, “master”) + سامان (sāmān, “household goods”).
Noun[edit]
khansamah (plural khansamahs)
- (East India) A house-steward or native servant, being in charge of the kitchen and the food supplies.
- 1866, Frederick F. Wyman, From Calcutta to the Snowy Range, page 330:
- An old sinner, in shape of a khansamah, is the genius of the place, and has rarely aught else to tempt the tired traveller with than a “sudden death”—a fowl caught running in the yard, and dished up forthwith; […]
- 1888, Rudyard Kipling, “My Own True Ghost Story”, in The Phantom ’Rickshaw and Other Tales, Folio Society, published 2005, page 105:
- The day shut in and the khansamah went to get me food.