mudaliyar

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English[edit]

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Alternative forms[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Tamil [Term?] (“mutaliyār”) (plural of mutali (“chief”)), in early forms probably via Portuguese modeliar.

Noun[edit]

mudaliyar (plural mudaliyars)

  1. (now historical) A chief or headman in Sri Lanka. [from 17th c.]
    • 1969, Leonard Woolf, Journey Not Arrival Matters:
      He had been a Mudaliyar or Headman of East Giruwa Pattu […] when I was Assistant Government Agent there fifty years ago.
    • 2020, Sujit Sivasundaram, Waves Across the South, William Collins, published 2021, page 228:
      Other Mudliyars said they couldn't join in the first instance but would send on ‘Thieves and rogues (black guard fellows who certainly do abound).’
  2. (chiefly in form mudaliar) A high-status Tamil caste in India. [from 19th c.]
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