bhisti

English

Noun

bhisti (plural bhistis or bhisties)

1. Alternative form of bheestie (“a traditional water-carrier of South Asia”).
   • 1890, Rudyard Kipling, “Gunga Din”, in Barrack-Room Ballads and Other Verses, 3rd edition, London: Methuen & Co. […], published 1892, →OCLC, page 23:

     The finest man I knew / Was our regimental bhisti, Gunga Din […] 'Water, get it! Panee lao! / 'You squidgy-nosed old idol, Gunga Din.'

   • 1992, Kim Newman, Anno Dracula, Titan Books, published 2011, page 122:

     He remembered Pam horse-whipping a blackguard of a corporal who was found to have interfered with the bhisti’s sister.