lathi

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English

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English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia
A group of police with wooden and plastic lathi in Panaji, Goa, India.
A drawing from 1908 of a police officer with a lathi on his belt in Kolkata, West Bengal, India.

Etymology

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Borrowed from Hindi लाठी (lāṭhī).

Pronunciation

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Noun

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lathi (countable and uncountable, plural lathis)

  1. (India, countable) A heavy stick or club, usually used by policemen.
    • 1973, JG Farrell, The Siege of Krishnapur:
      The iron-bound bamboo staves, known as lâtees, with which most disputes among rival zemindars were traditionally settled.
    • 2004, Khushwant Singh, Burial at Sea, Penguin, published 2014, page 131:
      A phalanx of policemen armed with lathis faced a mob of mill workers squatting on the road.
    • 2008, Amitav Ghosh, Sea of Poppies, Penguin, published 2015, page 94:
      Nearby, held back by a line of lathi-carrying peons, stood the farmers whose vessels were being weighed […].
  2. (uncountable) A martial art based on stick fighting originally practiced in India.
    Lathi shares its basic principles with other martial arts.

Alternative forms

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Derived terms

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References

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Anagrams

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