sepoy

See also: Sepoy

English

Etymology

From Portuguese sipae, from Urdu سپاہی (sipāhī)/Hindi सिपाही (sipāhī), from Persian سپاهی (sepâhi, “soldier, horseman”), from سپاه (sepâh, “army”). Akin to spahi.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsiːˌpɔɪ/
• Hyphenation: se‧poi

Noun

sepoy (plural sepoys)

1. (historical) A native soldier of the East Indies, employed in the service of a European colonial power, notably the British India army (first under the British-chartered East India Company, later in the crown colony), but also France and Portugal.
   • 1890, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Sign of the Four:

     If our door were in the hands of the Sepoys the place must fall, and the women and children be treated as they were in Cawnpore.

   • 1997, Charles E. Davies, The Blood-red Arab Flag: An Investigation Into Qasimi Piracy, 1797-1820, University of Exeter Press (→ISBN), page 312:

     They proved to be the wives of a body of sepoys, also from the 5th Regiment of Bombay Native Infantry; the sepoys had perished, and their families been enslaved, when their pattamar had been captured by the Qawasim some months before.

Translations

A native soldier of the East Indies

• Catalan: sipai m
• Dutch: sepoy m, sipoy m
• French: cipaye (fr) m
• German: Sepoy (de) m
• Hungarian: szipoj
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Indonesian: sipahi (id)
• Italian: sepoy m
• Macedonian: сепој m (sepoj)
• Portuguese: cipaio m, sipaio (pt) m
• Spanish: cipayo m
• Telugu: సిపాయి (te) (sipāyi)

Descendants

• → Chinese: 印度兵
• → Dutch: sepoy, sipoy
  • → Indonesian: sepoy
• → German: Sepoy
• → Italian: sepoy
• → Swedish: sepoy
  • → Finnish: sepoy
• → Turkish: sepoy

Further reading

• “sepoy”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• “sepoy”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “sepoy” in TheFreeDictionary.com, Huntingdon Valley, Pa.: Farlex, Inc., 2003–2024.
• “sepoy”, in Collins English Dictionary.

Anagrams

• Posey, poesy, posey, poyse, poësy

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Dutch

Noun

sepoy m (plural sepoys, diminutive sepoytje n)

1. A sepoy, native soldier in the East Indies