sepoy means 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. Lexicurio rates it Rare gem — a strength score of 84 out of 100.
Why this word is great
SEPOY — [Noun] A native Indian soldier serving under British or other European command, historically in the armies of the East India Company and later the British Raj. From Portuguese 'sipae', from Urdu/Hindi 'sipāhī', from Classical Persian 'sipāhī' ("soldier, horseman"), from 'sipāh' ("army"). Unlike the Ottoman 'spahi', a cavalryman, or the East African 'askari', a general term for local troops, the sepoy was the specific, foundational infantryman of the subcontinent. He is the stiff woolen uniform in the Madras heat, the precise metallic click of a cartridge being bitten, the silent pivot upon which an alien authority rested—a word that holds the silence before the mutiny, the ghost of a bargain haunting the space between sworn service and native soil.
noun
- 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.“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.”
- The holder of an infantry enlisted rank equivalent to private in other countries.