Etymograph

English

sepoy

Sepoy comes from Urdu سِپَاہِی ‘soldier, fighter’, from Classical Persian ـی ‘forms abstract nouns, from adjectives’, and ultimately from Middle Persian 𐭩𐭧.

  1. Middle Persianc. 300 BCE–900 CE𐭩𐭧yḥ /⁠-īh⁠/next step skipped: Hindi सिपाही
  2. Classical Persianc. 900–presentـی-ē‘forms abstract nouns, from adjectives’
  3. Classical Persian, derivedc. 900–presentسِپَاهِیsipāhī‘soldier, horseman’
  4. Urdumodernسِپَاہِیsipāhī‘soldier, fighter’
  5. Portuguesec. 1500–presentsipai
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1890sepoy

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Middle Persianc. 300 BCE–900 CE𐭩𐭧yḥ /⁠-īh⁠/next step skipped: Hindi सिपाही
  2. Classical Persianc. 900–presentـی-ē‘forms abstract nouns, from adjectives’
  3. Classical Persian, derivedc. 900–presentسِپَاهِیsipāhī‘soldier, horseman’
  4. Urdumodernسِپَاہِیsipāhī‘soldier, fighter’
  5. Portuguesec. 1500–presentsipai
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1890sepoy

Earliest quotation: 1890, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Strange Story of Jonathan Small: “If our door were in the hands of the…”

Linked words

through Classical Persian ـی ‘forms abstract nouns, from adjectives’

azadi, 1 more

Today it means

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.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Middle Persian 𐭩𐭧 / sepoy

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