Dictionary

chetty en · NOUN

Etymology

Ultimately from Sanskrit श्रेष्ठ (śreṣṭha) or श्रेष्ठीन् (śreṣṭhīn).

Meanings

1. A member of one of various South Indian castes of merchants, money-lenders and land-owners.
   • A contract is made, usually by the house itself, with the chetties for such a quantity of cotton of such a quality, and the very lowest sum is fixed. The chetty, finding he cannot get a price that would justify the delivery of such cotton as he has contracted for, agrees to it, well knowing that they must take such as he chooses to deliver to them at the time. 1851, J. Forbes Royle, On the Culture and Commerce of Cotton in India, and Elsewhere, London: Smith, Elder & Co., page 87:
   • 2000, Laure Adler, Marguerite Duras: A Life, translated by Anne-Marie Glasheen, London: Victor Gollancz, Chapter 3, p. 58, https://books.google.ca/books?id=RRxxlYQTzNYC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false […] Marguerite's mother was earning 22,000 francs a month. A quarter of that went to the owner of the Saigon boarding house; another quarter to Pierre's tutor in France and a third went to the chetties to pay off loans made for the concession.
   • Far too many Burmese farmers are heavily in debt to the "chetties," the money-lending caste of the Madras coast. 1882, Shway Yoe, chapter XXIII, in The Burman: His Life and Notions, volume 1, London: Macmillan & Co., page 298:
   • […] Li Yeik or the Indian chetty in the bazaar would cash cheques […] 1934, George Orwell, chapter 9, in Burmese Days:

Forms

Translations (4)

ml ചെട്ടിയാർ (South Asian subgroup) · te చెట్టి (South Asian subgroup) · my ချစ်တီး (South Asian subgroup) · ta செட்டியார் (South Asian subgroup)