Dictionary

dubash en · NOUN

Etymology

From Hindi दो (do, “two”) + भाषा (bhāṣā, “languages”).

Meanings

1. (India, historical) An Indian translator or interpreter, particularly in their role as a household steward for British colonizers.
   • This I learnt was the captain's dubash, a native man acting as general steward who provides every household article as well as of merchandise, and engages all inferior servants. 1808–10, William Hickey, Memoirs of a Georgian Rake, Folio Society 1995, p. 90
   • […] inhabitants complain to him, and as he does not understand the language he is obliged to call for his dubash to interpret what they say; […] 1844, Arthur Wellesley Duke of Wellington, John Gurwood, The Dispatches of Field Marshal the Duke of Wellington, page 1625:

Forms