Dictionary

sahib en · NOUN

Etymology

From Hindustani صاحب / साहिब (sāhib, “lord”), from Classical Persian صاحب (sāhib), from Arabic صَاحِب (ṣāḥib, “companion”).

Meanings

1. (historical) A term of respect for a white European or other man of rank in colonial India.
   • One day when the Man's Wife and the Tertium Quid had just arrived in the Cemetery, they saw some coolies breaking ground. They had marked out a full-size grave, and the Tertium Quid asked them whether any Sahib was sick. They said that they did not know; but it was an order that they should dig a Sahib's grave. 1889, Rudyard Kipling, “At the Pit's Mouth”, in Under the Deodars, Boston: The Greenock Press, published 1899, page 52:
   • After, went to sahib and packed up sahib's things. We had four hire-ponies; three for loads, and one for sahib to ride. Sahib had a Chinese saddle, that he put on a high horse. 1923, Rasool Galwan, Servant of Sahibs, Cambridge: W. Heffer & Sons, page 25:
   • One must never forget that one is a Sahib, and that some day, when examinations are passed, one will command natives. 1900 December – 1901 October, Rudyard Kipling, chapter VII, in Kim, London: Macmillan and Co., published 1901, →OCLC, page 177:

Forms

Coordinates

memsahib

Deriveds

sahibji · sahibdom · brown sahib · pukka sahib · memsahib

Translations (5)

ur صاحب (a term of respect) · mr साहेब (a term of respect) · pa ਸਾਹਿਬ (a term of respect) · bn সাহেব (a term of respect) · hi साहिब (a term of respect)