Indian

, Indish (archaic)

Of or relating to India or its people; or (formerly) of the East Indies.

The morrow next apprear'd with purple hayre / Yet dropping fresh out of the Indian fount, / And bringing light into the heavens fayre […].

1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

The hardships of bark-collecting in the primeval forests of South America are of the severest kind, and undergone only by the half-civilized Indians and people of mixed race, in the pay of speculators or companies located in the towns.

1879, Friedrich August Flückiger et al., Pharmacographia..., page 346:

Of or relating to the indigenous peoples of the Americas.

Indian bread

Indian meal

(Canada, US, of foods) Made with Indian corn or maize.

(chess) Designating any of various chess openings now characterised by black's attempt to control the board through knights and fianchettoed bishops rather than with a central pawn advance.

en-adj

Indian (comparative more Indian, superlative most Indian)

more Indian (comparative)
most Indian (superlative)

East Indian

of, or related to, the people of the Indian subcontinent

West Indian

of, or related to, the people of the Caribbean islands

հնդկացիական

of, or related to, the aboriginal people of the Americas

From Anglo-Norman indien, Middle French indien, corresponding to Ind + -ian. Applied to inhabitants of the Americas due to an early misconception that the Americas were the eastern end of Asia / the Indies (hence also the designation of Caribbean islands as the West Indies).


Indian

We stigmatize the Indians, also, as cowardly and treacherous, because they use stratagem in warfare in preference to open force; but in this they are fully justified by their rude code of honor.

1820 July, Geoffrey Crayon [pseudonym; Washington Irving], “Traits of Indian Character”, in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., New York, N.Y.: […] C[ornelius] S. Van Winkle, […], →OCLC:

High Jack had been drinking too much rum ever since we landed in Boca. You know how an Indian is—the palefaces fixed his clock when they introduced him to firewater.

1909, O. Henry [pseudonym; William Sydney Porter], “He Also Serves”, in Options:

With savage desperation the Indian lunged his horse straight at Hopalong and, knife in hand, leaped for him!

1951, Louis L'Amour, Rustlers of West Fork:

(countable) An American Indian, a member of one of the indigenous peoples of the Americas (generally excluding the Aleut, Inuit, Metis, or Yupik).

(countable, obsolete) An indigenous inhabitant of Australia, New Zealand or the Pacific islands.

Have you ever tried Indian?

(uncountable) Ellipsis of Indian cuisine.

We're going out tonight for an Indian.

(UK, countable, colloquial) Ellipsis of Indian meal (“meal consisting of Indian cuisine”).

We're going down to the Indian for a curry—wanna join us?

(UK, countable, colloquial) Ellipsis of Indian restaurant (“restaurant serving Indian cuisine”).

Mardi Gras Indian
Mardi Gras Indian#English

(countable) Ellipsis of Mardi Gras Indian.

A kind of marble (spherical toy) with colored bands on an opaque black base.

en-noun

Indian (countable and uncountable, plural Indians)

Indiaan

individual of, or related to, the aboriginal people of the Americas


Indian

(nonstandard) Any of the (unrelated) languages spoken by American Indians.

[They said] 'Mutton can speak Indian', 'Mutton can see Kanchinjunga out of his bedroom window'[.]

1968, Anne Rider, A hilltop in hazard, page 51:

(nonstandard, rare) Any language spoken by natives of India, especially Hindi.