"memsahib" meaning in English

See memsahib in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: memsahibs [plural]
Etymology: From ma'am + sahib. Etymology templates: {{compound|en|ma'am|sahib}} ma'am + sahib Head templates: {{en-noun}} memsahib (plural memsahibs)
  1. (India, historical, as a respectful term of address) A white European woman in colonial India. Tags: India, historical
    Sense id: en-memsahib-en-noun-TyGZWE91 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Indian English

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for memsahib meaning in English (1.5kB)

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "ma'am",
        "3": "sahib"
      },
      "expansion": "ma'am + sahib",
      "name": "compound"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From ma'am + sahib.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "memsahibs",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "memsahib (plural memsahibs)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Indian English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Coordinate term: sahib"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1997, Richard Dyer, White, page 184",
          "text": "This might be accomplished literally through missionary work (Plate 5.1), but that tended to be unattractively pro-active and spinsterish, and it was rather the memsahibs, the mothers, wives and daughters of the white officers and administrators, who were to instil civilisation, through the example of their own moral refinement.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A white European woman in colonial India."
      ],
      "id": "en-memsahib-en-noun-TyGZWE91",
      "links": [
        [
          "white",
          "white"
        ],
        [
          "European",
          "European"
        ],
        [
          "woman",
          "woman"
        ],
        [
          "colonial",
          "colonial"
        ],
        [
          "India",
          "India"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(India, historical, as a respectful term of address) A white European woman in colonial India."
      ],
      "raw_tags": [
        "as a respectful term of address"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "India",
        "historical"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "memsahib"
}
{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "ma'am",
        "3": "sahib"
      },
      "expansion": "ma'am + sahib",
      "name": "compound"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From ma'am + sahib.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "memsahibs",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "memsahib (plural memsahibs)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English compound terms",
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms with historical senses",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Indian English"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Coordinate term: sahib"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1997, Richard Dyer, White, page 184",
          "text": "This might be accomplished literally through missionary work (Plate 5.1), but that tended to be unattractively pro-active and spinsterish, and it was rather the memsahibs, the mothers, wives and daughters of the white officers and administrators, who were to instil civilisation, through the example of their own moral refinement.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A white European woman in colonial India."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "white",
          "white"
        ],
        [
          "European",
          "European"
        ],
        [
          "woman",
          "woman"
        ],
        [
          "colonial",
          "colonial"
        ],
        [
          "India",
          "India"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(India, historical, as a respectful term of address) A white European woman in colonial India."
      ],
      "raw_tags": [
        "as a respectful term of address"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "India",
        "historical"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "memsahib"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.