Hindu Kush

[hin-doo koo sh, kuhsh]

noun

a mountain range in S Asia, mostly in NE Afghanistan, extending W from the Himalayas. Highest peak, Tirich Mir, 25,230 feet (7690 meters).

Origin of Hindu Kush

1820–30; possibly from Persian koš, a derivative of the verb koštan “to kill,” the phrase meaning “Hindu killer” (from when slaves being transported from the Indian subcontinent to Central Asia died in the harsh climate of these mountains); possibly from Persian Hindūkuš, Hendukoš “Mountains of the Indus / of India,” which, in some 19th-century reports was also interpreted in a popular etymology as a compound of Hendu and koš “Hindu-slayer”

Also called Hindu Kush Mountains.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for hindu kush

Historical Examples of hindu kush

(numerous and elaborate, and sometimes economic); Robertson, Kafirs of the Hindu-Kush, chap.
Introduction to the History of Religions
Crawford Howell Toy
Keeping this distinction in view, Biddulph's valuable treatise on the Hindu-Kush populations may be followed with safety.
Man, Past and Present
Agustus Henry Keane

British Dictionary definitions for hindu kush

Hindu Kush

pl n

a mountain range in central Asia, extending about 800 km (500 miles) east from the Koh-i-Baba Mountains of central Afghanistan to the Pamirs. Highest peak: Tirich Mir, 7690 m (25 230 ft)

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012