lascar
Americannoun
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an East Indian sailor.
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Indian English. an artilleryman.
noun
Etymology
Origin of lascar
First recorded in 1620–30; from Portuguese, short for lasquarin “soldier,” from Urdu lashkarī, from Persian, equivalent to lashkar “army” + -ī a suffix indicating relationship or origin; lasquarin shows spontaneous nasalization that occurs in Portuguese, as also in sim “yes,” from Latin sīc ( Spanish sí, Italian sì, French si )
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
While writing Sea of Poppies, he scoured old dictionaries and almanacs and filled the novel with dizzying dialogues incorporating bastardized Hindustani and lascar words that he claims entered common English parlance in the 19th century.
From Time Magazine Archive
"Take the wheel," ordered Peter, using the term instead of tiller, since the lascar was well acquainted with the word "wheel".
From The Wireless Officer by Percy F. (Percy Francis) Westerman
The Malay and lascar crew divided their time between watch duty on board the Ithaca, policing the camp, and cultivating a little patch of clearing just south of their own campong.
From The Monster Men by Edgar Rice Burroughs
A man who looked like a lascar stood upright in the stern.
From The Hand Of Fu-Manchu Being a New Phase in the Activities of Fu-Manchu, the Devil Doctor by Sax Rohmer
Then, having trimmed sheets, Mostyn took the tiller and ordered the lascar into the bows.
From The Wireless Officer by Percy F. (Percy Francis) Westerman
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
