sepoy

From Portuguese sipae, from Urdu سپاہی‎ (sipāhī)/Hindi सिपाही (sipāhī), from Persian سپاهی‎ (sepâhi, “soldier, horseman”), from سپاه‎ (sepâh, “army”)[1]. Akin to spahi.

• IPA^(key): /ˈsiːˌpɔɪ/
• Hyphenation: se‧poi

sepoy (plural sepoys)

1. (historical) A native soldier of the East Indies, employed in the service of a European colonial power, notably the British India army (first under the British-chartered East India Company, later in the crown colony), but also France and Portugal.
   • 1890, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Sign of the Four

     If our door were in the hands of the Sepoys the place must fall, and the women and children be treated as they were in Cawnpore.

• “sepoy” in Merriam–Webster Online Dictionary.
• “sepoy” in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press.
• “sepoy” in TheFreeDictionary.com, Huntingdon Valley, Pa.: Farlex, Inc., 2003–2019.
• “sepoy” in the Collins English Dictionary

• Posey, poesy, posey, poyse, poësy

sepoy m (plural sepoys, diminutive sepoytje n)

1. A sepoy, native soldier in the East Indies