dubash

English

Etymology

From Hindi दो (do, “two”) + भाषा (bhāṣā, “language”).

Noun

dubash (plural dubashes)

1. (India, dated) An Indian translator or interpreter.
   • 1844, Arthur Wellesley Duke of Wellington, John Gurwood, The Dispatches of Field Marshal the Duke of Wellington, page 1625:

     […] inhabitants complain to him, and as he does not understand the language he is obliged to call for his dubash to interpret what they say; […]

2. (India, dated) An Indian general household steward.
   • 1808–10, William Hickey, Memoirs of a Georgian Rake, Folio Society 1995, p. 90:

     This I learnt was the captain's dubash, a native man acting as general steward who provides every household article as well as of merchandise, and engages all inferior servants.

Alternative forms

• debash, dobash

References

• John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary
• Henry Yule, A[rthur] C[oke] Burnell (1903) “dubash”, in William Crooke, editor, Hobson-Jobson […] , London: John Murray, […].