| 释义 |
burra sahib India.|ˈbʌrəˈsɑːɪb|
Also with capital initials.
[Hind. barā great, çāhib master (see sahib).]
A title of respect used by Indians in referring to the head of a family, the chief officer in a station, the head of a department, etc. Also transf. So burra beebee or mem(-sahib), a similar title for a lady.
1807G. Elliott Let. 20 Sept. in Lord Minto in India (1880) ii. 29 The Burro Bebee, or lady of the highest rank. c1810W. Hickey Memoirs (1918) II. x. 136 The Governor-General, Mr. Wheler, General Stibbert, Mr. Barwell, and in fact all the Burra Sahibs (great men) of Calcutta. 1848J. H. Stocqueler Oriental Interpreter 44 Burra-beebee, or burra-mem, a great lady; the appellation bestowed upon the female head of a house, or the wife of the principal personage at a station or presidency of India. 1863Trevelyan Dawk Bungalow 1, Chota Sahib one rupee give. Burra Sahib two rupee. 1885Lady Dufferin Viceregal Life India (1889) I. 57 The great lords and Ladies (Burra Sahib and Burra Mem Sahib). 1922Blackw. Mag. Sept. 283/2, I made my way to the burra Police Sahib. 1922Outward Bound Nov. 137/2 Part of the headdress or person of a burra-mem. 1928Chamber's Jrnl. Feb. 180/2 The Hindu..announced it to be the habitation of a very burra (high in station) sahib. 1934‘G. Orwell’ Burmese Days xxv. 371 The position for which Nature had designed her from the first, that of a burra memsahib. 1936R. W. Chapman Names, Designations & Appellations 240 The societies of industry, commerce..are commonly divisible into three grades... Members of A say ‘Smith’ to each other (..but a Burra Sahib may be ‘Sir’). 1963M. Malim Pagoda Tree xxii. 145 The gathering throng of eminently decorous knights, ladies, burra sahibs and burra mems gathering on the lamplit lawn below. |