durwann.
/dəːˈwɑːn/ India.
A porter or doorkeeper.
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society > authority > subjection > service > servant > personal or domestic servant > domestic servant > [noun] > usher > door- or gate-keeper
doorwardc950
gate-wardc1000
porter?a1300
ostiary?a1475
portitor1480
doorkeeper1535
gatekeeper1572
janitora1640
conciergea1697
hall-keeper1705
durwan1773
commissioner1820
lodge-keeper1855
doorman1858
lodge-man1892
commissionaire1895
dvornik1903
linkman1939
1773 E. Ives Voy. India 50 Derwan. These are properly porters, who sit at the gate to receive messages, &c.
1781 Bengal Gaz. 14 Apr. A Door-van is well known to be the alarm of the House.
1784 in W. S. Seton-Karr & H. D. Sandeman Select. Calcutta Gaz. (1864) I. 12 A most extraordinary and horrid murder was committed upon the Dirwan of Thomas Martin, Esq.
1874 Calcutta Rev. LIX. 207 In the entrance passage..is a raised floor with one or two open cells in which the darwáns (or door keepers) sit, lie and sleep.
1926 Blackwood's Mag. June 726/2 His durwan..refused to awaken a sleeping man.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1933; most recently modified version published online March 2021).
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n.1773