East Indianadj.n.
/ˈiːst ˈɪndɪən/, U.S. /ˈist ˈɪndiən/ A. adj.
1. Of, relating to, or characteristic of the East Indies. See East Indies n.In later use frequently used to distinguish South Asian from West Indian or Native American.
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the world > the earth > named regions of earth > East Indies > [adjective]
East Indian1553
East Indy1600
1553 R. Eden in tr. S. Münster Treat. Newe India Pref. sig. aaviijv The Ilandes of Molucca situate in the mayne Easte Indian Sea.
1598 W. Phillip tr. J. H. van Linschoten Disc. Voy. E. & W. Indies xcvi. 179 The shippes..lie in a thousand dangers, specially the east Indian ships, which are very heauily laden.
1601 P. Holland tr. Pliny Hist. World I. 105 From the coast of the East Indian sea.
1699 B. E. New Dict. Canting Crew Temperade, an East-Indian-dish, now in use in England, being a Fowl Fricasied, with high Sauce, Blancht Almonds and Rice.
1756 T. Birch Hist. Royal Soc. II. 78 Capt. Cock was desired to inform himself by some Turkey or East-Indian merchants of the way used by them for the unhusking of rice.
1780 W. Smellie tr. Comte de Buffon Nat. Hist. Gen. & Particular VII. 86 The Tanrecs or Tendracs are small East Indian animals which have some resemblance to our hedgehog.
1839 C. Darwin in R. Fitzroy & C. Darwin Narr. Surv. Voy. H.M.S. Adventure & Beagle III. xxii. 553 In the East Indian sea a stinging sea-weed also is found.
1868 Littell's Living Age 21 Mar. 734/1 In the Chinese Sea, there is the north equatorial current, which sweeps round the East Indian archipelago.
1880 C. R. Markham Peruvian Bark 438 The East Indian source of supply is now the most important next to Colombia.
1930 C. G. Seligman Races of Afr. ii. 34 The old Hottentot population of the Cape has become largely absorbed by racial admixture with incoming Europeans and East Indian slaves.
1948 R. de Kerchove Internat. Maritime Dict. 516/1 An East Indian trading boat from southern Celebes.
1991 S. W. Miller & J. N. Supersad in J. N. Giger & R. E. Davidhizar Transcultural Nursing xix. 456 East Indian Americans, who have..a higher life expectancy than..Native American Indians.
2000 Punch (Nassau, Bahamas) 11 Dec. 10/5 She is a mango-skinned beauty of Oriental and East-Indian origins.
2. In the names of animals, plants, plant products, etc., native to or originating in the East Indies.
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1763 J. Mills New Syst. Pract. Husbandry IV. i. vi. 161 This preparation is said..to give better relish to meat or sauce, than the ordinary round grained East Indian pepper.
1822 Monthly Gaz. of Health Mar. 64 There are two kinds brought to this country, the one called Russian, or Turkey Rhubarb, the other Chinese, or East Indian Rhubarb.
1891 Cent. Dict. at Tournefortia T. Argentea is sometimes cultivated under the name of East Indian velvet-leaf.
a1933 J. A. Thomson Biol. for Everyman (1934) II. 1411 A safe and convenient food,..Curcuma angustifolia, nearly related to ginger, has fleshy roots which are dried and powdered. The powder is known as East Indian arrowroot.
1994 Dog World Feb. 26/2 It is most likely that Canis lupus pallipes (the extinct East Indian or pale-footed Asian wolf) gave rise to most of the dingo group.
2007 M. Armstrong Wildlife & Plants (ed. 3) 361/2 Some tropical species of fig have developed strange habits. Two of the most famous are the strangler fig (Ficus aureus) and the East Indian fig, or banyan tree, (Ficus benghalensis).
3. Of mixed European and Asian (esp. Indian) descent; = Eurasian adj. 1. Now historical.
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the world > people > ethnicities > division of mankind by physical characteristics > mixed race > [adjective] > person > person white and Indian
chee-chee1781
East India community1793
Eurasian1829
East Indian1831
1831 Asiatic Jrnl. & Monthly Reg. 6 ii. 106 The Calcutta East-Indian petition.
1849 Calcutta Rev. 11 74 The present situation and prospects of the East-Indian body.
1934 Amer. Jrnl. Sociol. 40 165 Half-castes..tended to form self-conscious communities, the largest, the best organised, and the most interesting of which is that community in India variously known as East Indian, Eurasian, or Anglo-Indian.
1988 Brit. Jrnl. Hist. Sci. 21 224 In 1846 it was proposed to send 'natives' and East Indian youths to England to be trained as engine drivers and fitters.
B. n.
1. A native or inhabitant of the East Indies. Also (occasionally): a European born or settled in the East Indies, or one who has made his fortune there. See East Indies n.In later use frequently used to distinguish a South Asian from a West Indian or Native American.
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the world > people > ethnicities > Indian > [noun]
Indianc1400
East Indian1555
Asian Indian1904
1555 R. Eden tr. Peter Martyr of Angleria Decades of Newe Worlde f. 311 The people of the newe World were cauled Indians because they are of the same colour of the Easte Indians.
1621 T. Mun Disc. Trade 16 I haue shewed both the manner and the meanes, whereby the East-Indians wares haue beene..procured into Christendome.
a1677 T. Manton 190 Serm. on 119th Psalm (1681) xviii. 104 Like the Wives of the East-Indians, that burn themselves to follow their dead husbands.
1779 T. Forrest Voy. New Guinea 14 The beetle leaf, which all East Indians chew.
1797 E. Burke Three Mem. French Affairs 13 The East Indians..cannot bear to find that their present importance does not bear a proportion to their wealth.
1836 Let. 19 Nov. in Papers rel. to East India Labourers' Bill 153 Indeed, the Creole planters prefer the East-Indians to the negroes.
1871 E. Jenkins Coolie 440 The Census of 1851 gave, as the number of East Indians in the Colony: 7,682.
1932 C. V. Kiser Sea Island to City i. 37 Some venders [in Harlem] are white, some black, but apparently the most successful are the light West Indians who pose as East Indians.
1961 Outlook Feb. 214 East Indians make up the largest group in British Guiana's total population of 540,000.
2003 J. Cordero & E. Currans in D. W. Machacek & M. M. Wilcox Sexuality & World's Relig. ii. 37 More and more American Indians and East Indians have become neighbors, friends, and colleagues.
2. A person of mixed European and Asian (esp. Indian) descent; = Eurasian n. 1 Now historical.
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the world > people > ethnicities > division of mankind by physical characteristics > mixed race > [noun] > person white and Indian
half-caste1789
East Indian1801
koi-hai1816
Anglo-Indian1826
Eurasian1826
Europasian1867
Anglo?1943
1801 J. Austen Let. 8 Jan. (1995) 70 Mrs Lawrel is going to be married to a Mr Hinchman, a rich East Indian.
1817 M. Edgeworth Harrington & Ormond I. vii. 147 ‘Who is she?’ ‘An East-Indian I should guess, by her dark complexion.’
1849 Calcutta Rev. 11 74 The East-Indians obtained the privilege of sitting on the..Juries.
1916 R. V. Russell Tribes & Castes Cent. Provinces India III. 410 Cranny was a name..vulgarly applied in general to the East Indians or half-caste class from among whom English copyists were afterwards chiefly recruited.
2002 S. Sen Distant Sovereignty v. 134 The root of discrimination against the East Indians, or Eurasians, as they were called at the time, lay in the security concerns of the company-state.
Compounds
East Indian cedar n. any of several southern Asian timber trees; esp. †(a) the South Asian tree, Toona ciliata (formerly Cedrela toona) of the family Meliaceae (obsolete); (b) the deodar, Cedrus deodara; (also) the wood of any of these trees.
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1869 Trans. Royal Sc. Arboricultural Soc. 5 6 At about the same time, or a few years later, about 1665, the arrival is chronicled of the East Indian cedar of Goa.
1884 W. Miller Dict. Eng. Names Plants 176/1 Deodar, East Indian Cedar, Fountain-tree.
1885 Nature 31 Dec. 202/1 The East Indian cedar (Cedrela toona)..is a reddish-coloured wood with a splendid wavy or feathery figure.
1920 A. L. Howard Man. Timbers of World 256 The wood has been called by a variety of names such as East Indian mahogany and East Indian cedar, as well as by its proper name of serayah.
2006 K. M. Holtzclaw San Gorgonio Pass iv. 57 East Indian cedars, known as deodar trees, align Beaumont Avenue leading into Cherry Valley.
East Indian jalap n. now rare a perennial vine, Operculina turpethum (family Convolvulaceae), which has white flowers and is found throughout South Asia; (also) a medicinal product prepared from the fleshy roots of this plant, typically used as a laxative.
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1887 Western Druggist 9 67 The English government is going to cultivate jalap in Madras. The demand for East Indian jalap greatly exceeds the supply.
1894 Chemist & Druggist 44 871/2 There has been a small arrival recently of East Indian jalap.
1972 Burlington Mag. May 341 A vegetable product called turbith, which was prepared from the East Indian jalap tree, was also used for the same purpose.
East Indian Plum n. rare either of two tropical trees of the genus Flacourtia (family Salicaceae) cultivated in South and East Asia for their edible plum-like berries, F. jangomas (formerly called F. cataphracta) and F. ramontchi.
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1884 W. Miller Dict. Eng. Names Plants 109/1 Plum-tree... E. Indian. Flacourtia cataphracta and F. Ramontchi.
2010 Food Chem. 118 148 (table) East Indian plum... Flacourtia cataphracta.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2011; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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adj.n.1553