bullumteer
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English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From volunteer, as pronounced by sepoys.
Noun[edit]
bullumteer (plural bullumteers)
- (India, military, slang, obsolete) A volunteer of certain regiments of the old Bengal Army.
- 1880, Francis John Bellew, Memoirs of a Griffin; Or, A Cadet's First Year in India, page 202:
- The colonel now addressed me, […] adding, "I hope we shall send you to your regiment up the country quite a proficient, and calculated to reflect credit on your instructors in the Zubberdust Bullumteers."
- 1888, Rudyard Kipling, His Brother’s Keeper:
- We were all bullumteers on the Canal works.
References[edit]
- Henry Yule, A[rthur] C[oke] Burnell (1903) “bullumteer”, in William Crooke, editor, Hobson-Jobson […] , London: John Murray, […].