Pathan

plural Pathans

1. BritishIndiaSouth AsiaSynonym of Pashtun; a member of the Pashto-speaking people of today’s north-west Pakistan and south-east Afghanistan.

   After long deliberation about the choice of nations, I became a “Pathán.”

   1855, Sir Richard Burton, Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Meccah, Dover, published 1964, pages 44–5

   1 more example

   The 57-mile line from Jesselton to Beaufort was a more substantial undertaking than that from Weston, and a contract was given to the firm of George Pauling & Company, which brought many Pathans, veterans of railway building in India, to tackle the job.

   1958 November 28, M. H. Baker, “The North Borneo Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 783

   Synonyms: Pashtun