khansamah

plural khansamahs · alternative consumah · alternative kansama · alternative kansamah · alternative khansama · alternative khansaman

1. EastIndiaA house-steward or native servant, being in charge of the kitchen and the food supplies.

   The day shut in and the khansamah went to get me food.

   1888, Rudyard Kipling, “My Own True Ghost Story”, in The Phantom ’Rickshaw and Other Tales, Folio Society, published 2005, page 105

   1 more example

   An old sinner, in shape of a khansamah, is the genius of the place, and has rarely aught else to tempt the tired traveller with than a “sudden death”—a fowl caught running in the yard, and dished up forthwith; […]

   1866, Frederick F. Wyman, From Calcutta to the Snowy Range, page 330