sahib

plural sahibs · alternative Sahib

1. historicalA term of respect for a white European or other man of rank in colonial India.

   One must never forget that one is a Sahib, and that some day, when examinations are passed, one will command natives.

   1900 December – 1901 October, Rudyard Kipling, chapter VII, in Kim, London: Macmillan and Co., published 1901, →OCLC, page 177

   2 more examples

   One day when the Man's Wife and the Tertium Quid had just arrived in the Cemetery, they saw some coolies breaking ground. They had marked out a full-size grave, and the Tertium Quid asked them whether any Sahib was sick. They said that they did not know; but it was an order that they should dig a Sahib's grave.

   1889, Rudyard Kipling, “At the Pit's Mouth”, in Under the Deodars, Boston: The Greenock Press, published 1899, page 52

   After, went to sahib and packed up sahib's things. We had four hire-ponies; three for loads, and one for sahib to ride. Sahib had a Chinese saddle, that he put on a high horse.

   1923, Rasool Galwan, Servant of Sahibs, Cambridge: W. Heffer & Sons, page 25

plural Sahibs

1. Alternative letter-case form of sahib.