Indian

Definition

Of or relating to India or its people; or (formerly) of the East Indies.

Etymology

From Anglo-Norman indien, Middle French indien, corresponding to Ind + -ian or India + -an. Applied to inhabitants of the Americas due to an early misconception that the Americas were the eastern end of Asia / the Indies (hence also the designation of Caribbean islands as the West Indies).

Example Sentences

• "An IAF representative told an Indian parliamentary committee that due to the Ukraine war a “major delivery” from Moscow “is not going to take place.”"
• "The morrow next apprear'd with purple hayre / Yet dropping fresh out of the Indian fount, / And bringing light into the heavens fayre […]."
• "The hardships of bark-collecting in the primeval forests of South America are of the severest kind, and undergone only by the half-civilized Indians and people of mixed race, in the pay of speculators or companies located in the towns."