Hindu
PluralHindus
PluralHindus
- 1A person who adheres to the religion of Hinduism.
As a devout Hindu, she fasts on certain holy days each year.
Millions of Hindus gather at the river for the annual pilgrimage.
- 2Having to do with the religion of Hinduism, or with Hindus and their way of life.
The festival features Hindu rituals passed down for generations.
She studies Hindu philosophy and Sanskrit texts at the university.
Note
A river's name sits at the root of this word. Sanskrit síndhu meant "river" and named the Indus. It passed into Old Persian and Middle Persian as a name for India, and Classical Persian hindū came to mean both "Indian" and "Hindu." As an adjective it is not comparable: something is Hindu or it is not, never "more Hindu." It sits easily before other identity words, as in Hindu American organizations.
- 3A native inhabitant of Hindustan, regardless of religious affiliation.
The old gazetteer counted every Hindu of the province, Muslim and Christian families included.
Early merchants described the Hindus of the coast as skilled sailors.
SimilarIndian
Note
Here the word keeps its older, geographic reach, close to the Persian "Indian" behind the word's river-born origin: anyone native to Hindustan, whatever their faith. The word has since narrowed to the religious meaning, so older texts are easy to misread. When a dated source counts Muslim families among its Hindus, read the word as "Indian." Don't use it this way in your own writing.
Less common meanings
- 4A person identified as belonging to India by both religion and race.
The census official classed every Indian-born laborer as a Hindu by both blood and creed.
Nineteenth-century records grouped these Hindus together by ancestry as much as by faith.
Note
An older classification that fused faith and ancestry into one label: a person was counted as Indian by religion and by race at once. The geographic sense set religion aside; this one made religion part of identity by birth. Modern usage rejects that conflation, so treat it as a feature of older records. Today, Indian names a nationality and Hindu names a faith.
- 5A merchant or trader (a bunnia) who travels accompanied by a company of soldiers.
Note
This usage belongs to the frontier: it comes from the military and political vocabulary of the North-West Frontier Province of British India, and it is now obsolete. In old records it is easily mistaken for the religious meaning, but here the word names a role on the road, not a faith. Escorts, outposts and supply lines in the surrounding text signal which sense is meant. Use it only when quoting or discussing that history.
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Origin
This word comes from Classical Persian هِنْدُو (hindū, "Indian, Hindu"), from Middle Persian Hindūg ("Indian") and Hind ("India"), and ultimately from Old Persian and Sanskrit síndhu ("river, stream; Indus"), tracing back through Proto-Indo-Aryan and Proto-Indo-Iranian words for "river."