Indian
- 1Describing things of or from India or its people, such as its places, culture, food, or languages; formerly also applied to the East Indies.
The museum displayed ancient Indian sculptures from several dynasties.
Indian cinema produces more feature films each year than any other country's.
UsageWritten with a capital I. Where a reader could think of the Americas, East Indian makes the India meaning clear.
Note
Its older reach covered the whole East Indies, not just the subcontinent, and the American senses grew from that broad range when Columbus took the Caribbean for part of the Indies.
- 2A person who is a native or citizen of India.
As an Indian, she felt proud watching her country's athletes compete.
The conference welcomed several Indians representing major technology firms.
UsageWhere it could also mean a Native American, many writers say Asian Indian or East Indian to be clear.
- 3A member of one of the indigenous peoples of the Americas, generally excluding Aleut, Inuit, Metis, and Yupik peoples.
As an Indian raised on the reservation, he learned his people's songs early.
Several Indians from neighboring nations gathered for the annual council.
UsageMany writers now prefer Native American, American Indian, or the nation's own name; Red Indian is dated and often offensive.
SimilarAmerindian, Amerind
Note
The noun carries the history of how outsiders wrote about the peoples it names. Washington Irving's "Traits of Indian Character" defends them against charges of treachery, while O. Henry's "He Also Serves" and Louis L'Amour's Rustlers of West Fork lean on the drunken and savage stereotypes.
- 4Describing things belonging to or associated with the peoples native to North, Central, and South America, such as their lands, customs, or crafts.
The reservation works to preserve several Indian languages once nearly lost.
Federal law recognizes many Indian nations as sovereign entities.
UsageNative American or Amerindian avoids any mix-up with India, though fixed terms such as Indian nations still use this word.
SimilarAmerindian
Note
The American meaning rests on a geographic mistake. Early Europeans took the Americas for the eastern end of Asia, the Indies, and the same error gave the Caribbean islands the name West Indies.
Less common meanings
- 5Ellipsis of Indian cuisine.
Thai and Indian are the most popular takeout options on our street.
She craved Indian after months of bland hospital meals.
UsageUsually used without an article for cuisine: fancy Indian tonight? In British English, an Indian can mean an Indian meal, and the Indian can mean a particular Indian restaurant.
- 6Ellipsis of Indian restaurant.
They booked a table at the Indian for her birthday.
Our local Indian does a great takeaway on weekends.
UsageUsually with the or our local: down to the Indian for a curry. In writing, Indian restaurant is clearer.
- 7Made with cornmeal or maize, as in certain traditional American dishes.
The colonial cookbook included a recipe for Indian pudding sweetened with molasses.
Settlers relied on Indian meal to make their bread through the winter.
UsageMainly in fixed food names: Indian pudding, Indian meal, Indian bread.
Note
The adjective is shorthand for Indian corn, an older North American name for maize.
- 8A name for Hindi or any other language spoken by people from India.
When we told the cab driver we wanted to learn some Indian, he laughed and said India has dozens of languages, but Hindi would be a good start.
[They said] 'Mutton can speak Indian', 'Mutton can see Kanchinjunga out of his bedroom window'[.]
1968, Anne Rider, A hilltop in hazardUsageIndia has many languages, so name the one you mean, such as Hindi or Tamil.
SimilarHindustani
Note
In Anne Rider's A Hilltop in Hazard, people say that "Mutton can speak Indian," and no particular language is named. The phrase fits that kind of loose, outsider's talk.
- 9Any of the many languages of the indigenous peoples of the Americas, which belong to numerous separate families rather than a single one.
Missionaries transcribed the Indian spoken by the local tribe.
The old fur trader boasted that he could speak Indian, though he really knew only a few dozen words of Ojibwe.
UsageName the particular language, such as Ojibwe, or say an Indigenous language of the Americas when you do not know which.
- 10Of the East; eastern or Oriental.
Note
This is a poet's East rather than a country. In Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene (1596), the dawn rises "out of the Indian fount", the eastern source of morning light. The sense is obsolete, so in older verse read it as "eastern" rather than as a reference to India.
- 11Someone belonging to one of the indigenous peoples of Australia, New Zealand, or the Pacific islands.
Note
This obsolete extension carried the name to the peoples of Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific. It shows the same habit of putting one label on distant peoples that took the word to the Americas.
- 12Ellipsis of Mardi Gras Indian.
- 13Designating any of a family of chess openings, usually beginning 1.d4 Nf6, in which black typically challenges the center with pieces, often a fianchettoed bishop, instead of occupying it early with pawns.
- 14A type of glass marble with colored bands set over an opaque black base.
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Origin
Middle French and Anglo-Norman both had indien, built on Ind (India) with a suffix. The name was given to the peoples of the Americas because people once wrongly took the Americas to be the eastern end of Asia, the Indies; the same mistake explains why the Caribbean islands are called the West Indies.