lascar

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lascar

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• Lascar, lashkar, laskar

From Hindustani لشکر / लश्कर (laśkar), from Persian لشکر (laškar). Doublet of askari.

lascar (plural lascars)

1. (now chiefly historical) A sailor from India or Southeast Asia, especially as serving on a European ship.
   • 1919, W. Somerset Maugham, “chapter 47”, in The Moon and Sixpence:

     A motley crowd saunters along the streets — Lascars off a P. and O., blond Northmen from a Swedish barque, Japanese from a man-of-war, English sailors, Spaniards, pleasant-looking fellows from a French cruiser, negroes off an American tramp.

   • 1973, Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow:

     ...and what foreigner is it, exactly, that Pirate has in mind if it isn't that stateless lascar across his own mirror-glass, that poorest of exiles...

   • 2020, Sujit Sivasundaram, Waves Across the South, William Collins, published 2021, page 35:

     As for the voyage itself, his account of Mauritius, where the ship stopped, saw the appearance of Muslim lascars.

2. (Anglo-Indian) A tent-pitcher; also a type of artilleryman.
3. Any of various nymphalid butterflies of the Asian genera Pantoporia and Lasippa.

• Claars, Rascal, craals, rascal, sacral, sarlac, scalar

From Hindustani لشکر / लश्कर (laśkar), itself from Persian لشکر.

Originally a nickname given in the early 19th century to Indian seamen on French ships travelling in the East Indies. With time, the term became somewhat pejorative.

lascar m (plural lascars)

1. lascar
2. (somewhat derogatory) dude, guy

• “lascar”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

• Hyphenation: las‧car

lascar (first-person singular present lasco, first-person singular preterite lasquei, past participle lascado)

1. to chip

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

• IPA^(key): /lasˈkaɾ/
• Rhymes: -aɾ
• Syllabification: las‧car

lascar (first-person singular present lasco, first-person singular preterite lasqué, past participle lascado)

1. (nautical, transitive) to slacken; slip

• “lascar”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10