mudaliyar
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English
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Tamil (“mutaliyār”) (plural of mutali (“chief”)), in early forms probably via Portuguese modeliar.
Noun
mudaliyar (plural mudaliyars)
- (now historical) A chief or headman in Sri Lanka.
- 1969, Leonard Woolf, Journey Not Arrival Matters:
- He had been a Mudaliyar or Headman of East Giruwa Pattu […] when I was Assistant Government Agent there fifty years ago.
- 2020, Sujit Sivasundaram, Waves Across the South, William Collins, published 2021, page 228:
- Other Mudliyars said they couldn't join in the first instance but would send on ‘Thieves and rogues (black guard fellows who certainly do abound).’
- (chiefly in form mudaliar) A high-status Tamil caste in India.