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qui-hi. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
qui-hi, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
qui-hi in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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English
Etymology
Borrowed from Hindi कोई है (koī hai, “is anyone there?”).
Interjection
qui-hi
- (India, historical) An Anglo-Indian call for a servant.
1922, Edward Frederic Benson, Miss Mapp, Chapter 1:That he had seen service in India was, indeed, probable by his referring to lunch as tiffin, and calling to his parlourmaid with the ejaculation of “Qui-hi.”
Noun
qui-hi (plural qui-his)
- (India, historical, colloquial) An Anglo-Indian in Bengal.
1879, Journal of the American Geographical Society of New York, page 107:[…] would find themselves at Galle regarded as interlopers by the Bengal "qui-his," as they are called, or high and mighty Anglo-Indians.
1968, Demetrius Charles de Kavanagh Boulger, Asian Review, page 134:The slang distinctive name for gentlemen belonging to the Bombay service; the correlative of the Mulls of Madras and the Qui-His of Bengal.