sepoy

/ˈsipɔɪ/

Other forms: sepoys

During the Mughal Empire in India, a soldier armed with a musket was called a sepoy. Today, modern armies in some countries use the term sepoy for a private.

If you're a regular entry-level soldier in Nepal, India, or Pakistan, you're a sepoy. The word has a Persian root, sipahi, which means "soldier or horseman." In early modern South Asia, sepoys belonged to infantry forces, riding on horseback and carrying a musket and a curved sword called a talwar. In the 19th century, sepoys made up the vast majority of the British East India Company's troops.

Definitions of sepoy

1. noun

   a native Indian soldier serving under the army of Britain or another European power
   type of:

   soldier

   an enlisted man or woman who serves in an army