Indies, n. pl.
(ˈɪndɪz)
[Plural of Indie or Indy, adaptation of L. India.]
1. A name given to India and the adjacent regions and islands, and also to those lands of the Western Hemisphere discovered by Europeans in the 15th and 16th centuries, and originally supposed to be part of the former; with the progress of geographical knowledge the two were distinguished as East Indies and West Indies, q.v.
In mod. English use, Indies without qualification means the East Indies; and West Indies is (in strict use) confined to the group of islands lying to the east of Central America; but, in translations from French, Spanish, or Portuguese, Indies often occurs in its 16th c. sense.
| 1555 Eden Decades 174 All that trauayle into these Indies haue greater respecte to luker and gaynes then diligently to searche the woorkes of nature. Ibid. 175 (heading) Of the ordinary nauygation from Spayne to the Weste Indies. 1588 T. Hickock (title) The Voyage and Trauaile of M. Cæsar Frederick..into the East India, the Indies, and beyond the Indies. 1605 Jeronimo in Hazl. Dodsley IV. 354 Alas, that Spain cannot of peace Forbear a little coin, the Indies being so near. 1662 Stillingfl. Orig. Sacr. iii. iii. §1 Telling men that there are Jewels of inestimable value in the Indies. 1700 Toland Clito viii. 6 Both Indys gladly will thy Handmaids be. 1856 Emerson Eng. Traits viii. (1857) 140 The English did not calculate the conquest of the Indies. |
† 2. Used allusively for a region or place yielding great wealth or to which profitable voyages may be made. Obs.
| 1598 Shakes. Merry W. i. iii. 79 They shall be my East and West Indies. 1613 ― Hen. VIII, iv. i. 45 Our King ha's all the Indies in his Armes. c 1640 [Shirley] Capt. Underwit ii. iii. in Bullen O. Pl. II. 353, I am sailing now to my owne Indies, And see the happie Coast, too. a 1700 B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Black-Indies, Newcastle, from whence the Coals are brought. 1742 Jarvis Quix. ii. iv. liv, Regarding it [Spain] as their Indies, to which they are certain of making a profitable voyage. |