† Moors, a. and n. Anglo-Indian. Obs.
[Perh. a. Du. Moorsch, Moorish. Yule refers to the parallel forms Bengals for Bengāli, Indostans for Hindustānī, and Turks for Turkish.]
A name for the Urdū or Hindustānī language: cf. Moorish.
| 1767 J. Rennell Let. 10 Mar. (MS.) (Y.), The politest Language is the Moors or Mussulmans and Persian. 1784–5 Ann. Reg. ii. 81 The Hindustanic or as it is vulgarly termed in India, the Moors language. 1796 Hadley (title) A compendious Grammar of the Current Corrupt Dialect of the Jargon of Hindostan (commonly called Moors); with a Vocabulary, English and Moors, Moors and English. 1803 Beddoes Hygëia x. 53 Speaking scarce any thing but Moors. 1883 R. N. Cust Mod. Lang. Afr. I. ix. 97 Forty years ago in India in Military circles a man who knew the Vernacular of British India was said to know ‘the Moors’. |