pukka sahib

English

Etymology

From Urdu پکا صاحِب / Hindi पक्का साहिब (pakkā sāhib, “genuine master”).

Noun

pukka sahib (plural pukka sahibs)

  1. (informal) A person of excellent character.
    • 1934, Agatha Christie, chapter 8, in Murder on the Orient Express, London: HarperCollins, published 2017, page 135:
      'You can take it from me that she's all right. She's a pukka sahib.'
    • 1934, George Orwell, chapter 3, in Burmese Days, London: Penguin Books, published 1967, page 36:
      'Why iss it that always you are abusing the pukka sahibs, as you call them?'
    • 2022 April 22, Hasala Perera, “Sri Lanka in Lee Kuan Yew’s words”, in The Island (Sri Lanka)‎:
      His (Lee Kuan Yew) first visit to Sri Lanka coincided with the victory of Bandaranaike’s (S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike) newly created Sri Lanka Freedom Party, he calls him a dapper little man, well dressed, articulate and a ‘Pukka Sahib’ a term invented by the British to call the inhabitants of their colonies who followed their ways.
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