sowar

Noun

sowar (plural sowars)

1. (India, historical) A soldier on horseback, especially one during the British Raj.
   • I have been laboring under the impression that, for soul-harrowing vocal effort, the wild-eyed sowars of Khorassan, as exemplified in my escort from Beerjand, were entitled to the worst execrations of a discriminating Ferenghi, but the Afghans can go them one better.1887, Thomas Stevens, chapter XII, in Around the World on a Bicycle, Vol. II: From Teheran to Yokohama, London: Sampson Low […]
   • Among the latter was Hope Grant, who had his horse shot under him in a charge, and was saved by the devotion of two men of his own regiment (the 9th Lancers) and a Mahomedan sowar of the 4th Irregular Cavalry.1897, Frederick Sleigh Roberts, Forty-one years in India