HALF-CASTE, s. A person of mixt European and Indian blood. (See [MUSTEES]; [EURASIAN].)
1789.—"Mulattoes, or as they are called in the East Indies, half-casts."—Munro's Narrative, 51.
1793.—"They (the Mahratta Infantry) are commanded by half-cast people of Portuguese and French extraction, who draw off the attention of the spectators from the bad clothing of their men, by the profusion of antiquated lace bestowed on their own."—Dirom, Narrative, ii.
1809.—"The Padre, who is a half-cast Portuguese, informed me that he had three districts under him."—Ld. Valentia, i. 329.
1828.—"An invalid sergeant ... came, attended by his wife, a very pretty young half-caste."—Heber, i. 298.
1875.—"Othello is black—the very tragedy lies there; the whole force of the contrast, the whole pathos and extenuation of his doubts of Desdemona, depend on this blackness. Fechter makes him a half-caste."—G. H. Lewes, On Actors and the Art of Acting.
HANGER, s. The word in this form is not in Anglo-Indian use, but (with the Scotch whinger, Old Eng. whinyard, Fr. cangiar, &c., other forms of the same) may be noted here as a corruption of the Arab. khanjar, 'a dagger or short falchion.' This (vulg. cunjur) is the Indian form. [According to the N.E.D. though 'hanger' has sometimes been employed to translate khanjar (probably with a notion of etymological identity) there is no connection between the words.] The khanjar in India is a large double-edged dagger with a very broad base and a slight curve. [See drawings in Egerton, Handbook of Indian Arms, pl. X. Nos. 504, 505, &c.]
1574.—"Patrick Spreull ... being persewit be Johne Boill Chepman ... in invadyng of him, and stryking him with ane quhinger ... throuch the quhilk the said Johnes neis wes woundit to the effusioun of his blude."—Exts. from Records of the Burgh of Glasgow (1876), p. 2.
1601.—"The other day I happened to enter into some discourse of a hanger, which I assure you, both for fashion and workmanship was most peremptory beautiful and gentlemanlike...."—B. Jonson, Every Man in His Humour, i. 4.
[c. 1610.—"The islanders also bore their arms, viz., alfanges (al-khanjar) or scimitars."—Pyrard de Laval, Hak. Soc. i. 43.]