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SEPOY
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SEPOY, the usual English spelling of sipahi, the Persian and Urdu term for a soldier of any kind, cf. spahi. The word sipah, " army," from which sipahi, " soldier," is derived, corresponds to the Zend cpadha, Old Persian 4pada, and has also found a home in the Turkish, Kurdish and Pashto (Pushtu) languages (see Justi, Handbuch der Zendsprache, p. 303, 6), while its derivative is used in all Indian vernaculars, including Tamil and Burmese, to denote a native soldier, in contradistinction to gora, " a fair-complexioned (European) soldier." A sepoy is at the present day strictly a private soldier in the native infantry of the Indian army.