Lascar
noun
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A sailor from India or Southeast Asia, especially as serving on a European ship. historical
"A motley crowd saunters along the streets — Lascars off a P. and O., blond Northmen from a Swedish barque, Japanese from a man-of-war, English sailors, Spaniards, pleasant-looking fellows from a French cruiser, negroes off an American tramp."
- 2 an East Indian sailor wordnet
- 3 A tent-pitcher; also a type of artilleryman.
- 4 Any of various nymphalid butterflies of the Asian genera Pantoporia and Lasippa.
Example
More examples"A motley crowd saunters along the streets — Lascars off a P. and O., blond Northmen from a Swedish barque, Japanese from a man-of-war, English sailors, Spaniards, pleasant-looking fellows from a French cruiser, negroes off an American tramp."
Etymology
From Hindustani لشکر / लश्कर (laśkar), from Persian لشکر (laškar). Doublet of askari.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.