1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Sepoy

SEPOY, the usual English spelling of sipāhī, the Persian and Urdu term for a soldier of any kind, cf. spahi. The word sipāh, “ army,” from which sipāhi, “ soldier,” is derived, corresponds to the Zend çpādha, Old Persian çpāda, 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 gord, “ a fair-complexioned (European) soldier.” A sepoy is at the present day strictly a private soldier in the native infantry of the Indian army.