charpoy
English edit
Alternative forms edit
Etymology edit
From Hindustani چار پائی (cār pāī) / चारपाई (cārpāī), from चार (cār, “four”) + पाई (pāī, “feet”), thus literally “quadruped” or “tetrapod”.
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
charpoy (plural charpoys)
- (South Asia) A traditional bedstead used in South Asia, consisting of a wooden frame bordering a set of knotted ropes.
- 1888, Rudyard Kipling, “To be Filed for Reference”, in Plain Tales from the Hills, Folio Society, published 2004, page 213:
- Here is a charpoy on which two can sit, and it is possible that there may, from time to time, be food in that platter.
- 1934, George Orwell, chapter 13, in Burmese Days[1]:
- Flory crossed the brick-like earth of the yard between the hospital sheds. All down the wide verandas, on sheetless charpoys, rows of grey-faced men lay silent and moveless.
- 2008, Aravind Adiga, The White Tiger, Atlantic, published 2009, page 54:
- There, every morning, tens of thousands of young men sit in the tea shops, reading the newspaper, or lie on a charpoy humming a tune, or sit in their rooms talking to a photo of a film actress.
Translations edit
a traditional bedstead