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# The BFD Word of the Day
- URL: https://goodoil.news/the-bfd-word-of-the-day-385/
- Published: 2021-02-15T17:15:00.000Z
- Updated: 2021-02-12T00:18:40.000Z
- Author: David Theobald
- Tags: General, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2024-07-17 02:14

The word for today is…

pariah (noun) – 1 : a member of a low caste of southern India  
2 : one that is despised or rejected

Source : [Online Etymology Dictionary](https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=pariah&ref=goodoil.news)

Etymology : 1610s, “member of a low caste in southern India, shunned as unclean,” from Portuguese paria or directly from Tamil (Dravidian) paraiyar, plural of paraiyan “drummer” (at festivals, the hereditary duty of members of the largest of the lower castes of southern India), from parai “large festival drum.” “Especially numerous at Madras, where its members supplied most of the domestics in European service” \[OED\]. Applied by Hindus and Europeans to any members of low Hindu castes and even to outcastes. Extended meaning “social outcast” is attested by 1819.

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