Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive c10.485

c10.485

ARAKAN, ARRACAN, n.p. This is an European form, perhaps through Malay [which Mr Skeat has failed to trace], of Rakhaing, the name which the natives give themselves. This is believed by Sir Arthur Phayre [see *Journ. As. Soc. Ben.* xii. 24 *seqq.*] to be a corruption of the Skt. *rāk-shasa*, Pali *rakkhaso*, i.e. 'ogre' or the like, a word applied by the early Buddhists to unconverted tribes with whom they came in contact.