Indiesn.
/ˈɪndɪz/, U.S. /ˈɪndiz/ Chiefly with plural agreement.† 2. Used allusively for a region or place yielding great wealth or to which profitable voyages may be made. Obsolete.
1. A name given to India and the adjacent regions and islands, and also to those lands of the Western Hemisphere discovered by Europeans in the 15th and 16th centuries, and originally supposed to be part of the former; with the progress of geographical knowledge the two were distinguished as East Indies n. and West Indies n.In modern English use, Indies without qualification means the East Indies; and West Indies is (in strict use) confined to the group of islands lying to the east of Central America; but, in translations from French, Spanish, or Portuguese, Indies often occurs in its 16th cent. sense.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > named regions of earth > East Indies > [noun]
Indies1555
East Indies1568
the world > the earth > named regions of earth > America > West Indies > [noun]
Indies1555
West Indies1555
West India Islands1612
Caribbean1835
1555 R. Eden tr. G. F. de Oviedo y Valdés Summarie Gen. Hist. W. Indies in tr. Peter Martyr of Angleria Decades of Newe Worlde f. 174v All that trauayle into these Indies haue greater respecte to luker and gaynes then diligently to searche the woorkes of nature.
1555 R. Eden tr. G. F. de Oviedo y Valdés Summarie Gen. Hist. W. Indies in tr. Peter Martyr of Angleria Decades of Newe Worlde f. 175 Of the ordinary nauygation from Spayne to the Weste Indies.
1588 T. Hickock (title) The Voyage and Trauaile of M. Cæsar Frederick..into the East India, the Indies, and beyond the Indies.
1605 1st Pt. Jeronimo sig. A4v Alas, that Spaine, cannot of peace Forbeare, a little coine, the Indies being so neere.
1662 E. Stillingfleet Origines Sacræ iii. iii. §1 Telling men that there are Jewels of inestimable value in the Indies.
1700 J. Toland Clito 13 Both Indys gladly will thy Handmaids be.
1856 R. W. Emerson Eng. Traits viii. 140 The English did not calculate the conquest of the Indies.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > possession > wealth > wealth or riches > [noun] > a source of wealth
India1598
Indies1602
goldmine1605
Aladdin's cave1824
Golconda1833
Comstock1866
wealth-centre1890
1602 W. Shakespeare Merry Wives of Windsor i. iii. 64 They shall be my East and West Indies.
1623 W. Shakespeare & J. Fletcher Henry VIII iv. i. 45 Our King ha[']s all the Indies in his Armes. View more context for this quotation
c1640 Capt. Underwit ii. iii, in A. H. Bullen Coll. Old Eng. Plays (1883) II. 353 I am sailing now to my owne Indies, And see the happie Coast, too.
1699 B. E. New Dict. Canting Crew Black-Indies, Newcastle, from whence the Coals are brought.
a1739 C. Jarvis tr. M. de Cervantes Don Quixote (1742) II. iv. liv. 288 Spain..they look upon as their Indies, and a certain gain, and sure profit.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1900; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1555