Maghn.adj.
/maɡ/, U.S. /mɑɡ/, /mæɡ/ A. n.
1. A member of the (largely Buddhist) people of Arakan, a district on the west coast of Burma (Myanmar), and Chittagong, on the Bay of Bengal.Chittagong was formerly part of the kingdom of Arakan but is now in Bangladesh. The Chittagong Maghs were formerly renowned among Europeans in Calcutta as excellent cooks.
ΚΠ
1599 R. Fitch in R. Hakluyt Princ. Navigations (new ed.) II. 257 The Mogen which be of the Kingdom of Recon and Rame, be stronger then the King of Tippara, so that Chatigan or porto Grande is oftentimes vnder the king of Recon.
1752 in J. Long Select. from Unpubl. Rec. Govt. (1869) 39 The time of the Mugs draws nigh.
1802 C. James New Mil. Dict. Mugs, a banditti of plunderers from an Indian nation.
1839 Court Mag. 6 65/2 Two or three stout broad faced Mughs.
1866 Frasers's Mag. 73 389 That vegetable curry was excellent. Of course your cook is a Mug?
1885 Amer. Naturalist 19 984 Chittagong Hill..river tribes..(Maghs, Chakmas, Tounjinyas, etc.) have become intermingled with Bengalese and other intruders.
1930 Man 30 32 Vestiges of the mummification which preceded cremation can still be found in a number of modern Indian tribes. The chief among these are the Khasis of Assam.., the Magh of Chittagong [etc.].
1974 Asian Surv. 14 226 The Marmas..are sometimes called the Maghs or the Moghs.
1991 Independent (Bombay) 6 Dec. 12/8 Communist Maghs (the ethnic population) of Arakan.
2. The Tibeto-Burman language of the Maghs, usually regarded as a dialect of Burmese; Arakanese.
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1926 M. West Bilingualism i. i. 14 The Magh has Magh as his Home language.
1996 J. Minahan Nations without States 259 Kaderia, Chittagong Hill Tracts, Major Languages: Chakma, Mogh, Bengali, Tippera [etc.].
1998 A. Dalby Dict. Langs. 105/2 A 19th-century migration has spread Arakanese across the Indian border to the Chittagong Hills: the dialect of the 125,000 speakers here is known as Marma or Magh.
B. adj. (attributive).
= Arakanese adj.
ΘΚΠ
the world > people > nations > native or inhabitant of Asia > native or inhabitant of Burma or Thailand > [adjective] > parts of
Peguan1613
Arakanese1820
Pegu1828
Magh1897
1897 G. A. Henty On Irrawaddy 39 This Mug language..is..almost the same as Burmese.
1934 ‘G. Orwell’ Burmese Days iv. 75 The clever ‘Mug’ cooks, descendants of servants trained by Frenchmen in India centuries ago.
1944 Far Eastern Q. 4 34 A number of Magh elders accompanied Mr. Robertson.
1962 D. Woodman Making of Burma iii. 58 They now invited the Burmese troops to enter the hills in the province of Chittagong to capture and disperse the Mugh insurgents.
1964 Ann. Assoc. Amer. Geographers 54 112 The Mogh hillmen use the same Burmese dialect as the plainsmen of Arakan and are in general conscientious Buddhists.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2000; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.adj.1599