Dacoity

By Deane Barker • •

This refers to “banditry” or “theft,” mainly in Asia. It’s an anglicized form of the Hindi word meaning “armed robbery.”

“Dacoit” is the noun form.

Why I Looked It Up

I encountered “dacoit” quite a bit in The Mystery of Dr. Fu-Manchu as a noun. Many of Fu Manchu’s henchmen were described as “dacoits.”

I dismissed as a one-off, but then I was watching The Railway Men, a documentary about the 1984 Bhopal disaster. I watched the dubbed version with English subtitles, and when discussing a thief operating in the railway stations, the subtitle read:

Involved in 27 cases of dacoity.

Interestingly, the English dubbing did not use this word (though, I can’t remember which word was used).

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