annas in the rupee

English

Etymology

A rupee was worth 16 annas, so eight annas represented a half-and-half mixture, and so on.

Noun

annas in the rupee pl (plural only)

  1. (Anglo-India, archaic, colloquial, offensive) Used with a number to indicate the degree of an individual's mixed racial descent.
    • 1930, The Royal Engineers Journal, volume 44, page 285:
      By the end of the second day he was so dark that he looked to be at least eight annas in the rupee […]
    • 2007, Indu Sundaresan, The Splendor of Silence, page 98:
      And in the end, all knew that it was true, Rosalie was only four annas in the rupee.
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