English

Noun

lathi ‎(plural lathis)

1. (India) A heavy stick or club.
   • 1973, JG Farrell, The Siege of Krishnapur:

     The iron-bound bamboo staves, known as lâtees, with which most disputes among rival zemindars were traditionally settled.

   • 2004, Khushwant Singh, Burial at Sea, Penguin 2014, p. 131:

     A phalanx of policemen armed with lathis faced a mob of mill workers squatting on the road.

   • 2008, Amitav Ghosh, Sea of Poppies, Penguin 2015, p. 94:

     Nearby, held back by a line of lathi-carrying peons, stood the farmers whose vessels were being weighed […].

2. A martial art based on stick fighting originally practiced in India.

   Lathi shares its basic principles with other martial arts.

References

• “lathi”, in OED Online, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.

External links

Indian Stick Fighting (Lathi) Marital Arts

Anagrams

• thali, thial