vaidya

vaidya

See also: Vaidya

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Sanskrit वैद्य (vaidya).

Noun

vaidya (plural vaidyas)

1. (India) A practitioner of ayurvedic medicine.
   • 1976, Charles M Leslie, Asian Medical Systems: A Comparative Study, p. 37:

     Like the sannyāsī, the religious ascetic, moreover, the vaidya did not adhere rigidly to the stringent rules of ritual purity which regulated the lives of the ordinary members of the higher classes.

   • 1997, Kiran Nagarkar, Cuckold, HarperCollins 2013, p. 98:

     ‘You lie down quietly and I'll run and tell the vaidya that it's nothing but a thorn in your foot.’

   • 1996, Mark Nichter, Mimi Nichter (Eds.), Anthropology and International Health: Asian Case Studies, p. 243:

     If a prescribed sēva such as the feeding of Brahmans or the poor was not carried out by a patient, then the vaidya considered himself likely to be affected by the patient's karma.

Alternative forms

• baidya