shroff
/ʃɹɔf/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.17 in modern English
15
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
1
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A provider of financial services, especially a small-scale independent banker or money changer or (historical) a local expert at detecting bad coin.
Indian usage
noun
A cashier, especially for a car park.
verb
To act as a shroff, especially (historical) to inspect coins to detect debasement, counterfeits, clipping, etc. for a commission.
Indian usage; Transitive verb
Example Sentences
- "The sheraffs are poore and begerly."
- "Amongſt whom were Shroffs, or Money-changers."
- "The breakfast soon dispatch'd, they're off, To borrow money from a shroff."
- "Racing leads to the shroff quicker than anything else."
- "An assistant shroff of the Queen Mary Hospital faced Mr. J. Reynolds at Central yesterday charged with the larceny of $10."
- "It is a source of endless fascination to newcomers to Hong Kong to observe types of employment in the city rarely seen in other parts of the world. Where, away from here, would you come across a shroff, for example?"
Etymology
An British Indian variant of saraf, borrowed from Hindustani (Hindi सर्राफ़ (sarrāf) / Urdu صَرَّاف (sarrāf) and Classical Persian صَرَّاف (sarrāf), from Arabic صَرَّاف (ṣarrāf).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: ص ر ف, सर्राफ़, صَرَّاف
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ʃɹɔf/
- British English: /ʃɹɒf/
Usage
Inflected Forms
shroffs (plural)
sheroff (alternative, obsolete)
sheraffe (alternative, obsolete)
sheriffe (alternative, obsolete)
sharoffe (alternative, obsolete)
sherrafe (alternative, obsolete)
shraff (alternative, obsolete)
shrofe (alternative, obsolete)
sheraff (alternative, obsolete)
shraf (alternative, obsolete)
shroffs (present, singular)
shroffing (participle, present)
Derived Forms
Phrases
shroff office
shroff-shop
shroffing school