Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In India, the country stations and districts as distinguished from the residencies; or, in a district, the rural localities as distinguished from a station or official residency; the country as distinguished from towns.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun India Originally, the regions of India outside the three East India Company capitals of Bombay, Calcutta and Madras; hence, parts of a country outside an urban centre; the regions, rural areas.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Urdu مفصل (mufaSSil), variant of مفصل (mufaSSal, "divided"), from Persian مفصل (mufaSSal), from Arabic مفصل (mufaSSal), passive participle of فصل (faSSala, "to divide, classify").

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Examples

  • Five or six days for their letter to reach Manoharpur … or maybe seven or eight since it was going from one mofussil to another, and then the same time for a reply to arrive.

    An Atlas of Impossible Longing Anuradha Roy 2008

  • Five or six days for their letter to reach Manoharpur … or maybe seven or eight since it was going from one mofussil to another, and then the same time for a reply to arrive.

    An Atlas of Impossible Longing Anuradha Roy 2008

  • Five or six days for their letter to reach Manoharpur … or maybe seven or eight since it was going from one mofussil to another, and then the same time for a reply to arrive.

    An Atlas of Impossible Longing Anuradha Roy 2008

  • My dilemma was, how might I convey this to urban-bred news editors who have little tolerance for a mofussil correspondent's rural romanticism, as they saw it?

    Behind the News: Voices from Goa's Press Various

  • These Assistants, after their experience at the Presidency College, would be best fitted to become Professors in the mofussil at Colleges.

    Sir Jagadis Chunder Bose His Life and Speeches Sir Jagadis Chunder Bose

  • Then all had to put their umbrellas down on passing a sahib, and all had to leave the side-walk on the white man's approach; not that the law compelled them to do so, it was simply a custom enforced by their masters, in the large cities as well as in the mofussil.

    Ranching, Sport and Travel Thomas Carson

  • The _mofussil_ was honeycombed with secret societies, whose daring dacoities served not only to collect the sinews of war, but to impress the timid and recalcitrant with the powerlessness of the State to protect them against the midnight raider.

    Indian Unrest Valentine Chirol 1890

  • Opportunities might usefully be given to young Englishmen when they first join the Educational Service in India to acquire a more intimate knowledge of Indian administrative work, as well as of the character and customs and language of the people amongst whom their lot is to be cast, by serving an apprenticeship with civilians in the _mofussil_.

    Indian Unrest Valentine Chirol 1890

  • Take the case of a boy brought up until he is old enough to go to school in some small town of the _mofussil_, anywhere in India, by parents who have never been drawn into any contact, however remote, with

    Indian Unrest Valentine Chirol 1890

  • Whilst "monster" demonstrations were organized in Calcutta and in the principal towns of the _mofussil_, the wildest reports were sedulously disseminated amongst the rural population.

    Indian Unrest Valentine Chirol 1890

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