Relating to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) or its people, language, or culture; an older spelling of Sinhalese.
From Cingala, an older name for the Sinhala people of Ceylon/Sri Lanka, + -ese (suffix meaning 'people or language of'). The spelling reflects the Portuguese colonization of Sri Lanka.
Cingalese appears in older English texts written during British colonial rule in Sri Lanka, showing how English spelling reflects the era of colonization and how country names change with independence—Sri Lanka's Sinhala people now prefer 'Sinhalese.'
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