A Muslim or Hindu ascetic, beggar, or holy person who lives by charity; variant spelling of 'fakir.'
From Arabic 'faqīr' (poor person), from 'faqara' (to be poor). Entered English through colonial India and Middle Eastern contact in the 17th century.
European colonizers encountered Indian fakirs (ascetics) and were fascinated by their self-mortification and spiritual poverty—the word became shorthand for exotic Eastern spirituality in Western imagination.
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