sais

noun

1. (India)A groom, or servant with responsibility for the horses.

   “Not one of them [horse dealers] will venture a horse, he is about to sell, in the stables of the intended purchaser, unless attended by one of his own syces, or grooms, who both knows and is known by the animal. If the horse be very old, or naturally dull, the syce takes care to ply him with spices and other stimulants; and if vicious, opium, and other anodynes are given; so that the horse is absolutely in a state of disguise.”

   “4th Troop 1st Brigade—3 rank and file, 1 syce, 17 horses, killed; […]”

   “Then all trace of him was lost, until a sais met me on Simla Mall with this extraordinary note:— […]”

   “But apart from the story of the havildar, my own syce, a hillman who attends my pony, has actually seen two ghosts, with one of whom he held a long conversation.”

2. (dated)usually syce: chauffeur, driver.

   “House servants are usually either Chinese or Tamil, the former predominating, especially in towns of any size. The domestic staff will in general consist of a houseboy (in large establishments two houseboys), a water carrier (tukang ayer), whose duties include washing dishes and preparing baths, a cook, a gardener, a chauffeur or sais, and perhaps an ayah (if Chinese, amah) or two, according to the size of the family.”

   “[A]fter their first few days there he had hired a syce, a Malay chauffeur. The syce, who had been squatting down, sheltering in the shade of the car, jumped to his feet at their approach, opening the doors for them with an efficient flourish.”

   “Each establishment had a retinue of Chinese or Malay servants, on average consisting of a cook, one or two "house boys," a tukang kebun (gardener), a sais (chauffeur), and an ayah or amah (maid or nurse) to take care of ironing […]”

   “The lady – a very elegant Romanian by birth – arrived with her daughter Miriam, the English governess, the secretary, a detective, and last of all the syce, or chauffeur, who seated himself in the garden rather than wait in the large Rolls-Royce parked outside, with the family crest placed above the number plate.”

   “[T]he expansion of the service economy, for the home, the office and the municipality, had created a more mixed labouring world. A wealthy European or Asian home would bring together a Chinese amah, or maid, a Malay syce, or chauffeur, and an Indian kebun, or gardener, operating through a Malay lingua franca. On a larger scale, in the invisible city, ethnic communities were pushed closer together, often for the first time.”

3. (Wales, informal)Someone from England; Englander

verb

1. Used to represent a nonstandard pronunciation of says.

   “'Yes,' sais I, 'what's left of me; but, good gracious,' sais I, 'you have got the 'heaves.' I hope it ain't catchin'.”

   “Well, he tak some young man un he go off to Alsaroke to steal horse, un I seet roun' un watch dat woman. She watch me. Pretty soon camp was hunt de buffalo, un I was hunt Snow-Owl's woman. Every one was excite, un dey don' tak no 'count of me. I see de woman go up leetle coulie for stray horse, un I follar her. I sais, 'How do? You come be my woman. We run off to Meestar MacDonnail's tradehouse.' […] She sais she afraid.”