Fakir

He could read the fellow thoroughly, and knew him to be what is commonly called a fakir, pure and simple. ❋ Edward Stratemeyer (1896)

Mark Liberman of Language Log has an enjoyably discursive post on the use and misuse of the word fakir, properly 'a Muslim religious mendicant' (it's from Arabic faqi:r 'poor') but with an extended meaning 'Hindu ascetic or religious mendicant, especially one who performs feats of magic or endurance' (in the words of the AHD definition); when I asked my wife what image she associated with the word, she said "a guy lying on a bed of nails," which fits the second sense exactly and I think would be the most common answer if you took a poll. ❋ Unknown (2004)

Jesus Christ is called a fakir-that is one expression. ❋ Unknown (1916)

They claim supernatural powers to confer good and invoke evil, and the curse of a fakir is the last misfortune that an honest Hindu cares to bring upon himself, for it means a failure of his harvests, the death of his cattle by disease, sickness in his family and bad luck in everything that he undertakes. ❋ William Eleroy Curtis (1880)

[FN#82] The Arabic word fakir means literally, "a poor man;" but it would appear, from what follows, that Uns el Wujoud had disguised himself as a religious mendicant and was taken for such by the people of the castle. ❋ Anonymous (1879)

The beetle in his eyes is no ordinary beetle, but one of the gods incarnated in the insect for this special purpose; and the fakir is a holy ascetic, who has acted in this case by the order of the same god. ❋ Unknown (1861)

I didn't at first know 'fakir' was simply faqi:r 'poor', but it was obviously an Oriental word referring to some specific religious class, unrelated to the English word. ❋ Unknown (2004)

I don't think that this usage is really current, but from the OED's quotations, and some others that I've found, it does seem that "fakir" was used in the meaning of "dishonest street vendor" in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. ❋ Unknown (2004)

When I read Lynch's use of "fakir" in reference to MacPherson, I thought it was just a mistake, either a typo or an "eggcorn". ❋ Unknown (2004)

For this native Russian-speaker "fakir" is not associated with bed of nails ("yog" is), but with magician in pseudo-Indian costume (and in mandatory turban) performing his act on stage (less - on circus arena). ❋ Unknown (2004)

If I try to cast my mind back to the time before I knew Arabic, I suppose I thought 'fakir' meant 'yogi, swami, thin person with straggly beard who lies in bed of nails'; but I'm pretty sure I always saw the connexion with 'faker' as just an accident. ❋ Unknown (2004)

Monday they had arrested a self-styled Muslim "fakir" for the gruesome murder of an infant boy in a ritual he believed would lend him supernatural powers. ❋ Unknown (2010)

Anyway, I started watching NOW in these early morning hours, the slick Nick dude (a Mainer) who took over from good ole Bill Moyers was interviewing the Buckley clone, Christopher, the dull-bright son of William F. (for "fakir") Buckley, who got started on his erudite-tongued career by working as a Yaley grad information gatherer for old Wild Bull Donovan's OSS (Office of Secret Service) during WWII, which Allan Dulles (the quiet but more ruthless of the Dulles brothers) turned into what he called "The Central Intelligence Agency," better known to you KFC fans as the CIA. ❋ The Daily Growler (2006)

Although Gandhi is popularly remembered as an ascetic who was deeply connected to India's villages ( "a half-naked fakir" as Winston Churchill famously called him), his background was actually cosmopolitan and global. ❋ Varun Soni (2010)

From time immemorial the fakir of India has been able voluntarily to induce such states in himself. ❋ Unknown (2010)