Kamboj
Origin
From Hindi कमà¥à¤¬à¥‹à¤œ ("Kamboj") (Urdu Ú©Ù…Ø¨ÙˆÛ ("Kamboh")), cognate to Punjabi ਕਮà©à¨¬à©‹à¨œ ("Kamboj").
1961, Arnold J. Toynbee, A Study of History, volume 7, part 2, pages 550–554
1968, Ernst Herzfeld, Gerold Walser, The Persian Empire: Studies in geography and ethnography of the ancient Near East, page 345
1948, Chandra Chakraberty, The prehistory of India: tribal migrations, page 49
link it to or derive it from Cambyses and/or the region Kambysēnē.
The Indian historical quarterly, volume 13, issues 1–4, page 403
and others suggest that the word is a compound meaning "owners/rulers of region Kam". H. W. Bailey analyzes the name "Kamboja" as Kam-bauja or Kan-bauja and considers the second part to be related to an Iranian root *baug- meaning "bend; free, loose, deliver, save; possess, rule", related to bhuj "use, possess; rule, govern"; Bailey interprets the first part of the compound as something related to Avestan kan "to long, want", Sanskrit kama "desire, lust", and the whole compound as "king ruling at will".
1971, H. W. Bailey, Ancient Kamboja, Iran and Islam, page 67–71
2007, J. Tavernier, Iranica in the Achaemenid Period (ca. 550-330 B.C.): Lexicon of Old Iranian, page 19
The Anthropological Survey of India suggests a long list of possible cognates, including Cambodia.
2003, People of India, volume 37 (Kumar Suresh Singh, Anthropological Survey of India), page 256: "The term is spelt differently as Kamboj (Nehru, 1961: 110), Kamboja, Kambhoja (Majumdar, 1966: 904), Kamoh (Middletone, 1923: 344) and Koombho (Forbes, 1973: 271), Kambos (Ibbetson, 1916). The etymology of the word currently suggests that they are related to the places and people such as Kanbi (Pocock, 1972: 60), Kunbi (Sherring, 1974: 99), Kabui, Kamta, Kamti (Chib, 1982: 102), Kabui (Habib, 1982: 8A), Kama or Kaman, Khambri, Khambayat, Cambay (Habib, 1982: 14A); Kambodge, Kambodia, Kampuchea, and most probably Kambe, Kamo, Kamu, Kambo (Murdock, 1959), Khampa and Kamaon."
Full definition of Kamboj
Noun
Kamboj
(plural Kambojs)- A member of a particular Kshatriya community of people living in northwestern India and in Pakistan and Afghanistan, generally considered to be descended from the Kambojas.
- A member of an Indo-Scythian ethnic group of people native to northwestern India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, said to be descended from the Kambojas (the Royal Clan of the Sakas or Scythians).
- A member of the ruling Indo-European (Scytho-Aryan) group the Kambojas, who settled in northwestern India in the 9th or 10th century BCE.