ra·jah or ra·ja (rä j )n. A prince, chief, or ruler in India or the East Indies. [Hindi r  j, from Sanskrit, king; see reg- in Indo-European roots.]Word History: Rajah is familiar to us from the Sanskrit r j, "king," and mahrj, "great king." The Sanskrit root raj-, "to rule," comes from the Indo-European root *reg-, "to move in a straight line, direct, rule." The same Indo-European root appears in Italic (Latin) and Celtic. R x means "king" in Latin, coming from *reg-s, whence our regal and, through French, royal. Two of the Gaulish kings familiar to us from Caesar, Dumnorix and Vercingetorix, incorporate the Celtic word r x, "king," in their names. (Rx also forms part of the name of that fictitious, indomitable Gaul Asterix.) Germanic at some time borrowed the Celtic word rx. It appears as reiks, "ruler," in Gothic, as well as in older Germanic names ending in -ric, such as Alaric and Theodoric, the latter of whom has a name that is equivalent to German Dietrich, "people's king." A derivative of Celtic rx, *rg-yo-, meaning "rule, domain," was also borrowed into Germanic, and is the source of German Reich, "rule, empire." |
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| Noun | 1. |  raja - a prince or king in India |
| 2. | Raja - type genus of the family Rajidae fish genus - any of various genus of fish family Rajidae, Rajidae - bottom-dwelling tropical rays: skates little skate, Raja erinacea - most plentiful skate in North American inshore waters in summer; to 21 inches Raja radiata, thorny skate - cold-water bottom fish with spines on the back; to 40 inches barndoor skate, Raja laevis - one of the largest skates (to 5 feet); an active skate easy to hook |
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