Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and DiscursiveYule, Henry, Sir
History
Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive
Yule, Henry, Sir
English language -- Foreign words and phrases -- Indic -- Dictionaries; English language -- India -- Dictionaries; English language -- India -- Etymology -- Dictionaries; India -- Civilization -- Dictionaries; India -- Languages -- Influence on English -- Dictionaries
Of words that seem to have been admitted to full franchise, we may give
examples in _curry_, _toddy_, _veranda_, _cheroot_, _loot_, _nabob_,
_teapoy_, _sepoy_, _cowry_; and of others familiar enough to the English
ear, though hardly yet received into citizenship, _compound_, _batta_,
_pucka_, _chowry_, _baboo_, _mahout_, _aya_, _nautch_,[5] first-_chop_,
competition-_wallah_, _griffin_, &c. But beyond these two classes of words,
received within the last century or so, and gradually, into half or whole
recognition, there are a good many others, long since fully assimilated,
which really originated in the adoption of an Indian word, or the
modification of an Indian proper name. Such words are the three quoted at
the beginning of these remarks, _chintz_, _calico_, _gingham_, also
_shawl_, _bamboo_, _pagoda_, _typhoon_, _monsoon_, _mandarin_,
_palanquin_,[6] &c., and I may mention among further examples which may
perhaps surprise my readers, the names of three of the boats of a
man-of-war, viz. the _cutter_, the _jolly-boat_, and the _dingy_, as all
(probably) of Indian origin.[7] Even phrases of a different character—slang
indeed, but slang generally supposed to be vernacular as well as
vulgar—_e.g._ 'that is the _cheese_';[7] or supposed to be vernacular and
profane—_e.g._ 'I don't care a _dam_'[7]—are in reality, however vulgar
they may be, neither vernacular nor profane, but phrases turning upon
innocent Hindustani vocables.
We proposed also, in our Glossary, to deal with a _selection_ of those
administrative terms, which are in such familiar and quotidian use as to
form part of the common Anglo-Indian stock, and to trace all (so far as
possible) to their true origin—a matter on which, in regard to many of the
words, those who hourly use them are profoundly ignorant—and to follow them
down by quotation from their earliest occurrence in literature.
A particular class of words are those indigenous terms which have been
adopted in scientific nomenclature, botanical and zoological. On these Mr.
Burnell remarks:—
"The first Indian botanical names were chiefly introduced by Garcia de Orta
(_Colloquios_, printed at Goa in 1563), C. d'Acosta (_Tractado_, Burgos,
1578), and Rhede van Drakenstein (_Hortus Malabaricus_, Amsterdam, 1682).
The Malay names were chiefly introduced by Rumphius (_Herbarium
Amboinense_, completed before 1700, but not published till 1741). The
Indian zoological terms were chiefly due to Dr. F. Buchanan, at the
beginning of this century. Most of the N. Indian botanical words were
introduced by Roxburgh."
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