Sea of Poppies (83 page)

+dawk
: See
chit
.

+dekko, dikk, deck, dekho
: Neel took bitter exception to all attempts to attribute this word to English Gypsy slang, insisting that it was a direct and recent borrowing of the Hind.
dekho
, ‘to see'.

+devi, debi, debbie
: ‘In English usage, the Hind. word for “goddess” acquired a wholly different connotation (for which see
bayadère
). The Laskari
devi
, on the other hand, was a corruption of the English “davit”.'

+dhobi
: ‘The
mystery
of laundering.'

digh (*Roebuck)
: Neel was firmly of the opinion that this Laskari equivalent of the nautical sense of the word ‘point', as in ‘points of sailing' or ‘headings in relation to the wind', came from the Bengali word for ‘direction'.

+dinghy
: From time to time, Neel would inscribe a question mark against words which had been rewarded, in his view, beyond their just desserts. Neel's interrogation of
dinghy
was scored with an especially heavy hand, for of all the Bengali words for river-craft this one seemed to him the least likely to be raised to
coolinhood
, the
dingi
being the meanest of boats.

doasta
: ‘This is one spiritous liquor about which the good
Admiral
Smyth is right; he describes it as: “An inferior spirit often drugged or doctored for unwary sailors in the pestiferous dens of filthy Calcutta and other sea-ports in India”.'

dol (*Roebuck)
: Several of Neel's
Jack-Chits
are devoted to the lascars' words for the architecture of a sailing vessel. ‘
Dol
is what they call a mast, and for sail they use a borrowing from the English
serh
(though I have sometimes heard them employ the good Bengali word
pâl
). To these are attached many other terms, of greater specificity: thus
trikat
(often mispronounced “tirkat”) is “fore-” when attached to either
dol
or
serh
;
bara
is “main-”;
kilmi
is “mizzen-”, and
sabar
is t'gallant. A jury mast goes by the apt name
phaltu-dol
. As for the other sails: a
sawai
is a stay-sail; a
gavi
is a topsail; a
tabar
is a royal; a
gabar
is a sky-scraper; a
dastur
is a stu'nsail; and a spanker is a
drawal
. By combining these elements they are able to point to the most insignificant scraps of canvas – in their speech, the fore-t'gallant-stu'nsail is the
trikatsabar-dastur
, and they have no need even to attach the word
serh
for their intention to be perfectly understood. The most curious words are reserved, however, for the tangle of tackle that projects
agil
from the vessel's head: the jib, for example, is a
jíb
, which
malums
imagine merely to be a Laskari mispronunciation of the English word, little knowing that it means “tongue” in Hind.; their word for flying jib,
fulanajíb
, might be similarly mistaken by those who did not know that it might also mean “anything's tongue”; but most curious of all is the word for the very tip of this spar, which is called the shaitan-jíb. Could it be because to work there is indeed to feel the terror of sitting upon the Devil's tongue?'

+doll/dal
: Neel would have been glad, I think, to learn that the
Oracular
form for this commonest of Indian
foods is
dal
, rather than either
doll
(not to be confused with
pootly
) or the mysterious
dhal
, which is of course the Hind./Bengali word for ‘shield'. In one of his jottings he speculates that it is often thus spelled in English because it refers to a popular battlefield dish, ‘lentils cooked in a shield.'

+doolally/doolally-tap
: ‘An illness once greatly prevalent among sahibs and mems, being the English equivalent of the Malay “amok”. It derived its name from Deolali, where there was a well-known asylum. I believe it to have been one of the side-effects of laudanum, which would account for its present desuetude.'

+dosooti/dosootie (*The Glossary)
: Literally ‘two yarn', coarse cotton cloth; ‘I was astonished to learn from Mr Reid that in America Dosootie is considered the highest quality of shirt fabric.'

druggerman (*The Glossary)
: ‘Like
moonshies
,
dubashes
and
linkisters
, a
mystery
of language – an interpreter whose title derives from the Arabic-Persian
tarjuman
.'

+dubba/dubber
: This word owes its presence in the
Chrestomathy
to lascars, who made the Hind. word for ‘box' or ‘container' a common article of nautical usage.

dubbah/dubber (*The Admiral)
: Neel took exception to
the Admiral
's definition of this term: ‘a coarse leathern vessel for holding liquids in India.' ‘Almost never in Hind. is this common term for container applied to a receptacle that holds liquids. Such a usage is clearly exceptional, even among those who occasionally apply it to certain objects that are necessary for the proper conduct of
stool-pijjin
.' See also
dawk
.

+duffadar/dafadar
: One of those many ranks of lower officialdom that found an afterlife in the
Oracle
. ‘The magnitude of the part these men once played in our lives can be easily judged by looking at any kalkatiya migrant's certificate of emigration, on the back of which is almost always noted the name of the
duffadar
who was responsible for the recruitment (and usually in the scribbled Bengali script of some harried
cranny
).'

dumbcow/dumcao (*The Glossary)
: ‘The popularity of this word and its steady advance towards the Peerage of the Verb is due no doubt to its bilingual expressiveness, a
dumbcowing
being a harangue intended to cow – or better still
gubbrow
– its victim into dumbness.'

+dumbpoke
: Kitchens which served ‘casseroles' never failed to ignite Neel's ire, for he believed that word to be an insufferable piece of pretension, especially when the
dumbpoke
was at hand and ready to use. The recent resurrection of the Hind. original
dumpukht
would in no wise have consoled him, since it is now used in a strictly Hind. sense.

+dungaree/dungri
: ‘What
dinghy
was to boats, the Hind.
dungri
was to cloth
– a coarse cotton fabric unworthy of survival, far less
coolin-dom
.'

+dupatta / dooputty:
See
chuddar / chadar
.

durwauza-bund (*The Glossary)
: ‘These were the words which
khidmutgars
would use to turn away unwanted visitors: in a
BeeBee
's mind the use of the Hind. for “closed door” was more acceptable than an outright lie. The
Oracle
is sure to welcome it, for the sheer cunning of its reasoning.'

+durzee
: ‘The
mystery
of tailoring.'

Faghfúr of Maha Chin (*The Glossary)
: ‘Such was the Laskari phrase for the “Emperor of China”, and if you asked to whom it referred, they would tell you, almost always, that the personage in question was the Raja of
Chin-kalan
, which was but their name for Canton.'

faltu-
or
phaltu-dol (*Roebuck)
: ‘This is, strictly speaking, the Laskari term for “jury-mast”, and it is in that sense that it often finds employment in shipboard
girlery
, being understood to refer to a foreshortened, unreliable or deficient organ of increase.'

faltu/phaltu-tanni (*Roebuck)
: See
turnee
.

+fanqui
: ‘The
anglice
of
fan-kwei
, which the
*The Linkister
defines as “foreign devil”. The term may easily, and less offensively, be translated as “unfamiliar spirit”.'

+foozle/foozilow
: ‘Almost certainly from the Hind.
phuslana
, “to make a fool of”, which is said to have been further transformed in America to
foozle
and even
comfoozle
.'

+free
: Neel was much in love with this word and would have been glad to know that the
Oracle
had fully acknowledged it to be a derivation from the common Sanskrit and Hind. root
priya
(‘dear' or ‘beloved'). ‘As for the truth of “freedom” it will remain forever elusive until such time as it is wrested free of English; not till then will the fuller meaning of
priya
be restored to it.'

fulana-jíb (*Roebuck)
: Flying-jib. See
dol
.

fuleeta-pup (*The Glossary)
: ‘A
consummer
's mishearing of “fritter-puff” that found its way into the lexicon against all odds.'

gabar (*Roebuck)
: Skyscraper or sky-sail. See
dol
.

gadda / gudda / gadha / gudder (*The Glossary)
: ‘Why is it that when the
sahib
borrows a Hind. zoological term, it is only for the purposes of abuse? It is, of course, impossible to deny that
gadha
is often used in Hind. to mean “fool”, but it is true also that the ass is the familiar of the Lord of
Mysteries
, Vishwakarma.

Ooloo/ullu
, similarly, may well sometimes be used to mean “fool”, but who can forget that the owl is also the familiar of the goddess Lakshmi? As for
bandar
, it has none of the abusive implications of its English usage, being employed rather as a term of affection or endearment, in the sense of “mischievous”.'

galee / girley / gali (*The Glossary)
: ‘Oaths, obscenities; from which
girlery
, the equivalent of the Bengali
gali-gola
– pertaining to abuse'.

+ganta/ghanta
: ‘Bell, from which Hind. “hour”. But to “ring your ganta” is considered
girlery
.'

gavi (*Roebuck)
: Topsail. See
dol
.

ghungta
: See
dooputty/dupatta
.

girlery
: See
galee
.

girmitiya
: ‘The genius of the Bhojpuri language,' writes Neel, ‘derives this memorable term from the root
girmit
, which is a corruption of Eng. “agreement” [or indenture]'.

+godown
: See
backshall
.

gol-cumra (*The Glossary)
: See
cumra
.

+gomusta/gomushta
: ‘For this
mystery
of the
daftar
there can be no simple definition, for he is to be seen discharging as many functions as can be said to exist in such a place: he writes accounts, he
dumbcows
, he
gub-brows
, he serves as a
druggerman
when needed. All that can be said of him with any certainty is that the title could not come to him until he had gained the
Burra Sahib
's ear.'

goolmaul/gollmaul (*The Glossary)
: Neel took issue with Sir Henry's definition of this word as ‘mix-up': ‘It is patently evident that this word was once merely Hind. slang for “zero” (literally “circular thing”). In this sense it referred originally to a conundrum or puzzle. It was only by extension that it came to mean “mix-up”, but of late it has been so overburdened by this connotation that it is now generally used to signify an uproar, or a great fuss.'

goozle-coonuh/goozul-khana (*The Glossary)
: See
bobachee
.

gordower (*The Glossary)
: ‘A type of Bengal boat as ugly as its name.'

grag (*Roebuck)
: Grog, from which the term by which taverns were affectionately known:
grag-ghars
.

griblee (*Roebuck)
: Graplin, der. Eng.

+griffin/griff
: See
pucka
.

gubber (*The Glossary)
: ‘That this
bandooki
coin bore a resemblance
to the Hind. for “cow-dung” gave it many added uses in the
dufter
, for the cranny could not be
dumbcowed
for saying to a
Burra Sahib
: “Sir, may your pockets be weighed down with
gubbers
.”'

gubbrow/ghabrao (*The Glossary)
: See
dumbcow
.

+gup
: ‘Talk, gossip; but never in English,
gup-shup
, which is so much the better expression.'