Sea of Poppies (84 page)

+halalcor/halalcore
: ‘In English this, like
harry-maid
and
muttranee
, was one of many titles for the
mysteries
of toiletry.'

harry-maid (*The Glossary)
: See
halalcore
.

hathee-soond (*Roebuck)
: See
bhandari
.

hazree/hazri (*Roebuck)
: Muster (‘from which', adds Neel, ‘we have
chotee hazree
, which wakes the sahib in time for the daily mustering').

hoga (*The Barney-Book)
: ‘This word is a fine illustration of the changes that occur when an expression crosses from Hind. to English. The Hind. original
ho-ga
is usually employed to mean “will happen” or “will do”. In English, on the other hand, the word is almost always used in conjunction with a negative participle, to imply strong disapproval. Thus was a notoriously starchy
BeeBee
heard to exclaim, on finding her husband in the arms of a
Rum-johnny
: “Not in my
bichawna
dear; just won't
hoga
.” '

+hong
: ‘In southern China this word was applied indifferently, in English, to a certain kind of trading establishment, a company of merchants, a set of buildings, and even to certain boats kept by merchants:
hong-boat
'.

+hookum
: ‘The Laskari word for “command”.'

hubes!/habes! (*Roebuck)
: This was the Laskari equivalent of the English nautical
hookum
, ‘heave', and Neel was so struck by Roebuck's notes on this term that he copied them down verbatim: ‘[When issuing this command] sometimes a little abuse is necessary; as for instance
“Habes sálá!” “Bahin chod habes!”
or
“Habes harámzuda”
!'

+hurkaru/harcara
: See
dufter/daftar
and
chit/chitty
.

hurremzad/huramzuda/harámzáda etc. (*The Glossary)
: See
badmash
.

istoop/istup (*Roebuck)
: ‘I can still feel it between my fingers, that vile oakum, endlessly picking, picking, picking . . .' From the Portuguese
estopa
.

+jadoo/jadu
: Magic, conjuring (‘where -from the common usage,
jadoo-ghar
for Freemason's Lodge').

jalebi/jellybee
: See
laddu
.

+jammah/jama
: ‘The only reason why this word may fail to achieve the same eminence as the compound,
pyjama
(literally “leg-clothing”) is that it is too general, being applied to all clothing.' See also
kameez
.

+jasoos
: Neel was intrigued by the English spellings of words related to this common Hind. term for ‘spy' –
jasoosy
(spying) and
jasooses
(spies).

jaw/jao (*The Barney-Book)
: See
chull
.

jawaub (*The Glossary, *The Barney Book)
: ‘This borrowing of the Hind. for “answer” was never a persuasive migrant, its function in English being limited to a single sense, which Barrère & Leland describe thus: “If a gentleman proposes to a lady and is refused he is said to have been
juwaubed
.”'

+jemadar
: ‘In my youth, as I remember, this word designated the second-highest rank for a
sepoy
, following upon
subedar/soubadar
. But of late the usage has changed somewhat, and is often applied to
bhistis
, and also to some of the mysteries of toiletry.'

+jildi/jeldy/jaldi
: The
Oracle
's recognition of this word appears to have been a cause of much jubilation, for one of my predecessors has noted the definition in full: ‘Haste, as in phrases
on the jildi
, in a hurry, and to
do
or
move a jildi
'.

jillmill (*The Glossary): ‘Bandooki
shutterwork'.

+joss
: ‘It was in Macao that I learnt the correct etymology of this term, which derives not from a Cantonese root, as I had imagined, but from the Portuguese
Dios
. Hence its use in all matters pertaining to worship:
joss-stick, joss-house, joss-candle
, and of course
joss-pijjin
, meaning “religion” (from which derives the usuage
joss-pijjinman
to mean “priest”).'

kalmariya (*Roebuck)
: ‘A sail-emptying calm, the word being derived, or so Roebuck tells us, from the Portuguese
calmaria
.'

+kameez/kameeze
: This word's entry into the caverns of the
Oracle
would have amazed Neel, who believed that it was doomed to a pauper's grave. ‘My reasoning rests on two pillars, the first of which is that the tunics that are known by this name could just as well be designated by a near-synonym,
kurta
. There are those who point out that a
kameeze
is a longer and more elaborate garment – but should it not then be described by the more euphonious term
angarkha
? The scond reason why the word
kameeze
is unlikely to survive is because of the grave challenge posed by its near cognate, the English
chemise
. There are those who will object, no doubt, that
kameeze
derives from the Arabic
qamís
, while the English
chemise
(like the Portuguese
camiz
) is descended from the Latin
camisia
. No credence can be accorded to this argument, however, for the good reason that the Arabic
qamís
may itself be descended from the Latin. In any
event there can be no doubt that
kameez
and
chemise
are close kin; nor can it be doubted that the latter is so rapidly usurping the territory of the former that the phrase “pyjama-chemise” may soon come to replace the name of the ensemble that is now known as the
sulwaur-kameeze
. Such a change is wholly to be welcomed: might not the notoriously pugnacious Afghan, for instance, undergo a beneficial change of temperament if he could be persuaded to abandon his prickly
kameez
in favour of the cooler and more flattering
chemise
?'

karibat
: The discovery of this word in
*The Barney-Book
gave Neel the greatest pleasure for it had become, by the last years of his life, so obscured with disuse as almost to be archaic. It is clear from his notes that he remembered a time when this word, which joins the Tamil
kari
with the Bengali
bhat
‘rice', was commonly used in English, to mean ‘an Indian meal'. In that sense it stood not just for ‘curry-rice' as some might think, but was rather an English equivalent of such phrases as ‘have you had your rice?' the meaning of which can best be expressed as ‘have you eaten?' Although unable to recall with absolute certainty, he had a vague memory of even having heard people say, in this sense: ‘have you
karibatted
?'

+kassidar/khasadar
: See
burkundaz
.

ket (*Roebuck)
: Cat o'nine tails (but Neel notes that he often heard this most dreaded of chawbucks referred to as a
koordum
, which usage Roebuck corroborates, adding that it derives from the Portuguese
cordão
).

+khalasi/classy
: Although usually spelled as
classy
, this Bengali word for ‘boatman' was generally used in a derogatory sense, to mean ‘a low kind of person'. Neel would have been astonished to learn of its entry into the chambers of the
Oracle
.

+khidmutgar/kitmutgar/kistmutgar/ kistmatgar etc.
: ‘The variety of English spellings for this word is truly astonishing and had led to many misconceptions. Among the many speculations about its origins the most febrile are those that attach to the variant
kismat+gar
. Some have suggested that the term originally referred to astrologers, a great number of whom were once employed by every household. It was even suggested to me once that the proper meaning of the word is “one who follows his master's
kismat
” (“Surely, sir,” I could not help retorting, “such a person would be a
budkismatgar
?”). In fact the term is the literal equivalent of the English
servant
in the sense of “provider of service”.'

khubber/kubber/khabar (*The Glossary)
: ‘Only the naïve would take this word to mean “news” in the sense signified by that term in English. For if that were so then its derivate,
kubberdaur/khabardar
, would mean “bearer of news” instead of “beware!”'

+khud
: ‘Once, in an argument, a self-styled
pundit
cited this word as an instance of a loanword that remained unchanged in meaning after traveling between languages. “But if that were so,” I said, “then surely
khud
in Hind. would possess the same connotations as the English ‘chasm' or ‘gap', would it
not?” “Why so it does,” he said. “So then tell me, sir,” I asked, “how often have you heard anyone say in Hind. that there lay a great
khud
between them and their fellow men?”'

+khus-khus:
See
tatty
.

khwancha (*Roebuck)
: See
tapori
.

kilmi (*Roebuck)
: ‘mizzen-'; see
dol
.

+kismet/kismat
: ‘Great reams of
buckwash
have been written about the superstitious implications of this word. In fact it derives from the Arabic root
q-s-m
, “to divide” or “apportion”, so it means nothing more than “portion” or “lot”.'

+kotwal
: See
chokey
.

kubberdaur/khabardar
: See
khubber
.

kurta
: See
kameez
.

kussab (*Roebuck)
: See
lascar
.

kuzzana/cuzzaner (*The Glossary)
: Neel felt that the administrative use of this word, to refer to district treasuries, was unduly restrictive. ‘Why, as Sir Henry has shown, En glish travelers were using this word as early as 1683, hence that famous passage of Hedges Diary, in which he reports a demand for eight thousand Rupees to be paid into “ye King's Cuzzana”.'

+laddu
: There has been much familial dissension over whether Neels' expectations for this word were fulfilled. He imagined that it would find its way into the
Oracle
in its Laskari sense, in which it referred to the top (or cap) of the mast. But instead, this word, like
jalebi/jellybee
, has been anointed only in its incarnation as a sweetmeat. Yet it is a fact that the sweetmeat, like the cap of the mast, took its name from the roundedness of its shape, hence Neel's intuition was not wholly at fault.

lall-shraub / loll-shrub / lál-sharáb (*The Glossary, *The Barney-Book)
: ‘This phrase was so commonly used that to say ‘red wine' was considered pretentious'. See also
sharab/xarave
etc.

+langooty/langoot/langot
: ‘Well was it said of this most abbreviated version of the dhoti that it substituted a “pocket-handkerchief for a fig-leaf”.'

lantea (*The Glossary)
: ‘Curious that the
Oracle
overlooked this common Chinese boat while anointing the rarer Malay
lanchara
.'

larkin
: ‘What a mademoiselle is to a madame, so was a
larkin
to a
BeeBee
, being nothing other than the corruption of Hind.
larki
, “girl”.'

larn-pijjin:
See
pijjin
.

lás/purwan-ka-lás (*Roebuck)
: ‘A lazy shortening', Neel notes, ‘for the Portuguese word for yardarm:
laiz
.'

+lascar
: ‘Almost to a man the lascars will say that their name comes from the Persian
lashkar
, meaning “militia” or “member of a militia”, and thus be extension “mercenary” or “hired hand”. That there is some connection between these words is beyond question, but I am convinced that the strictly nautical usage of the term is a purely European introduction, dating back perhaps to the Portuguese. In Hind., of course, the term is applied to foot-soldiers, not sailors, and almost always denotes a plurality (so that it would be absurd to say in Bengali, as one well might in English, “a
lashkar
of lascars”). Even today a lascar will rarely use this term to describe himself, preferring instead such words as
jahazi
or
khalasi
(the anglice of which is the curious
classy
); or else he will use a title of rank, whereby the seniormost is a
serang
, followed by
tindal
and
seacunny
. Nor does this exhaust all the gradations of lascar ranks, for there are others such as
kussab
and
topas
, whose functions are somewhat obscure (although the latter seem usually to serve as ship's sweeper). It is not perhaps surprising that there is no special Laskari word for the lowest in the ladder of rankings: as with the English “ship's boy”, this unfortunate worthy is so often mocked, taunted and kicked that he is more butt than boy, and to speak the name of his rank is almost offensive (and the terms by which he is generally known do indeed serve as something of an insult:
launda
and
chhokra
– the anglice of which are
launder
and
chuckeroo
). Thus it happens that a lascar's most frequent use of the term
lascar
corresponds more closely to its Hind. or Persian usage than to the English, for he generally employs it as a collective noun, to mean “crew” (
lashkar
). The strangest part of the curious odyssey of the word
lascar
is that it has now re-entered some Hind. languages (notably Bengali), in which it is used in the European sense, to mean “sailor”! I am persuaded, however, that where this is the case, the word is a recent intruder, introduced through the nautical dialects of Portuguese or English.'