Sea Of Poppies Part 40

serang: See lascar.

serh (*Roebuck): See dol.

seth: See beparee. Neel was aware of the raging controversy that surrounds the question of whether the term seth is related to such words as chetty, chettiar and shetty. But lacking any expertise in the languages of southern India, he was unable to reach any conclusion on the subject.

shabash/shahbash: '"Bravo!" to Sir Henry.'

shampoo: 'Is it not a commentary on the relationship of England and India that most of the Hind. candidates for the Peerage of the English Verb pertain to grappling, grasping, binding, tying and whipping? Yet, of all the pretenders who have had their start in this domain -puckrow, bundo, lagow, chawbuck etc. - only one has risen to the rank of a true grandee of the Upper House; only one has claimed a dukedom for itself. This is, strangely enough, that humblest of terms chpo/chpna, in its corrupted form, shampoo. The reason for this, surely, is that the notion of chpo-ing embodies some of the more pleasureable aspects of grappling, grasping and so on - that is to say of kneading, pressing, touching, ma.s.saging. Those who would seek to reduce this word to the rank of noun would do well to note that it will not meekly relinquish its active form, clinging to its animate energies even when forced into the Lower House (a case in point being the French le shampooing).'

shamshoo/samschoo: 'The Admiral, who seems never to have tasted any shrob not made in Europe, described this Chinese wine as "fiery, fetid and very injurious to European health". But this was true only of the varieties sold on Hog Lane; elsewhere there were many very fine bottlings, no less precious than the finest French sharaabs.'

shikar: See below.

shikaree: 'The mystery of the hunt (shikar)'.

shoe-goose (*The Barney-Book): 'Not being a bird at all, but rather a kind of cat [in fact a lynx], this word is unlikely to enter the annals of ornithology.' In the margins, a note: 'From Persian syagosh'.

shoke/shauq (*The Glossary): 'In its English incarnation this Arabic word came to mean "whim", "hobby" or "penchant". In Hind. the existence of a shoke is often indicated by the addition of the suffix baz (sometimes Anglicized to buzz). The proper English translation of Hind. adda-baz is therefore buck-buzz. (The term launder-or laund'ry-buzz is a cant exception and does not always refer to the whims of dhobis). When misused, this particle can cause some curious misunderstandings. Thus, for instance, a self-styled pundit was once heard to speculate that buzz when added to bawhawder was a reference to a well-known shoke of Alexander the Great's (sometimes described as his taste for youthful bawhawdery). So wedded was the pundit to this view, that I was hard put to persuade him that he had got the matter completely oolter-poolter: Buzz Bawhawder was a medieval king of Malwa, famous for his shoke for the beautiful Rawnee, Roopmuttee. As for the matter he was speaking of, the correct zubben expression is of course udlee-budlee.'

shrob/shrab/shrub/sorbet/sorbetto/sherbert/syrup/sirop/xarave/sharaab: Neel loved to collect derivatives of the Arabic root for 'drink', sh-r-b.

shroff: 'The mystery of money-changing', from which shroff.a.ge, which the Oracle defines as a commission charged for shroffing, or the examining of coin.

sicca rupee: 'In my childhood, as I remember, this was already an antique kind of coinage.' The Oracle confirms this, adding that these coins were issued in 1793.

silahdar/silladar: 'This word, lit. "arms-bearer", was one of many applied to mercenaries and soldiers of fortune'. See burkandaz.

silboot (*The Glossary): 'Like sirdrar, which is but the Hind. corruption of the undergarment known as a "short drawer", this word for "slipper" has reentered English usage in an altered form.'

silmagoor: From the Jack-Chits: 'Could this be a lascar's way of saying "sail-maker"?' A marginal note, written long afterwards, confirms his guess with a triumphant'!': 'Roebuck leaves no doubt of it.'

sirdrar (*The Glossary): See silboot.

soor (*The Barney-Book): 'Pig, hence soor-ka-butcha, son of a pig'.

tabar (*Roebuck): 'Royal' as applied to a ship's rigging; see dol.

tael: 'Another name for a Chinese liang or ounce,' but a note in the margins specifies: 'According to the Oracle, this weight equals oz. avoirdupois.'

talipot: Neel was mistaken in thinking this to be the English word for 'toddy-palm'. The Oracle p.r.o.nounces it to be a 'South Indian fan palm, Corypha umbraculifera.'

taliyamar (*Roebuck): Neel mistook this word to mean 'bow-wave' but was glad to be corrected: 'Roebuck explains that this is the Laskari for "cut.w.a.ter", derived from the Portuguese talhamar. I remember having always heard the word spoken by lascars who were looking down from the bowsprit. Hence my error: I mistook the effect for the object.'

tamancha: 'Roebuck confirms that this was, as I remember, the common Laskari word for a lesser firearm.'

tapori: From the Jack-Chits: 'This was the lascar's word for the wooden bowl out of which he ate - the equivalent of the English seaman's "kid". These were made of the plainest hollowed wood, and were bought in great numbers from b.u.mboats. Apart from this there was also the metal khwancha - a large tray on which they ate together.'

tatty (*The Glossary): 'Such was the term for a screen made of khus-khus gra.s.s. Although the word is perfectly respectable, being derived from the tamil vettiveru (from which vetiver), its resemblance to a common Hind. word for a certain bodily product tended to create misunderstandings. A story is told of a formidable BeeBee who issued a peremptory hook.u.m to a timid chuckeroo: "Boy! Drop a tatty! Jildee!" The unfortunate lad was gubbrowed half out of his wits and complied with such celerity that the BeeBee was put utterly to rout.

'To further complicate matters, those who were responsible for the maintenance of these screens were known, in certain households, as tattygars. Unfortunate indeed was the kismet of the khidmatgars who were thus designated, and it was no easy matter to fill these positions. It was because of such misunderstandings, perhaps, that this word is gradually yielding to its Hind. synonym khus-khus.'

teapoy: See charpoy.

teek (*The Barney-Book): 'According to the Barneymen, the Hind. thik became in its English avatar "exact, close, precise."'

tical: A silver coin equal to a rupee.

tickytaw boys/tickytock boys (*The Glossary): 'These ghastly attempts at onomatopoeia were once the terms of reference for players of the tabla.'

tiff, to: 'Ironic indeed that India should be the last refuge of this fine North Country English word, meaning to take refreshments (from which tiffin, lunch etc)'.

tiffin: See above.

tindal: See lascar.

topas/topa.s.s: Neel would have been astonished by the Oracle's gloss of this word: 'A person of mixed Black and Portuguese descent; often applied to a soldier, or a ship's scavenger or bath-attendant, who is of this cla.s.s.' See lascar.

trikat (*Roebuck): See dol.

tuckiah / tuckier (*The Glossary): 'Sir Henry claims that this common Hind. word for "pillow" or "bolster" is often used in the same sense as ashram. I am baffled by this, I must confess.'

tumasher tamasha tomashaw tomascia: Being a contrarian, Neel had a particular fondness for the seventeenth-century English usage of this word, in which it was spelled tomashaw or even tomascia, and had the sense of 'spectacle' or 'show', being sometimes thus applied also to rituals. He deplored the gradual debas.e.m.e.nt of the word, whereby it 'can now scarcely be told apart from a petty gollmaul.'p>

tumlet (*The Glossary): 'Is it possible that this Hind. corruption of "tumbler" will reenter the English language and, like the notorious cuckoo, eject its parent from its nest? Would that it could be so!'

tuncaw (*The Glossary): 'The mystery of English turned this Hind. for "salary", tankha, into an almost derogatory term, used mainly for servant's wages.'