Henry Yule

“ Gosāīn, Gosāī, Gosāvī, Gusā'īn, &c., from Skt. Goswāmī, 'Lord of Passions' (lit. 'Lord of cows') , i.e. one who is supposed to have subdued his passions and renounced the world. Applied in various parts of India to different kinds of persons not necessarily celibates, but professing a life of religious mendicancy, and including some who dwell together in convents under a superior, and others who engage in trade and hardly pretend to lead a religious life. ”

“ We have the name from the Portuguese, and it has been alleged to have been so called by them as meaning, 'Take you heed!' (Gardez-vous, in fact.) But this is etymology of the species that so confidently derives 'Bombay' from Boa Bahia. Bruce, again (see below) , gives dogmatically an interpretation which is equally unfounded. We must look to history, and not to the 'moral consciousness' of anybody. The country adjoining this horn of Africa, the Regio Aromatum of the ancients, seems to have been called by the Arabs Hafūn, a name which we find in the Periplus in the shape of Opōnē. ”

“ Malay ginggang ... a striped or checkered cotton fabric known to Europeans in the East as 'gingham.' As an adjective, the word means, both in Malay and Javanese, where it seems to be original, 'striped.' The full expression is kāin ginggang, 'striped cloth' (Grashuis) . The Tamil 'kinḍan, a kind of coarse cotton cloth, striped or chequered' (quoted in Yule) , cannot be the source of the European forms, nor, I think, of the Malayan forms. It must be an independent word, or a perversion of the Malayan term. ”

“ The word gallevat seems to come directly from the galeota of the Portuguese and other S. European nations, a kind of inferior galley with only one bank of oars, which appears under the form galion in Joinville, infra (not to be confounded with the galleons of a later period, which were larger vessels) , and often in the 13th and 14th centuries as galeota, galiotes, &c. It is constantly mentioned as forming part of the Portuguese fleets in India. Bluteau defines galeota as "a small galley with one mast, and with 15 or 20 benches a side, and one oar to each bench." ”

“ GYAUL (properly GAYĀL) , [Skt. go, 'an ox'] , s. A large animal (Gavaeus frontalis, Jerd., Bos f. Blanford, Mammalia, 487) of the ox tribe, found wild in various forest tracts to the east of India. It is domesticated by the Mishmis of the Assam valley, and other tribes as far south as Chittagong. In Assam it is called Mithan.
[c. 1590.—In Arakan, "cows and buffaloes there are none, but there is an animal which has somewhat of the characteristics of both, piebald and particoloured whose milk the people drink."—Āīn, ed. Jarrett, ii. 119.] 1824.—"In the park several uncommon animals are kept. ”

“ But this is probably an introduced word shaped by this imaginary etymology. Though ginger is cultivated all over India, from the Himālaya to the extreme south, [4] the best is grown in Malabar, and in the language of that province (Malayālam) green ginger is called inchi and inchi-ver, from inchi, 'root.' Inchi was probably in an earlier form of the language siñchi or chiñchi, as we find it in Canarese still sūnti, which is perhaps the true origin of the H. sonth for 'dry ginger,' [more usually connected with Skt. suṇṭhi, suṇṭh, 'to dry'] . ”

“ In Persian the giraffe is called Ushturgāo ('camel-cow') . It used to be sent as a present from Nubia to the kings of Persia, as in later days it was sent to the Arab princes, to the first khālifs of the house of 'Abbās, and to the Wālis of Misr.... The origin of the giraffe has given rise to numerous discussions. It has been noticed that the panther of Nubia attains a great size, whilst the camel of that country is of low stature, with short legs," &c., &c.—Maṣ'ūdī, iii. ”

“ They are brave and warlike, but have a sternness of disposition amounting to ferocity.... Some of the inferior Ghiljís are so violent in their intercourse with strangers that they can scarcely be considered in the light of human beings, while no language can describe the terrors of a transit through their country, or the indignities which have to be endured.... The Ghiljis, although considered, and calling themselves, Afghâns, and moreover employing the Pashto, or Afghân dialect, are undoubtedly a mixed race. ”

“ The reason why the term became thus specifically applied to the Telugu people is probably because, when the Portuguese arrived, the Telugu monarchy of Vijayanagara, or Bijanagar (see BISNAGAR, NARSINGA) was dominant over great part of the Peninsula. The officials were chiefly of Telugu race, and thus the people of this race, as the most important section of the Hindūs, were par excellence the Gentiles, and their language the Gentile language. ”

“ GOA POWDER. This medicine, which in India is procured from Goa only, is invaluable in the virulent eczema of Bombay, and other skin diseases. In eczema it sometimes acts like magic, but smarts like the cutting of a knife. It is obtained from Andira Araroba (N.O. Leguminosae) , a native (we believe) of S. America. The active principle is Chrysophanic acid (Commn. from Sir G. Birdwood) .
GOA STONE. A factitious article which was in great repute for medical virtues in the 17th century. See quotation below from Mr. King. Sir G. Birdwood tells us it is still sold in the Bombay Bazar. ”

“ It is a fact that many common Malay and Javanese words are Tamil, or only to be explained by Tamil. Free intercourse between the Coromandel Coast and the Archipelago is very ancient, and when the Portuguese first appeared at Malacca they found there numerous settlers from S. India (see s.v. KLING) . ”

“ All the accounts of the Ghilzais indicate great differences between them and the other tribes of Afghanistan; whilst there seems nothing impossible, or even unlikely, in the partial assimilation of a Turki tribe in the course of centuries to the Afghans who surround them, and the consequent assumption of a quasi-Afghan genealogy. We do not find that Mr. Elphinstone makes any explicit reference to the question now before us. But two of the notes to his History (5th ed. p. 322 and 384) seem to indicate that it was in his mind. ”

“ They never settle in the cities, nor do they engage in the ordinary handicraft trades, but they manufacture carpets, felts, &c., for domestic use, from the wool and hair of their cattle.... Physically they are a remarkably fine race ... but they are a very barbarous people, the pastoral class especially, and in their wars excessively savage and vindictive.
"Several of the Ghilji or Ghilzai-clans are almost wholly engaged in the carrying trade between India and Afghanistan, and the Northern States of Central Asia, and have been so for many centuries."—Races of Afghanistan, by Bellew, p. ”

“ This name, now almost obsolete, was applied to a kind of vessel which is constantly mentioned in the sea- and river-fights of India, from the arrival of the Portuguese down to near the end of the 18th century. That kind of etymology which works from inner consciousness would probably say: "This term has always been a puzzle to the English in India. The fact is that it was a kind of vessel much used by corsairs, who were said to grab all that passed the sea. Hence," &c. But the real derivation is different. ”

“ It was the seat of several ancient Hindu dynasties, and from the time of the early Mahommedan sovereigns of Delhi down to the reign of Aurangzīb it was used as a state-prison. Early in the 18th century it fell into the possession of the Mahratta family of Sindhia, whose residence was established to the south of the fortress, in what was originally a camp, but has long been a city known by the original title of Lashkar (camp) . The older city lies below the northern foot of the rock. ”

“ Oorlam est un mot Malais corrumpu; il faut dire Orang-lama, ce qui signifie une personne qui a déjà été long-temps dans un endroit, ou dans un pays, et c'est par ce nom qu'on designe les Européens qui ont habité depuis un certain temps dans l'Inde. ”

“ The Indian Vocabulary (1788) gives: "Gardee—a tribe inhabiting the provinces of Bijapore, &c., esteemed good foot soldiers." The word may be only a corruption of 'guard,' but probably the origin assigned in the second quotation may be well founded; 'Guard' may have shaped the corruption of Gharbi. The old Bengal sepoys were commonly known in the N.W. as Purbias or Easterns (see POORUB) . [Women in the Amazon corps at Hyderabad (Deccan) , known as the Ẓafar Paltan, or 'Victorious Battalion,' were called gardunee (Gārdanī) , the feminine form of Gārad or Guard.] ”

“ Ghāskaṭ is the form commonly used by Englishmen in Upper India speaking Hindustani; but ghasiyārā by those aspiring to purer language. The former term appears in Williamson's V. M. (1810) as gauskot (i. 186) , the latter in Jacquemont's Correspondence as grassyara. No grasscutters are mentioned as attached to the stables of Akbar; only a money allowance for grass. The antiquity of the Madras arrangement is shown by a passage in Castanheda (1552) : "... he gave him a horse, and a boy to attend to it, and a female slave to see to its fodder."— (ii. 58.) ”

“ GAUM, GONG, s. A village, H. gāon, from Skt. grāma.
1519.—"In every one of the said villages, which they call guãoos."—Goa Proclam. in Arch. Port. Orient., fasc. 5, 38. Gāonwār occurs in the same vol. (p. 75) , under the forms gancare and guancare, for the village heads in Port. India. GAURIAN, adj. This is a convenient name which has been adopted of late years as a generic name for the existing Aryan languages of India, i.e. those which are radically sprung from, or cognate to, the Sanskrit. The name (according to Mr. E. L. Brandreth) was given by Prof. Hoernle ”

“ The Crocodilus Gangeticus is called Ghoriyal, and the other is called Bongcha."—Buchanan's Rungpoor, in Eastern India, iii. 581-2.
GAZAT, s. This is domestic Hind. for 'dessert.' (Panjab N. & Q. ii. 184) .
GECKO, s. A kind of house lizard. The word is not now in Anglo-Indian use; it is a naturalist's word; and also is French. It was no doubt originally an onomatopoeia from the creature's reiterated utterance. Marcel Devic says the word is adopted from Malay gekok [gēkoq] . This we do not find in Crawfurd, who has tăké, tăkék, and goké, all evidently attempts to represent the utterance. ”

“ A married woman whose husband is absent from her. "The etymological notion is obscure, but the parallel forms disprove the notion that the word is a 'corruption' of grace-widow. It has been suggested that in sense 1. grass (and G. stroh) may have been used with opposition to bed. Sense 2. may have arisen as an etymologizing interpretation of the compound after it had ceased to be generally understood; in Eng. it seems to have first appeared as Anglo-Indian." The French equivalent, Veuve de Malabar, was in allusion to Lemierre's tragedy, produced in 1770. ”

“ In one respect, and only one, the Ghâts have the advantage,—their precipices are higher, and the outlines of the hills consequently bolder."—Heber, ed. 1844, ii. 136.
GHEE, s. Boiled butter; the universal medium of cookery throughout India, supplying the place occupied by oil in Southern Europe, and more; [the samn of Arabia, the raughan of Persia] . The word is Hind. ghī, Skt. ghṛita. A short but explicit account of the mode of preparation will be found in the English Cyclopaedia (Arts and Sciences) , s.v.; [and in fuller detail in Watt, Econ. Dict. iii. 491 seqq.] . ”

“ The Ganga of Hindustan they dedicate to Mahadeo, but this Ganga to Gotam. And they tell wonderful legends of it, and pay it great adoration. It has its springs in the Sahyā Hills near Trimbak, and passing through the Wilāyat of Ahmadnagar, enters Berār and thence flows on to Tilingāna."—Āīn-i-Akbari (orig.) i. 476; [ed. Jarrett, ii. 228.] We may observe that the most easterly of the Delta branches of the Godavery is still called Gautami.
GODDESS, s. An absurd corruption which used to be applied by our countrymen in the old settlements in the Malay countries to the young women of the land. ”

“ Probably the application of the term may have deviated variously in recent days. [See Bombay Gazetteer, xiii. pt. i. 348.] For thus again in Solvyns (Les Hindous, vol. i.) a grab is drawn and described as a ship with three masts, a sharp prow, and a bowsprit. But originally the word seems, beyond question, to have been an Arab name for a galley. The proper word is Arab. ghorāb, 'a raven,' though adopted into Mahratti and Konkani as gurāb. Jal says, quoting Reinaud, that ghorāb was the name given by the Moors to the true galley, and cites Hyde for the rationale of the name. ”

“ The great lizards, sometimes called guanas in India, are apparently monitors. It must be observed, however, that approximating Indian names of lizards have helped the confusion. Thus the large monitor to which the name guana is often applied in India, is really called in Hindi goh (Skt. godhā) , Singhalese goyā. The true iguana of America is described by Oviedo in the first quotation under the name of iuana. [The word is Span. iguana, from Carib iwana, written in early writers hiuana, igoana, iuanna or yuana. See N.E.D. and Stanf. Dict.] ”

“ European practitioners do not recognise its alleged virtues. That which is most valued comes from Corea, but it grows also in Mongolia and Manchuria. A kind much less esteemed, the root of Panax quinquefolium, L., is imported into China from America. A very closely-allied plant occurs in the Himālaya, A. Pseudo-Ginseng, Benth. Ginseng is first mentioned by Alv. Semedo (Madrid, 1642) . [See Ball, Things Chinese, 268 seq., where Dr. P. Smith seems to believe that it has some medicinal value.]
GIRAFFE, s. English, not Anglo-Indian. Fr. girafe, It. giraffa, Sp. ”