Henry Yule

“ The word is in European use all over India. [A poggly nautch (see POGGLE) is a fancy-dress ball. Also see POOTLY NAUTCH.] Browning seems fond of using this word, and persists in using it wrongly. In the first of the quotations below he calls Fifine the 'European nautch,' which is like calling some Hindu dancing-girl 'the Indian ballet.' He repeats the mistake in the second quotation.
[1809.—"You Europeans are apt to picture to yourselves a Nach as a most attractive spectacle, but once witnessed it generally dissolves the illusion."—Broughton, Letters from a Mahratta Camp, ed. 1892, p. 142.] ”

“ F. C. Cotton, R.E., tells us that on Lord Dalhousie's visit to the Neilgherry Hills, near the close of his government, he was riding with the Governor-General to visit some new building. Lord Dalhousie said to him: "It is not a thing that one must say in public, but I would give a great deal that the whole of India should be Non-regulation."
The Punjab was for many years the greatest example of a Non-regulation Province. The chief survival of that state of things is that there, as in Burma and a few other provinces, military men are still eligible to hold office in the civil administration. ”

“ In the charts the extreme south point of the mainland is called Pagoda Point, and the seaward promontory, N.W. of this, Cape Negrais. The name is a Portuguese corruption probably of the Arab or Malay form of the native name which the Burmese express as Naga-rīt, 'Dragon's whirlpool.' The set of the tide here is very apt to carry vessels ashore, and thus the locality is famous for wrecks. It is possible, however, that the Burmese name is only an effort at interpretation, and that the locality was called in old times by some name like Nāgarāshtra. ”

“ The idiom exists in the principal vernaculars of China itself, and it is a transfer of this idiom from Chinese dialects to Pigeon-English which has produced the piecey, which in that quaint jargon seems to be used as the universal numerical affix ("Two piecey cooly," "three piecey dollar," &c.) .
This one pigeon phrase represents scores that are used in the vernaculars. For in some languages the system has taken what seems an extravagant development, which must form a great difficulty in the acquisition of colloquial use by foreigners. ”

“ Thus it seems probable that the use of the numeral co-efficient, whether in the Malay idiom or in our old sporting phraseology, is a kind of survival of the effort to bridge the difficulty felt, in identifying abstract numbers as applied to different objects, by the introduction of a common concrete term. ”

“ We believe we should indicate the sort of government that Sicily wants, tolerably well to Englishmen who know anything of India, by saying that it should be treated in great measure as a 'non-regulation' province."—Quarterly Review, Jan. ”

“ To some small extent the idiom occurs also in other European languages, including French and German. Of French I don't remember any example now except tête (de betail) , nor of German except Stück, which is, however, almost as universal as the Chinese piecey. A quaint example dwells in my memory of a German courier, who, when asked whether he had any employer at the moment, replied: 'Ja freilich! dreizehn Stück Amerikaner!'
The same peculiar idiom that has been described in the extract from Crawfurd as existing in Malay, is found also in Burmese. ”

“ One of the names which constantly occur in the early Portuguese writers on India. It represents Niz̤ām-ul-Mulk (see NIZAM) . This was the title of one of the chiefs at the court of the Bāhmani king of the Deccan, who had been originally a Brahman and a slave. His son Ahmed set up a dynasty at Ahmednagar (A.D. 1490) , which lasted for more than a century. The sovereigns of this dynasty were originally called by the Portuguese Nizamaluco. Their own title was Niz̤ām Shāh, and this also occurs as Nizamoxa. [Linschoten's etymology given below is an incorrect guess.] ”

“ In the enumeration of certain objects, the Malay has a peculiar idiom which, as far as I know, does not exist in any other language of the Archipelago. It is of the same nature as the word 'head,' as we use it in the tale of cattle, or 'sail' in the enumeration of ships; but in Malay it extends to many familiar objects. Alai, of which the original meaning has not been ascertained, is applied to such tenuous objects as leaves, grasses, &c.; Batang, meaning 'stem,' or 'trunk,' to trees, logs, spears, and javelins; Bantak, of which the meaning has not been ascertained, to such objects as rings ”

“ Hind. nīlām, from Port. leilão. An auction or public outcry, as it used to be called in India (corresponding to Scotch roup; comp. Germ. rufen, and outroop of Linschoten's translator below) . The word is, however, Oriental in origin, for Mr. C. P. Brown (MS. notes) points out that the Portuguese word is from Ar. i'lām (al-i'lām) , 'proclamation, advertisement.' It is omitted by Dozy and Engelmann. How old the custom in India of prompt disposal by auction of the effects of a deceased European is, may be seen in the quotation from Linschoten. ”

“ The Kukti is the most remarkable, its wool having the colour of nankeen cloth, and it seems in fact to be the same material which the Chinese use in that manufacture."—F. Buchanan, in Eastern India, iii. 244. [See Watt, Econ. Dict. iv. 16, 29.]
1838.—"Nanka is imported in the greatest quantity (to Kabul) from Russia, and is used for making the outer garments for the people, who have a great liking to it. It is similar to nankeen cloth that comes to India from China, and is of a strong durable texture."—Report by Baines, in Punjab Trade Report, App. p. ”

“ Ibn Batuta touched at a continental coast occupied by uncivilised people having elephants, between Bengal and Sumatra, which he calls Baranagār. From the intervals given, the place must have been near Negrais, and it is just possible that the term Barra de Negrais, which frequently occurs in the old writers (e.g. see Balbi, Fitch, and Bocarro below) is a misinterpretation of the old name used by Ibn Batuta (iv. 224-228) .
1553.—"Up to the Cape of Negrais, which stands in 16 degrees, and where the Kingdom of Pegu commences, the distance may be 100 leagues."—Barros, I. ix. 1. ”

“ The difference of lat. (52 miles) agrees well with that between the Portuguese and French Narcondam, but the difference in long., though approximate in amount (18 or 20 miles) , is in one case plus and in the other minus; so that the discrepancies may be due merely to error in the French reckoning. In a chart in the E.I. Pilot (1778) "Monday or Barren Island, called also High Island" and "Ayconda or Narcondam," are marked approximately in the positions of the present Barren Island and Narcondam. Still, we believe that Mr. Mallet's suggestion is likely to be well founded. ”

“ Indian, it becomes speedily apparent that he is unable to comprehend the idea of abstract numbers. They exist in his mind only as associated ideas. He has a distinct conception of five dogs or five deer, but he is so unaccustomed to the idea of number as a thing apart from specific objects, that I have tried in vain to get an Indian to admit that the idea of the number five, as associated in his mind with five dogs, is identical, as far as number is concerned, with that of five fingers."— (Wilson's Prehistoric Man, 1st ed. ii. 470.) [Also see Tylor, Primitive Culture, 2nd ed. i. 252 seqq.] ”

“ But logic does not decide the site of capitals, though government by logic is quite likely to lose India. Certain highly elaborated magic squares and magic cubes, investigated by the Rev. A. H. Frost (Cambridge Math. Jour., 1857) have been called by him Nasik squares, and Nasik cubes, from his residence in that ancient place (see Encyc. Britan. 9th ed. xv. 215) .
NAT, s. Burmese nāt, [apparently from Skt. nātha, 'lord'] ; a term applied to all spiritual beings, angels, elfs, demons, or what not, including the gods of the Hindus. ”

“ A cotton stuff of a brownish yellow tinge, which was originally imported from China, and derived its name from the city of Nanking. It was not dyed, but made from a cotton of that colour, the Gossypium religiosum of Roxb., a variety of G. herbaceum. It was, however, imitated with dyed cotton in England, and before long exports of this imitation were made to China. Nankeen appears to be known in the Central Asia markets under the modified name of Nanka (see below) . ”

“ Arrack made from the sap of a palm tree, a manufacture by no means confined to the Philippines. The Portuguese, appropriating the word Nipa to this spirit, called the tree itself nipeira.
a.—
1611.—"Other wine is of another kind of palm which is called Nipa (growing in watery places) , and this is also extracted by distillation. It is very mild and sweet, and clear as pure water; and they say it is very wholesome. It is made in great quantities, with which ships are laden in Pegu and Tanasarim, Malaca, and the Philippines or Manila ”

“ Selon les cartes Françoises, Narcondam s'écarte environ 25 lieues marines de la tête d'Andaman; et au lieu de prendre plus du nord, cette île baisse vers le sud d'une fraction de degré plus ou moins considérable selon differéntes cartes."—D'Anville, Eclairc., 141-142. I may add that I find in a French map of 1701 (Carte Marine depuis Suratte jusqu'au Detroit de Malaca, par le Père P. P. Tachard) we have, in the (approximately) true position of Narcondam, Isle Haute, whilst an islet without name appears in the approximate position of Barren Island. ”

“ Among Hindus a common form is to feed a lamp before an idol with ghee instead of oil.
NERRICK, NERRUCK, NIRK, &c., s. Hind. from Pers. nirkh, vulgarly nirakh, nirikh. A tariff, rate, or price-current, especially one established by authority. The system of publishing such rates of prices and wages by local authority prevailed generally in India a generation or two back, and is probably not quite extinct even in our own territories. ”

“ Extinction; destruction; annihilation; annihilation of being, Nirvāṇa; annihilation of human passion, Arhatship or final sanctification.... In Trübner's Record for July, 1870, I first propounded a theory which meets all the difficulties of the question, namely, that the word Nirvāṇa is used to designate two different things, the state of blissful sanctification called Arhatship, and the annihilation of existence in which Arhatship ends."—Childers, Pali Dictionary, pp. ”

“ The pilot was at the top to look out, and coming down he said that this land was all cut up (i.e. in islands) , and that it was possible to pass through the middle; and that now there was no help for it but to chance it or turn back to Cochin.... The natives of the country had sight of us and suddenly came forth in great boats full of people.... They were all Caffres, with fish-bones inserted in their lips and chin: big men and frightful to look on ”

“ The name is in common use among all classes of natives in S. India, but when it may have become specific I cannot say. Possibly the solution may be that the Nilgiris being the first large mountain range to become familiar to the English, that name was by them caught hold of, but not coined, and stuck to them by mere priority. It is on the face of it improbable that the Englishmen who early in the last century discovered these Hills, that is, explored and shot over them, would call them by a long Skt. ”

“ Soc. ii. 49] .
[1616.—"One jar of Neepe."—Foster, Letters, iv. 162] .
1623.—"In the daytime they did nothing but talk a little with one another, and some of them get drunk upon a certain wine they have of raisins, or on a kind of aqua vitæ with other things mixt in it, in India called nippa, which had been given them."—P. della Valle, ii. 669; [Hak. Soc. ii. 272] . We think there can be little doubt that the slang word nip, for a small dram of spirits, is adopted from nipa. [But compare Dutch nippen, 'to take a dram.' The old word nippitatum was used for 'strong drink'; see Stanf. Dict.] ”

“ F. R. Mallet of the Geological Survey of India, who has lately been on a survey of Narcondam and Barren Island. Mr. Mallet states that Narcondam is "without any crater, and has certainly been extinct for many thousand years. Barren Island, on the other hand, forms a complete amphitheatre, with high precipitous encircling walls, and the volcano has been in violent eruption within the last century. The term 'pit of hell,' therefore, while quite inapplicable to Narcondam, applies most aptly to Barren Island." Mr. ”

“ My whole is a man in whose converse is shared
The strength of a Bar and the sweetness of Nard."—
⁠Charade on Bishop Barnard by Dr. Johnson.
NARGEELA, NARGILEH, s. Properly the coco-nut (Skt. nārikera, -kela, or -keli; Pers. nārgīl; Greek of Cosmas, Ἀργέλλιον) ; thence the hubble-bubble, or hooka in its simplest form, as made from a coco-nut shell; and thence again, in Persia, a hooka or water-pipe with a glass or metal vase. ”

“ It may be added that Nāyar was also the term used in Malabar for the mahout of an elephant; and the fact that Nāyar and Nāyaka are of the same origin may be considered with the etymology which we have given of Cornac (see Garcia, 85v) .
NALKEE, s. Hind. nālkī. A kind of litter formerly used by natives of rank; the word and thing are now obsolete. ”

“ Malayāl. nel, 'rice in the husk'; [Tel. and Tam. nelli, 'rice-like'] . This is the Dravidian equivalent of paddy (q.v.) , and is often used by the French and Portuguese in South India, where Englishmen use the latter word.
1606.—"... when they sell nele, after they have measured it out to the purchaser, for the seller to return and take out two grains for himself for luck (com superstição) , things that are all heathen vanities, which the synod entirely prohibits, and orders that those who practise them shall be severely punished by the Bishop."—Gouvea, Synodo, f. ”