Part 40 (1/2)

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 relations.h.i.+p 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.'

s.h.i.+kar: See below.

s.h.i.+karee: 'The mystery of the hunt (s.h.i.+kar)'.

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 s.h.i.+p'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.'