As regular readers will know I love words. Almost any words. But I’m always especially attracted to those words which English has acquired from Indian mostly during the British Raj.

What I had never realised is that in the 1870s two men, Arthur Burnell and Colonel Henry Yule, documented all those words of Asian origin which English had acquired. Sadly Burnell died before the 14 years project was completed, but since its publication Hobson-Jobson: A glossary of colloquial Anglo-Indian words and phrases, and of kindred terms etymological, historical, geographical and discursive has never been out of print.

And now there’s to be a new edition of the 1000 page work; it is being prepared for the OUP by Dr Kate Teltscher of Roehampton University.

The BBC News item about this lists over 50 well known words we acquired from India and includes these wonderful lines from Tom Stoppard’s play Indian Ink:

Flora: While having tiffin on the veranda of my bungalow I spilled kedgeree on my dungarees and had to go to the gymkhana in my pyjamas looking like a coolie.

Nirad: I was buying chutney in the bazaar when a thug who had escaped from the chokey ran amok and killed a box-wallah for his loot, creating a hullabaloo and landing himself in the mulligatawny.

[And even then amok is Mandalay!]

OK, the lines are a bit contrived but they do go to show just how big an influence the Raj had on our culture. And it’s not just words and foods (like chilli, curry, piccalilli, mulligatawny and IPA) but as this list of words used in the BBC News item shows it pervades our whole culture.

Sure there were many things wrong with the British Raj, but isn’t that just the most superb set of words?! To whet your appetite even further here are a handful of the original Hobson-Jobson definitions:

Kedgeree: A dish of seasoned rice. “A mess of rice, cooked with butter and dal and flavoured with a little spice and shred onion”.

Shampoo: To “knead and press the muscles with the view of relieving fatigue”.

Pyjamas: A “pair of loose drawers or trousers, tied round the waist”.

Gymkhana: “It is applied to a place of public resort at a station, where the needful facilities for athletics and games of sorts are provided”.

Veranda: “An open pillared gallery round a house”.

Isn’t it also interesting how the meanings have changed over the years. Notice that there is no mention of fish or eggs in kedgeree, and shampoo has nothing specific to to with hair!

I feel some book-buying coming on.

Quetzal

1. An extremely beautiful bird (Pharomachrus mocino, the Resplendent Quetzal) of Central America; the male is remarkable for its long tail and wing coverts of resplendent golden-green. These largely solitary birds feed on fruits, berries, insects and small vertebrates.

2. The name of a silver Guatemalan coin, initially equivalent to one US dollar, and comprising 100 centavos.

The name “quetzal” is from Nahuatl quetzalli, “large brilliant tail feather” , from the root quetz = “stand up” used to refer to an upstanding plume of feathers.

Item 1 of “a lot”, judging by most of the written English I see.

Let’s forget the much over-discussed greengrocers’ apostrophe and look at a few of my bêtes noir of grammar and vocabulary.

of. Very few if any past participles in English take “of”. So not “bored of” but “bored with”. Not “sensitive of” but “sensitive to”. And especially not “off of”, just “off”!

Chef’s “off”. Why do chefs have to “do off” everything. “I’m just going to fry off these onions”! Argghhh! None of the verbs you guys use should have “off” added. At best it is affectation, at worst slovenliness. Just “fry” will do!

Decimate. Unless you really do mean a reduction by exactly 1 in 10 it is incorrect.

Different to. No. Something is “different from” something else. But it is “similar to” another. Likewise things are “compared with” each other not “compared to”.

My school teachers also always used to deride the old exam favourite “compare and contrast” as being tautology: “compare” technically includes both similarities and differences, so “contrast” is unnecessary.

Impact on. Things do not “impact on” each other. They may “impact”, “collide”, “interact” or “impinge”, none of which need “on”.

Nude and Naked. The OED gives these as cognates, at least as far as human form is concerned, although I discern some variation. Used alone they are absolutes: both mean undressed; totally undressed; not wearing a bikini, or socks, or a hat. But gradations of nakedness (but not, I discern, nudity) can be indicated by the use of “almost”, “nearly”, “not quite” etc. Naked may also mean devoid of hair (where hair would generally be expected). Naked is much more readily and correctly applied to plants, animals, land, swords etc. etc.

Less and Fewer. The rule here is simple. Less of a quantity. Fewer of number. So we would get “less milk from fewer cows” and not any other variant.

OK, so language is a living thing and subject to change. But one had to have some standards, you know!

Well as we all like words so much here’s another nice one following along hot on the heels of the last …

Armigerous

Entitled to bear heraldic arms.

As de Quincy writes in 1858: “They belonged to the armigerous part of the population, and were entitled to write themselves Esquire”.

For those interested the shield on the right is the arms of England, 1405-1603, consisting of France Moderne (Azure three fleur-de-lis Or) quartered with England (Gules three lions passant guardant in pale Or armed and langued azure). It is formally blazoned as: Quarterly, I and IV azure three fleur-de-lis Or; II and III gules three lions passant guardant in pale Or armed and langued azure.

We’ve not had a good word for a while, and I do like a good word! So today I give you:

Malkin or Mawkin

1. A familiar diminutive of Matilda, Maud.
2. (Obsolete) Used as a female personal name; applied typically to a woman of the lower classes.
3. The proper name of a female spectre or demon.
4. An untidy female, especially a servant or country wench; a slut or slattern; a lewd woman. [See, inter alia, Shakespeare’s Coriolanus]
5. (Obsolete) An effeminate man.
6. (Obsolete) A mop; a bundle of rags fastened to the end of a stick especially as used to clean out a baker’s oven.
7. (Nautical) A sponge on a stick for cleaning out a piece of ordnance.
8. (Obsolete) A scarecrow; a ragged puppet or grotesque effigy.
9. The name for certain animals, especially a cat and (in Northern and Scots English) a hare.

Apophenia

The experience of seeing meaningful patterns or connections in random or meaningless data.

In statistics, apophenia is a type I error (false positive, false alarm, caused by an excess in sensitivity). It is also used as an explanation of paranormal and religious claims, and a belief in pseudo-science.

The term was coined in 1958 by Klaus Conrad who originally described this phenomenon in relation to the distortion of reality present in psychosis, but it has become more widely used to describe this tendency in healthy individuals without necessarily implying the presence of mental illness.

(Thanks to Prof. Ian Young for the word!)

Vicissitude

1. A change or variation occurring in the course of something.
2. Interchange or alternation, as of states or things.
3. Successive, alternating, or changing phases or conditions, as of life or fortune; ups and downs: They remained friends through the vicissitudes of 40 years.
4. Regular change or succession of one state or thing to another.
5. Change; mutation; mutability.

Dhobi
A caste group on the Indian Sub-continent who specialise in washing clothes.
Derived from the Hindi dhona, to wash.

Dhobie’s Itch
Ring-worm affecting the arm-pit and groin regions in hot moist climates; also a form of contact dermatitis.