Chapter CAMEEZE to CANARA of C by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

CAMEEZE to CANARA

CAMEEZE, s. This word (kamis) is used in colloquial H. and Tamil for ‘a shirt.’ It comes from the Port. camisa. But that word is directly from the Arab kamis, ‘a tunic.’ Was St. Jerome’s Latin word an earlier loan from the Arabic, or the source of the Arabic word? probably the latter ; [so N.E.D. s.v. Camise]. The Mod. Greek Dict. of Sophocles has [Greek Text] kamision. Camesa is, according to the Slang Dictionary, used in the cant of English thieves ; and in more ancient slang it was made into ‘commission.’

c. 400.—“Solent militantes habere lineas quas Camisias vocant, sic aptas membris et adstrictas corporibus, ut expediti sint vel ad cursum, vel ad praelia…quocumque necessitas traxerit.”—Scti. Hieronymi Epist. (lxiv.) ad Fabiolam, § 11.

1404.—“And to the said Ruy Gonzalez he gave a big horse, an ambler, for they prize a horse that ambles, furnished with saddle and bridle, very well according to their fashion ; and besides he gave him a camisa and an umbrella” (see SOMBRERO).— Clavijo, § lxxxix. ; Markham, 100.

1464.—“to William and Richard my sons, all my fair camises.…”—Will of Richard Strode, of Newnham, Devon.

1498.—“That a very fine camysa, which in Portugal would be worth 300 reis, was given here for 2 fanons, which in that country is the equivalent of 30 reis, though the value of 30 reis is in that country no small matter.”—Roteiro de V. da Gama, 77.

1573.—“The richest of all (the shops in Fez) are where they sell camisas.…”—Marmol. Desc. General de Affrica, Pt. I. Bk. iii. f. 87v.

CAMP, s. In the Madras Presidency [as well as in N. India] an official not at his headquarters is always addressed as ‘in Camp.’

CAMPHOR, s. There are three camphors :—

a. The Bornean and Sumatran camphor from Dryobalanops aromatica.

b. The camphor of China and Japan, from Cinnamomum Camphora. (These are the two chief camphors of commerce ; the first immensely exceeding the second in market value : see Marco Polo, Bk. iii. ch. xi. Note 3.)

c. The camphor of Blumea balsamifera, D.C., produced and used in China under the name of ngai camphor.

The relative ratios of value in the Canton market may be roundly given as b, 1 ; c, 10 ; a, 80.

The first Western mention of this drug, as was pointed out by Messrs Hanbury and Flückiger, occurs in the Greek medical writer Aëtius (see below), but it probably came through the Arabs, as is indicated by the ph, or f of the Arab kafur, representing the Skt. karpura. It has been suggested that the word was originally Javanese, in which language kapur appears to mean both ‘lime’ and ‘camphor.’

Moodeen Sheriff says that kafur is used (in Ind. Materia Medica) for ‘amber.’ Tabashir (see TABASHEER), is, according to the same writer, called bans-kafur ‘bamboo-camphor’ ; and ras- kafur (mercury-camphor) is an impure subchloride of mercury. According to the same authority, the varieties of camphor now met with in the bazars of S. India are—1. kafur-i-kaisuri, which is in Tamil called pach’ch’ai (i.e. crude karuppuram ; 2. Surati kafur ; 3. chini ; 4. batai (from the Batta country ?). The first of these names is a curious instance of the perpetuation of a blunder, originating in the misreading of loose Arabic writing. The name is unquestionably fansuri, which carelessness as to points has converted into kaisuri (as above, and in Blochmann’s Ain, i. 79). The camphor alfansuri is mentioned as early as by Avicenna, and by Marco Polo, and came from a place called Pansur in Sumatra, perhaps the same as Barus, which has now long given its name to the costly Sumatran drug.

A curious notion of Ibn Batuta’s (iv. 241) that the camphor of Sumatra (and Borneo) was produced in the inside of a cane, filling the joints between knot and knot, may be explained by the statement of Barbosa (p. 204), that the Borneo camphor as exported was packed in tubes of bamboo. This camphor is by Barbosa and some other old writers called ‘eatable camphor’ (da mangiare), because used in medicine and with betel.

Our form of the word seems to have come from the Sp. alcanfor and canfora, through the French camphre. Dozy points out that one Italian form retains the truer name cafura, and an old German one (Mid. High Germ.) is gaffer (Oosterl. 47).

c. A.D. 540.—“Hygromyri cõfectio, olei salca lib. ij, opobalsami lib. i., spicænardi, folij singu. unc. iiii. carpobalsami, arna bonis, amomi, ligni aloes, sing. unc. ij. mastichae, moschi, sing. scrup. vi. quod si etiã caphura non deerit ex ea unc. ij adjicito.…”—Aetii Amideni, Librorum xvi. Tomi Dvo…Latinitate donati, Basil, MDXXXV., Liv. xvi. cap. cxx.

c. 940.—“These (islands called al-Ramin) abound in gold mines, and are near the country of Kansur, famous for its camphor. …”—Mas’udi, i. 338. The same work at iii. 49, refers back