Chapter CORGE to COROMANDEL of C by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

CORGE to COROMANDEL

CORGE, COORGE, &c., s. A mercantile term for ‘a score.’ The word is in use among the trading Arabs and others, as well as in India. It is established in Portuguese use apparently, but the Portuguese word is almost certainly of Indian origin, and this is expressly asserted in some Portuguese Dictionaries (e.g. Lacerda’s, Lisbon, 1871). Kori is used exactly in the same way by natives all over Upper India. Indeed, the vulgar there in numeration habitually say do kori, tin kori, for 40, 60, and so forth. The first of our quotations shows the word in a form very closely allied to this, and explaining the transition. Wilson gives Telugu khorjam, “a bale or lot of 20 pieces, commonly called a corge.” [The Madras Gloss. gives Can. korji, Tel. khorjam, as meaning either a measure of capacity, about 44 maunds, or a Madras town cloth measure of 20 pieces.] But, unless a root can be traced, this may easily be a corruption of the trade-word. Littré explains corge or courge as “Paquet de toile de coton des Indes”; and Marcel Devic says: “C’est vraisemblablement l’Arabe khordj”—which means a saddlebag, a portmanteau. Both the definition and the etymology seem to miss the essential meaning of corge, which is that of a score, and not that of a packet or bundle, unless by accident.

1510.—“If they be stuffs, they deal by curia, and in like manner if they be jewels. By a curia is understood twenty.”—Varthema, 170.

1525.—“A corjá dos quotonyas grandes vale (250) tamgas.”—Lembrança, das Cousas da India, 48.

1554.—“The nut and mace when gathered were bartered by the natives for common kinds of cloth, and for each korja of these…they gave a bahar of mace…and seven bahars of the nut.”—Castanheda, vi. 8.

[1605–6.—“Note the cody or corge is a bondell or set nomber of 20 pieces.”—Birdwood, First Letter Book, 80.]

1612.—“White callicos from twentie to fortie Royals the Corge (a Corge being twentie pieces), a great quantitie.”—Capt. Saris, in Purchas, i. 347.

1612–13.—“They returning brought doune the Mustraes of everie sort, and the prices demanded for them per Corge.”—Dounton, in Purchas, i. 299.

1615.—

6 pec. whit baftas of 16 and 17 Rs.	corg.
6 pec. blew byrams, of 15 Rs.	corg.
6 pec. red zelas, of 12 Rs.	corg.”

Cocks’s Diary, i. 75.

1622.—Adam Denton…admits that he made “90 corge of Pintadoes” in their house at Patani, but not at their charge.—Sainsbury, iii. 42.

1644.—“To the Friars of St. Francis for their regular yearly allowance, a cow every week, 24 candies of wheat, 15 sacks of rice girasol, 2 sacks of sugar, half a candy of sero (qu. sevo, ‘tallow,’ ‘grease,’?) ½ candy of coco-nut oil, 6 maunds of butter, 4 corjas of cotton stuffs, and 25,920 rés for dispensary medicines (mezinhas de bottica).”—Bocarro, MS. f. 217.

c. 1670.—“The Chites…which are made at Lahor…are sold by Corges, every Corge consisting of twenty pieces.…”—Tavernier, On the Commodities of the Domns. of the Great Mogul, &c., E.T. p. 58; [ed. Ball, ii. 5].

1747.—“Another Sett of Madrass Painters…being examined regarding what Goods were Remaining in their hands upon the Loss of Madrass, they acknowledge to have had 15 Corge of Chints then under their Performance, and which they acquaint us is all safe…but as they have lost all their Wax and Colours, they request an Advance of 300 Pagodas for the Purchase of more.…”—Consns. Fort St. David, Aug. 13. MS. Records in India Office.

c. 1760.—“At Madras…1 gorge is 22 pieces.”—Grose, i. 284.

“No washerman to demand for 1 corge of pieces more than 7 pun of cowries.”—In Long, 239.

1784.—In a Calcutta Lottery-list of prizes we find “55 corge of Pearls.”—In Seton-Karr, i. 33.

[c. 1809.—“To one korj or 20 pieces of Tunzebs…50 rs.”—Buchanan Hamilton. Eastern India, i. 398.]

1810.—“I recollect about 29 years back, when marching from Berhampore to Cawnpore with a detachment of European recruits, seeing several coarges (of sheep) bought for their use, at 3 and 3½ rupees! at the latter rate 6 sheep were purchased for a rupee…five pence each.”—Williamson, V. M. i. 293.

1813.—“Corge is 22 at Judda.”—Milburn, i. 93.

CORINGA, n.p. Koringa; probably a corruption of Kalinga [see KLING]. [The Madras Gloss. gives the Tel. korangi, ‘small cardamoms.’] The name of a seaport in Godavari Dist. on the northern side of the Delta. [“The only place between Calcutta and Trincomalee where large vessels used to be docked.”—Morris, Godavery Man., p. 40.]