Chapter GAZAT to GENTOO of G by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

Black Town of Madras is called “the Gentue Town.”—Notes and Exts., No. ii. 3.

1682.—“This morning a Gentoo sent by Bulchund, Governour of Hugly and Cassumbazar, made complaint to me that Mr. Charnock did shamefully—to y^e great scandal of our Nation—keep a Gentoo woman of his kindred, which he has had these 19 years.”—Hedges, Diary, Dec. 1.; [Hak. Soc. i. 52].

1683.—“The ceremony used by these Gentu’s in their sicknesse is very strange; they bring y^e sick person…to y^e brinke of y^e River Ganges, on a Cott.…”—Ibid. May 10; [Hak. Soc. i. 86].

In Stevens’s Trans. of Faria y Sousa (1695) the Hindus are still called Gentiles. And it would seem that the English form Gentoo did not come into general use till late in the 17th century.

1767.—“In order to transact Business of any kind in this Countrey you must at least have a Smattering of the Language.…The original Language of this Countrey (or at least the earliest we know of) is the Bengala or Gentoo; this is commonly spoken in all parts of the Countrey. But the politest Language is the Moors or Mussulmans, and Persian.”—MS. Letter of James Rennell.

1772.—“It is customary with the Gentoos, as soon as they have acquired a moderate fortune, to dig a pond.”—Teignmouth, Mem. i. 36.

1774.—“When I landed (on Island of Bali) the natives, who are Gentoos, came on board in little canoes, with outriggers on each side.”—Forrest, V. to N. Guinea, 169.

1776.—“A Code of Gentoo Laws or Ordinations of the Pundits. From a Persian Translation, made from the original written in the Shanskrit Language. London, Printed in the Year 1776.”—(Title of Work by Nathaniel Brassey Halhead.)

1778.—“The peculiar patience of the Gentoos in Bengal, their affection to business, and the peculiar cheapness of all productions either of commerce or of necessity, had concurred to render the details of the revenue the most minute, voluminous, and complicated system of accounts which exist in the universe.”—Orme, ii. 7 (Reprint).

1781.—“They (Syrian Christians of Travancore) acknowledged a Gentoo Sovereign, but they were governed even in temporal concerns by the bishop of Angamala.”—Gibbon, ch. xlvii.

1784.—“Captain Francis Swain Ward, of the Madras Establishment, whose paintings and drawings of Gentoo Architecture, &c., are well known.”—In Seton-Karr, i. 31.

1785.—“I found this large concourse (at Chandernagore) of people were gathered to see a Gentoo woman burn herself with her husband.”—Ibid. i. 90.

„ “The original inhabitants of India are called Gentoos.”—Carraccioli’s Life of Clive, i. 122.

1803.—“Peregrine. O mine is an accommodating palate, hostess. I have swallowed burgundy with the French, hollands with the Dutch, sherbet with a Turk, sloe-juice with an Englishman, and water with a simple Gentoo.”—Colman’s John Bull, i. sc. 1.

1807.—“I was not prepared for the entire nakedness of the Gentoo inhabitants.”—Lord Minto in India, 17.

b.—

1648.—“The Heathen who inhabit the kingdom of Golconda, and are spread all over India, are called Jentives.”—Van Twist, 59.

1673.—“Their Language they call generally Gentu…the peculiar Name of their Speech is Telinga.”—Fryer, 33.

1674.—“50 Pagodas gratuity to John Thomas ordered for good progress in the Gentu tongue, both speaking and writing.”—Fort St. Geo. Cons., in Notes and Exts. No. i. 32.

[1681.—“He hath the Gentue language.”—In Yule, Hedges’ Diary, Hak. Soc. ii. cclxxxiv.]

1683.—“Thursday, 21st June.…The Hon. Company having sent us a Law with reference to the Natives…it is ordered that the first be translated into Portuguese, Gentoo, Malabar, and Moors, and proclaimed solemnly by beat of drum.”—Madras Consultation, in Wheeler, i. 314.

1719.—“Bills of sale wrote in Gentoo on Cajan leaves, which are entered in the Register kept by the Town Conicoply for that purpose.”—Ibid. ii. 314.

1726.—“The proper vernacular here (Golconda) is the Gentoos (Jentiefs) or Telingaas.”—Valentijn, Chor. 37.

1801.—“The Gentoo translation of the Regulations will answer for the Ceded Districts, for even…the most Canarine part of them understand Gentoo.”—Munro, in Life, i. 321.

1807.—“A Grammar of the Gentoo language, as it is understood and spoken by the Gentoo People, residing north and north-westward of Madras. By a Civil Servant under the Presidency of Fort St. George, many years resident in the Northern Circars. Madras. 1807.”

1817.—The third grammar of the Telugu language, published in this year, is called a ‘Gentoo Grammar.’

1837.—“I mean to amuse myself with learning Gentoo, and have brought a Moonshee with me. Gentoo is the language of this part of the country [Godavery delta], and one of the prettiest of all the dialects.”—Letters from Madras, 189.