Chapter HÁKIM to HANGER of H by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

HÁKIM to HANGER

HÁKIM, s. H. from Ar. hakim, a judge, a ruler, a master’; ‘the authority.’ The same Ar. root hakm, ‘bridling, restraining, judging,’ supplies a variety of words occurring in this Glossary, viz. Hakim (as here); Hakim (see HUCKEEM); Hukm (see HOOKUM); Hikmat (see HICKMAT).

[1611.—“Not standing with his greatness to answer every Haccam, which is as a Governor or petty King.”—Danvers, Letters, i. 158. In ibid. i. 175, Hackum is used in the same way.]

1698.—“Hackum, a Governor.”—Fryer’s Index Explanatory.

c. 1861.—

“Then comes a settlement Hakim, to teach me to plough and weed—I
I sowed the cotton he gave me—but first
I boiled the seed.…”

Sir A. C. Lyall, The Old Pindaree.

HALÁLCORE, s. Lit. Ar.—P. halal-khor, ‘one who eats what is lawful,’ [halal being the technical Mahommedan phrase for the slaying of an animal to be used for food according to the proper ritual], applied euphemistically to a person of very low caste, a sweeper or scavenger, implying ‘to whom all is lawful food.’ Generally used as synonymous with bungy (q.v.). [According to Prof. Blochmann, “Halalkhur, i.e. one who eats that which the ceremonial law allows, is a euphemism for haramkhur, one who eats forbidden things, as pork, &c. The word halalkhur is still in use among educated Muhammadans; but it is doubtful whether (as stated in the Ain) it was Akbar’s invention.” (Ain, i. 139 note.)]

1623.—“Schiah Selim nel principio…si sdegnò tanto, che poco mancò che per dispetto non la desse per forza in matrimonio ad uno della razza che chiamano halal chor, quasi dica ‘mangia lecito,’ cioè ché ha per lecito di mangiare ogni cosa.…” (See other quotation under HAREM).—P. della Valle, ii. 525; [Hak. Soc. i. 54].

1638.—“…sont obligez de se purifier depuis la teste i’usqu’aux pieds si quelqu’vn de ces gens qu’ils appellent Alchores, leur a touché.”—Mandelslo, Paris, 1659, 219.

1665.—“Ceux qui ne parlent que Persan dans les Indes, les appellent Halalcour, c’est à dire celui qui se donne la liberté de manger de tout ce qu’il lui plait, ou, selon quelques uns, celui qui mange ce qu’il a légitimement gagné. Et ceux qui approuvent cette dernière explication, disent qu’autrefois Halalcours s’appellent Haramcours, mangeurs de Viande defenduës.”—Thevenot, v. 190.

1673.—“That they should be accounted the Offscum of the People, and as base as the Holencores (whom they account so, because they defile themselves by eating anything).”—Fryer, 28; [and see under BOY, b].

1690.—“The Halalchors…are another Sort of Indians at Suratt, the most contemptible, but extremely necessary to be there.”—Ovington, 382.

1763.—“And now I must mention the Hallachores, whom I cannot call a Tribe, being rather the refuse of all the Tribes. These are a set of poor unhappy wretches, destined to misery from their birth.…”—Reflexions, &c., by Luke Scrafton, Esq., 7–8. It was probably in this passage that Burns (see below) picked up the word.

1783.—“That no Hollocore, Derah, or Chandala caste, shall upon any consideration come out of their houses after 9 o’clock in the morning, lest they should taint the air, or touch the superior Hindoos in the streets.”—Mahratta Proclamation at Baroch, in Forbes, Or. Mem. iv. 232.

1786.—“When all my schoolfellows and youthful compeers (those misguided few excepted who joined, to use a Gentoo phrase, the hallachores of the human race) were striking off with eager hope and earnest intent, in some one or other of the many paths of a busy life, I was ‘standing idle in the market-place.’”—Letter of Robert Burns, in A. Cunningham’s ed. of Works and Life, vi. 63

1788.—The Indian Vocabulary also gives Hallachore.

1810.—“For the meaner offices we have a Hallalcor or Chandela (one of the most wretched Pariahs).”—Maria Graham, 31.

HALÁLLCUR. V. used in the imperative for infinitive, as is common in the Anglo-Indian use of H. verbs, being Ar.—H.halal-kar, ‘make lawful,’ i.e. put (an animal) to death in the manner prescribed to Mahommedans, when it is to be used for food.

[1855.—“Before breakfast I bought a moderately sized sheep for a dollar. Shaykh Hamid ‘halaléd’ (butchered) it according to rule.…”—Burton, Pilgrimage, ed. 1893, i. 255.]

1883.—“The diving powers of the poor duck are exhausted.…I have only…to seize my booty, which has just enough of life left to allow Peer Khan to make it halal, by cutting its throat in the name of Allah, and dividing the webs of its feet.”—Tribes on My Frontier, 167.

HALF-CASTE, s. A person of mixt European and Indian blood. (See MUSTEES; EURASIAN.)

1789.—“Mulattoes, or as they are called in the East Indies, half-casts.”—Munro’s Narrative, 51.

1793.—“They