Chapter JENNYE to JOCOLE of J by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

JHAUMP, s. A hurdle of matting and bamboo, used as a shutter or door. Hind. jhanp, Mahr. jhanpa; in connection with which there are verbs, Hind. jhanp-na, jhapna, dhanpna, ‘to cover’. See jhopra, s.v. ak; [but there seems to be no etymological connection].

JHOOM, s. jhum. This is a word used on the eastern frontiers of Bengal for that kind of cultivation which is practised in the hill forests of India and Indo-China, under which a tract is cleared by fire, cultivated for a year or two, and then abandoned for another tract, where a like process is pursued. This is the Kumari (see COOMRY) of S.W. India, the Chena of Ceylon (see Emerson Tennent, ii. 463), the toung- gyan of Burma [Gazetteer, ii. 72, 757, the dahya of North India (Skt. dah, ‘to burn’), ponam (Tam. pun, ‘inferior’), or ponacaud (Mal. punakkatu, pun, ‘inferior,’ katu, ‘forest’) of Malabar]. In the Philippine Islands it is known as gainges; it is practised in the Ardennes, under the name of sartage, and in Sweden under the name of svedjande (see Marsh, Earth as Modified by Human Action, 346).

[1800.—“In this hilly tract are a number of people … who use a kind of cultivation called the Cotucadu, which a good deal resembles that which in the Eastern parts of Bengal is called Jumea.”—Buchanan, Mysore, ii. 177.]

1883.—“It is now many years since Government, seeing the waste of forest caused by juming, endeavoured to put a stop to the practice. … The people jumed as before, regardless of orders.”—Indian Agriculturist, Sept. (Calcutta).

1885.—“Juming disputes often arose, one village against another, both desiring to jum the same tract of jungle, and these cases were very troublesome to deal with. The juming season commences about the middle of May, and the air is then darkened by the smoke from the numerous clearings. …” (Here follows an account of the process).—Lt.-Col. Lewin, A Fly on the Wheel, 348 seqq.

JIGGY-JIGGY, adv. Japanese equivalent for ‘make haste!’ The Chinese syllables chih-chih, given as the origin, mean ‘straight, straight!’ Qu. ‘right ahead’? (Bp. Moule).

JILLMILL, s. Venetian shutters, or as they are called in Italy, persiane. The origin of the word is not clear. The Hind. word ‘jhilmila’ seems to mean ‘sparkling,’ and to have been applied to some kind of gauze. Possibly this may have been used for blinds, and thence transferred to shutters. [So Platts in his H. Dict.] Or it may have been an onomatopoeia, from the rattle of such shutters; or it may have been corrupted from a Port. word such as janella, ‘a window.’ All this is conjecture.

[1832.—“Besides the purdahs, the openings between the pillars have blinds neatly made of bamboo strips, wove together with coloured cords: these are called jhillmuns or cheeks” (see CHICK, a).—Mrs. Meer Hassan Ali, Observations, i. 306.]

1874.—“The front (of a Bengal house) is generally long, exhibiting a pillared verandah, or a row of French casements, and jillmilled windows.”—Calc. Review, No. cxvii. 207.

JOCOLE, s. We know not what this word is; perhaps ‘toys’? [Mr. W. Foster writes: “On looking up the I.O. copy of the Ft. St. George Consultations for Nov. 22, 1703, from which Wheeler took the passage, I found that the word is plainly not jocoles, but jocolet, which is a not unusual form of chocolate.” The N.E.D. s.v. Chocolate, gives as other forms jocolatte, jacolatt, jocalat.]

1703.—“… sent from the Patriarch to the Governor with a small present of jocoles, oil, and wines.”

—In Wheeler, ii. 32.