Chapter LOVE-BIRD to LUNKA of L by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

Governor of the N.W. Provinces in 1877. [The name appears to be a corruption of the ancient Lakshmanavati, founded by Lakshmana, brother of Ramachandra of Ayodhya.]

1528.—“On Saturday the 29th of the latter Jemâdi, I reached Luknow and having surveyed it, passed the river Gûmti and encamped.”—Baber, p. 381.

[c. 1590.—“Lucknow is a large city on the banks of the Gúmti, delightful in its surroundings.”—Ain, ed. Jarrett, ii. 173.]

1663.—“In Agra the Hollanders have also an House. … Formerly they had a good trade there in selling Scarlet … as also in buying those cloths of Jelapour and Laknau at 7 or 8 days journey from Agra, where they also keep an house. …”—Bernier, E.T. 94; [ed. Constable, 292, who identifies Jelapour with Jalalpur-Nahir in the Fyzabad district.]

LUDDOO s. H. laddu. A common native sweetmeat, consisting of balls of sugar and ghee, mixt with wheat and gram flour, and with cocoanut kernel rasped.

[1826.—“My friends … called me boor ke luddoo or the great man’s sport.”—Pandurang Hari, ed. 1873, i. 197.

[1828.—“When at large we cannot even get rabri (porridge), but in prison we eat ladoo (a sweetmeat).”—Tod, Annals, Calcutta reprint, ii. 185.]

LUGOW, TO, v. This is one of those imperatives transformed, in Anglo-Indian jargon, into infinitives, which are referred to under BUNOW, PUCKEROW. H. inf. laga-na, imperative laga-o. The meanings of lagana, as given by Shakespear, are: “to apply, close, attach, join, fix, affix, ascribe, impose, lay, add, place, put, plant, set, shut, spread, fasten, connect, plaster, put to work, employ, engage, use, impute, report anything in the way of scandal or malice”—in which long list he has omitted one of the most common uses of the verb, in its Anglo-Indian form lugow, which is “to lay a boat alongside the shore or wharf, to moor.” The fact is that lagana is the active form of the neuter verb lag-na, ‘to touch, lie, to be in contact with,’ and used in all the neuter senses of which lagana expresses the transitive senses. Besides neuter lagna, active lagana, we have a secondary casual verb, lagwana, ‘to cause to apply,’ &c. Lag na, lagana are presumably the same words as our lie, and lay, A.-S. licgan, and lecgan, mod. Germ. liegen and legen. And the meaning ‘lay’ underlies all the senses which Shakespear gives of laga-na. [See Skeat, Concise Etym. Dict. s.v. lie]

[1839.—“They lugaoed or were fastened, about a quarter of a mile below us. …”—Davidson, Travels in Upper India, ii. 20.]

LUMBERDAR s. Hind. lambardar, a word formed from the English word ‘number’ with the Pers. termination - dar, and meaning properly ‘the man who is registered by a number.’ “The registered representative of a coparcenary community, who is responsible for Government revenue.” (Carnegy). “The cultivator who, either on his own account or as the representative of other members of the village, pays the Government dues and is registered in the Collector’s Roll according to his number; as the representative of the rest he may hold the office by descent or by election.” (Wilson). [1875.—“… Chota Khan … was exceedingly useful, and really frightened the astonished Lambadars”—Wilson, Abode of Snow, 97.]

LUNGOOR s. Hind. langur, from Skt. langulin, ‘caudatus.’ The great white-bearded ape, much patronized by Hindus, and identified with the monkey-god Hanuman. The genus is Presbytes, Illiger, of which several species are now discriminated, but the differences are small. [See Blanford, Mammalia, 27, who classes the Langur as Semnopithecus entellus.] The animal is well described by Aelian in the following quotation, which will recall to many what they have witnessed in the suburbs of Benares and other great Hindu cities. The Langur of the Prasii is P. Entellus.

c. 250.—“Among the Prasii of India they say that there exists a kind of ape with human intelligence. These animals seem to be about the size of Hyrcanian dogs. Their front hair looks all grown together, and any one ignorant of the truth would say that it was dressed artificially. The beard is like that of a satyr, and the tail strong like that of a lion. All the rest of the body is white, but the head and the tail are red. These creatures are tame and gentle in character, but by race and manner of life they are wild. They go about in crowds in the suburbs of Latage (now Latage is a city of the Indians) and eat the boiled rice that is put out for them by the King’s order. Every day their dinner is elegantly set out. Having