Chapter MORDEXIM to MOSQUITO of M by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

MORDEXIM to MOSQUITO

MORDEXIM, MORDIXIM, s. Also the name of a sea-fish. Bluteau says ‘a fish found at the Isle of Quixembe on the Coast of Mozambique, very like bogas (?) or river-pikes.’

MOSELLAY, n.p. A site at Shiraz often mentioned by Hafiz as a favourite spot, and near which is his tomb.

c. 1350.—

“Boy! let yon liquid ruby flow,
And bid thy pensive heart be glad,
Whate’er the frowning zealots say;
Tell them that Eden cannot show
A stream so clear as Rocnabad;
A bower so sweet as Mossellay.”

Hafiz, rendered by Sir W. Jones.

1811.—“The stream of Rúknabád murmured near us; and within three or four hundred yards was the Mossellá and the Tomb of Hafiz.”—W. Ouseley’s Travels, i. 318.

1813.—“Not a shrub now remains of the bower of Mossella, the situation of which is now only marked by the ruins of an ancient tower.”—Macdonald Kinneir’s Persia, 62.

MOSQUE, s. There is no room for doubt as to the original of this word being the Ar. masjid, ‘a place of worship,’ literally the place of sujud, i.e. ‘prostration.’ And the probable course is this. Masjid becomes (1) in Span. mezquita, Port. mesquita;¹ (2) Ital. meschita, moschea ; French (old) mosquete, mosquée ; (3) Eng. mosque. Some of the quotations might suggest a different course of modification, but they would probably mislead.

Apropos of masjid rather than of mosque we have noted a ludicrous misapplication of the word in the advertisement to a newspaper story. “Musjeed the Hindoo ; Adventures with the Star of India in the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857.” The Weekly Detroit Free Press, London, July 1, 1882.

1336.—“Corpusque ipsius perditissimi Pseudo-prophetae…in civitate quae Mecha dicitur…pro maximo sanctuario conservatur in pulchrâ ipsorum Ecclesiâ quam Mulscket vulgariter dicunt.”—Gul. de Boldensele, in Canisii Thesaur. ed. Basnage, iv.

1384.—“Sonvi le mosquette, cioe chiese de’ Saraceni…dentro tutte bianche ed intonicate ed ingessate.”—Frescobaldi, 29.

1543.—“And with the stipulation that the 5000 larin tangas which in old times were granted, and are deposited for the expenses of the mizquitas of Baçaim, are to be paid from the said duties as they always have been paid, and in regard to the said mizquitas and the prayers that are made in them there shall be no innovation whatever.”—Treaty at Baçaim of the Portuguese with King Bador of Çanbaya (Bahadur Shah of Guzerat) in S. Botelho, Tombo, 137.

1553.—“…but destined yet to unfurl that divine and royal banner of the Soldiery of Christ…in the Eastern regions of Asia, amidst the infernal mesquitas of Arabia and Persia, and all the pagodes of the heathenism of India, on this side and beyond the Ganges.”—Barros, I. i. 1.

[c. 1610.—“The principal temple, which they call Oucourou misquitte” (Hukuru miskitu, ‘Friday mosque’).—Pyrard de Laval, Hak. Soc. i. 72.]

1616.—“They are very jealous to let their women or Moschees be seen.”—Sir T. Roe, in Purchas, i. 537 ; [Hak. Soc. ii. 21].

[1623.—“We went to see upon the same Lake a meschita, or temple of the Mahometans.”—P. della Valle, Hak. Soc. i. 69.]

1634.—

“Que a de abominação mesquita immuda
Casa, a Deos dedicada hoje se veja.”

Malaca Conquistada, 1. xii. 43.

1638.—Mandelslo unreasonably applies the term to all sorts of pagan temples, e.g.—

“Nor is it only in great Cities that the Benjans have their many Mosqueys.…” —E.T. 2nd ed. 1669, p. 52.

“The King of Siam is a Pagan, nor do his Subjects know any other Religion. They have divers Mosquees, Monasteries, and Chappels.”—Ibid. p. 104.

c. 1662.—“…he did it only for love to their Mammon ; and would have sold afterwards for as much more St. Peter’s…to the Turks for a Mosquito.”—Cowley, Discourse concerning the Govt. of O. Cromwell.

1680.—Consn. Ft. St. Geo. March 28 = “Records the death of Cassa Verona… and a dispute arising as to whether his body should be burned by the Gentues or buried by the Moors, the latter having stopped the procession on the ground that the deceased was a Mussleman and built a Musseet in the Towne to be buried in, the Governor with the advice of his Council sent an order that