Chapter PIE to PIECE-GOODS of P by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

meant.

3. Pulecat handkerchiefs. (See MADRAS handkerchiefs and BANDANNA.)

2. Punjum.—The Madras Gloss. gives Tel. punjamu, Tam. puñjam, lit. ‘a collection.’ “In Tel. a collection of 60 threads and in Tam. of 120 threads skeined, ready for the formation of the warp for weaving. A cloth is denominated 10, 12, 14, up to 40 poonjam, according to the number of times 60, or else 120, is contained in the total number of threads in the warp. Poonjam thus also came to mean a cloth of the length of one poonjam as usually skeined; this usual length is 36 cubits, or 18 yards, and the width from 38 to 44 inches, 14 lbs. being the common weight; pieces of half length were formerly exported as Salempoory.” Writing in 1814, Heyne (Tracts, 347) says: “Here (in Salem) two punjums are designated by ‘first call,’ so that twelve punjums of cloth is called ‘six call,’ and so on.”

3. Puteahs. (See PUTTEE.) In a letter of 1610 we have: “Patta, katuynen, with red stripes over thwart through.” (Danvers, Letters, i. 72.)

2. Putton Ketchies.—Cloths which possibly took their name from the city of Anhilwara Patan in Cutch.

1727.—“That country (Tegnapatam) produces Pepper, and coarse Cloth called catchas.”—A. Hamilton, i. 335.

3. Raings.—“Rang is a muslin which resembles jhuna in its transparent gauze or net-like texture. It is made by passing a single thread of the warp through each division of the reed” (Taylor, op. cit. 44.) “1 Piece of Raiglins.”—Hedges, Diary, Hak. Soc. i. 94.

1. Saloopauts. (See SHALEE.) 3. Sannoes.

2. Sassergates.—Some kind of cloth called ‘that of the 1000 knots,’ H. sahasra granthi. “Saserguntees” (Birdwood, Rep. on Old Records, 63).

2. Sastracundees.—These cloths seem to take their name from a place called Sastrakunda, ‘Pool of the Law.’ This is probably the place named in the Ain (ed. Jarrett, ii. 124): “In the township of Kiyara Sundar is a large reservoir which gives a peculiar whiteness to the cloths washed in it.” Gladwin reads the name Catarashoonda, or Catarehsoonder (see Taylor, op. cit. 91).

3. Seerbands, Seerbetties.—These are names for turbans, H. sirband, sirbatti. Taylor (op. cit. 47) names them as Dacca muslins under the names of surbund and surbutee.

3. Seershauds.—This is perhaps P. sirshad, ‘head-delighting,’ some kind of turban or veil.

3. Seersuckers.—Perhaps, sir, ‘head,’ sukh, ‘pleasure.’

3. Shalbaft.—P. shalbaft, ‘shawl-weaving.’ (See SHAWL.)

3. Sicktersoys. 3. SOOSIES.

3. Subnoms, Subloms.—“Shubnam is a thin pellucid muslin to which the Persian figurative name of ‘evening dew’ (shabnam) is given, the fabric being, when spread over the bleaching-field, scarcely distinguishable from the dew on the grass.” (Taylor, op. cit. 45.)

3. Succatoons. (See SUCLAT.) 3. Taffaties of sorts. “A name applied to plain woven silks, in more recent times signifying a light thin silk stuff with a considerable lustre or gloss” (Drapers’ Dict. s.v.). The word comes from P. taftan, ‘to twist, spin.’ The Ain (i. 94) has taftah in the list of silks.

3. Tainsooks.—H. tansukh, ‘taking ease.’ (See above under NAINSOOKS.)

3. Tanjeebs. P. tanzeb, ‘body adorning.’—“A tolerably fine muslin” (Taylor, op. cit. 46; Forbes Watson, op. cit. 76). “The silk tanzeb seems to have gone out of fashion, but that in cotton is very commonly used for the chicken work in Lucknow.” (Yusuf Ali, op. cit. 96.)

1. Tapseils. (See under ALLEJA.) In the Ain (i. 94) we have: “Tafçilah (a stuff from Mecca).”

1670.—“So that in your house are only left some Tapseiles and cotton yarn.”—In Yule, Hedges’ Diary, Hak. Soc. ii. ccxxvi. Birdwood in Report on Old Records, 38, has Topsails.

2. Tarnatannes.—“There are various kinds of muslins brought from the East Indies, chiefly from Bengal, betelles (see BETTEELA) tarnatans …” (Chambers’ Cycl. of 1788, quoted in 3rd ser. N. & Q.

iv. 135). It is suggested (ibid. 3rd ser. iv. 135) that this is the origin of English tarletan, Fr. tarletane, which is defined in the Drapers’ Dict. as “a fine open muslin, first imported from India and afterwards imitated here.” 3. Tartorees. 3. Tepoys.

3. Terindams.—“Turundam (said by the weavers to mean ‘a kind of cloth for the body,’ the name being derived from the Arabic word turuh (tarh, tarah) ‘a kind,’ and the Persian one undam (andam) ‘the body,’ is a muslin which was formerly imported, under the name of terendam, into this country.” (Taylor, op. cit. 46.)

2. Ventepollams. PIGDAUN, s. A spittoon; Hind. pikdan. Pik is properly the expectorated juice of chewed betel.

[c. 1665.—“… servants … to carry the Picquedent or spittoon. …”—Bernier, ed. Constable, 214. In 283 Piquedans.]

1673.—“The Rooms are spread with Carpets as in India, and they have Pigdans, or Spitting pots of the Earth of this Place, which is valued next to that of China, to void their Spittle in.”—Fryer, 223.

[1684.—Hedges speaks of purchasing a “Spitting Cup.”—Diary, Hak. Soc. i. 149.]