Chapter PROW to PUCKAULY of P by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

PROW to PUCKAULY

PROW, PARAO, &c., s. This word seems to have a double origin in European use; the Malayal. paru, ‘a boat,’ and the Island word (common to Malay, Javanese, and most languages of the Archipelago) prau or prahu. This is often specifically applied to a peculiar kind of galley, “Malay Prow,” but Crawfurd defines it as “a general term for any vessel, but generally for small craft.” It is hard to distinguish between the words, as adopted in the earlier books, except by considering date and locality.

1499.—“The King despatched to them a large boat, which they call paráo, well manned, on board which he sent a Naire of his with an errand to the Captains. …”—Correa, Lendas, I. i. 115.

1510.—(At Calicut) “Some other small ships are called Parao, and they are boats of ten paces each, and are all of a piece, and go with oars made of cane, and the mast also is made of cane.”—Varthema, 154.

1510.—“The other Persian said: ‘O Sir, what shall we do?’ I replied: ‘Let us go along this shore till we find a parao, that is, a small bark.’ ”—Ibid. 269.

1518.—“Item; that any one possessing a zambuquo (see SAMBOOK) or a parao of his own and desiring to go in it may do so with all that belongs to him, first giving notice two days before to the Captain of the City.”—Livro dos Privilegios da Cidade de Goa, in Archiv. Port. Orient. Fascic. v. p. 7.

1523.—“When Dom Sancho (Dom Sancho Anriquez; see Correa, ii. 770) went into Muar to fight with the fleet of the King of Bintam which was inside the River, there arose a squall which upset all our paraos and lancharas at the bar mouth. …”—Lembrança, de Cousas de India, p. 5.

1582.—“Next daye after the Capitaine Generall with all his men being a land, working upon the ship called Berrio, there came in two little Paraos.”—Castañeda (tr. by N. L.), f. 62c.

1586.—“The fifth and last festival, which is called Sapan Donon, is one in which the King (of Pegu) is embarked in the most beautiful parò, or boat. …”—G. Balbi, f. 122.

1606.—Gouvea (f. 27 c) uses parò.

„ “An howre after this comming a board of the hollanders came a prawe or a canow from Bantam.”—Middleton’s Voyage, c. 3 (v).

[1611.—“The Portuguese call their own galiots Navires (navios) and those of the Malabars, Pairaus. Most of these vessels were Chetils (see CHETTY), that is to say merchantmen. Immediately on arrival the Malabars draw up their Pados or galliots on the beach.”—Pyrard de Laval, Hak. Soc. i. 345.

[1623.—“In the Morning we discern’d four ships of Malabar Rovers near the shore (they called them Paroes and they goe with Oars like our Galeots or Foists.”—P. della Valle, Hak. Soc. ii. 201.]

1666.—“Con secreto previno Lope de Soarez veinte bateles, y gobernandolo y entrando por un rio, hallaron el peligro de cinco naves y ochenta paraos con mucha gente resuelta y de valor.”—Faria y Sousa, Asia, i. 66.

1673.—“They are owners of several small Provoes, of the same make, and Canooses, cut out of one entire Piece of Wood.”—Fryer, 20. Elsewhere (e.g. 57, 59) he has Proes.

1727.—“The Andemaners had a yearly Custom to come to the Nicobar Islands, with a great number of small Praws, and kill or take Prisoners as many of the poor Nicobareans as they could overcome.”—A. Hamilton, ii. 65 [ed. 1744].

1816.—“… Prahu, a term under which the Malays include every description of vessel.”—Raffles, in As. Res. xii. 132.

1817.—“The Chinese also have many brigs … as well as native-built prahus.”—Raffles, Java, i. 203.

1868.—“On December 13th I went on board a prau bound for the Aru Islands.”—Wallace, Malay Archip. 227.

PUCKA, adj. Hind. pakka, ‘ripe, mature, cooked’; and hence substantial, permanent, with many specific applications, of which examples have been given under the habitually contrasted term cutcha (q.v.). One of the most common uses in which the word has become specific is that of a building of brick and mortar, in contradistinction to one of inferior material, as of mud, matting, or timber. Thus:

[1756.—“… adjacent houses; all of them of the strongest Pecca work, and all most proof against our Mettal on ye Bastions.” Capt. Grant, Report on Siege of Calcutta, ed. by Col. Temple, Ind. Ant., 1890, p. 7.]

1784.—“The House, Cook-room, bottle-connah, godown, &c., are all pucka-built.”—In Seton-Karr, i. 41.

1824.—“A little above this beautiful stream, some miserable pucka sheds pointed out the Company’s warehouses.”—Heber, ed. 1844, i. 259-60.

1842.—“I observe that there are in the town (Dehli) many buildings pucka-built, as it is called in India.”—Wellington to Ld. Ellenborough, in Indian Adm. of Ld. E., p. 306.

1857.—“Your Lahore men have done nobly. I should like to embrace them; Donald, Roberts, Mac, and Dick are, all of them, pucca trumps.”—Lord Lawrence, in Life, ii. 11.

1869.—“… there is no surer test by which to measure the prosperity of the people than the number of pucka houses that are being built.”—Report of a Sub-Committee on Proposed Indian Census.

This application has given rise to a substantive pucka, for work of brick and mortar, or for the composition used as cement and