Chapter PUCKEROW to PULICAT of P by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

PUCKEROW to PULICAT

PUCKEROW, v. This is properly the imperative of the Hind. verb pakrana, ‘to cause to be seized,’ pakrao, ‘cause him to be seized’; or perhaps more correctly of a compound verb pakarao, ‘seize and come,’ or in our idiom, ‘Go and seize.’ But puckerow belongs essentially to the dialect of the European soldier, and in that becomes of itself a verb ‘to puckerow,’ i.e. to lay hold of (generally of a recalcitrant native). The conversion of the Hind. imperative into an Anglo-Indian verb infinitive, is not uncommon; compare bunow, dumbcow, gubbrow, lugow, &c.

1866.—“Fanny, I am cutcha no longer. Surely you will allow a lover who is pucka to puckero!”—Trevelyan, The Dawk Bungalow, 390.

PUDIPATAN, n.p. The name of a very old seaport of Malabar, which has now ceased to have a place in the Maps. It lay between Cannanore and Calicut, and must have been near the Waddakaré of K. Johnston’s Royal Atlas. [It appears in the map in Logan’s Malabar as Putuppatanam or Putappanam.] The name is Tamil, Pudupattana, ‘New City.’ Compare true form of Pondicherry. c. 545.—“The most notable places of trade are these … and then five marts of Malé from which pepper is exported, to wit, Parti, Mangaruth (see MANGALORE) Salopatana, Nalopatana, Pudopatana. …”—Cosmas Indicopleustes, Bk. xi. (see in Cathay, &c. p. clxxviii.).

c. 1342.—“Buddfattan, which is a considerable city, situated upon a great estuary. … The haven of this city is one of the finest; the water is good, the betel-nut is abundant, and is exported thence to India and China.”—Ibn Batuta, iv. 87.

c. 1420.—“A quâ rursus se diebus viginti terrestri viâ contulit ad urbem portumque maritimum nomine Pudifetaneam.”—Conti, in Poggio, de Var. Fort.

1516.—“… And passing those places you come to a river called Pudripatan, in which there is a good place having many Moorish merchants who possess a multitude of ships, and here begins the Kingdom of Calicut.”—Barbosa, in Ramusio, i. f. 311v. See also in Stanley’s Barbosa Pudopatani, and in Tohfat-ul-Mujahideen, by Rowlandson, pp. 71, 157, where the name (Budfattan) is misread Buduftun.

[PUG, s. Hind. pag, Skt. padaka, ‘a foot’; in Anglo-Indian use the footmarks of an animal, such as a tiger.

[1831.—“… sanguine we were sometimes on the report of a bura pug from the shikaree.”—Orient. Sport. Mag. reprint 1873, ii. 178.

[1882.—“Presently the large square ‘pug’ of the tiger we were in search of appeared.”—Sanderson, Thirteen Years, 30.]

PUGGRY, PUGGERIE, s. Hind. pagri, ‘a turban.’ The term being often used in colloquial for a scarf of cotton or silk wound round the hat in turban-form, to protect the head from the sun, both the thing and name have of late years made their way to England, and may be seen in London shop-windows.

c. 1200.—“Prithirâja … wore a pagari ornamented with jewels, with a splendid toro. In his ears he wore pearls; on his neck a pearl necklace.”—Chand Bardai E.T. by Beames, Ind. Ant. i. 282.

[1627.—“… I find it is the common mode of the Eastern People to shave the head all save a long lock which superstitiously they leave at the very top, such especially as wear Turbans, Mandils, Dustars, and Puggarees.”—Sir T. Herbert, ed. 1677, p. 140.]

1673.—“They are distinguished, some according to the consanguinity they claim with Mahomet, as a Siad is akin to that Imposture, and therefore only assumes to himself a Green Vest and Puckery (or Turbat). …”—Fryer, 93; [comp. 113].

1689.—“… with a Puggaree or Turbant upon their Heads.”—Ovington, 314.

1871.—“They (the Negro Police in Demarara) used frequently to be turned out to parade in George Town streets, dressed in a neat uniform, with white puggries framing in their ebony faces.”—Jenkins, The Coolie.

PUGGY, s. Hind. pagi (not in Shakespear’s Dict., nor in Platts), from pag (see PUG), ‘the foot.’ A professional tracker; the name of a caste, or rather an occupation, whose business is to track thieves by footmarks and the like. On the system, see Burton, Sind Revisited, i. 180 seqq.

[1824.—“There are in some of the districts of Central India (as in Guzerat) puggees, who have small fees on the village, and whose business it is to trace thieves by the print of their feet.”—Malcolm, Central India, 2nd ed. ii. 19.]

1879.—“Good puggies or trackers should be employed to follow the dacoits during the daytime.”—Times of India, Overland Suppt., May 12, p. 7.