Chapter QUAMOCLIT to QUILOA of Q by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

QUAMOCLIT to QUILOA

[QUAMOCLIT, s. The Ipomaea quamoclitis, the name given by Linnaeus to the Red Jasmine. The word is a corruption of Skt. Kama-lata, ‘the creeper of Kama, god of love.’

1834.—“This climber, the most beautiful and luxuriant imaginable, bears also the name of Kamalata ‘Love’s Creeper.’ Some have flowers of snowy hue, with a delicate fragrance….”—Wanderings of a Pilgrim, i. 310–11.]

QUEDDA, n.p. A city, port, and small kingdom on the west coast of the Malay Peninsula, tributary to Siam. The name according to Crawfurd is Malay kadáh, ‘an elephant-trap’ (see KEDDAH). [Mr. Skeat writes: “I do not know what Crawfurd’s authority may be, but kedah does not appear in Klinkert’s Dict…. In any case the form taken by the name of the country is Kedah. The coralling of elephants is probably a Siamese custom, the method adopted on the E. coast, where the Malays are left to themselves, being to place a decoy female elephant near a powerful noose.”] It has been supposed sometimes that Kadáh is the [Greek Text] Kwli or [Greek Text] KwliV of Ptolemy’s sea-route to China, and likewise the Kalah of the early Arab voyagers, as in the Fourth Voyage of Sindbad the Seaman (see Procgs. R. Geog. Soc. 1882, p. 655; Burton Arabian Nights, iv. 386). It is possible that these old names however represent Kwala, ‘a river mouth,’ a denomination of many small ports in Malay regions. Thus the port that we call Quedda is called by the Malays Kwala Batrang. 1516.—“Having left this town of Tanassary, further along the coast towards Malaca, there is another seaport of the Kingdom of Ansiam, which is called Queda, in which also there is much shipping, and great interchange of merchandise.”—Barbosa, 188–189.

1553.—“…The settlements from Tavay to Malaca are these: Tenassary, a notable city, Lungur, Torrão, Queda, producing the best pepper on all that coast, Pedão, Perá, Solungor, and our City of Malaca….”—Barros, I. ix. 1.

1572.—

“Olha Tavai cidade, onde começa
De Sião largo o imperio tão comprido:
Tenassarí, Quedá, que he so cabeça
Das que pimenta alli tem produzido.”

Camões, x. 123.

By Burton:

“Behold Taváí City, whence begin
Siam’s dominions, Reign of vast extent;
Tenassarí, Quedá of towns the Queen
that bear the burthen of the hot piment.”

1598.—“…to the town and Kingdome of Queda…which lyeth under 6 degrees and a halfe; this is also a Kingdome like Tanassaria, it hath also some wine, as Tanassaria hath, and some small quantitie of Pepper.”—Linschoten, p. 31; [Hak. Soc. i. 103].

1614.—“And so…Diogo de Mendonça…sending the galliots (see GALLEVAT) on before, embarked in the jalia (see GALLEVAT) of João Rodriguez de Paiva, and coming to Queda, and making an attack at daybreak, and finding them unprepared, he burnt the town, and carried off a quantity of provisions and some tin” (calaim, see CALAY).—Bocarro, Decada, 187.

1838.—“Leaving Penang in September, we first proceeded to the town of Quedah lying at the mouth of a river of the same name.”—Quedah, &c., by Capt. Sherard Osborne, ed. 1865.

QUEMOY, n.p. An island at the east opening of the Harbour of Amoy. It is a corruption of Kin-man, in Chang-chau dialect Kin-muiⁿ, meaning ‘Golden-door.’

QUI-HI, s. The popular distinctive nickname of the Bengal Anglo-Indian, from the usual manner of calling servants in that Presidency, viz. ‘Koi hai?’ ‘Is any one there?’ The Anglo-Indian of Madras was known as a Mull, and he of Bombay as a Duck (qq.v.).

1816.—“The Grand Master, or Adventures of Qui Hi in Hindostan, a Hudibrastic Poem; with illustrations by Rowlandson.”

1825.—“Most of the household servants are Parsees, the greater part of whom speak English…. Instead of ‘Koee hue,’ Who’s there? the way of calling a servant is ‘boy,’ a corruption, I believe, of ‘bhae,’ brother.”—Heber, ed. 1844, ii. 98. [But see under BOY.]

c. 1830.—“J’ai vu dans vos gazettes de Calcutta les clameurs des quoihaés (sobriquet des Européens Bengalis de ce côté) sur la chaleur.”—Jacquemont, Corresp. ii. 308.