Chapter TINCALL to TOBACCO of T by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

TINCALL to TOBACCO

TINCALL, s. Borax. Pers. tinkar, but apparently originally Skt. tankana, and perhaps from the people so called who may have supplied it, in the Himalaya— [Greek Text] Tagganoi of Ptolemy. [Mr. Atkinson (Himalayan Gazz. ii. 357) connects the name of this people with that of the tangun pony.]

1525.—“Tymquall, small, 60 tangas a mound.”—Lembrança, 50.

1563.—“It is called borax and crisocola; and in Arabic tincar, and so the Guzeratis call it.…”—Garcia, f. 78.

c. 1590.—“Having reduced the k’haral to small bits, he adds to every man of it 1½ sers of tangár (borax) and 3 sers of pounded natrum, and kneads them together.”—Ain, i. 26.

[1757.—“A small quantity of Tutenegg (Tootnague), Tinkal and Japan Copper was also found here.…”—Ives, 105.]

TINDAL, s. Malayal. tandal, Telug. tandelu, also in Mahr. and other vernaculars tandel, tandail, [which Platts connects with tanda, Skt. tantra, ‘a line of men,’ but the Madras Gloss. derives the S. Indian forms from Mal. tandu, ‘an oar,’ valli, ‘to pull.’] The head or commander of a body of men; but in ordinary specific application a native petty officer of lascars, whether on board ship (boatswain) or in the ordnance department, and sometimes the head of a gang of labourers on public works.

c. 1348.—“The second day after our arrival at the port of Kailukari this princess invited the nakhodah (Nacoda) or owner of the ship, the karani (see CRANNY) or clerk, the merchants, the persons of distinction, the tandil.…”Ibn Batuta, iv. 250. The Moorish traveller explains the word as mukaddam (Mocuddum, q.v.) al-rajal, which the French translators render as “général des piétons,” but we may hazard the correction of “Master of the crew.”

c. 1590.—“In large ships there are twelve classes. 1. The Nákhudá, or owner of the ship.…3. The Tandíl, or chief of the khaláçis (see CLASSY) or sailors.…”—Ain, i. 280.

1673.—“The Captain is called Nucquedah, the boatswain Tindal.…”—Fryer, 107.

1758.—“One Tindal, or Corporal of Lascars.”—Orme, ii. 339.

[1826.—“I desired the tindal, or steersman to answer, ‘Bombay.’”—Pandurang Hari, ed. 1873, ii. 157.]

TINNEVELLY, n.p. A town and district of Southern India, probably Tiru-nel-veli, ‘Sacred Rice-hedge.’ [The Madras Gloss. gives ‘Sacred Paddy-village.’] The district formed the southern part of the Madura territory, and first became a distinct district about 1744, when the Madura Kingdom was incorporated with the territories under the Nawab of Arcot (Caldwell, H. of Tinnevelly).

TIPARRY, s. Beng. and Hind. tipari, tepari, the fruit of Physalis peruviana, L., N.O. Solanaceae. It is also known in India as ‘Cape goose-berry,’ [which is usually said to take its name from the Cape of Good Hope, but as it is a native of tropical America, Mr. Ferguson (8 ser. N. & Q. xii. 106) suggests that the word may really be cape or cap, from the peculiarity of its structure noted below.] It is sometimes known as ‘Brazil cherry.’ It gets its generic name from the fact that the inflated calyx encloses the fruit as in a bag or bladder ( [Greek Text] fusa). It has a slightly acid gooseberry flavour, and makes excellent jam. We have seen a suggestion somewhere that the Bengali name is connected with the word tenpa, ‘inflated,’ which gives its name to a species of tetrodon or globe-fish, a fish which has the power of dilating the œsophagus in a singular manner. The native name of the fruit in N.W. India is mak or mako, but tipari is in general Anglo-Indian use. The use of an almost identical name for a gooseberry-like fruit, in a Polynesian Island (Kingsmill group) quoted below from Wilkes, is very curious, but we can say no more on the matter.

1845.—“On Makin they have a kind of fruit resembling the gooseberry, called by the natives ‘teiparu’; this they pound, after it is dried, and make with molasses into cakes, which are sweet and pleasant to the taste.”—U.S. Expedition, by C. Wilkes, U.S.N., v. 81.

1878.—“…The enticing tipari in its crackly covering.…”—P. Robinson, In My Indian Garden, 49–50.

TIPPOO SAHIB, n.p. The name of this famous enemy of the English power in India was, according to C. P. Brown, taken from that of Tipu Sultan, a saint whose tomb is near Hyderabad. [Wilks (Hist. Sketches, i. 522, ed. 1869), says that the tomb is at Arcot.]

TIRKUT, s. Foresail. Sea Hind. from Port. triquette (Roebuck).