Chapter TURNEE to TYCONNA of T by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

TURNEE to TYCONNA

TURNEE, TUNNEE, s. An English supercargo, Sea-Hind., and probably a corruption of attorney. (Roebuck).

TURPAUL, s. Sea-Hind. A tarpaulin (ibid.). [The word (tarpal) has now come into common native use.]

TUSSAH, TUSSER, s. A kind of inferior silk, the tissues of which are now commonly exported to England. Anglo-Indians generally regard the termination of this word in r as a vulgarism, like the use of solar for sola (q.v.); but it is in fact correct. For though it is written by Milburn (1813) tusha, and tusseh (ii. 158, 244), we find it in the Ain-i-Akbari as tassar, and in Dr. Buchanan as tasar (see below). The term is supposed to be adopted from Skt. tasara, trasara, Hind. tasar, ‘a shuttle’; perhaps from the form of the cocoon? The moth whose worm produced this silk is generally identified with Antheraea paphia, but Capt. Hutton has shown that there are several species known as tasar worms. These are found almost throughout the whole extent of the forest tracts of India. But the chief seat of the manufacture of stuffs, wholly or partly of tasar silk, has long been Bhagalpur on the Ganges. [See also Allen, Mon. on Silk Cloths of Assam, 1899; Yusuf Ali, Silk Fabrics of N.W.P., 1900.] The first mention of tasar in English reports is said to be that by Michael Atkinson of Jangipur, as cited below in the Linnœan Transactions of 1804 by Dr. Roxburgh (see Official Report on Sericulture in India, by J. Geoghegan, Calcutta, 1872), [and the elaborate article in Watt, Econ. Dict. vi. pt. iii. 96 seqq.].

c. 1590.—“Tassar, per piece … 1/3 to 2 Rupees.”—Ain, i. 94.

[1591.—See the account by Rumphius, quoted by Watt, loc. cit. p. 99.]

1726.—“Tessersse … 11 ells long and 2 els broad.…”—Valentijn, v. 178.

1796.—“… I send you herewith for Dr. Roxburgh a specimen of Bughy Tusseh silk. … There are none of the Palma Christi species of Tusseh to be had here. … I have heard that there is another variation of the Tusseh silk-worm in the hills near Bauglipoor.”—Letter of M. Atkinson, as above, in Linn. Trans., 1804, p. 41.

1802.—“They (the insects) are found in such abundance over many parts of Bengal and the adjoining provinces as to have afforded to the natives, from time immemorial, an abundant supply of a most durable, coarse, dark-coloured silk, commonly called Tusseh silk, which is woven into a cloth called Tusseh doot’hies, much worn by Bramins and other sects of Hindoos.”—Roxburgh, Ibid. 34.

c. 1809.—“The chief use to which the tree (Terminalia elata, or Asan) is however applied, is to rear the Tasar silk.”—Buchanan, Eastern India, ii. 157 seqq.

[1817.—“A thick cloth, called tusuru, is made from the web of the gootee insect in the district of Veerbhoomee.”—Ward, Hindoos, 2d ed. i. 85.]

1876.—“The work of the Tussur silk-weavers has so fallen off that the Calcutta merchants no longer do business with them.” —Sat. Rev., 14 Oct., p. 468.

TUTICORIN, n.p. A sea-port of Tinnevelly, and long the seat of pearl-fishery, in Tamil Tuttukkudi, [which the Madras Gloss. derives from Tam. tuttu, ‘to scatter,’ kudi, ‘habitation’]. According to Fra Paolino the name is Tutukodi, ‘a place where nets are washed,’ but he is not to be trusted. Another etymology alleged is from turu, ‘a bush.’ But see Bp. Caldwell below.

1544.—“At this time the King of Cape Comorin, who calls himself the Great King (see TRAVANCORE), went to war with a neighbour of his who was king of the places beyond the Cape, called Manapá and Totucury, inhabited by the Christians that were made there by Miguel Vaz, Vicar General of India at the time.”—Correa, iv. 403.

1610.—“And the said Captain and Auditor shall go into residence every three years, and to him shall pertain all the temporal government, without any intermeddling therein of the members of the Company … nor shall the said members (religiosos) compel any of the Christians to remain in the island unless it is their voluntary choice to do so, and such as wish it may live at Tuttucorim.”—King’s Letter, in L. das Monções, 386.

1644.—“The other direction in which the residents of Cochim usually go for their trading purchases is to Tutocorim, on the Fishery Coast (Costa da Pescaria), which gets that name from the pearl which is fished there.”—Bocarro, MS.

[c. 1660.—“… musk and porcelain from China, and pearls from Beharen (Bahrein), and Tutucoury, near Ceylon. …”—Bernier, ed. Constable, 204.]

1672.—“The pearls are publicly sold in the market at Tutecoryn and at Cailpatnam. … The Tutecorinish and Manaarish pearls are not so good as those of Persia and Ormus, because they are not so free from water or so white.”—Baldaeus (Germ. ed.), 145.

1673.—“… Tutticaree, a Portugal Town in time of Yore.”—Fryer, 49.

[1682.—“The Agent having notice of an Interloper lying in Titticorin Bay, immediately