Chapter VEDDAS to VERANDA of V by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

VERANDA, s. An open pillared gallery round a house. This is one of the very perplexing words for which at least two origins may be maintained, on grounds equally plausible. Besides these two, which we shall immediately mention, a third has sometimes been alleged, which is thus put forward by a well- known French scholar: “Ce mot (véranda) n’est lui-méme qu’une transcription inexacte du Persan beramada, perche, terrasse, balcon.”—C. Defréméry, in Revue Critique, 1869, 1st Sem. p. 64.

Plausible as this is, it may be rejected. Is it not, however, possible that baramada, the literal meaning of which is ‘coming forward, projecting,’ may be a Persian ‘striving after meaning,’ in explanation of the foreign word which they may have borrowed?

Williams, again, in his Skt. Dict. (1872) gives ‘varanda … a veranda, a portico. …’ Moreover Beames in his Comparative Grammar of Modern Aryan Languages, gives Sansk. baranda, ‘portico,’ Bengali baranda, Hind. varanda, adding: “Most of our wiseacre literateurs (qu. littérateurs?) in Hindustan now-a-days consider this word to be derived from Pers. baramadah, and write it accordingly. It is, however, good Sanskrit” (i. 153). Fortunately we have in Bishop Caldwell a proof that comparative grammar does not preclude good manners. Mr. Beames was evidently in entire ignorance of the facts which render the origin of the Anglo-Indian word so curiously ambiguous; but we shall not call him the “wise-acre grammarian.” Varanda, with the meaning in question, does not, it may be observed, belong to the older Sanskrit, but is only found in comparatively modern works.¹

Littré also gives as follows (1874): “ETYM. Verandah, mot rapporté de l’Inde par les Anglais, est la simple dégénérescence, dans les langues modernes de l’Inde, du Sansc. veranda, colonnade, de var, couvrir.”

That the word as used in England and in France was brought by the English from India need not be doubted. But either in the same sense, or in one closely analogous, it appears to have existed, quite independently, in Portuguese and Spanish; and the manner in which it occurs without explanation in the very earliest narrative of the adventure of the Portuguese in India, as quoted below, seems almost to preclude the possibility of their having learned it in that country for the first time; whilst its occurrence in P. de Alcala can leave no doubt on the subject. [Prof. Skeat says: “If of native Span. origin, it may be Span. vara a rod, rail. Cf. L. uarus, crooked” (Concise Dict. s.v.).]

1498.—“E vêo ter comnosco onde estavamos lançados, em huma varanda onde estava hum grande castiçall d’arame que nos alumeava.”—Roteiro da Viagem de Vasco da Gama, 2nd ed., 1861, p. 62, i.e. “… and came to join us where we had been put in a varanda, where there was a great candlestick of brass that gave us light. …” And Correa, speaking of the same historical passage, though writing at a later date, says: “When the Captain-Major arrived, he was conducted through many courts and verandas (muitos pateos e varandas) to a dwelling opposite that in which the king was. …”—Correa, by Stanley, 193, compared with original Lendas, I. i. 98.

1505.—In Pedro de Alcala’s Spanish-Arabic Vocabulary we have:

“Varandas—Târbuç.

Varandas assi çârgaba,çârgab.”

Interpreting these Arabic words, with the assistance of Prof. Robertson Smith, we find that târbuç is, according to Dozy (Suppt. I. 430), darbuz, itself taken from darabazin [Greek Text] trapezion, ‘a stair-railing, fireguard, balcony, &c.’; whilst çârgab stands for sarjab, a variant (Abul W., p. 735, i.) of the commoner sharjab, ‘a lattice, or anything latticed,’ such as a window,—‘a balcony, a balustrade.’

1540.—“This said, we entred with her into an outward court, all about invironed with Galleries (cercado a roda de duas ordens de varandas) as if it had been a Cloister of Religious persons. …”—Pinto (orig. cap. lxxxiii.), in Cogan, 102.

1553 (but relating events of 1511). “… assentou Affonso d’Alboquerque com elles, que primeiro que sahissem em terra, irem ao seguinte dia, quando agua estivesse estofa, dez bateis a queimar alguns baileus, que são como varandas sobre o mar.”—Barros, II. vi. 3.

1563.—“R. … nevertheless tell me what the tree is like. O. From this varanda you can see the trees in my garden: those little ones have been planted two years, and in four they give excellent fruit. …”—Garcia, f. 112.

1602.—“De maneira, que quando ja El Rey (de Pegu) chegava, tinha huns formosos Paços de muitas camaras, varandas, retretes, cozinhas, em que se recolhia com suas mulheres. …”—Couto, Dec. vi. Liv. vii., cap. viii.

1611.—“Varanda. Lo entreado de los corridores, por ser como varas, per otro nombre vareastes quasi varafustes.”—Cobarruvias.

1631.—In Haex, Malay-Latin Vocabulary, we have as a Malay word, “Baranda, Contignatio vel Solarium.”

1644.—“The fort (at Cochin) has not now the form of a fortress, consisting all of houses; that in which the captain lives has a Varanda fronting the river, 15 paces long and 7 wide. …”—Bocarro, MS. f. 313.

1710.—“There are not wanting in Cambaya great buildings with their courts, varandas, and chambers.”—De Sousa, Oriente Conquist. ii. 152.

1711.—“The Building is very