Chapter WANGHEE to WITNER of W by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

from the earlier part of the last century told me that in his younger days the rule at Calcutta was that the guest always arrived at his host’s house in the full evening-dress of the time, on which his host meeting him at the door expressed his regret that he had not chosen a cooler dress; on which the guest’s Bearer always, as if by accident, appeared from round the corner with a nankeen jacket, which was then and there put on. But it would have been opposed to etiquette for the guest to appear in such a dress without express invitation.]

1803.—“It was formerly the fashion for gentlemen to dress in white jackets on all occasions, which were well suited to the country, but being thought too much an undress for public occasions, they are now laid aside for English cloth.”—Ld. Valentia, i. 240.

[c. 1848.—“… a white jacket being evening dress for a dinner-party. …”— Berncastle, Voyage to China, including a Visit to the Bombay Pres. i. 93.]

WITNER, s. This term is constantly applied by the old writers to the rainy season, a usage now quite unknown to Anglo-Indians. It may have originated in the fact that winter is in many parts of the Mediterranean coast so frequently a season of rain, whilst rain is rare in summer. Compare the fact that shita in Arabic is indifferently ‘winter,’ or ‘rain’; the winter season being the rainy season. Shita is the same word that appears in Canticles ii. 11: “The winter (sethav) is past, the rain is over and gone.”

1513.—“And so they set out, and they arrived at Surat (Çurrate) in May, when the winter had already begun, so they went into winter-quarters (polo que envernarão), and in September, when the winter was over, they went to Goa in two foists and other vessels, and in one of these was the ganda (rhinoceros), the sight of which made a great commotion when landed at Goa. …”—Correa, ii. 373.

1563.—“R.…In what time of the year does this disease (morxi, Mort-de-chien) mostly occur ?

“O.… It occurs mostly in June and July (which is the winter-time in this country). …”—Garcia, f. 76y.

c. 1567.—“Da Bezeneger a Goa sono d’estate otto giornate di viaggio: ma noi lo facessimo di mezo l’inverno, il mese de Luglio.”—Cesare Federici, in Ramusio, iii. 389.

1583.—“Il uerno in questo paese è il Maggio, Giugno, Luglio e Agosto, e il resto dell’ anno è state. Ma bene è da notare che qui la stagione nõ si può chiamar uerno rispetto al freddo, che nõ vi regna mai, mà solo per cagione de’ venti, e delle gran pioggie. …”—Gasparo Balbi, f. 67v.

1584.—“Note that the Citie of Goa is the principall place of all the Oriental India, and the winter thus beginneth the 15 of May, with very great raine.”—Barret, in Hakl. ii. 413.

[1592.—See under PENANG.]

1610.—“The Winter heere beginneth about the first of Iune and dureth till the twentieth of September, but not with continuall raines as at Goa, but for some sixe or seuen dayes every change and full, with much wind, thunder and raine.”—Finch, in Purchas, i. 423.

c. 1610.—“L’hyver commence au mois d’Avril, et dure six mois.”—Pyrard de Laval, i. 78: [Hak. Sec. i. 104, and see i. 64, ii. 34].

1643.—“… des Galiottes (qui sortent tous les ans pour faire la guerre aux Malabares … et cela est enuiron la May-Septembre, lors que leur hyuer est passé, …”—Mocquet, 347.

1653.—“Dans les Indes il y a deux Estez et deux Hyuers, ou pour mieux dire vn Printemps perpetuel, parce que les arbres y sont tousiours verds: Le premier Esté commance au mois de Mars, et finit au mois de May, que est la commancement de l’hyuer de pluye, qui continue iusques en Septembre pleuuant incessament ces quatre mois, en sorte que les Karauanes, ny les Patmars (see PATTAMAR, a) ne vont ne viennent: i’ay esté quarante iours sans pouuoir sortir de la maison. … Le second Esté est depuis Octobre iusques en Decembre, au quel mois il commance à faire froid … ce froid est le second Hyuer qui finit au mois de Mars.”—De la Boullaye-le-Gouz, ed. 1657, p. 244–245.

1665.—“L’Hyver se sait sentir. El commença en Juin per quantité de pluies et de tonneres.”—Thevenot, v. 311.

1678.—“… In Winter (when they rarely stir) they have a Mumjama, or Wax Cloth to throw over it. …”—Fryer, 410.

1691.—“In orâ Occidentali, quae Malabarorum est, hyems â mense Aprili in Septembrem usque dominatur: in littore verò Orientali, quod Hollandi de Rust ban Choromandel, Oram Coromandellae vocant trans illos montes, in iisdem latitudinis gradibus, contrariô planè modô â Septembri usque ad Aprilem hyemem habent.”—Iobi Lusdofi, ad suam Historiam Commentarius, 101.

1770.—“The mere breadth of these mountains divides summer from winter, that is to say, the season of fine weather from the rainy … all that is meant by winter in India is the time of the year when the clouds … are driven violently by the winds against the mountains,” &c.—Raynal, tr. 1777, i. 34.