Journal of the Indian Archipelago and Eastern Asia/Series 1/Volume 4/On the Words introduced into the English from the Malay, Polynesian and Chinese languages
ON THE WORDS INTRODUCED INTO THE ENGLISH FROM THE MALAY, POLYNESIAN AND CHINESE LANGUAGES.
By John Crawfurd, Esq.
I read before the British Association last Autumn at Birmingham a paper on the Oriental words adopted in English. and present communication is that portion of it, which with some corrections, comprises those taken from the Malay, Polynesian, and Chinese languages. Tho original paper has not been published with the exception of a few extracts in the Atheneum.
Malay Words.
(Bamboo.) My friend Professor Wilson informs me that this word belongs to the Canarese, but it is certainly used in the western side of Sumatra, and Mr Marsden inserts it in his Dictionary as good Malay, with the orthography of Bambu. It is, however, unknown to the Malay language, except in Sumatra. The Malayan name is Buluh and the Javanese Prin͞g. Still it is more likely that the word found its way into the English, and other European languages from Sumatra, than from Canara, with which the early adventurers had very little intercourse.
(Bankshall.) The name given by Europeans to the office of the Master Attendant, or Intendant of a Port. It is most probably taken from the Malay word Ban͞gsal, a shed, an outhouse.
(Bantam fowl.) Bantam in the island of Java, correctly Bantan, was one of the first ports visited by the Dutch and English. It was, at the time, an emporium, and frequented by Chinese and Japanese junks. Here our countrymen found the small breed of fowls, with which we are now familiar, They had been imported from Japan, of which alone they are natives, but our countrymen, finding them at Bantam, proceeded at once to call them by the name, which they have ever since borne. In my time, there was not a single bantam to be found in the kingdom of Bantam.
(Bird of Paradise.) This is certainly not an Indian word, but it is meant for a translation of one. The name of the bird in the Malay is burun͞g dewata, or manuk dewata in Japanese. Burun͞g in Malay is bird, or fowl, and manuk is the same in Javanese. Dewata is Sanskrit, and is a god, or gods, the compound of course meaning "bird of the gods," no doubt on account of its beauty. The birds of paradise are natives of New Guinea, and not known in any part of the Archipelago west or north of it. The Malays and Javanese, who conducted the carrying trade of the islands on the arrival of Europeans in the East, gave these birds their own name, which bears no impress of an indigenous one. In the language of the Negroes of New Guinea, who catch and preserve these birds, they are called manbefor. A pair of birds of paradise brought home by the companions of Magellan after the first voyage round. the world, and presented to Charles the 5th, were the first brought to Europe. This was in 1522.
(Camphor.) Sanskrit, Kapura. Malay, Kapur. Arabic, Kapur. The original word is probably Sanskrit. The Spaniards have had it from the Arabs, as the form of the word Alcamphora shews. We and took it from the Malays.
(Caddy.) Very probably the Melay word Kati, from the small boxes of fine tea containing one or two catties weight, or from a pound to two pounds and two-thirds.
(Catechu.) Catechu, or Terra Japonica, in Malay Kachu, Hindi Kath, the inspissated juice of the dark-coloured heart of the Acacia Catechu. To judge by its form, and sound, it seems to have been taken by us from the Malay, and not from any Hindu language.
(Cockatoo.) Malay Kakatuwah—a vice, a gripe, and also the name of the bird, no doubt referring to its powerful bill. Some of the Papuas of New Guinea, who catch these birds, and sell them to the traders, call the common cockatoo with yellow crest (the most common of the family,) Mangaras, others give the cockatoo the name of Akia. It frequently happens, indeed, that the name given by the trade prevails over the native, as in the names for the clove, the nutmeg, pepper, cubeb, camphor, bird of paradise &c.
(Compound.) A word in constant use with the English in India, meaning the yard or enclosure round a dwelling house, the quarter of a town, a village because enclosed.
(Creese.) Malay, Kris. The generic name for a dagger or poniard.
(Gamboge.) Our word is from the Malay Kamboja, the name of the country, which is the chief source of production. The Portuguese have two names for this production, Gomma rom, and Gomma gutta. The former is nearly correct, for the last part of it is evidently the Malayan name ron͞g, and the first merely the word gum. The last part of the second name is the Malay for gum, viz. gatah; so that the gum is in two languages. One of two Spanish names is the same with this last Portuguese one. The other is Gutta gambo which seems to be the Malay word Gâtah, gum, and something like one-half of the word meant for Gambodia, correctly Kamboja. The French have gomme gutte, which makes, literally translated, gum-gum!
(Gambir.) The produce of the Uncaria Gambir, long known as a masticatory to the inhabitants of the Indian Archipelago, and of late years very largely introduced into this country for dyeing and tanning.
(Godown.) In the language of the English in India, a warehouse, a store; Malay, Godun͞g, a house built of stone and mortar. This word, although very likely introduced from the Malay, belongs properly to the Telinga or Tâlugu, the language of the people known to the early European travellers and adventurers, as Gentoos.
(Gutta Percha.) Malay, Gatta-Parcha, the gum of the Parcha tree. I was at first disposed to think, that the last part of the word was parchah, but this word ending also im an aspirate is Persian, and by no means likely to enter into the name of an indi- genous plant, the product of which had not been an object of foreign trade.
(Japan, Japanning.) Malay, Japûn. The word used by the classic writers of Queen Anne’s time, as Swift, Pope and Gay. Johnson calis it a low word in the sense of “ blacking shoes,” but this was not the case with Pope.
- ... The poor have the same itch
- They change their weekly barber, weekly news
- Prefer a new Japanner to their shoes.
The art of varnishing wood or basket-work is extensively practised in some countries of the East. These are Birma, Tonquin, China and Japan, but with hy far the greatest skill in the last. From the middle of the 16th century (1543), Europeans must have been through the trade of the Portugnese familiar with the beautiful lacquered work of Japan. That of Tonquin, inlaid with mother- of-pearl, must also have been greatly admired 3 forI find from Dampier that household furniture made in England, used to be sent to Tonquin to be lacquered. There is, at present, no necessity to send out tables, chairs, trays or standishes to Tonquin, for Japanning ig as well understood in Birmingham, as in Tonquin, and almost as well, as in Japan itself,
(Junk.} Malay, Jung, ajong. The word means a large vessel of any kind, distin Died fon a boat, or other small craft, and in this sense it was used | by Sir Thomas Herbert and other early voyagers. How Jung came to be converted into Junk, I do not know, but, most probably, English sailors, who are known not to be scrupulous about names, and pronunciation, and who are familiar with the word in the sense of old rope, and salt beef, had a share in it. The word in our language is as old as Lord Bacon.
(Loory.) Malay, Nuri, which is the generic name for parrot.
(Mango.) Sunda, Masigge. This word belongs to the lancuare of the Sundas of Java, and was probably picked up by our voyagers at Bantam, of which country the Sunda is the indigenous tongue, The other nations of Europe have taken the name apparently from the same source, and carried both name and fruit to the New World, of which the tree is not a native.
(Muck, a-muck.) Malay, amuk, The “a” which precedes it in English is not the English indefinite article, but part of the word itself and should be jomed to it. There is no such word in Malay ag muk, and still less the word written with a superfluous “ec.” Amuk (the ‘k’ at the end is mute) is the radical, and means a desperate and urious charge, or onset, either of an individual, or body of men. From this we have such derivatives asthe following, Maugamuk, to make a furious charge, or assault, Mangamukkan, to charge some object furiously ; Baramuk-amukan, to charge furiously and a ; Péifgamuk one thet makes a furious charge. When the English infantry charged with the hayonet at Waterloo, a Malay might with propriety say the English ran a-muck; when the French charged over the bridge of Lodi, he might say the same thing. Marshal Lannes would be considered by a Malay as an illustrious Paugamuk and Sir Thomas Picton another. Dr Johnson says he “knows not from what derivation is made to mean to run madly, and attack all we meet.” He might, however, have discovered it, if he had read Dampier as carefully as Swift, who is said to have made his style the model of some part of his Gulliver’s travels. The Rev Mr Todd, in his edition of the Dictionary, has a long explanation of small value ruaning over nearly a whole quarto columa. His chief authority is Tavernier, whose account is full of mistakes. In one place he writes the word Mocca, and in another Moqua. He states the kris, with which the muck is run, to be poisoned, which I never heard to be the case. He says it is the Mahommedans on their return from the pilgrimage to Meeca, who run a-muck, but the natives of the Eastern isiands ran a-muck before they ever heard of the Mahommedan religion, and the unconverted natives at the present day equally run a-muck with the converted. The Rev Mr Pegg is next quoted by Mr Todd out of the Gentleman’s Magazine, and Mr Pegg charges the practice to excess in cock- fighting, and the loss of property including wife and children. When this crisis arrives, the loser, according to Mr Pegg, begins to chew aroot, what is called bang, which the Rey Gentleman takes to be the same thing as opium, and it is after that, that he runs a-muack. This is all a fable, and the great probability is that no such case, as that stated by the Rey Gentleman ever occurred, The truth is that running a~muck is the result of a sudden and violent emotion wholly unpremeditated. There is, therefore, no poisoning of dag- gers, no swallowing of opium, which instead of rousing would set the party asleep, and no eating of bang, which was unknown to the islanders at the time in which Mr Pege wrote. Moreover bang and opium are not the same thing, for the first is the produce of the common hemp-plant, and the last of the white poppy. Finally, Mr Todd quotes a note of Malone to the prose works of Dryden, in which he asserts that thesword a-muck, written ag one word, is an adverb, equivalent to “killingly,” which is even more wide of accuracy, than the account of Mr Pegg himself, and his other authority Tavernier. Warton in a note to Pope repeats the same mistake about gaming, and smoking opium, before running a-muck. Sir Walter Scott’s note in his edition of Dryden is little more than a repetition of Malone’s. He speaks of the loss by gaming, of the jntoxication with opium, and says that “ Amocco” means “to kill.” “Heis, at last, he says,” “cut down, or shot like a mad dof, which is true. Ofa very different character from the gossip of Taversier and the rest, is the account given of the Amok by Dr Oxley in this Journal. I had not the advantage of having pernsed it, when I read my paper at Birmingham, or I should have quoted its intelligent and authentic statement at length. The amok appcars from it to be in many cases mere instances of monomonia, taking this mischievous form, and, when they are not so, they are traced by the writer to the true character of the Islanders. Onc fact stated in it I was not before aware of, that the amok is most frequent umong the Bugis. This is also the ease in Jaya, but then it has been ascribed there to the ill-usage of this people in a state of slavery. I should conceive that of all the Islanders it would be found the least frequent among the Javaucse. Instances of it did certainly occur during my six yeur's residence in that island, but they were by no means frequent- Amongst the Javanese of Sinyapore, it is probable that in 30 years no example has occurred. Dryden first made the word classic by using it in the third part of the Hind and Panther, the application being to Bishop Burnet.
- "Prompt to assail, aud careless of defence
- Tnvulnerable in_his impudence,
- He dares the world, and eager of aname
- Fe thrusts about and jostles into fame,
- Frontless, and satire-proof, he scours the streets
- And runs an Indian muck at all he meets,”
Pope followed him in the well-known lines, which are evidently an imitation :—
- Satire’s my weapon, but I'm too discreet
- To run a-muck and tilt at all I meet,
- I only wear it in a land of Heetors
- Thieves, super-curgoes, sharpers, and directors.”
The Direcors here referred to are those of the famonrs South- Sea bubble, and the Super-cargocs probably the Agents of the East India Company.
(Ourang-Outang,) Malay, Orang-utan, literally man of the woods, or forest, hut correctly, wild man, savage, clown, rustic, As applied to any species of monkey, it isnot known to the Malays. The accent in Malay words is almost always on the last syllable lue one, or the penultimate. The naturalists have established a class of monkey under the name of the Orangs, but the propriety of the term is rather questionable, seeing that Orang means a human being, and is cquivalent to the Latin “homo.” Some of the wild races of Borneo cail the animal Mids, and the Kayan, the most numerous and civilized nation, “ Orang-tuan,” which in their language means “man of the woods” or “ wild man.” J take this word from the Vocabulary of Mr Burns, the only copious and fatisfactory one of 2 Bornean language yet given to the public. The Malays of Borneo, with whom alone our early veyagers had any communication may possibly have translated this mame in their own language, and furnished it to their Enropean visitors,
(Paddy.) Malay, Padi. Rice in the husk. When husked, it takes the name of bras, and, when boiled, that of nasi, which last is also equivalent to our word bread.
(Prow.) Malay, Prau. The most general term for any kind of sailing, or rowing vessel, from a boat to a ship, but generally used for inal craft,
(Rattan.) Malay, Rotan, from the root “raut” to pare, to trim, and meaning the object that is trimmed and oc in allusion proba- bly to the process by which the rattan is peeled and prepared for use.
(Sago.) Malay, Sagu. The pith of a palm, growing in swampy lands in many islands of the Eastern Archipelago. It is the bread of the Molucca Islands, but as it comes to us is eduleorated and granulated, or prepared as flour. The process by which it is now made, it may be mentioned, was the invention of a Chinese of Malacca about 35 years ago. Nearly all that is imported is manu- factured in Singapore, the raw article being brought to that place from the Eastern coast of Samatra.* By far the most detailed and satisfactory account of it ever rendered has been given in this Journal by its editor,
(Sapan Wood.) Malay, Sapan. This red dyeing wood, the produce of Cosalpinia Suppan is chictly imported from Siam and the Philippine Islands, but there can be no doubt, but that our name is from the Malay.
(Shaddock.) This is certainly not a Malay word, but the object, the gigantic orange, nearly as large as an infant's head, is Malay. A certain Captain Shaddock traded to the East and West Indics about the time of Queen Anne, and was of the class of persons called at the time “interlopers.” This meritorious eontrabandist found the pumplenoos at Batavia, which is probably its native country, and he conveyed it to the West Indiea where it continues to be called by his name. The Javanese name means Tiger Orange, and the Malay is Kadangsa, but the worthy Captain Shaddeck, fortunately for his little fame, was most probably ignorant of Malay and Javanese.
Most of the names of places coming within the range of Malayan geographical knowledge seem to he taken from the Malay ;~as Amboyna, Ambun;—Ava, Awa;—Bantam, Bantan ;—Bencoolen, Bang kaulu ;-—-Birma, Barma;—Borneo, Brunai;~Cambodia, Kam- boja ;—Champa, Campa ;—Cochin-china, Kochi;—Japan, Japun ; —dJava, Jawa ;—Malacca, Malaka ;—Malay, Malayu;—Martaban, Maritanau;—Moluceas, Maluka ;—Pegu, Peigu ;—Siam Siyam ; —Sunda, Sunda ;—Tanasserim, Tanasiri ;—Torgquin, Tonkin. Even China, although in Persian and Arabic respectively Cin and
- js is also now very extensively imported from Borneo, forming the dead
weight or bulk of the cargoes of the numerous square-rigged vessels trading between Singapore, and Bruné, Sarawak, &c. The uative pruhus from the north west of Borne likewise inport it largely into Singepore,---ED. Sin, has, very probably, found its way into our language from th® Malay, China, which is in fact our own word.
Polynesian Words.
(Kangaroo.) it is very remarkable that this word supposed to be Australien, is not to be found as the name of this singular marsupial animal in any language of Australia. Cook and his companions, therefore, when they gave it this name, must have made some mistake, but of what nature cannot he conjectured. I have this on the authority of my friend Captain King, n. n., who has lived so long in Australia, and is so intimately acquainted with the country.
(Taboo.) The word, as written by Archdeacon Williams in his New Zealand Dictionary is Tapu, which he explains by the adjective “ sacred,” and the nouns “ sacred rite,” “ sanctity,” * holi- ness.” The meaning which we give it is to indicate a place under an interdict.
(Tattoo.) The word was first used by Captain Cook as taken from the Polynesian, but no such word is found to exist. The word, which the Archdeacon gives for “to Tattoo” is Ta. In the same work I find the word “Ta” te mean, among other things, “manner ov kind of,” so that the two words combined might mean manner or kind of tattooing. Cook made a few flagrant blunders in his Polynesian Vocabularies, and the wonder is he did not make more.
Although we have thus but 3, or correctly only 2 wordsborrowed from the Polynesian languages, a very different effect has been produced upon the Polynesian languages by our own tongue, In the Abbé Mosblech’s French and Oceanic Dictionary, an unquestton- able authority insuch a mutter, there are not fewer than 100 English words, from the defects of Polynesian pronunciation, of course, greatly mutilated ;—thus for sleep, we have hipa; for ox, hifa ; for wheat, potato; for paper, pepa; for penknife, penikula, A good many of the words point directly at the source, from which they have been derived, as riches, mona; angel, anela ;—scliool, kula ;—ink, inika. The ascertaincd fact of the manner in which Euglish has found its way into the languages of the Society and Sandwich Islands, is chietly valuable in reference to Malayan philology, as indicating the probable manner, iu which Sanskrit, Telinga, Arabic, und Persian have fonud their way into the Malay, and other languages of the Archipelago. They are ouly less corrupted in these, because the recipients are themselves more perfect in structure, than the Polynesian tongues, and because the foreien Eastern languages approach more ucarly the genius of Malayan pronuneiation, than that of our mother tongue to the Polynesian.
Chinese Words.
(Bohea.) From the name of a district of the province of Fokien called Vu-e, as we might say of Wine, Burgundy, &c. The teas first brought to England were black and the produce of this district, and hence the name. It was, at first, given to the finest kinds of black, as we find from the writers of the time of Queen Anne. Thus Pope makes the fashionable heroine of the Rape of the Lock to talk of Bohea, which we now ascribe only to washerwomen
- Where the gilt chariot never marks the way
- Where none learn ombre, none e'er taste Bohea.
I do not know how the word Bohea came to be degraded from the highest to the lowest place, but it probably arose out of the introduction of many new varieties, recommended to use by their novelty, as the consumption of tea began to spread. The London tea-brokers have treated Bohea still worse, for of late they have expelled it altogether from their price-currents; yet they still sell it under the name of inferior Congou.
(Congou.} Is a corruption of the Chinese word Kung-fu, "labour" or "assiduity." The bulk of tea consumed in this country comes under this designation, and from this Chinese labour or assiduity the British exchequer gets yearly some £3,000,000.
(Hyson.} This is the corruption of two Chinese words Hy-san, meaning "flourishing spring." The finest tea consists, whether black or green, of the youngest leaves, and hence the name.
(Mandarin.) Obviously not a Chinese word, since the Chinese have never acquired the art of joining even two syllables together and this has three. The word is from "Mandar," in Portuguese to "command" from which to express a Chinese chief in authority the Portuguese themselves, for the word occurs in their Dictionaries, have coined the word Mandarin or Mandarim.
(Nankin.) From the city of Nanking in the province of Kangnan.
(Tea.) Chinese, Cha. Malay, Te. The first tea imported into England was brought from Holland, end then from Bantam, and not improbably both the Dutch and English obtained their earliest supplies from Java, and not direct from China. If this be so, then probably the name came to us through the Malay in which it has long existed nearly in the form, which we, the French, and the Dutch have adopted. In Chinese, the name of the plant is Cha, which has been adopted by the Portuguese and by the Oriental nations. The Malay pronounce the word, as the uneducated Irish do, and it may even be suspected, that people of fashion once did the same thing. Thus Pope makes it rhyme with obey in the following couplet of the Rape of the Lock:—
- Here thou, great Anna, whom three realms obey,
- Dost sometimes counsel take, and sometimes tea.
Tea was first introduced into England about the same time as Coffee, or 1650, and ten years later an excise duty was levied on every gallon of the decoction. It was a rarity in 1664, for in that year the East India Company bought two pounds and two ounces of it as a present to King Charles the II. It cost 16s a pound, and was without doubt what now we should call Junk tea, which may readily be imported at 6d the pound. This was the commodity, which was intended for the beverage of Queen Catharine, the Dutchess of Portsmouth, Lady Castlemaine, and Nell Gwynn. Since the day, in which 2 lbs and 2 ounces, were thought a fit gift for a King, our consumption has mightily increased. 100 years ago, it was 1,000,000 pounds, and last year it was lbs 48,735,971. This yielded to the Exchequer more than the whole revenue in every branch of any second-rate Kingdom in Europe.
December 31st 1849.