1526.—(At the Battle of Pānipat) "I directed that, according to the custom of Rûm, the gun-carriages should be connected together with twisted bull-hides as with chains. Between every two gun-carriages were 6 or 7 tûras (or breastworks). The matchlockmen stood behind these guns and tûras, and discharged their matchlocks.... It was settled, that as Pânipat was a considerable city, it would cover one of our flanks by its buildings and houses while we might fortify our front by tûras...."—Baber, p. 304.
1528.—(At the siege of Chānderī) "overseers and pioneers were appointed to construct works on which the guns were to be planted. All the men of the army were directed to prepare tûras and scaling-ladders, and to serve the tûras which are used in attacking forts...."—Ibid. p. 376. The editor's note at the former passage is: "The meaning (viz. 'breastwork') assigned to Tûra here, and in several other places is merely conjectural, founded on Petis de la Croix's explanation, and on the meaning given by Meninski to Tûr, viz. reticulatus. The Tûras may have been formed by the branches of trees, interwoven like basket-work ... or they may have been covered defences from arrows and missiles...." Again: "These Tûras, so often mentioned, appear to have been a sort of testudo, under cover of which the assailants advanced, and sometimes breached the wall...."
TURAKA, n.p. This word is applied both in Mahratti and in Telugu to the Mahommedans (Turks). [The usual form in the inscriptions is Turushka (see Bombay Gazetteer, i. pt. i. 189).] Like this is Tarūk (see TAROUK) which the Burmese now apply to the Chinese.
TURBAN, s. Some have supposed this well-known English word to be a corruption of the P.—H. sirband, 'head-wrap,' as in the following:
1727.—"I bought a few seerbunds and sannoes there (at Cuttack) to know the difference of the prices."—A. Hamilton, i. 394 (see PIECE-GOODS).
This, however, is quite inconsistent with the history of the word. Wedgewood's suggestion that the word may be derived from Fr. turbin, 'a whelk,' is equally to be rejected. It is really a corruption of one which, though it seems to be out of use in modern Turkish, was evidently used by the Turks when Europe first became familiar with the Ottomans and their ways. This is set forth in the quotation below from Zedler's Lexicon, which is corroborated by those from Rycaut and from Galland, &c. The proper word was apparently dulband. Some modern Persian dictionaries give the only meaning of this as 'a sash.' But Meninski explains it as 'a cloth of fine white muslin; a wrapper for the head'; and Vüllers also gives it this meaning, as well as that of a 'sash or belt.'[272] In doing so he quotes Shakespear's Dict., and marks the use as 'Hindustani-Persian.' But a merely Hindustani use of a Persian word could hardly have become habitual in Turkey in the 15th and 16th centuries. The use of dulband for a turban was probably genuine Persian, adopted by the Turks. Its etymology is apparently from Arab. dul, 'volvere,' admitting of application to either a girdle or a head-wrap. From the Turks it passed in the forms Tulipant, Tolliban, Turbant, &c., into European languages. And we believe that the flower tulip also has its name from its resemblance to the old Ottoman turban, [a view accepted by Prof. Skeat (Concise Dict. s.v. tulip, turban)].[273]
1487.—"... tele bambagine assai che loro chiamano turbanti; tele assai colla salda, che lor chiamano sexe (sash)...."—Letter on presents from the Sultan to L. de' Medici, in Roscoe's Lorenzo, ed. 1825, ii. 371-72.
c. 1490.—"Estradiots sont gens comme Genetaires: vestuz, à pied et à cheval, comme les Turcs, sauf la teste, où ils ne portent ceste toille qu'ils appellent tolliban, et sont durs gens, et couchent dehors tout l'an et leurs chevaulx."—Ph. de Commynes, Liv. VIII. ch. viii. ed. Dupont (1843), ii. 456. Thus given in Danett's translation (1595): "These Estradiots are soldiers like to the Turkes Ianizaries, and attired both on foote and on horsebacke like to the Turks, save that they weare not vpon their head such a great roule of linnen as the Turkes do called (sic) Tolliban."—p. 325.
1586-8.—"... the King's Secretarie, who had upon his head a peece of died linen cloth folded vp like vnto a Turkes Tuliban."—Voyage of Master Thomas Candish, in Hakl. iv. 33.
1588.—"In this canoa was the King's Secretarie, who had on his head a piece of died linen cloth folded vp like vnto a Turkes Tuliban."—Cavendish, ibid. iv. 337.
c. 1610.—"... un gros turban blanc à la Turque."—Pyrard de Laval, i. 98; [Hak. Soc. i. 132 and 165].
1611.—Cotgrave's French Dict. has: "Toliban: m. A Turbant or Turkish hat.
"Tolopan, as Turbant.
"Turban: m. A Turbant; a Turkish hat, of white and fine linnen wreathed into a rundle; broad at the bottom to enclose the head, and lessening, for ornament, towards the top."
1615.—"... se un Cristiano fosse trovato con turbante bianco in capo, sarebbe perciò costretto o a rinegare o a morire. Questo turbante poi lo portano Turchi, di varie forme."—P. della Valle, i. 96.
1615.—"The Sultan of Socotora ... his clothes are Surat Stuffes, after the Arabs manner ... a very good Turbant, but bare footed."—Sir T. Roe, [Hak. Soc. i. 32].
" "Their Attire is after the Turkish fashion, Turbants only excepted, insteed whereof they have a kind of Capp, rowled about with a black Turbant."—De Monfart, 5.
1619.—"Nel giorno della qual festa tutti Persiani più spensierati, e fin gli uomini grandi, e il medesimo rè, si vestono in abito succinto all uso di Mazanderan; e con certi berrettini, non troppo buoni, in testa, perchè i turbanti si guasterebbono e sarebbero di troppo impaccio...."—P. della Valle, ii. 31; [Hak. Soc. comp. i. 43].
1630.—"Some indeed have sashes of silke and gold, tulipanted about their heads...."—Sir T. Herbert, p. 128.
" "His way was made by 30 gallant young gentlemen vested in crimson saten; their Tulipants were of silk and silver wreath'd about with cheynes of gold."—Ibid. p. 139.
1672.—"On the head they wear great Tulbands (Tulbande) which they touch with the hand when they say salam to any one."—Baldaeus (Germ. version), 33.
" "Trois Tulbangis venoient de front après luy, et ils portoient chascun un beau tulban orné et enrichy d'aigrettes."—Journ. d'Ant. Galland, i. 139.
1673.—"The mixture of Castes or Tribes of all India are distinguished by the different Modes of binding their Turbats."—Fryer, 115.
1674.—"El Tanadar de un golpo cortò las repetidas bueltas del turbante a un Turco, y la cabeça asta la mitad, de que cayò muerte."—Faria y Sousa, Asia Port. ii. 179-180.
" "Turbant, a Turkish hat," &c.—Glossographia, or a Dictionary interpreting the Hard Words of whatsoever language, now used in our refined English Tongue, &c., the 4th ed., by T.E., of the Inner Temple, Esq. In the Savoy, 1674.
1676.—"Mahamed Alibeg returning into Persia out of India ... presented Cha-Sefi the second with a Coco-nut about the bigness of an Austrich-egg ... there was taken out of it a Turbant that had 60 cubits of calicut in length to make it, the cloath being so fine that you could hardly feel it."—Tavernier, E.T. p. 127; [ed. Ball, ii. 7].
1687.—In a detail of the high officers of the Sultan's Court we find:
"5. The Tulbentar Aga, he that makes up his Turbant."
A little below another personage (apparently) is called Tulban-oghlani ('The Turban Page')—Ricaut, Present State of the Ottoman Empire, p. 14.
1711.—"Their common Dress is a piece of blew Callico, wrap'd in a Role round their Heads for a Turbat."—Lockyer, 57.
1745.—"The Turks hold the Sultan's Turban in honour to such a degree that they hardly dare touch it ... but he himself has, among the servants of his privy chamber, one whose special duty it is to adjust his Turban, or head-tire, and who is thence called Tulbentar or Dulbentar Aga, or Dulbendar Aga, also called by some Dulbend Oghani (Oghlani), or Page of the Turban."—Zedler, Universal Lexicon, s.v.
c. 1760.—"They (the Sepoys) are chiefly armed in the country manner, with sword and target, and wear the Indian dress, the turbant, the cabay (Cabaya) or vest, and long drawers."—Grose, i. 39.
1843.—"The mutiny of Vellore was caused by a slight shown to the Mahomedan turban; the mutiny of Bangalore by disrespect said to have been shown to a Mahomedan place of worship."—Macaulay, Speech on Gates of Somnauth.
TURKEY, s. This fowl is called in Hindustani perū, very possibly an indication that it came to India, perhaps first to the Spanish settlements in the Archipelago, across the Pacific, as the red pepper known as Chili did. In Tamil the bird is called vān-kōṛi, 'great fowl.' Our European names of it involve a complication of mistakes and confusions. We name it as if it came from the Levant. But the name turkey would appear to have been originally applied to another of the Pavonidae, the guinea-fowl, Meleagris of the ancients. Minsheu's explanations (quoted below) show strange confusions between the two birds. The French coq d'Inde or Dindon points only ambiguously to India, but the German Calecutische Hahn and the Dutch Kalkoen (from Calicut) are specific in error as indicating the origin of the Turkey in the East. This misnomer may have arisen from the nearly simultaneous discovery of America and of the Cape route to Calicut, by Spain and Portugal respectively. It may also have been connected with the fact that Malabar produced domestic fowls of extraordinary size. Of these Ibn Batuta (quoted below) makes quaint mention. Zedler's great German Lexicon of Universal Knowledge, a work published as late as 1745, says that these birds (turkeys) were called Calecutische and Indische because they were brought by the Portuguese from the Malabar coast. Dr. Caldwell cites a curious disproof of the antiquity of certain Tamil verses from their containing a simile of which the turkey forms the subject. And native scholars, instead of admitting the anachronism, have boldly maintained that the turkey had always been found in India (Dravidian Gramm. 2nd ed. p. 137). Padre Paolino was apparently of the same opinion, for whilst explaining that the etymology of Calicut is "Castle of the Fowls," he asserts that Turkeys (Galli d'India) came originally from India; being herein, as he often is, positive and wrong. In 1615 we find W. Edwards, the E.I. Co.'s agent at Ajmir, writing to send the Mogul "three or four Turkey cocks and hens, for he hath three cocks but no hens" (Colonial Paper, E. i. c. 388). Here, however, the ambiguity between the real turkey and the guinea-fowl may possibly arise. In Egypt the bird is called Dik-Rūmī, 'fowl of Rūm' (i.e. of Turkey), probably a rendering of the English term.
c. 1347.—"The first time in my life that I saw a China cock was in the city of Kaulam. I had at first taken it for an ostrich, and I was looking at it with great wonder, when the owner said to me, 'Pooh! there are cocks in China much bigger than that!' and when I got there I found that he had said no more than the truth."—Ibn Batuta, iv. 257.
c. 1550.—"One is a species of peacock that has been brought to Europe, and commonly called the Indian fowl."—Girolamo Benzoni, 148.
1627.—"Turky Cocke, or cocke of India, avis ita dicta, quod ex Africa, et vt nonulli volunt alii, ex India vel Arabia ad nos allata sit. B. Indische haen. T. Indianisch hun, Calecuttisch hun.... H. Pavon de las Indias. G. Poulle d'Inde. H. 2. Gallepauo. L. Gallo-pauo, quod de vtriusque natura videtur participare ... aves Numidicae, à Numidia, Meleagris ... à μέλας, i. niger, and ἄγρος, ager, quod in Æthiopia praecipuè inveniuntur.
"A Turkie, or Ginnie Henne ... I. Gallina d'India. H. Galina Morisca. G. Poulle d'Inde. L. Penélope. Auis Pharaonis. Meleágris....
* * * * *
"A Ginnie cocke or hen: ex Guinea, regione Indica ... vnde fuerunt priùs ad alias regiones transportati. vi. Turkie-cocke or hen."—Minsheu's Guide into Tongues (2d edition).
1623.—"33. Gallus Indicus, aut Turcicus (quem vocant), gallinacei aevum parum superat; iracundus ales, et carnibus valde albis."—Bacon, Hist. Vitae et Mortis, in Montague's ed. x. 140.
1653.—"Les François appellent coq-d'Inde vn oyseau lequel ne se trouue point aux Indes Orientales, les Anglois le nomment turki-koq qui signifie coq de Turquie, quoy qu'il n'y ait point d'autres en Turquie que ceux que l'on y a portez d'Europe. Ie croy que cet oyseau nous est venu de l'Amerique."—De la Boullaye-le-Gouz, ed. 1657, p. 259.
1750-52.—"Some Germans call the turkeys Calcutta hens; for this reason I looked about for them here, and to the best of my remembrance I was told they were foreign."—Olof Toreen, 199-200. We do not know whether the mistake of Calcutta for Calicut belongs to the original author or to the translator—probably to the proverbial traditore.
TURNEE, TUNNEE, s. An English supercargo, Sea-Hind., and probably a corruption of attorney. (Roebuck).
TURPAUL, s. Sea-Hind. A tarpaulin (ibid.). [The word (tārpāl) 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 Āīn-i-Akbarī 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 Bhāgalpur 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 Jangīpūr, as cited below in the Linnæan 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 ... ⅓ to 2 Rupees."—Āīn, 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 Tūttukkuḍi, [which the Madras Gloss. derives from Tam. tūttu, '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 sent for ye Councell to consult about it."—Pringle, Diary Ft. St. Geo. 1st ser. i. 69.]
1727.—"Tutecareen has a good safe harbour.... This colony superintends a Pearl-Fishery ... which brings the Dutch Company 20,000L. yearly Tribute."—A. Hamilton, i. 334; [ed. 1744, i. 336].
1881.—"The final n in Tuticorin was added for some such euphonic reason as turned Kochchi into Cochin and Kumari into Comorin. The meaning of the name Tūttukkuḍi is said to be 'the town where the wells get filled up'; from tūttu (properly tūrttu), 'to fill up a well,' and kuḍi, 'a place of habitation, a town.' This derivation, whether the true one or not, has at least the merit of being appropriate...."—Bp. Caldwell, Hist. of Tinnevelly, 75.
TYCONNA, TYEKANA, s. A room in the basement or cellarage, or dug in the ground, in which it has in some parts of India been the practice to pass the hottest part of the day during the hottest season of the year. Pers. tah-khāna, 'nether-house,' i.e. 'subterraneous apartment.' ["In the centre of the court is an elevated platform, the roof of a subterraneous chamber called a zeera zemeon, whither travellers retire during the great heats of the summer" (Morier, Journey through Persia, &c., 81). Another name for such a place is sardābeh (Burton, Ar. Nights, i. 314).]
1663.—"... in these hot Countries, to entitle an House to the name of Good and Fair it is required it should be ... furnish'd also with good Cellars with great Flaps to stir the Air, for reposing in the fresh Air from 12 till 4 or 5 of the Clock, when the Air of these Cellars begins to be hot and stuffing...."—Bernier, E.T. 79; [ed. Constable, 247].
c. 1763.—"The throng that accompanied that minister proved so very great that the floor of the house, which happened to have a Tah-Qhana, and possibly was at that moment under a secret influence, gave way, and the body, the Vizir, and all his company fell into the apartment underneath."—Seir Mutaqherin, iii. 19.
1842.—"The heat at Jellalabad from the end of April was tremendous, 105° to 110° in the shade. Everybody who could do so lived in underground chambers called tykhánás. Broadfoot dates a letter 'from my den six feet under ground.'"—Mrs. Mackenzie, Storms and Sunshine of a Soldier's Life, i. 298. [The same author in her Life in the Mission (i. 330) writes taikhana.]
TUXALL, TAKSAUL, s. The Mint. Hind. ṭaksāl, from Skt. ṭankaśālā, 'coin-hall.'
[1757.—"Our provisions were regularly sent us from the Dutch Tanksal...."—Holwell's Narr. of Attack on Calcutta, p. 34; in Wheeler, Early Records, 248.
[1811.—"The Ticksali, or superintendent of the mint...."—Kirkpatrick, Nepaul, 201.]
TYPHOON, s. A tornado or cyclone-wind; a sudden storm, a 'nor-wester' (q.v.). Sir John Barrow (see Autobiog. 57) ridicules "learned antiquarians" for fancying that the Chinese took typhoon from the Egyptian Typhon, the word being, according to him, simply the Chinese syllables, ta-fung, 'Great Wind.' His ridicule is misplaced. With a monosyllabic language like the Chinese (as we have remarked elsewhere) you may construct a plausible etymology, to meet the requirements of the sound alone, from anything and for anything. And as there is no evidence that the word is in Chinese use at all, it would perhaps be as fair a suggestion to derive it from the English "tough 'un." Mr. Giles, who seems to think that the balance of evidence is in favour of this (Barrow's) etymology, admits a serious objection to be that the Chinese have special names for the typhoon, and rarely, if ever, speak of it vaguely as a 'great wind.' The fact is that very few words of the class used by seafaring and trading people, even when they refer to Chinese objects, are directly taken from the Chinese language. E.g. Mandarin, pagoda, chop, cooly, tutenague;—none of these are Chinese. And the probability is that Vasco and his followers got the tufão, which our sailors made into touffon and then into typhoon, as they got the monção which our sailors made into monsoon, direct from the Arab pilots.
The Arabic word is ṭūfān, which is used habitually in India for a sudden and violent storm. Lane defines it as meaning 'an overpowering rain, ... Noah's flood,' etc. And there can be little doubt of its identity with the Greek τυφῶν or τυφών. [But Burton (Ar. Nights, iii. 257) alleges that it is pure Arabic, and comes from the root ṭauf, 'going round.'] This word τυφών (the etymologists say, from τυφώ, 'I raise smoke') was applied to a demon-giant or Titan, and either directly from the etym. meaning or from the name of the Titan (as in India a whirlwind is called 'a Devil or Pisachee') to a 'waterspout,' and thence to analogous stormy phenomena. 'Waterspout' seems evidently the meaning of τυφών in the Meteorologica of Aristotle (γίγνεται μὲν οὖν τυφών ... κ.τ.λ.) iii. 1 (the passage is exceedingly difficult to render clearly); and also in the quotation which we give from Aulus Gellius. The word may have come to the Arabs either in maritime intercourse, or through the translations of Aristotle. It occurs (al-ṭūfān) several times in the Koran; thus in sura, vii. 134, for a flood or storm, one of the plagues of Egypt, and in s. xxix. 14 for the Deluge.
Dr. F. Hirth, again (Journ. R. Geog. Soc. i. 260), advocates the quasi-Chinese origin of the word. Dr. Hirth has found the word T'ai (and also with the addition of fung, 'wind') to be really applied to a certain class of cyclonic winds, in a Chinese work on Formosa, which is a re-issue of a book originally published in 1694. Dr. Hirth thinks t'ai as here used (which is not the Chinese word ta or tai, 'great,' and is expressed by a different character) to be a local Formosan term; and is of opinion that the combination t'ai-fung is "a sound so near that of typhoon as almost to exclude all other conjectures, if we consider that the writers using the term in European languages were travellers distinctly applying it to storms encountered in that part of the China Sea." Dr. Hirth also refers to F. Mendes Pinto and the passages (quoted below) in which he says tufão is the Chinese name for such storms. Dr. Hirth's paper is certainly worthy of much more attention than the scornful assertion of Sir John Barrow, but it does not induce us to change our view as to the origin of typhoon.
Observe that the Port. tufão distinctly represents ṭūfān and not t'ai-fung, and the oldest English form 'tuffon' does the same, whilst it is not by any means unquestionable that these Portuguese and English forms were first applied in the China Sea, and not in the Indian Ocean. Observe also Lord Bacon's use of the word typhones in his Latin below; also that ṭūfān is an Arabic word, at least as old as the Koran, and closely allied in sound and meaning to τυφών, whilst it is habitually used for a storm in Hindustani. This is shown by the quotations below (1810-1836); and Platts defines ṭūfān as "a violent storm of wind and rain, a tempest, a typhoon; a flood, deluge, inundation, the universal deluge" etc.; also ṭūfānī, "stormy, tempestuous ... boisterous, quarrelsome, violent, noisy, riotous."
Little importance is to be attached to Pinto's linguistic remarks such as that quoted, or even to the like dropt by Couto. We apprehend that Pinto made exactly the same mistake that Sir John Barrow did; and we need not wonder at it, when so many of our countrymen in India have supposed hackery to be a Hindustani word, and when we find even the learned H. H. Wilson assuming tope (in the sense of 'grove') to be in native Hindustani use. Many instances of such mistakes might be quoted. It is just possible, though not we think very probable, that some contact with the Formosan term may have influenced the modification of the old English form tuffon into typhoon. It is much more likely to have been influenced by the analogies of monsoon, simoom; and it is quite possible that the Formosan mariners took up their (unexplained) t'ai-fung from the Dutch or Portuguese.
On the origin of the Ar. word the late Prof. Robertson-Smith forwarded the following note:
"The question of the origin of Ṭūfān appears to be somewhat tangled.
"Τυφῶν, 'whirlwind, waterspout,' connected with τῦφος seems pure Greek; the combination in Baal-Zephon, Exod. xiv. 2, and Sephóni, the northern one, in Joel, ii. 20, suggested by Hitzig, appears to break down, for there is no proof of any Egyptian name for Set corresponding to Typhon.
"On the other hand Ṭūfān, the deluge, is plainly borrowed from the Aramaic. Tūfān, for Noah's flood, is both Jewish, Aramaic and Syriac, and this form is not borrowed from the Greek, but comes from a true Semitic root ṭūf 'to overflow.'
"But again, the sense of whirlwind is not recognised in classical Arabic. Even Dozy in his dictionary of later Arabic only cites a modern French-Arabic dictionary (Bocthor's) for the sense, Tourbillon, trombe. Bistání in the Moḥít el Moḥít does not give this sense, though he is pretty full in giving modern as well as old words and senses. In Arabic the root ṭūf means: 'to go round,' and a combination of this idea with the sense of sudden disaster might conceivably have given the new meaning to the word. On the other hand it seems simpler to regard this sense as a late loan from some modern form of τυφών, typho, or tifone. But in order finally to settle the matter one wants examples of this sense of ṭūfān."
[Prof. Skeat (Concise Dict. s.v.) gives: "Sometimes claimed as a Chinese word meaning 'a great wind' ... but this seems to be a late mystification. In old authors the forms are tuffon, tuffoon, tiphon, &c.—Arab. ṭūfān, a hurricane, storm. Gk. τυφών, better τυφώς, a whirlwind. The close accidental coincidence of these words in sense and form is very remarkable, as Whitney notes."]
c. A.D. 160.—"... dies quidem tandem illuxit: sed nichil de periculo, de saevitiâve remissum, quia turbines etiam crebriores, et coelum atrum et fumigantes globi, et figurae quaedam nubium metuendae, quas τυφῶνας vocabant, impendere, imminere, et depressurae navem videbantur."—Aul. Gellius, xix. 2.
1540.—"Now having ... continued our Navigation within this Bay of Cauchin-china ... upon the day of the nativity of our Lady, being the eight of September, for the fear that we were in of the new Moon, during the which there oftentimes happens in this Climate such a terrible storm of wind and rain, as it is not possible for ships to withstand it, which by the Chineses is named Tufan" (o qual tormento os Chins chamão tufão).—Pinto (orig. cap. I.) in Cogan, p. 60.
" "... in the height of forty and one degrees, there arose so terrible a South-wind, called by the Chineses Tufaon (un tempo do Sul, a q̃ Chins chamão tufão)."—Ibid. (cap. lxxix.), in Cogan, p. 97.
1554.—"Não se ouve por pequena maravilha cessarem os tufões na paragem da ilha de Sãchião."—Letter in Sousa, Oriente Conquist. i. 680.
[c. 1554.—"... suddenly from the west arose a great storm known as fil Tofani [literally 'Elephant's flood,' comp. ELEPHANTA, b.]."—Travels of Sidi Ali, Reïs, ed. Vambéry, p. 17.]
1567.—"I went aboorde a shippe of Bengala, at which time it was the yeere of Touffon, concerning which Touffon ye are to vnderstand that in the East Indies often times, there are not stormes as in other countreys; but every 10 or 12 yeeres there are such tempests and stormes that it is a thing incredible ... neither do they know certainly what yeere they will come."—Master Caesar Frederike, in Hakl. ii. 370 [369].
1575.—"But when we approach'd unto it (Cyprus), a Hurricane arose suddenly, and blew so fiercely upon us, that it wound our great Sail round about our main Mast.... These Winds arise from a Wind that is called by the Greeks Typhon; and Pliny calleth it Vertex and Vortex; but as dangerous as they are, as they arise suddenly, so quickly are they laid again also."—Rauwolff's Travels, in Ray's Collection, ed. 1705, p. 320. Here the traveller seems to intimate (though we are not certain) that Typhon was then applied in the Levant to such winds; in any case it was exactly the ṭūfān of India.
1602.—"This Junk seeking to make the port of Chincheo met with a tremendous storm such as the natives call Tufão, a thing so overpowering and terrible, and bringing such violence, such earthquake as it were, that it appears as if all the spirits of the infernal world had got into the waves and seas, driving them in a whirl till their fury seems to raise a scud of flame, whilst in the space of one turning of the sand-glass the wind shall veer round to every point of the compass, seeming to blow more furiously from each in succession.
"Such is this phenomenon that the very birds of heaven, by some natural instinct, know of its coming 8 days beforehand, and are seen to take their nests down from the tree-tops and hide them in crevices of rock. Eight days before, the clouds also are seen to float so low as almost to graze men's heads, whilst in these days the seas seem beaten down as it were, and of a deep blue colour. And before the storm breaks forth, the sky exhibits a token well-known to all, a great object which seamen call the Ox-Eye (Olho de Boi) all of different colours, but so gloomy and appalling that it strikes fear in all who see it. And as the Bow of Heaven, when it appears, is the token of fair weather, and calm, so this seems to portend the Wrath of God, as we may well call such a storm...." &c.—Couto, V. viii. 12.
1610.—"But at the breaking vp, commeth alway a cruell Storme, which they call the Tuffon, fearfull even to men on land; which is not alike extreame euery yeare."—Finch, in Purchas, i. 423.
1613.—"E porque a terra he salitrosa e ventosa, he muy sogeita a tempestades, ora menor aquella chamada Ecnephia (Εκνεφιας), ora maior chamada Tiphon (Τυφων), aquelle de ordinario chamamos Tuphão ou Tormenta desfeita ... e corre com tanta furia e impeto que desfas os tectos das casas e aranca arvores, e as vezes do mar lança as embarcações em terra nos campos do sertão."—Godinho de Eredia, f. 36v.
1615.—"And about midnight Capt. Adams went out in a bark abord the Hozeander with many other barks to tow her in, we fearing a tuffon."—Cocks's Diary, i. 50.
1624.—"3. Typhones majores, qui per latitudinem aliquam corripiunt, et correpta sorbent in sursum, raro fiunt; at vortices, sive turbines exigui et quasi ludicri, frequenter.
"4. Omnes procellae et typhones, et turbines majores, habent manifestum motum praecipitii, aut vibrationis deorsum magis quam alii venti."—Bacon, Hist. Ventorum, in B. Montagu's ed. of Works, x. 49. In the translation by R. G. (1671) the words are rendered "the greater typhones."—Ibid. xiv. 268.
1626.—"Francis Fernandez writeth, that in the way from Malacca to Iapan they are encountred with great stormes which they call Tuffons, that blow foure and twentie houres, beginning from the North to the East, and so about the Compasse."—Purchas, Pilgrimage, 600.
1688.—"Tuffoons are a particular kind of violent Storms blowing on the Coast of Tonquin ... it comes on fierce and blows very violent, at N.E. twelve hours more or less.... When the Wind begins to abate it dies away suddenly, and falling flat calm it continues so an Hour, more or less; then the Wind comes round about to the S.W. and it blows and rains as fierce from thence, as it did before at N.E. and as long."—Dampier, ii. 36.
1712.—"Non v'è spavento paragonabile a quello de' naviganti, quali in mezzo all' oceano assaltati d'ogni intorno da turbini e da tifoni."—P. Paolo Segnero, Mann. dell' Anima, Ottobre 14. (Borrowed from Della Crusca Voc.).
1721.—"I told them they were all strangers to the nature of the Moussoons and Tuffoons on the coast of India and China."—Shelvocke's Voyage, 383.
1727.—"... by the Beginning of September, they reacht the Coast of China, where meeting with a Tuffoon, or a North East Storm, that often blows violently about that Season, they were forced to bear away for Johore."—A. Hamilton, ii. 89; [ed. 1744, ii. 88].
1727.—
"In the dread Ocean, undulating wide,
Beneath the radiant line that girts the globe,
The circling Typhon, whirl'd from point to point,
Exhausting all the rage of all the Sky...."
Thomson, Summer.
1780.—Appended to Dunn's New Directory, 5th ed. is:—
"Prognostic of a Tuffoon on the Coast of China. By Antonio Pascal de Rosa, a Portuguese Pilot of Macao."
c. 1810.—(Mr. Martyn) "was with us during a most tremendous touffan, and no one who has not been in a tropical region can, I think, imagine what these storms are."—Mrs. Sherwood's Autobiog. 382.
1826.—"A most terrific toofaun ... came on that seemed likely to tear the very trees up by the roots."—John Shipp, ii. 285.
" "I thanked him, and enquired how this toofan or storm had arisen."—Pandurang Hari, [ed. 1873, i. 50].
1836.—"A hurricane has blown ever since gunfire; clouds of dust are borne along upon the rushing wind; not a drop of rain; nothing is to be seen but the whirling clouds of the tūfān. The old peepul-tree moans, and the wind roars in it as if the storm would tear it up by the roots."—Wanderings of a Pilgrim, ii. 53.
1840.—"Slavers throwing overboard the Dead and Dying. Typhoon coming on.
"'Aloft all hands, strike the topmasts and belay;
Yon angry setting sun, and fierce-edge clouds
Declare the Typhoon's coming' &c. (Fallacies of Hope)."
J. M. W. Turner, in the R.A. Catalogue.
Mr. Ruskin appears to have had no doubt as to the etymology of Typhoon, for the rain-cloud from this picture is engraved in Modern Painters, vol. iv. as "The Locks of Typhon." See Mr. Hamerton's Life of Turner, pp. 288, 291, 345.
Punch parodied Turner in the following imaginary entry from the R.A. Catalogue:
"34.—A Typhoon bursting in a Simoon over the Whirlpool of Maelstrom, Norway, with a ship on fire, an eclipse and the effect of a lunar rainbow."
1853.—"... pointing as he spoke to a dark dirty line which was becoming more and more visible in the horizon:
"'By Jove, yes!' cried Stanton, 'that's a typhaon coming up, sure enough.'"—Oakfield, i. 122.
1859.—"The weather was sultry and unsettled, and my Jemadar, Ramdeen Tewarry ... opined that we ought to make ready for the coming tuphan or tempest.... A darkness that might be felt, and that no lamp could illumine, shrouded our camp. The wind roared and yelled. It was a hurricane."—Lt.-Col. Lewin, A Fly on the Wheel, p. 62.
Compare the next quotation, from the same writer, with that given above from Couto respecting the Olho de Boi:
1885.—"The district was subject to cyclonic storms of incredible violence, fortunately lasting for a very short time, but which often caused much destruction. These storms were heralded by the appearance above the horizon of clouds known to the natives by the name of 'lady's eyebrows,' so called from their being curved in a narrow black-arched wisp, and these most surely foretold the approach of the tornado."—Ibid. 176.
TYRE, s. Tamil and Malayāl. tayir. The common term in S. India for curdled milk. It is the Skt. dadhi, Hind. dahi of Upper India, and probably the name is a corruption of that word.
1626.—"Many reasoned with the Iesuits, and some held vaine Discourses of the Creation, as that there were seuen seas; one of Salt water, the second of Fresh, the third of Honey, the fourth of Milke, the fift of Tair (which is Cream beginning to sowre)...."—Purchas, Pilgrimage, 561.
1651.—"Tayer, dat is dicke Melch, die wie Saen nommen."—Rogerius, 138.
1672.—"Curdled milk, Tayer, or what we call Saane, is a thing very grateful to them, for it is very cooling, and used by them as a remedy, especially in hot fevers and smallpox, which is very prevalent in the country."—Baldaeus, Zeylon, 403.
1776.—"If a Bramin applies himself to commerce, he shall not sell ... Camphire and other aromaticks, or Honey, or Water, or Poison, or Flesh, or Milk, or Tyer (Sour Cream) or Ghee, or bitter Oil...."—Halhed, Code, 41.
1782.—"Les uns en furent affligés pour avoir passé les nuits et dormi en plein air; d'autres pour avoir mangé du riz froid avec du Tair."—Sonnerat, i. 201.
c. 1784.—"The Saniassi (Sunyasee), who lived near the chauderie (see CHOULTRY), took charge of preparing my meals, which consisted of rice, vegetables, tayar (lait caillé), and a little mologonier" (eau poivrée—see MULLIGATAWNY).—Haafner, i. 147.
[1800.—"The boiled milk, that the family has not used, is allowed to cool in the same vessel; and a little of the former day's tyre, or curdled milk, is added to promote its coagulation...."—Buchanan, Mysore, ii. 14.]
1822.—"He was indeed poor, but he was charitable; so he spread before them a repast, in which there was no lack of ghee, or milk, or tyer."—The Gooroo Paramartan, E.T. by Babington, p. 80.
U
UJUNGTANAH, n.p. This is the Malay name (nearly answering to 'Land's End,' from Ujung, 'point or promontory,' and tanah, 'land') of the extreme end of the Malay Peninsula terminating in what the maps call Pt. Romania. In Godinho de Eredia's Declaracam de Malaca the term is applied to the whole Peninsula, but owing to the interchangeable use of u, v, and of j, i, it appears there throughout as Viontana. The name is often applied by the Portuguese writers to the Kingdom of Johor, in which the Malay dynasty of Malacca established itself when expelled by Alboquerque in 1511; and it is even applied (as in the quotation from Barros) to their capital.