Chapter AVADAVAT to AYAH of A by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

aio, ‘the governor of a young noble’). [These again have been connected with L. Latin aidus, Fr. aide, ‘a helper.’]

1779.—“I was sitting in my own house in the compound, when the iya came down and cold me that her mistress wanted a candle.”—Kitmutgar’s evidence, in the case of Grand v. Francis. Ext. in Echoes of Old Calcutta, 225.

1782.—(A Table of Wages):—

“Consumah.....10 (rupees a month). * * * * *

Eyah..... …5.”—India Gazette, Oct. 12.

1810.—“The female who attends a lady while she is dressing, etc., is called an Ayah.”—Williamson, V. M. i. 337.

1826.—“The lieutenant’s visits were now less frequent than usual; one day, however, he came. … and on leaving the house I observed him slip something, which I doubted not was money, into the hand of the Ayah, or serving woman, of Jane.”—Pandurang Hari, 71; [ed. 1873, i. 99].

1842.—“Here (at Simla) there is a great preponderence of Mahometans. I am told that the guns produced absolute consternation, visible in their countenances. One Ayah threw herself upon the ground in an agony of despair. … I fired 42 guns for Ghuzni and Cabul; the 22nd (42nd?) gun—which announced that all was finished—was what overcame the Mahometans.”—Lord Ellenborough, in Indian Administration 295. This stuff was written to the great Duke of Wellington!

1873.—“The white- robed ayah flits in and out of the tents, finding a home for our various possessions, and thither we soon retire.”—Fraser’s Mag., June, i. 99.

1879.—“He was exceedingly fond of his two children, and got for them servants; a man to cook their dinner, and an ayah to take care of them.”—Miss Stokes, Indian Fairy Tales, 7.