Chapter CAPELAN to CARAT of C by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

our Shippe, wherein was the King of Tarnata.”—Middleton’s Voyage, E. 2.

„ “…Nava conscensâ, quam linguâ patriâ caracora noncupant. Navigii genus est oblõgum, et angustum, triremis instar, velis simul et remis impellitur.”—Jarric, Thesaurus, i. 192.

[1613.—“Curra-curra.” See quotation under ORANKAY.]

1627.—“They have Gallies after their manner, formed like Dragons, which they row very swiftly, they call them Karkollen.” —Purchas, Pilgrimage, 606.

1659.—“They (natives of Ceram, &c.) bawked these dry heads backwards and forwards in their Korrekorres as a special rarity.”—Walter Schultzen’s Ost-Indische Reise, &c., p.41.

1711.—“Les Philippines nomment ces batimens caracoas. C’est vne espèce de petite galère à rames et à voiles.”—Lettres Edif. iv. 27.

1774.—“A corocoro is a vessel generally fitted with outriggers, having a high arched stem and stern, like the points of a half moon.… The Dutch have fleets of them at Amboyna, which they employ as guardacostos.”—Forrest, Voyage to N. Guinea, 23. Forrest has a plate of a corocoro, p. 64

[1869.—“The boat was one of the kind called Kora-Kora, quite open, very low, and about four tons burden. It had out-riggers of bamboo, about five off each side, which supported a bamboo platform extending the whole length of the vessel. On the extreme outside of this sat the twenty rowers, while within was a convenient passage fore and aft. The middle of the boat was covered with a thatch-house, in which baggage and passengers are stowed; the gunwale was not more than a foot above water, and from the great side and top weight, and general clumsiness, these boats are dangerous in heavy weather, and are not infrequently lost.”—Wallace, Malay Arch., ed. 1890, p. 266.]

CARAFFE, s. Dozy shows that this word, which in English we use for a water-bottle, is of Arabic origin, and comes from the root gharaf, ‘to draw’ (water), through the Sp. garráfa. But the precise Arabic word is not in the dictionaries. (See under CARBOY.)

CARAMBOLA, s. The name given by various old writers on Western India to the beautiful acid fruit of the tree (N.O. Oxalideae) called by Linn. from this word, A verrhoa carambola. This name was that used by the Portuguese. De Orta tells us that it was the Malabar name. The word karanbal is also given by Molesworth as the Mahratti name ; [another form is karambela, which comes from the Skt. karmara given below in the sense of ‘food-appetizer’]. In Upper India the fruit is called kamranga, kamrakh or khamrak (Skt. karmara, karmara, karmaraka karmaranga).¹ (See also BLIMBEE.) Why a cannon at billiards should be called by the French carambolage we do not know. [If Mr. Ball be right, the fruit has a name, Cape-Gooseberry, in China which in India is used for the Tiparry.—Things Chinese, 3rd ed. 253.]

c. 1530.—“Another fruit is the Kermerik. It is fluted with five sides,” &c.—Erskine’s Baber, 325.

1563.—“O. Antonia, pluck me from that tree a Carambola or two (for so they call them in Malavar, and we have adopted the Malavar name, because that was the first region where we got acquainted with them).

“A. Here they are.

“R. They are beautiful ; a sort of sour-sweet, not very acid.

“O. They are called in Canarin and Decan camariz, and in Malay balimba… they make with sugar a very pleasant conserve of these.… Antonia ! bring hither a preserved carambola.”—Garcia, ff. 46r, 47.

1598.—“There is another fruite called Carambolas, which hath 8 (5 really) corners, as bigge as a smal aple, sower in eating, like vnripe plums, and most vsed to make Conserues. (Note by Paludanus). The fruite which the Malabars and Portingales call Carambolas, is in Decan called Camarix, in Canar, Camarix and Carabeli ; in Malaio, Bolumba, and by the Persians Chamaroch.” —Linschoten, 96; [Hak. Soc. ii. 33].

1672.—“The Carambola…as large as a pear, all sculptured (as it were) and divided into ribs, the ridges of which are not round but sharp, resembling the heads of those iron maces that were anciently in use.”—P. Vincenzo Maria, 352.

1878.—“…the oxalic Kamrak.”—In my Indian Garden, 50.

[1900.—“…that most curious of fruits, the carambola, called by the Chinese the yongt’o, or foreign peach, though why this name should have been selected is a mystery, for when cut through, it looks like a star with five rays. By Europeans it is also known as the Cape gooseberry.”—Ball, Things Chinese, 3rd ed. p. 253.]

CARAT, s. Arab kirrat, which is taken from the Gr. [Greek Text] keration, a bean of the [Greek Text] kerateia, or carob tree (Ceratonia siliqua, L.). This bean, like the Indian rati (see RUTTEE) was used as a weight, and thence also it gave name to a coin of account, if not actual. To discuss the carat fully would be a task of extreme complexity, and would occupy several pages.

Under the name of siliqua it was the 24th part of the golden solidus of Constantine, which was again=1/6 of an ounce. Hence this