Chapter CARAVAN to CARBOY of C by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

fitted out for him a ship and two caravels, with which at the beginning of August 1492, with 120 men, sail was made from Gades.”—Summary of the H. of the Western Indies, by Pietro Martire in Ramusio, iii. f. 1.

1506.—“Item traze della Mina d’oro de Ginea ogn anno ducati 120 mila che vien ogni mise do’ caravelle con ducati 10 mila.” —Leonardo di Ca’ Masser, p. 30.

1549.—“Viginti et quinque agiles naues, quas et caravellas dicimus, quo genere nauium soli Lusitani utuntur.”—Damiani a Goës, Diensis Oppugnatio, ed. 1602, p. 289.

1552.—“Ils lâchèrent les bordées de leurs Karawelles ; ornèrent leurs vaisseaux de pavillons, et s’avancèrent sur nous.”—Sidi Ali, p. 70.

c. 1615.—“She may spare me her mizen and her bonnets ; I am a carvel to her.”— Beaum. & Flet. Wit without Money, i. 1.

1624.—“Sunt etiam naves quaedam nunciae quae ad officium celeritatis apposite exstructae sunt (quas caruellas vocant).”— Bacon, Hist. Ventorum.

1883.—“The deep-sea fishing boats called Machoas…are carvel built, and now generally iron fastened.…”—Short Account of Bombay Fisheries, by D. G. Macdonald, M.D.

CARBOY, s. A large glass bottle holding several gallons, and generally covered with wicker-work, well known in England, where it is chiefly used to convey acids and corrosive liquids in bulk. Though it is not an Anglo-Indian word, it comes (in the form karaba) from Persia, as Wedgwood has pointed out. Kaempfer, whom we quote from his description of the wine trade at Shiraz, gives an exact etching of a carboy. Littré mentions that the late M. Mohl referred caraffe to the same original ; but see that word. Karaba is no doubt connected with Ar. kirba, ‘a large leathern milk-bottle.’

1712.—“Vasa vitrea, alia sunt majora, ampullacea et circumducto scirpo tunicata, quae vocant Karabà…Venit Karaba una apud vitriarios duobus mamudi, raro carius.”—Kaempfer, Amoen. Exot. 379.

1754.—“I delivered a present to the Governor, consisting of oranges and lemons, with several sorts of dried fruits, and six karboys of Isfahan wine.”—Hanway, i. 102.

1800.—“Six corabahs of rose-water.”— Symes, Emb. to Ava, p. 488.

1813.—“Carboy of Rosewater.…”—Milburn, ii. 330.

1875.—“People who make it (Shiraz Wine) generally bottle it themselves, or else sell it in huge bottles called ‘Kuraba’ holding about a dozen quarts.”—Macgregor, Journey through Khorassan, &c., 1879, i. 37.