Chapter COMOTAY to COMPOUND of C by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

27th we began to unlade, and come to their custom-houses, of which there are three, in a square Compound of about 100 paces over each way.… The goods being brought and set in two Rows in the middle of the square are one by one opened before the Mandareens.”—Mr. Bowyear’s Journal at Cochin China, dated Foy-Foe, April 30. Dalrymple, Or. Rep. i. 79.

1772.—“YARD (before or behind a house), Aungâun. Commonly called a Compound.” —Vocabulary in Hadley’s Grammar, 129. (See under MOORS.)

1781.—

“In common usage here a chit
Serves for our business or our wit.
Bankshal’s a place to lodge our ropes,
And Mango orchards all are Topes.
Godown usurps the ware-house place,
Compound denotes each walled space.
To Dufterkhanna, Ottor, Tanks,
The English language owes no thanks;
Since Office, Essence, Fish-pond shew
We need not words so harsh and new.
Much more I could such words expose,
But Ghauts and Dawks the list shall close;
Which in plain English is no more
Than Wharf and Post expressed before.”

India Gazette, March 3.

„ “… will be sold by Public Auction … all that Brick Dwelling-house, Godowns, and Compound.”—Ibid., April 21.

1788.—“Compound—The court-yard belonging to a house. A corrupt word.”— The Indian Vocabulary, London, Stockdale.

1793.—“To be sold by Public Outcry … the House, Out Houses, and Compound,” &c.—Bombay Courier, Nov. 2.

1810.—“The houses (at Madras) are usually surrounded by a field or compound, with a few trees or shrubs, but it is with incredible pains that flowers or fruit are raised.”—Maria Graham, 124.

„ “When I entered the great gates, and looked around for my palankeen … and when I beheld the beauty and extent of the compound … I thought that I was no longer in the world that I had left in the East.”—An Account of Bengal, and of a Visit to Government House (at Calcutta) by Ibrahim the son of Candu the Merchant, ibid. page 198. This is a Malay narrative translated by Dr. Leyden. Very probably the word translated compound was kampung, but that cannot be ascertained.

1811.—“Major Yule’s attack was equally spirited, but after routing the enemy’s force at Campong Malayo, and killing many of them, he found the bridge on fire, and was unable to penetrate further.”—Sir S. Auchmuty’s Report of the Capture of Fort Cornelis.

c.1817.—“When they got into the compound, they saw all the ladies and gentlemen in the verandah waiting.”—Mrs. Sherwood’s Stories, edition 1863, page 6.

1824.—“He then proceeded to the rear compound of the house, returned, and said, ‘It is a tiger, sir.’ ”—Seely, Wonders of Ellora, ch. i.

„ “… The large and handsome edifices of Garden Reach, each standing by itself in a little woody lawn (a ‘compound’ they call it here, by an easy corruption from the Portuguese word campaña …).”— Heber, edition 1844, i. 28.

1848.—“Lady O’Dowd, too, had gone to her bed in the nuptial chamber, on the ground floor, and had tucked her mosquito curtains round her fair form, when the guard at the gates of the commanding officer’s compound beheld Major Dobbin, in the moonlight, rushing towards the house with a swift step.”—Vanity Fair, edition 1867, ii. 93.

1860.—“Even amongst the English, the number of Portuguese terms in daily use is remarkable. The grounds attached to a house are its ‘compound,’ campinho.”—Emerson Tennent, Ceylon, ii. 70.

[1869.—“I obtained the use of a good-sized house in the Campong Sirani (or Christian village).”—Wallace, Malay Archip., edition 1890, page 256.] We have found this word singularly transformed in a passage extracted from a modern novel:

1877.—“When the Rebellion broke out at other stations in India, I left our own compost.”—Sat. Review, Feb. 3, page 148.


A little learning is a dangerous thing!

The following shows the adoption of the word in West Africa.

1880.—From West Afr. Mission, Port Lokkoh, Mr. A. Burchaell writes: “Every evening we go out visiting and preaching the Gospel to our Timneh friends in their compounds.”—Proceedings of C. M. Society for 1878–9, page 14.