Chapter CUSTOM to CYRUS of C by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

Maund above.
„ Roof. A roof of mud laid on beams; or of thatch, &c.
„ Scoundrel, a limp and fatuous knave.
„ Seam (silai) is the tailor's tack for trying on.

1763.—“Il parait que les catcha cosses sont plus en usage que les autres cosses dans le gouvernement du Decan.”—Lettres Edifiantes, xv. 190.

1863.—“In short, in America, where they cannot get a pucka railway they take a kutcha one instead. This, I think, is what we must do in India.”—Lord Elgin, in Letters and Journals, 432.

Captain Burton, in a letter dated Aug. 26, 1879, and printed in the “Academy” (p. 177), explains the gypsy word gorgio, for a Gentile or non-Rommany, as being kachha or cutcha. This may be, but it does not carry conviction. the Conquest of Sind, made in A.D. 1216 (see Elliot, i. 166).

CUTCHA, KUTCHA, adj. Hind. kachcha, ‘raw, crude, unripe, uncooked.’ This word is with its opposite pakka (see PUCKA) among the most constantly recurring Anglo-Indian colloquial terms, owing to the great variety of metaphorical applications of which both are susceptible. The following are a few examples only, but they will indicate the manner of use better than any attempt at comprehensive definition:—

A pucka Brick is a properly kiln-burnt brick.
„ House is of burnt brick or stone with lime, and generally with a terraced plaster roof.
„ Road is a Macadamised one.
„ Appointment is permanent.
„ Settlement is one fixed for a term of years.
„ Account, or Estimate, is carefully made, and claiming to be relied on.
„ Maund, or Seer, is the larger of two in use.
„ Major, is a regimental Major.
„ Colour, is one that will wash.
„ Fever, is a dangerous remittent or the like (what the Italians call pernizziosa).
„ Pice; a double copper coin formerly in use; also a proper pice (=¼ anna) from the Govt. mints.
„ Coss—see under Maund above.
„ Roof; a terraced roof made with cement.
„ Scoundrel, one whose motto is “Thorough.”
„ Seam is the definite stitch of the garment.

CUTCHA-PUCKA, adj. This term is applied in Bengal to a mixt kind of building in which burnt brick is used, but which is cemented with mud instead of lime-mortar.

CUTCHÉRRY, and in Madras CUT’CHERY, s. An office of administration, a court-house. Hind. kachahri; used also in Ceylon. The word is not usually now, in Bengal, applied to a merchant’s counting-house, which is called dufter, but it is applied to the office of an Indigo-Planter or a Zemindar, the business in which is more like that of a Magistrate’s or Collector’s Office. In the service of Tippoo Sahib cutcherry was used in peculiar senses besides the ordinary one. In the civil administration it seems to have been used for something like what we should now call Department (see e.g. Tippoo’s Letters, 292); and in the army for a division or large brigade (e.g. ibid. 332; and see under JYSHE and quotation from Wilks below).

1610.—“Over against this seat is the Cichery or Court of Rolls, where the King’s Viseer sits every morning some three houres, by whose hands passe all matters of Rents, Grants, Lands, Firmans, Debts, &c.”—Hawkins, in Purchas, i. 439.

1673.—“At the lower End the Royal Exchange or Queshery…opens its folding doors.”—Fryer, 261.

[1702.—“But not makeing an early escape themselves were carried into the Cacherra or publick Gaol.”—Hedges, Diary, Hak. Soc. ii. cvi.]

1763.—“The Secretary acquaints the Board that agreeably to their orders of the 9th May, he last Saturday attended the Court of Cutcherry, and acquainted the Members with the charge the President of the Court had laid against them for non-attendance.”—In Long, 316.

“The protection of our Gomastahs and servants from the oppression and jurisdiction of the Zemindars and their Cutcherries has been ever found to be a liberty highly essential both to the honour and interest of our nation.”—From the Chief and Council at Dacca, in Van Sittart, i. 247.

c. 1765.—“We can truly aver that during almost five years that we presided in the Cutchery Court of Calcutta, never any murder or atrocious crime came before us but it was proved in the end a Bramin was at the bottom of it.”—Holwell, Interesting Historical Events, Pt. II. 152.

1783.—“The moment they find it true that the English Government shall remain as it is, they will divide sugar and sweetmeats among all the people in the Cutcheree; then every body will speak sweet words.”—Native Letter, in Forbes, Or. Mem. iv. 227.

1786.—“You must not suffer any one to come to your house; and whatever business you may have to do, let it be transacted in our Kuchurry.”—Tippoo’s Letters, 303.

1791.—“At Seringapatam General