Chapter DUCKS to DUNGAREE of D by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

DUGGIE, s. A word used in the Pegu teak trade, for a long squared timber. Milburn (1813) says: “Duggies are timbers of teak from 27 to 30 feet long, and from 17 to 24 inches square.” Sir A. Phayre believes the word to be a corruption of the Burmese htap-gyi. The first syllable means the ‘cross-beam of a house,’ the second, ‘big’; hence ‘big-beam.’

DUGONG, s. The cetaceous mammal, Halicore dugong. The word is Malay duyung, also Javan. duyung; Macassar, ruyung. The etymology we do not know. [The word came to us from the name Dugung, used in the Philippine island of Leyte, and was popularised in its present form by Buffon in 1765. See N.E.D.]

DUMBCOW, v., and DUMBCOWED, participle. To brow-beat, to cow; and cowed, brow-beaten, set- down. This is a capital specimen of Anglo-Indian dialect. Dam khana, ‘to eat one’s breath,’ is a Hind. idiom for ‘to be silent.’ Hobson-Jobson converts this into a transitive verb, to damkhao, and both spelling and meaning being affected by English suggestions of sound, this comes in Anglo-Indian use to imply cowing and silencing. [A more probable derivation is from Hind. dhamkana,’ ‘to chide, scold, threaten, to repress by threats or reproof’ (Platts, H. Dict.).]

DUMDUM, n.p. The name of a military cantonment 4½ miles N.W. of Calcutta, which was for seventy years (1783–1853) the head-quarters of that famous corps the Bengal Artillery. The name, which occurs at intervals in Bengal, is no doubt P.—H. dam-dama, ‘a mound or elevated battery.’ At Dumdum was signed the treaty which restored the British settlements after the re-capture of Calcutta in 1757. [It has recently given a name to the dumdum or expanding bullet, made in the arsenal there.]

[1830.—Prospectus of the “Dumdum Golfing Club.”—“We congratulate them on the prospect of seeing that noble and gentleman-like game established in Bengal.”—Or. Sport. Mag., reprint 1873, i. 407.

1848.—“ ‘Pooh! nonsense,’ said Joe, highly flattered. ‘I recollect, sir, there was a girl at Dumdum, a daughter of Cutler of the Artillery…who made a dead set at me in the year ’4.’ ”—Vanity Fair, i. 25, ed. 1867.

[1886.—“The Kiranchi (see CRANCHEE) has been replaced by the ordinary Dumdummer, or Pálki carriage ever since the year 1856.”—Sat. Review, Jan. 23.

[1900.—“A modern murderer came forward proudly with the dumdum.”—Ibid. Aug. 4.]

DUMPOKE, s. A name given in the Anglo-Indian kitchen to a baked dish, consisting usually of a duck, boned and stuffed. The word is Pers. dampukht, ‘air-cooked,’ i.e. baked. A recipe for a dish so called, as used in Akbar’s kitchen, is in the first quotation:

c. 1590.—“Dampukht. 10 sers meat; 2s. ghi; 1 s. onions; 11 m. fresh ginger; 10 m. pepper; 2 d. cardamoms.”—Ain, i. 61.

1673.—“These eat highly of all Flesh Dumpoked, which is baked with Spice in Butter.”—Fryer, 93.

” “Baked Meat they call Dumpoke which is dressed with sweet Herbs and Butter, with whose Gravy they swallow Rice dry Boiled.”—Ibid. 404.

1689.—“…and a dumpoked Fowl, that is boil’d with Butter in any small Vessel, and stuft with Raisins and Almonds is another (Dish).”—Ovington, 397.

DUMREE, s. Hind. damri, a copper coin of very low value, not now existing. (See under DAM).

1823.—In Malwa “there are 4 cowries to a gunda; 3 gundas to a dumrie; 2 dumries to a chedaum; 3 dumries to a tundumrie; and 4 dumries to an adillah or half pice.”—Malcolm, Central India, 2nd ed. ii. 194; [86 note].

DUNGAREE, s. A kind of coarse and inferior cotton cloth; the word is not in any dictionary that we know. [Platts gives H. dungri, ‘a coarse kind of cloth.’ The Madras Gloss. gives Tel. dangidi, which is derived from Dangidi, a village near Bombay. Molesworth in his Mahr. Dict. gives: “Dongari Kapar. a term originally for the common country cloth sold in the quarter contiguous to the Dongari Killa (Fort George, Bombay), applied now to poor and low-priced cotton cloth. Hence in the corruption Dungarie.” He traces the word to dongari, “a little hill.” Dungaree is woven with two or more threads together in the web and woof. The finer kinds are used for clothing by poor people; the coarser for sails for native boats and tents. The same word seems to be used of silk (see below).] 1613.—“We traded with the Naturalls for Cloves…by