Chapter FOOZILOW to FUTWA of F by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

Lines by Warren Hastings.

1824.—“A messenger came from the ‘Foujdah’ (chatellain) of Suromunuggur, asking why we were not content with the quarters at first assigned to us.”—Heber, i. 232. The form is here plainly a misreading; for the Bishop on next page gives Foujdar.

FOUJDARRY, PHOUSDARRY, s. P. faujdari, a district under a faujdar (see FOUJDAR); the office and jurisdiction of a faujdar; in Bengal and Upper India, ‘police jurisdiction,’ ‘criminal’ as opposed to ‘civil’ justice. Thus the chief criminal Court at Madras and Bombay, up to 1863, was termed the Foujdary Adawlut, corresponding to the Nizamut Adawlut of Bengal. (See ADAWLUT.) [1802.—“The Governor in Council of Fort St. George has deemed it to be proper at this time to establish a Court of Fozdarry Adaulut.”—Procl. in Logan, Malabar, ii. 350; iii. 351.]

FOWRA, s. In Upper India, a mattock or large hoe; the tool generally employed in digging in most parts of India. Properly speaking (H.)phaora. (See MAMOOTY.)

[1679.—(Speaking of diamond digging) “Others with iron pawraes or spades heave it up to a heap.”—S. Master, in Kistna Man. 147.

[1848.—“On one side Bedullah and one of the grasscutters were toiling away with fowrahs, a kind of spade-pickaxe, making water-courses.”—Mrs. Mackenzie, Life in the Mission, i. 373.]

1880.—“It so fell out the other day in Cawnpore, that, when a patwari endeavoured to remonstrate with some cultivators for taking water for irrigation from a pond, they knocked him down with the handle of a phaora and cut off his head with the blade, which went an inch or more into the ground, whilst the head rolled away several feet.”—Pioneer Mail, March 4.

FOX, FLYING. (See FLYING-FOX.)

FRAZALA, FARASOLA, FRAZIL, FRAIL, s. Ar. farsala, a weight formerly much used in trade in the Indian seas. As usual, it varied much locally, but it seems to have run from 20 to 30 lbs., and occupied a place intermediate between the (smaller) maund and the Bahar; the farsala being generally equal to ten (small) maunds, the bahar equal to 10, 15, or 20 farsalas. See Barbosa (Hak. Soc.) 224; Milburn, i. 83, 87, &c.; Prinsep’s Useful Tables, by Thomas, pp. 116, 119.

1510.—“They deal by farasola, which farasola weighs about twenty-five of our lire.”—Varthema, p. 170. On this Dr. Badger notes: “Farasola is the plural of farsala … still in ordinary use among the Arabs of the Red Sea and Persian Gulf; but I am unable to verify (its) origin.” Is the word, which is sometimes called frail, the same as a frail, or basket, of figs? And again, is it possible that farsala is the same word as ‘parcel,’ through Latin particella? We see that this is Sir R. Burton’s opinion (Camõens, iv. 390; [Arab. Nights, vi. 312]). [The N.E.D. says: “O. F. frayel of unknown origin.”]

[1516.—“Farazola.” See under EAGLEWOOD.]

1554.—“The baar (see BAHAR) of cloves in Ormuz contains 20 faraçola, and besides these 20 ffaraçolas it contains 3 maunds (mãos) more, which is called picottaa (see PICOTA).”—A. Nunez, p. 5.

[1611.—“The weight of Mocha 25 lbs. 11 oz. every frasula, and 15 frasulas makes a bahar.”—Danvers, Letters, i. 123.]

1793.—“Coffee per Frail … Rs. 17.”— Bombay Courier, July 20.

FREGUEZIA, s. This Portuguese word for ‘a parish’ appears to have been formerly familiar in the west of India.

c. 1760.—“The island … still continues divided into three Roman Catholic parishes, or Freguezias, as they call them; which are Bombay, Mahim, and Salvaçam.”—Grose, i. 45.

FULEETA, s. Properly P. palita or fatila, ‘a slow-match,’ as of a match-lock, but its usual colloquial Anglo-Indian application is to a cotton slow-match used to light cigars, and often furnished with a neat or decorated silver tube. This kind of cigar-light is called at Madras Ramasammy (q.v.).