Chapter GRASSIA to GRUFF of G by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

389, ed. Dyce. Mr. B. Nicolson (3 ser. Notes and Queries, xi. 439) points out that Dyce’s MS. copy, licensed by Sir Henry Herbert in 1624, reads “proves but a griffin gentleman.” Prof. Skeat (ibid. xi. 504) quoting from Piers Plowman, ed. Wright, p. 96, “Gryffyn the Walshe,” shows that Griffin was an early name for a Welshman, apparently a corruption of Griffith. The word may have been used abroad to designate a raw Welshman, and thus acquired its present sense.]

1794.—“As I am little better than an unfledged Griffin, according to the fashionable phrase here” (Madras).—Hugh Boyd, 177.

1807.—“It seems really strange to a griffin—the cant word for a European just arrived.”—Ld. Minto, in India, 17.

1808.—“At the Inn I was tormented to death by the impertinent persevering of the black people; for every one is a beggar, as long as you are reckoned a griffin, or a new-comer.”—Life of Leyden, 107.

1836.—“I often tire myself…rather than wait for their dawdling; but Mrs. Staunton laughs at me and calls me a ‘Griffin,’ and says I must learn to have patience and save my strength.”—Letters from Madras, 38.

„ “…he was living with bad men, and saw that they thought him no better than themselves, but only more griffish…” —Ibid. 53.

1853.—“There were three more cadets on the same steamer, going up to that great griff depot, Oudapoor.”—Oakfield, i. 38.

1853.—

“ ‘Like drill?’

“ ‘I don’t dislike it much now: the goose-step was not lively.’

“ ‘Ah, they don’t give griffs half enough of it now-a-days; by Jove, Sir, when I was a griff’—and thereupon…”

—Ibid. i. 62.

[1900.—“Ten Rangoon sportsmen have joined to import ponies from Australia on the griffin system, and have submitted a proposal to the Stewards to frame their events to be confined to griffins at the forth-coming autumn meeting.”—Pioneer Mail, May 18.]

The griffin at Goa also in the old days was called by a peculiar name. (See REINOL.)

1631.—“Haec exanthemata (prickly heatspots) magis afficiunt recenter advenientes ut et Mosquitarum puncturae…ita ut deridiculum ergo hic inter nostrates dicterium enatum sit, eum qui hoc modo affectus sit, esse Orang Barou, quod novitium hominem significat.”—Jac. Bontii, Hist. Nat., &c., ii. cap. xviii. p. 33.

Here orang baron is Malay orang-baharu, i.e. ‘new man’; whilst Oranglama, ‘man of long since,’ is applied to old colonials. In connection with these terms we extract the following:— c. 1790.—“Si je n’avois pas été un oorlam, et si un long séjour dans l’Inde ne m’avoit pas accoutumé à cette espèce de fleau, j’aurois certainement souffert l’impossible durant cette nuit.”—Haafner, ii. 26-27.

On this his editor notes:

“Oorlam est un mot Malais corrumpu; il faut dire Orang-lama, ce qui signifie une personne qui a déjà long- temps dans un endroit, ou dans un pays, et c’est par ce nom qu’on designe les Européens qui ont habité depuis un certain temps dans l’Inde. Ceux qui ne font qu’y arriver, sont appelés Baar; denomination qui vient du mot Malais Orang-Baru…un homme nouvellement arrivé.”

[1894.—“In the Standard, Jan. 1, there appears a letter entitled ‘Ceylon Tea-Planting—a Warning,’ and signed ‘An Ex-creeper.’ The correspondent sends a cutting from a recent issue of a Ceylon daily paper—a paragraph headed ‘Creepers Galore.’ From this extract it appears that Creeper is the name given in Ceylon to paying pupils who go out there to learn tea-planting.”—Mr. A. L. Mayhew, in 8 ser. Notes and Queries, v. 124.]

GROUND, s. A measure of land used in the neighbourhood of Madras. [Also called Munny, Tam. manai.] (See under CAWNY.)

GRUFF, adj. Applied to bulky goods. Probably the Dutch grof, ‘coarse.’

[1682-3.—“…that for every Tunne of Saltpetre and all other Groffe goods I am to receive nineteen pounds.”—Pringle, Diary, Ft. St. Geo. 1st ser. vol. ii. 3-4.]

1750.—“…all which could be called Curtins, and some of the Bastions at Madrass, had Warehouses under them for the Reception of Naval Stores, and other gruff Goods from Europe, as well as Salt Petre from Bengal.”—Letter to a Propr. of the E. 1. Co., p. 52.

1759.—“Which by causing a great export of rice enhances the price of labour, and consequently of all other gruff, piece-goods and raw silk.”—In Long, 171.

1765.—“…also foole sugar, lump jaggre, ginger, long pepper, and piply-mol…articles that usually compose the gruff cargoes of our outward-bound