Chapter IPECACUANHA (WILD) to IZAM MALUCO of I by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

IPECACUANHA (WILD) to IZAM MALUCO

IPECACUANHA (WILD), s. The garden name of a plant (Asclepias curassavica, L.) naturalised in all tropical countries. It has nothing to do with the true ipecacuanha, but its root is a powerful emetic, whence the name. The true ipecacuanha is cultivated in India.

IRON-WOOD. This name is applied to several trees in different parts; e.g. to Mesua ferrea, L. (N.O. Clusiaceae), Hind. nagkesar; and in the Burmese provinces to Xylia dolabriformis, Benth.

I-SAY. The Chinese mob used to call the English soldiers A’says or Isays, from the frequency of this apostrophe in their mouths. (The French gamins, it is said, do the same at Boulogne.) At Amoy the Chinese used to call out after foreigners Akee! a tradition from the Portuguese Aqui! ‘Here!’ In Java the French are called by the natives Orang deedong, i.e. the dîtes-donc people. (See Fortune’s Two Visits to the Tea Countries, 1853, p. 52; and Notes and Queries in China and Japan, ii. 175.)

[1863.—“The Sepoys were … invariably called ‘Achas.’ Acha or good is the constantly recurring answer of a Sepoy when spoken to. …”—Fisher, Three Years in China, 146.]

ISKAT, s. Ratlines. A marine term from Port. escada (Roebuck).

[ISLAM, s. Infn. of Ar. salm, ‘to be or become safe’; the word generally used by Mahommedans for their religion.

[1616.—“Dated in Achen 1025 according to the rate of Slam.”—Foster, Letters, iv. 125.

[1617.—“I demanded the debts … one [of the debtors] for the valew of 110 r[ials] is termed Slam.”—Letter of E. Young, from Jacatra, Oct. 3, I.O. Records: O.C. No. 541.]

ISTOOP, s. Oakum. A marine term from Port. estopa (Roebuck).

ISTUBBUL, s. This usual Hind. word for ‘stable’ may naturally be imagined to be a corruption of the English word. But it is really Ar. istabl, istabl, though that no doubt came in old times from the Latin stabulum through some Byzantine Greek form.

ITZEBOO, s. A Japanese coin, the smallest silver denomination. Itsi-bu, ‘one drachm.’ [The N.E.D. gives itse, itche, ‘one,’ bu, ‘division, part, quarter’]. Present value about 1s. Marsden says: “Itzebo, a small gold piece of oblong form, being 0·6 inch long, and 0·3 broad. Two specimens weighed 2 dwt. 3 grs. only” (Numism. Orient., 814–5). See Cock’s Diary, i. 176, ii. 77. [The coin does not appear in the last currency list; see Chamberlain, Things Japanese, 3rd ed. 99.]

[1616.—“Ichibos.” (See under KOBANG.)

[1859.—“We found the greatest difficulty in obtaining specimens of the currency of the country, and I came away at last the possessor of a solitary Itzibu. These are either of gold or silver: the gold Itzibu is a small oblong piece of money, intrinsically worth about seven and sixpence. The intrinsic value of the gold half-itzibu, which is not too large to convert into a shirt- stud, is about one and tenpence.”—L. Oliphant, Narr. of Mission, ii. 232.]

IZAM MALUCO, n.p. We often find this form in Correa, instead of Nizamaluco (q.v.).