Chapter JUNKAMEER to JYSHE of J by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

master of a craft,’ and bahasa the Skt. bhasha, ‘speech.’ [Wilkinson, Dict., writes Juru-behasa; Mr. Skeat prefers juru-bhasa.]

1603.—At Patani the Hollanders having arrived, and sent presents—“ils furent pris par un officier nommé Orankaea (see ORANKAY) Jurebassa, qui en fit trois portions.”—In Rec. du Voyages, ed. 1703, ii. 667. See also pp. 672, 675.

1613.—“(Said the Mandarin of Ancão) … ‘Captain-major, Auditor, residents, and jerubaças, for the space of two days you must come before me to attend to these instructions (capitulos), in order that I may write to the Ailão.’ …

“These communications being read in the Chamber of the City of Macau, before the Vereadores, the people, and the Captain-Major then commanding in the said city, João Serrão da Cunha, they sought for a person who might be charged to reply, such as had knowledge and experience of the Chinese, and of their manner of speech, and finding Lourenço Carvalho … he made the reply in the following form of words ‘… To this purpose we the Captain-Major, the Auditor, the Vereadores, the Padres, and the Jurubaca, assembling together and beating our foreheads before God. …’”—Bocarro, pp. 725-729.

„ “The foureteenth, I sent M. Cockes, and my Iurebasso to both the Kings to entreat them to prouide me of a dozen Seamen.”—Capt. Saris, in Purchas, 378.

1615.—“… his desire was that, for his sake, I would geve over the pursute of this matter against the sea bongew, for that yf it were followed, of force the said bongew must cut his bellie, and then my jurebasso must do the lyke. Unto which his request I was content to agree. …”—Cocks’s Diary, i. 33.

[„ “This night we had a conference with our Jurybassa.”—Foster, Letters, iii. 167].

JUTE, s. The fibre (gunny-fibre) of the bark of Corchorus capsularis, L., and Corchorus olitorius, L., which in the last 45 years has become so important an export from India, and a material for manufacture in Great Britain as well as in India. “At the last meeting of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, Professor Skeat commented on various English words. Jute, a fibrous substance, he explained from the Sanskrit juta, a less usual form of jata, meaning, 1st, the matted hair of an ascetic; 2ndly, the fibrous roots of a tree such as the banyan; 3rdly, any fibrous substance” (Academy, Dec. 27, 1879). The secondary meanings attributed here to jata are very doubtful.² The term jute appears to have been first used by Dr. Roxburgh in a letter dated 1795, in which he drew the attention of the Court of Directors to the value of the fibre “called jute by the natives.” [It appears, however, as early as 1746 in the Log of a voyage quoted by Col. Temple in J.R.A.S., Jan. 1900, p. 158.] The name in fact appears to be taken from the vernacular name in Orissa. This is stated to be properly jhoto, but jhuto is used by the uneducated. See Report of the Jute Commission, by Babu Hemchundra Kerr, Calcutta, 1874; also a letter from Mr. J. S. Cotton in the Academy, Jan. 17, 1880.

JUTKA, s. From Dak.—Hind. jhatka, ‘quick.’ The native cab of Madras, and of Mofussil towns in that Presidency; a conveyance only to be characterised by the epithet ramshackle, though in that respect equalled by the Calcutta cranchee (q.v.). It consists of a sort of box with venetian windows, on two wheels, and drawn by a miserable pony. It is entered by a door at the back. (See SHIGRAM, with like meanings).

JUZAIL, s. This word jazail is generally applied to the heavy Afghan rifle, fired with a forked rest. If it is Ar. it must be jaza’il, the plural of jazil, ‘big,’ used as a substantive. Jazil is often used for a big, thick thing, so it looks probable. (See GINGALL.) Hence jaza’ilchi, one armed with such a weapon.

[1812.—“The jezaerchi also, the men who use blunderbusses, were to wear the new Russian dress.”—Morier, Journey through Persia, 30.

[1898.—

“All night the cressets glimmered pale

R. Kipling, Barrack-room Ballads, 84.

[1900.—“Two companies of Khyber Jezailchies.”—Warburton, Eighteen Years in the Khyber, 78.]