Chapter LAC to LACK of L by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

inclose a large plotte of ground, with a little trench filled with water; then they sticke up a great number of small staues vpon the sayd plot, that being done they bring thither a sort of pismires, farre biggar than ours, which beeing debar’d by the water to issue out, are constrained to retire themselves vppon the said staues, where they are kil’d with the Heate of the Sunne, and thereof it is that Lacka is made.”—De Monfart, 35-36.

c. 1610.—“… Vne manière de boëte ronde, vernie, et lacrèe, qui est vne ouurage de ces isles.”—Pyrard de Laval, i. 127; [Hak. Soc. i. 170].

1627.—“Lac is a strange drugge, made by certain winged Pismires of the gumme of Trees.”—Purchas, Pilgrimage, 569.

1644.—“There are in the territories of the Mogor, besides those things mentioned, other articles of trade, such as Lacre, both the insect lacre and the cake” (de formiga e de pasta).—Bocarro, MS.

1663.—“In one of these Halls you shall find Embroiderers … in another you shall see Goldsmiths … in a fourth Workmen in Lacca.”—Bernier E.T. 83; [ed. Constable, 259].

1727.—“Their lackt or japon’d Ware is without any Doubt the best in the World.”—A. Hamilton, ii. 305; [ed. 1744].

LACCADIVE ISLANDS, n.p. Probably Skt. Laksadvipa, ‘100,000 Islands’; a name however which would apply much better to the Maldives, for the former are not really very numerous. There is not, we suspect, any ancient or certain native source for the name as specifically applied to the northern group of islands. Barbosa, the oldest authority we know as mentioning the group (1516), calls them Malandiva, and the Maldives Palandiva. Several of the individual islands are mentioned in the Tuhfat-al-Majahidin (E.T. by Rowlandson, pp. 150-52), the group itself being called “the islands of Malabar.”

LACK, s. One hundred thousand, and especially in the Anglo-Indian colloquial 100,000 Rupees, in the days of better exchange the equivalent of £10,000. Hind. lakh, lak, &c., from Skt. laksha, used (see below) in the same sense, but which appears to have originally meant “a mark.” It is necessary to explain that the term does not occur in the earlier Skt. works. Thus in the Talavakara Brahmana, a complete series of the higher numerical terms is given. After sata (10), sahasra (1000), comes ayuta (10,000), prayuta (now a million), niyuta (now also a million), arbuda (100 millions), nyarbuda (not now used), nikharna (do.), and padma (now 10,000 millions). Laksha is therefore a modern substitute for prayuta, and the series has been expanded. This was probably done by the Indian astronomers between the 5th and 10th centuries A.D.

The word has been adopted in the Malay and Javanese, and other languages of the Archipelago. But it is remarkable that in all of this class of languages which have adopted the word it is used in the sense of 10,000 instead of 100,000 with the sole exception of the Lampungs of Sumatra, who use it correctly. (Crawfurd). (See CRORE.)

We should observe that though a lack, used absolutely for a sum of money, in modern times always implies rupees, this has not always been the case. Thus in the time of Akbar and his immediate successors the revenue was settled and reckoned in laks of dams (q.v.). Thus:

c. 1594.—“In the 40th year of his majesty’s reign (Akbar’s), his dominions consisted of 105 Sircars, subdivided into 2737 Kusbahs (see CUSBAH), the revenue of which he settled for ten years, at the annual rent of 3 Arribs, 62 Crore, 97 Lacks, 55,246 Dams. …”—Ayeen, ed. Gladwin, ii. 1; [ed. Jarrett, ii. 115].


At Ormuz again we find another lack in vogue, of which the unit was apparently the dinar, not the old gold coin, but a degenerate dinar of small value. Thus: 1554.—“(Money of Ormuz).—A leque is equivalent to 50 pardaos of çadis, which is called ‘bad money,’ (and this leque is not a coin but a number by which they reckon at Ormuz): and each of these pardaos is equal to 2 azares, and each azar to 10 çadis, each çadi to 100 dinars, and after this fashion they calculate in the books of the Custom-house. …”—Nunez, Lyvro dos Pesos, &c., in Subsidios, 25.

Here the azar is the Persian hazar or 1000 (dinars); the çadi Pers. sad or 100 (dinars); the leque or lak, 100,000 (dinars); and the toman (see TOMAUN), which does not appear here, is 10,000 (dinars).

c. 1300.—“They went to the Kafir’s tent, killed him, and came back into the town, whence they carried off money belonging to the Sultan amounting to 12 laks. The lak is a sum of 100,000 (silver) dinars, equivalent to 10,000 Indian gold dinars.”—Ibn Batuta, iii. 106.

c. 1340.—“The Sultan distributes daily two laks in alms, never less; a sum of which the equivalent in money of Egypt and Syria would be 160,000 pieces of