Chapter MUGGUR to MUNGOOSE of M by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

MUGGUR to MUNGOOSE

MUGGUR, s. Hind. and Mahr. magar and makar, from Skt. makara ‘a sea-monster’ (see MACAREO). The destructive broad-snouted crocodile of the Ganges and other Indian rivers, formerly called Crocodilus biporcatus, now apparently subdivided into several sorts or varieties.

1611.—“Alagaters or Crocodiles there called Murgur match.…”—Hawkins, in Purchas, i. 436. The word is here intended for magar-mats or machh, ‘crocodile-fish.’

[1876.—See under NUZZER.]

1878.—“The muggur is a gross pleb, and his features stamp him as low-born. His manners are coarse.”—Ph. Robinson, In My Indian Garden, 82–3.

1879.—“En route I killed two crocodiles ; they are usually called alligators, but that is a misnomer. It is the mugger…these muggers kill a good many people, and have a playful way of getting under a boat, and knocking off the steersman with their tails, and then swallowing him afterwards.”—Pollok, Sport, &c., i. 168.

1881.—“Alligator leather attains by use a beautiful gloss, and is very durable…and it is possible that our rivers contain a sufficient number of the two varieties of crocodile, the muggar and the garial (see GAVIAL) for the tanners and leather-dressers of Cawnpore to experimeut upon.” —Pioneer Mail, April 26.

MUGGRABEE, n.p. Ar. maghrabi, ‘western.’ This word, applied to western Arabs, or Moors proper, is, as might be expected, not now common in India. It is the term that appears in the Hayraddin Mograbbin of Quentin Durward. From gharb, the root of this word, the Spaniards have the province of Algarve, and both Spanish and Portuguese have garbin, a west wind. [The magician in the tale of Alaeddin is a Maghrabi, and to this day in Languedoc and Gascony Maugraby is used as a term of cursing. (Burton, Ar. Nights, x. 35, 379). Muggerbee is used for a coin (see GUBBER).]

1563.—“The proper tongue in which Avicena wrote is that which is used in Syria and Mesopotamia and in Persia and in Tartary (from which latter Avicena came) and this tongue they call Araby ; and that of our Moors they call Magaraby, as much as to say Moorish of the West.…”—Garcia, f. 19v.

MULL, s. A contraction of Mulligatawny, and applied as a distinctive sobriquet to members of the Service belonging to the Madras Presidency, as Bengal people are called Qui-his, and Bombay people Ducks or Benighted.

[1837.—“The Mulls have been excited also by another occurrence…affecting rather the trading than fashionable world.”—Asiatic Journal, December, p. 251.]

[1852.—“…residents of Bengal, Bombay, and Madras are, in Eastern parlance, designated ‘Qui Hies,’ ‘Ducks,’ and ‘Mulls.’”—Notes and Queries, 1st ser. v. 165.]

1860.—“It ys ane darke Londe, and ther dwellen ye Cimmerians whereof speketh Homerus Poeta in his Odysseia, and to thys Daye thei clepen Tenebrosi or ‘ye Benyghted ffolke.’ Bot thei clepen hemselvys Mullys from Mulligatawnee wh^ch ys ane of theyr goddys from w^ch thei ben ysprong.”—Ext. from a lately discovered MS. of Sir John Maundeville.

MULLIGATAWNY, s. The name of this well-known soup is simply a corruption of the Tamil milagu- tannir, ‘pepper-water’; showing the correctness of the popular belief which ascribes the origin of this excellent article to Madras, whence—and not merely from the complexion acquired there—the sobriquet of the preceding article.

1784.—

“In vain our hard fate we repine;
In vain on our fortune we rail;
On Mullaghee-tawny we dine,
Or Congee, in Bangalore Jail.”

Song by a Gentleman of the Navy (one of Hyder’s Prisoners), in Seton-Karr, i, 18.

[1823.—…in a brasen pot was mulugu tanni, a Hot vegetable soup, made chiefly from pepper and capsicums.”—Hoole, Missions in Madras, 2nd ed. 249.]

MULMULL, s. Hind. malmal ; Muslin. [c. 1590.—“Malmal, per piece…4 R.” —Ain, ed. Blochmann, i. 94.]

1683.—“Ye said Ellis told your Petitioner that he would not take 500 Pieces of your Petitioner’s mulmulls unless your Petitioner gave him 200 Rups. which your Petitioner being poor could not do.”—