Chapter PHOORZA to PICOTTAH of P by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

within memory), or between single and double pice, i.e. ¼ anna-pieces and ½ anna-pieces. [Also see PIE.]

c. 1590.—“The dám … is the fortieth part of the rupee. At first this coin was called Paisah.”—Ain, ed. Blochmann, i. 31.

[1614.—“Another coin there is of copper, called a Pize, whereof you have commonly 34 in the mamudo.”—Foster, Letters, iii. 11.]

1615.—“Pice, which is a Copper Coyne; twelve Drammes make one Pice. The English Shilling, if weight, will yeeld thirtie three Pice and a halfe.”—W. Peyton, in Purchas, i. 530.

1616.—“Brasse money, which they call Pices, whereof three or thereabouts countervail a Peny.”—Terry, in Purchas, ii. 1471.

1648.—“… de Peysen zijn kooper gelt. …”—Van Twist, 62.

1653.—“Peca est vne monnoye du Mogol de la valeur de 6 deniers.”—De la Boullaye-le-Gouz, ed. 1657, p. 553.

1673.—“Pice, a sort of Copper Money current among the Poorer sort of People … the Company’s Accounts are kept in Book-rate Pice, viz. 32 to the Mam. [i.e. Mamoodee, see GOSBECK], and 80 Pice to the Rupee.”—Fryer, 205.

1676.—“The Indians have also a sort of small Copper money; which is called Pecha. … In my last Travels, a Roupy went at Surat for nine and forty Pecha’s.”—Tavernier, E.T. ii. 22; [ed. Ball, i. 27].

1689.—“Lower than these (pice), bitter-Almonds here (at Surat) pass for Money, about Sixty of which make a Pice.”—Ovington, 219.

1726.—“I Ana makes 1½ stuyvers or 2 peys.”—Valentijn, v. 179. [Also see underMOHUR GOLD.]

1768.—“Shall I risk my cavalry, which cost 1000 rupees each horse, against your cannon balls that cost two pice?—No.—I will march your troops until their legs become the size of their bodies.”—Hyder Ali, Letter to Col. Wood, in Forbes, Or. Mem. iii. 287; [2nd ed. ii. 300].

c. 1816.—“ ‘Here,’ said he, ‘is four pucker-pice for Mary to spend in the bazar; but I will thank you, Mrs. Browne, not to let her have any fruit. …”—Mrs. Sherwood’s Stories, 16, ed. 1863.

PICOTA, s. An additional allowance or percentage, added as a handicap to the weight of goods, which varied with every description,—and which the editor of the Subsidios supposes to have lead to the varieties of bahar (q.v.). Thus at Ormuz the bahar was of 20 farazolas (see FRAZALA), to which was added, as picota, for cloves and mace 3 maunds (of Ormuz), or about 1/72 additional; for cinnamon 1/20 additional; for benzoin 1/5 additional, &c. See the Pesos, &c. of A. Nunes (1554) passim. We have not been able to trace the origin of this term, nor any modern use.

[1554.—“Picotaa.” (See under BRAZIL-WOOD, DOOCAUN.)]

PICOTTAH, s. This is the term applied in S. India to that ancient machine for raising water, which consists of a long lever or yard, pivotted on an upright post, weighted on the short arm and bearing a line and bucket on the long arm. It is the dhenkli of Upper India, the shaduf of the Nile, and the old English sweep, swape, or sway-pole. The machine is we believe still used in the Terra Incognita of market- gardens S.E. of London. The name is Portuguese, picota, a marine term now applied to the handle of a ship’s pump and post in which it works—a ‘pump-brake.’ The picota at sea was also used as a pillory, whence the employment of the word as quoted from Correa. The word is given in the Glossary attached to the “Fifth Report” (1812), but with no indication of its source. Fryer (1673, pub. 1698) describes the thing without giving it a name. In the following the word is used in the marine sense: 1524.—“He (V. da Gama) ordered notice to be given that no seaman should wear a cloak, except on Sunday … and if he did, that it should be taken from him by the constables (lhe serra tomada polos meirinhos), and the man put in the picota in disgrace, for one day. He found great fault with men of military service wearing cloaks, for in that guise they did not look like soldiers.”—Correa, Lendas, II. ii. 822.

1782.—“Pour cet effet (arroser les terres) on emploie une machine appellée Picôte. C’est une bascule dressée sur le bord d’un puits ou d’un réservoir d’eaux pluviales, pour en tirer l’eau, et la conduire ensuite où l’on veut.”—Sonnerat, Voyage, i. 188.

c. 1790.—“Partout les pakotiés, ou puits à bascule, étoient en mouvement pour fournir l’eau nécessaire aux plantes, et partout on entendoit les jardiniers égayer leurs travaux par des chansons.”—Haafner, ii. 217.

1807.—“In one place I saw people employed in watering a rice-field with the Yatam, or Pacota, as it is called by the English.”—Buchanan, Journey through Mysore, &c., i. 15. [Here Yatam, is Can. yata Tel. etamu, Mal. ettam.]

[1871.—

“Aye, e’en picotta-work would gain
By using such bamboos.”
Gover, Folk Songs of S. India, 184.]