Chapter SICKMAN to SIMKIN of S by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

SICKMAN to SIMKIN

[SICKMAN, s. adj. The English sick man has been adopted into Hind. sepoy patois as meaning ‘one who has to go to hospital,’ and generally sikman ho jana means ‘to be disabled.’

[1665.—“That sickman Chaseman.”—In Yule, Hedges’ Diary, Hak. Soc. II. cclxxx.

[1843.—“… my hired cart was broken —(or, in the more poetical garb of the sepahee, ‘seek man hogya,’ i.e. become a sick man).”—Davidson, Travels, i. 251.]

SICLEEGUR, s. Hind. saikalgar, from Ar. saikal, ‘polish.’ A furbisher of arms, a sword-armourer, a sword- or knife-grinder. [This, in Madras, is turned into Chickledar, Tel. chikilidarudu.]

[1826.—“My father was a shiekul-ghur, or sword-grinder.”—Pandurang Hari, ed. 1873, i. 216.]

SIKH, SEIKH, n.p. Panjabi-Hind. Sikh, ‘a disciple,’ from Skt. Sishya; the distinctive name of the disciples of Nanak Shah who in the 16th century established that sect, which eventually rose to warlike predominance in the Punjab, and from which sprang Ranjit Singh, the founder of the brief Kingdom of Lahore. c. 1650–60.—“The Nanac-Panthians, who are known as composing the nation of the Sikhs, have neither idols, nor temples of idols. …” (Much follows.)—Dabistan, ii. 246.

1708–9.—“There is a sect of infidels called Gurú (see GOOROO), more commonly known as Sikhs. Their chief, who dresses as a fakír, has a fixed residence at Láhore. … This sect consists principally of Játs and Khatrís of the Panjáb and of other tribes of infidels. When Aurangzeb got knowledge of these matters, he ordered these deputy Gurús to be removed and the temples to be pulled down.”—Khafi Khan, in Elliot, vii. 413.

1756.—“April of 1716, when the Emperor took the field and marched towards Lahore, against the Sykes, a nation of Indians lately reared to power, and bearing mortal enmity to the Mahomedans.”—Orme, ii. 22. He also writes Sikes.

1781.—“Before I left Calcutta, a gentleman with whom I chanced to be discoursing of that sect who are distinguished from the worshippers of Brahm, and the followers of MAHOMMED by the appellation Seek, informed me that there was a considerable number of them settled in the city of Patna, where they had a College for teaching the tenets of their philosophy.”—Wilkins, in As. Res. i. 288.

1781–2.—“In the year 1128 of the Hedjra” (1716) “a bloody action happened in the plains of the Pendjab, between the Sycs and the Imperialists, in which the latter, commanded by Abdol-semed-Khan, a famous Viceroy of that province, gave these inhuman freebooters a great defeat, in which their General, Benda, fell into the victors hands. … He was a Syc by profession, that is one of those men attached to the tenets of Guru-Govind, and who from their birth or from the moment of their admission never cut or shave either their beard or whiskers or any hair whatever of their body. They form a particular Society as well as a sect, which distinguishes itself by wearing almost always blue cloaths, and going armed at all times. …” &c.—Seir Mutaqherin, i. 87.

1782.—“News was received that the Seiks had crossed the Jumna.”—India Gazette, May 11.

1783.—“Unhurt by the Sicques, tigers, and thieves, I am safely lodged at Nourpour.”—Forster, Journey, ed. 1808, i. 247.

1784.—“The Seekhs are encamped at the distance of 12 cose from the Pass of Dirderry, and have plundered all that quarter.”—In Seton-Karr, i. 13.

1790.—“Particulars relating to the seizure of Colonel Robert Stewart by the Sicques.”—Calc. Monthly Register, &c., i. 152.

1810.—Williamson (V.M.) writes Seeks.

The following extract indicates the prevalence of a very notable error:—

1840.—“Runjeet possesses great personal courage, a quality in which the Sihks (sic) are supposed to be generally deficient.”—Osborne, Court and Camp of Runjeet Singh, 83.

We occasionally about 1845–6 saw the

word written by people in Calcutta, who ought to have known better, Sheiks.

SILBOOT, SILPET, SLIPPET, s. Domestic Hind. corruptions of ‘slipper.’ The first is an instance of “striving after meaning” by connecting it in some way with ‘boot.’ [The Railway ‘sleeper’ is in the same way corrupted into silipat.]

SILLADAR, adj. and s. Hind. from Pers. silah-dar, ‘bearing or having arms,’ from Ar. silah, ‘arms.’ [In the Arabian Nights (Burton, ii. 114) it has the primary sense of an ‘armour-bearer.’] Its Anglo-Indian application is to a soldier, in a regiment of irregular cavalry, who provides his own arms and horse; and