Chapter SOUDAGUR to SOY of S by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

the papers I read last night, that they have camels, but no sowars, or drivers.”—Letter of D. of Wellington, in Indian Administration of Ld. Ellenborough, 228.

1857.—“I have given general notice of the Shutur Sowar going into Meerut to all the Meerut men.”—H. Greathed’s Letters during Siege of Delhi, 42.

SOWARRY, SUWARREE, s. Hind. from Pers. sawari. A cavalcade, a cortège of mounted attendants.

1803.—“They must have tents, elephants, and other sewary; and must have with them a sufficient body of troops to guard their persons.”—A. Wellesley, in Life of Munro, i. 346.

1809.—“He had no sawarry.”—Ld. Valentia, i. 388.

1814.—“I was often reprimanded by the Zemindars and native officers, for leaving the suwarree, or state attendants, at the outer gate of the city, when I took my evening excursion.”—Forbes, Or. Mem. iii. 420; [2nd ed. ii. 372].

[1826.—“The ‘aswary,’ or suite of Trimbuckje, arrived at the palace.”—Pandurang Hari, ed. 1873, i. 119.]

1827.—“Orders were given that on the next day all should be in readiness for the Sowarree, a grand procession, when the Prince was to receive the Begum as an honoured guest.”—Sir Walter Scott, The Surgeon’s Daughter, ch. xiv.

c. 1831.—“Je tâcherai d’éviter toute la poussière de ces immenses sowarris.”—Jacquemont, Corresp. ii. 121.

[1837.—“The Raja of Benares came with a very magnificent surwarree of elephants and camels.”—Miss Eden, Up the Country, i. 35.]

SOWARRY CAMEL, s. A swift or riding camel. See SOWAR, SHOOTER-.

1835.—“ ‘I am told you dress a camel beautifully,’ said the young Princess, ‘and I was anxious to … ask you to instruct my people how to attire a sawari camel.’ This was flattering me on a very weak point: there is but one thing in the world that I perfectly understand, and that is how to dress a camel.”—Wanderings of a Pilgrim, ii. 36.

SOWCAR, s. Hind. sahukar; alleged to be from Skt. sadhu, ‘right,’ with the Hind. affix kar, ‘doer’; Guj. Mahr. savakar. A native banker; corresponding to the Chetty of S. India. 1803.—“You should not confine your dealings to one soucar. Open a communication with every soucar in Poonah, and take money from any man who will give it you for bills.”—Wellington, Desp., ed. 1837, ii. 1.

1826.—“We were also sahoukars, and granted bills of exchange upon Bombay and Madras, and we advanced moneys upon interest.”—Pandurang Hari, 174; [ed. 1873, i. 251].

[In the following the word is confounded with Sonar:

[1877.—“It was the habit of the sonars, as the goldsmiths are called, to bear their wealth upon their persons.”—Mrs. Guthrie, My Year in an Indian Fort, i. 294.]

SOY, s. A kind of condiment once popular. The word is Japanese si-yau (a young Japanese fellow- passenger gave the pronunciation clearly as shoyu.—A. B.), Chin. shi-yu. [Mr. Platts (9 ser. N. & Q. iv. 475) points out that in Japanese as written with the native character soy would not be siyau, but siyau-yu; in the Romanised Japanese this is simplified to shoyu (colloquially this is still further reduced, by dropping the final vowel, to shoy or soy). Of this monosyllable only the so represents the classical siyau; the final consonant (y) is a relic of the termination yu. The Japanese word is itself derived from the Chinese, which at Shanghai is sze-yu, at Amoy, si-iu, at Canton, shi-yau, of which the first element means ‘salt ed beans,’ or other fruits, dried and used as condiments; the second element merely means ‘oil.’] It is made from the beans of a plant common in the Himalaya and E. Asia, and much cultivated, viz. Glycine Soja, Sieb. and Zucc. (Soya hispida, Moench.), boiled down and fermented. [In India the bean is eaten in places where it is cultivated, as in Chutia Nagpur (Watt, Econ. Dict. iii. 510 seq.)] 1679.—“… Mango and Saio, two sorts of sauces brought from the East Indies.”—Journal of John Locke, in Ld. King’s Life of L., i. 249.

1688.—“I have been told that soy is made with a fishy composition, and it seems most likely by the Taste; tho’ a Gentleman of my Acquaintance who was very intimate with one that sailed often from Tonquin to Japan, from whence the true Soy comes, told me that it was made only with Wheat and a sort of Beans mixt with Water and Salt.”—Dampier, ii. 28.

1690.—“… Souy, the choicest of all Sawces.”—Ovington, 397.

1712.—“Hoc legumen in coquinâ Japonicâ utramque replet paginam; ex eo namque conficitur: tum puls Miso dicta, quae ferculis pro consistentiâ, et butyri loco additur, butyrum enim hôc coelô res ignota est; tum Sooju dictum embamma, quod nisi ferculis, certè frictis et assatis