Chapter TOOLSY to TOOTNAGUE of T by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

TOORKEY, s. A Turki horse, i.e. from Turkestan. Marco Polo uses what is practically the same word for a horse from the Turcoman horse-breeders of Asia Minor.

1298.—“…the Turcomans…dwell among mountains and downs where they find good pasture, for their occupation is cattle-keeping. Excellent horses, known as Turquans, are reared in their country.…”—Marco Polo, Bk. i. ch. 2.

[c. 1590.—“The fourth class (Turkí) are horses imported from Turán; though strong and well formed, they do not come up to the preceding (Arabs, Persian, Mujannas).”—Ain, i. 234.

[1663.—“If they are found to be Turki horses, that is from Turkistan or Tartary, and of a proper size and adequate strength, they are branded on the thigh with the King’s mark.…”—Bernier, ed. Constable, 243.]

1678.—“Four horses bought for the Company—

	Pagodas.
One young Arab at	160
One old Turkey at	40
One old Atchein at	20
One of this country at	20
	240.”

Ft. St. Geo. Consns., March 6, in
Notes and Exts., Madras, 1871.

1782.—“Wanted one or two Tanyans (see TANGUN) rising six years old, Wanted also a Bay Toorkey, or Bay Tazzi (see TAZEE) Horse for a Buggy.…”—India Gazette, Feb. 9.

„“To be disposed of at Ghyretty…a Buggy, almost new…a pair of uncommonly beautiful spotted Toorkays.”—Ibid. March 2.

TOOTNAGUE, s. Port. tutenaga. This word appears to have two different applications. a. A Chinese alloy of copper, zinc, and nickel, sometimes called ‘white copper’ (i.e. peh-tung of the Chinese). The finest qualities are alleged to contain arsenic.¹ The best comes from Yunnan, and Mr. Joubert of the Garnier Expedition, came to the conclusion that it was produced by a direct mixture of the ores in the furnace (Voyage d’Exploration, ii. 160). b. It is used in Indian trade in the same loose way that spelter is used, for either zinc or pewter (peh-yuen, or ‘white lead’ of the Chinese). The base of the word is no doubt the Pers. tutiya, Skt. tuttha, an oxide of zinc, generally in India applied to blue vitriol or sulphate of copper, but the formation of the word is obscure. Possibly the last syllable is merely an adjective affix, in which way nak is used in Persian. Or it may be naga in the sense of lead, which is one of the senses given by Shakespear. In one of the quotations given below, tutenague is confounded with calin (see CALAY). Moodeen Sheriff gives as synonyms for zinc, Tam. tuttanagam [tuttunagam], Tel. tuttunagam [tuttinagamu], Mahr. and Guz. tutti-naga. Sir G. Staunton is curiously wrong in supposing (as his mode of writing seems to imply) that tutenague is a Chinese word. [The word has been finally corrupted in England into ‘tooth and egg’ metal, as in a quotation below.]

1605.—“4500 Pikals (see PECUL) of Tintenaga (for Tiutenaga) or Spelter.”—In Valentijn, v. 329.

1644.—“That which they export (from Cochin to Orissa) is pepper, although it is prohibited, and all the drugs of the south, with Callaym (see CALAY), Tutunaga, wares of China and Portugal; jewelled ornaments; but much less nowadays, for the reasons already stated.…”—Bocarro, MS. f. 316.

1675.—“…from thence with Dollars to China for Sugar, Tea, Porcelane, Laccared Ware, Quicksilver, Tuthinag, and Copper.…”—Fryer, 86.

[1676–7.—“…supposing yo^r Hon^r may intend to send y^e Sugar, Sugar-candy, and Tutonag for Persia.…”—Forrest, Bombay Letters, Home Series, i. 125.]

1679.—Letter from Dacca reporting…“that Dacca is not a good market for Gold, Copper, Lead, Tin or Tutenague.”—Ft. St. Geo. Consns., Oct. 31, in Notes and Exts. Madras, 1871.

[ „ “In the list of commodities brought from the East Indies, 1678, I find among the drugs, tincal (see TINCALL) and Toothanage set doune. Enquire also what these are.…”—Letter of Sir T. Browne, May 29, in N. & Q, 2 ser. vii. 520.]

1727.—“Most of the Spunge in China had pernicious Qualities because the Subterraneous Grounds were stored with Minerals, as Copper, Quicksilver, Allom, Toothenague, &c.”—A. Hamilton, ii. 223; [ed. 1744, ii. 222, for “Spunge” reading “Springs”].

1750.—“A sort of Cash made of Toothenague is the only Currency of the Country.”—Some Ac. of Cochin China, by Mr. Robert Kirsop, in Dalrymple, Or. Rep. i. 245.

[1757.—Speaking of the freemen enrolled at Nottingham in 1757, Bailey (Annals of Nottinghamshire, iii. 1235) mentions as one of them William Tutin, buckle-maker, and then goes on to say: “It was a son of this latter person who was the inventor of that beautiful composite white metal, the introduction of which created such a change in numerous articles of ordinary table service in England. This metal, in honour of the inventor, was called Tutinic, but which word, by one of the most absurd perversions of language ever known, became transferred into ‘Tooth and Egg,’ the name by which it was almost uniformly recognised in the shops.”—Quoted