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#38437
08/13/2001 5:19 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
The site below contains a long list of words that went from Portuguese to Indian to English. There is also a lot of interesting information about the island of St. Helena, and the development of the coffee trade. There was also a description of Napoleon on his deathbed asking for coffee and being denied it. Not explained why, but pathetic. http://www.theeastindiacompany.com/hobsonjobson.html#A
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#38438
08/14/2001 9:00 AM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 1,055
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 1,055 |
Interesting list. I'm not sure if all the entries warrant inclusion though (see 'Beetlefuck'!).
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#38439
08/15/2001 3:53 AM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
Dr. Bill, I thought this one was interesting--I never heard of horse-golf chaugan.
Chicane Chicanery. Now means pettyfogging, using every possible means to gain an end in a contest. Derives from Persian horse-golf chaugan, better known as polo.
I also never knew that Bantam was an area of Java--I never gave much thought to where the name for this small chicken came from. My Tennessee relatives called them "banty" roosters and banty hens.
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#38440
08/15/2001 12:18 PM
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 3,065
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 3,065 |
Bantam is the Anglicisation of Banten, on the north coast of Java. In the 16th and 17th centuries Banten was a great trading city, bigger than the Paris and Amsterdam of the time. Now there's almost nothing there, just a few houses clustered near one of the oldest mosques and one of the oldest Chinese temples in Java. Good view of the surrounding countryside from the mosque minaret, which you can climb up. People from Banten have a reputation for involvement in the occult and black magic. For more on Banten's history, see: http://www.indonesianheritage.com/Encyclopedia/Early_Modern_History/Islam_And_Port_Sultans/Banten/banten.html . I don't see how Batavia is an example of Hobson Jobson. After the Dutch conquered the city Jayakarta, they renamed it Batavia after the Batavii, a tribe mentioned by Julius Caesar as living in what is now Holland. Bingley
Bingley
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