(Gutta Percha.) Malay, Gatta-Parcha, the gum of the Parcha tree. I was at first disposed to think, that the last part of the word was parchah, but this word ending also im an aspirate is Persian, and by no means likely to enter into the name of an indi- genous plant, the product of which had not been an object of foreign trade.
(Japan, Japanning.) Malay, Japûn. The word used by the classic writers of Queen Anne’s time, as Swift, Pope and Gay. Johnson calis it a low word in the sense of “ blacking shoes,” but this was not the case with Pope.
- ... The poor have the same itch
- They change their weekly barber, weekly news
- Prefer a new Japanner to their shoes.
The art of varnishing wood or basket-work is extensively practised in some countries of the East. These are Birma, Tonquin, China and Japan, but with hy far the greatest skill in the last. From the middle of the 16th century (1543), Europeans must have been through the trade of the Portugnese familiar with the beautiful lacquered work of Japan. That of Tonquin, inlaid with mother- of-pearl, must also have been greatly admired 3 forI find from Dampier that household furniture made in England, used to be sent to Tonquin to be lacquered. There is, at present, no necessity to send out tables, chairs, trays or standishes to Tonquin, for Japanning ig as well understood in Birmingham, as in Tonquin, and almost as well, as in Japan itself,
(Junk.} Malay, Jung, ajong. The word means a large vessel of any kind, distin Died fon a boat, or other small craft, and in this sense it was used | by Sir Thomas Herbert and other early voyagers. How Jung came to be converted into Junk, I do not know, but, most probably, English sailors, who are known not to be scrupulous about names, and pronunciation, and who are familiar with the word in the sense of old rope, and salt beef, had a share in it. The word in our language is as old as Lord Bacon.
(Loory.) Malay, Nuri, which is the generic name for parrot.
(Mango.) Sunda, Masigge. This word belongs to the lancuare of the Sundas of Java, and was probably picked up by our voyagers at Bantam, of which country the Sunda is the indigenous tongue, The other nations of Europe have taken the name apparently from the same source, and carried both name and fruit to the New World, of which the tree is not a native.
(Muck, a-muck.) Malay, amuk, The “a” which precedes it in English is not the English indefinite article, but part of the word itself and should be jomed to it. There is no such word in Malay ag muk, and still less the word written with a superfluous “ec.” Amuk (the ‘k’ at the end is mute) is the radical, and means a desperate and urious charge, or onset, either of an individual, or body of men. From this we have such derivatives asthe following, Maugamuk, to make a
