+chokra/chuckeroo: 'Another instance in which Hind. and English usages subtly diverge, for a chhokra in former refers to a youth, a lad, a stripling, while chokra/chuckeroo points rather to a rung in the ladder of employment, which, no matter whether in a household, a military encampment, or a ship's crew, was usually the lowest, and thus commonly (but by no means always) held by the young. In the Raskhali Rajbari it would have been considered strange indeed to speak of a middle-aged khidmatgar as a chhokra. But such an usage would not appear unusual in English. It is interesting in this regard to compare chokra/chuckeroo with its synonyms launder/launda, which were never used in mixed company, for reason perhaps, of baring a little too much of their manhood.' See also lascar.

+choola/chula: 'Another of those words in which the experience of migration has wrought a subtle shift of personality. In sahiby bobachee connahs the word usually referred to an oven, whereas in Hind. it was used for a stove with an open fire (from which, the Laskari chuldan for "galley"). Often these stoves were portable, the combustibles being loaded into a clay or metal balde. It is this perhaps that has misled some pundits into thinking that the Laskari dish, "galinha balde," or "balti chicken", was named after a certain kind of stove. One does not need to have observed the preparation of this dish to know that this is pure buckwash, for if it were indeed thus named, then surely its name would have been "choola chicken".'

choomer (*The Barney-Book): 'In English the use of the Hind. loan word for "kiss", chumma, was used always in the sense of "peck on the cheek", and was never applied to deeper amatory explorations. The misleading term "kiss-miss" does not refer to the mystery of the choomer. As many a furtive classy has discovered, the whispering of this word in the city's disreputable gullies will lead not to a charterhouse, but to a handful of raisins.'

+chop: 'Another word of Hind. origin (from chhãp, "stamp" or "seal") that has passed fluently from the English argot of India into the patois of southern China. It is not, however, related to +chop-chop, "quick, quickly", which is of Cantonese derivation (from k'wái-k'wái); it is this latter form that yields the ugly vulgarism chopstick, none of the blame for which can be pinned on Hind.'

+chop-chop: See above.

+chopstick: See above.

+chota/chhota/choota/: Scrawled upon the back of the two of clubs in Neel's Jack-Chits are these words: 'Chhota is to burra as peg is to mast: hence the common Laskari locution chota-peg, often used synonymously with faltu-dol.'

+chota-hazri: See above. 'How Barrère & Leland have managed to come to the conclusion that a chota-hazri corresponds to the "auroral mint julep or pre-prandial cocktail of Virginia " I will never understand, for it usually consists of nothing more than toast and tea.'

chownee (*The Glossary):'A great pity that this fine Hind. word for "military encampment" came to be replaced by the dull Anglo-Saxon "cantonment".'

+chuddar/chadar: 'In no field of meaning has English relied more heavily on migrants than in referring to the clothing of womens' heads, shoulders and breasts. Yet, even having absorbed shawl, chuddar/chadar, and doo -putty/dupatta, it still has no word for that part of the sari that serves the same function, for both ghungta and ãchal remain strangers to the Oracle. The cumbly/kambal ("blanket") can scarcely be offered as an alternative.'

chuldan (*Roebuck): See choola/chula.

chull (*The Barney-Book): 'Barrère & Leland reveal their ignorance by giving this the gloss of "make haste", a meaning that belongs more to the imperative jaw! Chull has much more the sense of the French allez or the Arabic yalla. One searches in vain for a good English equivalent, "come on" being hardly as expressive.'

chup/choops (*The Barney-Book): 'Another word that has migrated through the nursery, being one of the few exhortations to silence that can be considered polite.'

chupow/chupao (*The Glossary): 'Despite its present currency, this emigrant is unlikely to find a permanent seat in the House of Verbs, since it serves no function that is not already discharged by the English "to hide".'

chute/choot: 'This word's popularity is largely due to the one notable advantage that it possesses over other more specific anatomical terms: to wit, that it can be applied to all human beings, irrespective of gender, in the full confidence that the subject will be in possession of a few such. This is possibly why it enjoys such widespread use, both in Hind. and English, the difference being that in English it is rarely used in the absence of some other paired element (ban-/betee- etc.). One exception is the cant term chutier, which is used abusively to imply an exces sive endowment in regard to this aspect of the anatomy.' See also banchoot/barnshoot etc.

cobbily-mash (*The Glossary): 'This was, of course, not a mash at all, but a preparation of dried fish (being a corruption of the Bengali term shutki-maach.)'

+cockup: This was of course one of many words that perished in the abattoir of Victorian prudery. Being uncommonly fond of the fish to which it referred, lates calcarifer (bhetki/beckty), Neel refused to recognize that this term was greatly endangered: he certainly bears some of the responsibility for its extinction.

+compound/kampung: There was for long a feeling within the family that this word ought not to be included in the Chrestomathy, since the fact of its having gained entry into the Oracle in both its forms would provide a convincing refutation of Neel's pet theory (according to which, words could never migrate in pairs – see bandar). These anxieties were set at rest when a wordy-wallah pointed out that these words are neither homonyms nor synonyms: they are merely variant spellings of the same word.

conker/kunkur (*The Glossary): 'This word has nothing whatever to do with water- or horse-chestnuts. It is a corruption of the Hind. kankar, "gravel", and is used in the same sense.'

+consumah/consummer/khansama: See bobachee.

+coolin/kulin: 'In no way to be confused with "coolie", this was the word used to refer to the highest rung of certain castes.' A contracted form has recently gained some currency in classy circles: "cool".'

cot: See charpoy.

cotia (*The Glossary): A vessel from the Kerala coast that was only rarely to be sighted on the Hooghly.

cow-chilo (*The Linkister): 'Often have I heard this item of the South China patois being used to disparage the Chinese and their regard for women. Yet the expression is merely a badly matched pairing of words, the first being a corruption of the Cantonese kai.'

cranny/karani (*The Glossary): See carcanna.

+cumbly/kambal: See chuddar.

+cumra/kamra/camera (*The Glossary, *Roebuck): Neel gave the credit for the introduction of this item of Portuguese nautical usage (camara), into the languages of Hind., English included. In its original nautical sense, it was used of course to mean 'cabin', but by virtue of conveniently expressing the idea of partitioned space, it has reverted to the sense of its Latin avatar, in which it meant 'room' or 'chamber'. 'The curious use of gol-kamra (liter-ally "round-room") to mean "drawing-room" is unlikely to survive.'