khubber/kubber/khabar (*The Glossary): 'Only the naïve would take this word to mean "news" in the sense signified by that term in English. For if that were so then its derivate, kubberdaur/khabardar, would mean "bearer of news" instead of "beware!"'

+khud: 'Once, in an argument, a self-styled pundit cited this word as an instance of a loanword that remained unchanged in meaning after traveling between languages. "But if that were so," I said, "then surely khud in Hind. would possess the same connotations as the English 'chasm' or 'gap', would it not?" "Why so it does," he said. "So then tell me, sir," I asked, "how often have you heard anyone say in Hind. that there lay a great khud between them and their fellow men?"'

+khus-khus: See tatty.

khwancha (*Roebuck): See tapori.

kilmi (*Roebuck): 'mizzen-'; see dol.

+kismet/kismat: 'Great reams of buckwash have been written about the superstitious implications of this word. In fact it derives from the Arabic root q-s-m, "to divide" or "apportion", so it means nothing more than "portion" or "lot".'

+kotwal: See chokey.

kubberdaur/khabardar: See khubber.

kurta: See kameez.

kussab (*Roebuck): See lascar.

kuzzana/cuzzaner (*The Glossary): Neel felt that the administrative use of this word, to refer to district treasuries, was unduly restrictive. 'Why, as Sir Henry has shown, English travelers were using this word as early as 1683, hence that famous passage of Hedges Diary, in which he reports a demand for eight thousand Rupees to be paid into "ye King's Cuzzana".'

+laddu: There has been much familial dissension over whether Neels' expectations for this word were fulfilled. He imagined that it would find its way into the Oracle in its Laskari sense, in which it referred to the top (or cap) of the mast. But instead, this word, like jalebi/jellybee, has been anointed only in its incarnation as a sweetmeat. Yet it is a fact that the sweetmeat, like the cap of the mast, took its name from the roundedness of its shape, hence Neel's intuition was not wholly at fault.

lall-shraub / loll-shrub / lál-sharáb (*The Glossary, *The Barney-Book): 'This phrase was so commonly used that to say 'red wine' was considered pretentious'. See also sharab/xarave etc.

+langooty/langoot/langot: 'Well was it said of this most abbreviated version of the dhoti that it substituted a "pocket-handkerchief for a fig-leaf".'

lantea (*The Glossary): 'Curious that the Oracle overlooked this common Chinese boat while anointing the rarer Malay lanchara.'

larkin: 'What a mademoiselle is to a madame, so was a larkin to a BeeBee, being nothing other than the corruption of Hind. larki, "girl".'

larn-pijjin: See pijjin.

lás/purwan-ka-lás (*Roebuck): 'A lazy shortening', Neel notes, 'for the Portuguese word for yardarm: laiz.'

+lascar: 'Almost to a man the lascars will say that their name comes from the Persian lashkar, meaning "militia" or "member of a militia", and thus be extension "mercenary" or "hired hand". That there is some connection between these words is beyond question, but I am convinced that the strictly nautical usage of the term is a purely European introduction, dating back perhaps to the Portuguese. In Hind., of course, the term is applied to foot-soldiers, not sailors, and almost always denotes a plurality (so that it would be absurd to say in Bengali, as one well might in English, "a lashkar of lascars"). Even today a lascar will rarely use this term to describe himself, preferring instead such words as jahazi or khalasi (the anglice of which is the curious classy); or else he will use a title of rank, whereby the seniormost is a serang, followed by tindal and seacunny. Nor does this exhaust all the gradations of lascar ranks, for there are others such as kussab and topas, whose functions are somewhat obscure (although the latter seem usually to serve as ship's sweeper). It is not perhaps surprising that there is no special Laskari word for the lowest in the ladder of rankings: as with the English "ship's boy", this unfortunate worthy is so often mocked, taunted and kicked that he is more butt than boy, and to speak the name of his rank is almost offensive (and the terms by which he is generally known do indeed serve as something of an insult: launda and chhokra – the anglice of which are launder and chuckeroo). Thus it happens that a lascar's most frequent use of the term lascar corresponds more closely to its Hind. or Persian usage than to the English, for he generally employs it as a collective noun, to mean "crew" (lashkar). The strangest part of the curious odyssey of the word lascar is that it has now re-entered some Hind. languages (notably Bengali), in which it is used in the European sense, to mean "sailor"! I am persuaded, however, that where this is the case, the word is a recent intruder, introduced through the nautical dialects of Portuguese or English.'

+lashkar (*Roebuck): See above.

latteal/lathial (*The Glossary): See burkmundauze.

+lattee/lathee: 'There are those who claim that this is merely a "stick". To them I say: Well, why do you not try the sound of fiddle-lattees and see how well it serves? The word is actually a part-synonym for "baton", since it is applied only to that incarnation of the stick in which it is both an instrument of chastisement and a symbol of imperial authority. By this token, it is the Englishman's version of Hind. danda, which derives of course from dand, meaning "rule" or "authority".' Elsewhere Neel notes that a lathi was never to be mistaken for the kind of walking stick that went by the name of penang-lawyer, 'with which', as the Admiral so aptly remarks, 'the administration of justice was wont to be settled at Pulo Penang'.

launder/launda: See lascar.

+linkister: Neel would have taken issue with the Oracle's derivation of this word as a corruption of 'linguister'. He believed it to be, rather, a colloquial extension of the word 'link' – one that came to be applied to translators because it so perfectly fitted their function.

loocher (*The Glossary): 'The ease with which this derivative of the Hind. luchha has come into English has much to do with its resemblance to its synonym "lecher": but this too is the reason why it will, in all probability, soon lapse from use.'

loondboond/lundbund (*Roebuck): This cognate of launder was the curious Laskari word for 'dismasted'. Speculating on its origins, Roebuck writes, 'perhaps from nunga moonunga, stark naked,' which in turn prompted Neel to observe: 'How plain the English and how vivid the Laskari, which should be translated, surely, as "dismembered"? Could it be that Roebuck knew neither of lunds nor bunds, and nor, possibly, of their relation to each other?'

+loot: 'I am persuaded that this is another word that English owes to Laskari, for this derivative of the Hind. lút probably first found employment on the Company Bawhawder's ships when applied to captured French vessels (in the sense of "prize" or "plunder").'

+lorcha: 'Whether this is a ship of Portuguese make or a Chinese copy of an European design is a vexed issue; suffice it to say that these vessels are often seen off the coast of southern China.'

luckerbaug (*The Glossary): 'Over this English word, speakers of Hind. and Bengali have been known to come to blows, the former contending that it derives from their lakkarbagga, "hyena", and the latter claiming it to be a corruption of nekrebagh, "wolf". The matter is impossible to decide for I have heard it being applied to both these creatures, and the jackal to boot.'