150 Contributions towards Vernacular Lexicography. [No. 2, 



cft\5l, as stated before, is a corruption of the Sanscrit ^S"J», a 

 water-snake. It is now used to indicate the innocuous water-snake 

 as well as a powerless man. ^t*^^ conies from ^T^fT'T, cotton, and 

 here the material has given name to the cloth made from it. Its 

 present signification, however, is more extensive. It is in Bengali 

 a generic term for cloth. 5f;st means that which is washed, and as 

 the piece of cloth round the waist of a Bengali is the only part of his 

 dress which he has to change about four times or oftener in a 

 day, that piece of cloth is by par excellence called %V(. ^"51 comes 

 from 3J3| a thread. It is now used exclusively to represent cotton 

 thread, and cloth made of cotton is ?T5t?" ^T*T^, as distinguished 

 from C^CST^ ^f^f^. 



^~§1 is CKT^I in Hindi, and appears to be part of the Sanscrit 

 word sr^tT ^Tff^l, a pair of shoes. 



irT^I means cassien of milk, separated by boiling it with an acid. 

 It is derived from fw% to break up, to tear asunder, and the com- 

 pound dtssl W% supports this derivation. 



fi>W?T TtTffsr (Chinese almond), t^5nTt% ^S3T51 (English gourd), 

 ^St?^ ^Tf% (Gruzrat elephant), appear to be misnomers. The first 

 is no more an almond than it is Chinese. Its more rustic name 

 is 'srt^^tWT^" or ^"|i> ^\5ft (field almond, or field lentils), which ex- 

 presses its nature better than the other term. The ft'cTlfs ^j^rel 

 is called 1^11%, because crews of vessels store them up before they 

 leave the port for the sea, as it can be preserved as long as the 

 potatoe without getting rotten. The name, however, may mislead, 

 were we to consider it as an introduced fruit, as also the word f<Sft1% 

 3"T? (Indiarubber tree). The Hindi word sjtpI? ^ifs^l (traveller's 

 gourd) is a clue to its origin. The people of obscure villages have 

 preserved its real name f^C^'STS'l, sweet-gourd. 



C%\5] and C5^1, as stated above, are both derived from the Sanscrit 

 fg"W, but CWS\ in Bengali is ' to tear,' and csf 1 is to divide lon- 

 gitudinally. Thus the slit of a pen is its fsj. ^pTt>1, ^p^t C^pTT>1, 

 TrsTj-gssTTa are derivatives of the Sanscrit ?$J?T?. IpTT>1 to crack, 

 CTp[t?1 to boil, as also to break by frying, as in ^pl^^f^, a kind 

 of lentil that cracks when fried, ipf? is a cucumber which bursts 

 when ripe. 



