LACKERAGE. (See [KHIRAJ].)
LALL-SHRAUB, s. Englishman's Hind. lāl-sharāb, 'red wine.' The universal name of claret in India.
[c. 1780.—"To every plate are set down two glasses; one pyramidal (like hobnob glasses in England) for Loll Shrub (scilicet, claret); the other a common sized wineglass for whatever beverage is most agreeable."—Diary of Mrs. Fay, in Busteed, Echoes, 123.]
LALLA, s. P.—H. lālā. In Persia this word seems to be used for a kind of domestic tutor; now for a male nurse, or as he would be called in India, 'child's bearer.' In N. India it is usually applied to a native clerk writing the vernacular, or to a respectable merchant. [For the Pers. usage see Blochmann, Āīn, i. 426 note.]
[1765.—"Amongst the first to be considered, I would recommend Juggut Seet, and one Gurdy Loll."—Verelst, App. 218.
[1841.—"Where there are no tigers, the Lalla (scribe) becomes a shikaree."—Society in India, ii. 176.]
LAMA, s. A Tibetan Buddhist monk. Tibet. bLama (b being silent). The word is sometimes found written Llama; but this is nonsense. In fact it seems to be a popular confusion, arising from the name of the S. American quadruped which is so spelt. See quotation from Times below.
c. 1590.—"Fawning Court doctors ... said it was mentioned in some holy books that men used to live up to the age of 1000 years ... and in Thibet there were even now a class of Lāmahs or Mongolian devotees, and recluses, and hermits that live 200 years and more...."—Badāonī, quoted by Blochmann, Āīn, i. 201.
1664.—"This Ambassador had in his suit a Physician, which was said to be of the Kingdom of Lassa, and of the Tribe Lamy or Lama, which is that of the men of the Law in that country, as the Brahmans are in the Indies ... he related of his great Lama that when he was old, and ready to die, he assembled his council, and declared to them that now he was passing into the Body of a little child lately born...."—Bernier, E.T. 135; [ed. Constable, 424].
1716.—"Les Thibetaines ont des Religieux nommés Lamas."—In Lettres Edif. xii. 438.