ACHÁR, s. P. āchār, Malay ắchār, adopted in nearly all the vernaculars of India for acid and salt relishes. By Europeans it is used as the equivalent of 'pickles,' and is applied to all the stores of Crosse and Blackwell in that kind. We have adopted the word through the Portuguese; but it is not impossible that Western Asiatics got it originally from the Latin acetaria.—(See Plin. Hist. Nat. xix. 19).
1563.—"And they prepare a conserve of it (Anacardium) with salt, and when it is green (and this they call Achar), and this is sold in the market just as olives are with us."—Garcia, f. 17.
1596.—Linschoten in the Dutch gives the word correctly, but in the English version (Hak. Soc. ii. 26) it is printed Machar.
[1612.—"Achar none to be had except one jar."—Danvers, Letters, i. 230.]
1616.—"Our jurebasso's ([Juribasso]) wife came and brought me a small jarr of Achar for a present, desyring me to exskews her husband in that he abcented hymselfe to take phisik."—Cocks, i. 135.
1623.—"And all these preserved in a way that is really very good, which they call acciao."—P. della Valle, ii. 708. [Hak. Soc. ii. 327.]
1653.—"Achar est vn nom Indistanni, ou Indien, que signifie des mangues, ou autres fruits confis avec de la moutarde, de l'ail, du sel, et du vinaigre à l'Indienne."—De la Boullaye-le-Gouz, 531.
1687.—"Achar I presume signifies sauce. They make in the East Indies, especially at Siam and Pegu, several sorts of Achar, as of the young tops of Bamboes, &c. Bambo-Achar and Mango-Achar are most used."—Dampier, i. 391.
1727.—"And the Soldiery, Fishers, Peasants, and Handicrafts (of Goa) feed on a little Rice boiled in Water, with a little bit of Salt Fish, or Atchaar, which is pickled Fruits or Roots."—A. Hamilton, i. 252. [And see under [KEDGEREE].]
1783.—We learn from Forrest that limes, salted for sea-use against scurvy, were used by the Chulias ([Choolia]), and were called atchar (Voyage to Mergui, 40). Thus the word passed to Java, as in next quotation: