[1623.—"... Mahabar Pirates...."—P. della Valle, Hak. Soc. i. 121.]

1877.—The form Malibar is used in a letter from Athanasius Peter III., "Patriarch of the Syrians of Antioch" to the Marquis of Salisbury, dated Cairo, July 18.

MALABAR, n.p.

b. This word, through circumstances which have been fully elucidated by Bishop Caldwell in his Comparative Grammar (2nd ed. 10-12), from which we give an extract below,[[158]] was applied by the Portuguese not only to the language and people of the country thus called, but also to the Tamil language and the people speaking Tamil. In the quotations following, those under A apply, or may apply, to the proper people or language of Malabar (see [MALAYALAM]); those under B are instances of the misapplication to Tamil, a misapplication which was general (see e.g. in Orme, passim) down to the beginning of the last century, and which still holds among the more ignorant Europeans and Eurasians in S. India and Ceylon.

(A.)

1552.—"A lingua dos Gentios de Canara e Malabar."—Castanheda, ii. 78.

1572.—

"Leva alguns Malabares, que tomou

Por força, dos que o Samorim mandara."

Camões, ix. 14.