MUGGUR, s. Hind. and Mahr. magar and makar, from Skt. makara 'a sea-monster' (see [MACAREO]). The destructive broad-snouted crocodile of the Ganges and other Indian rivers, formerly called Crocodilus biporcatus, now apparently subdivided into several sorts or varieties.
1611.—"Alagaters or Crocodiles there called Murgur match...."—Hawkins, in Purchas, i. 436. The word is here intended for magar-mats or machh, 'crocodile-fish.'
[1876.—See under [NUZZER].]
1878.—"The muggur is a gross pleb, and his features stamp him as low-born. His manners are coarse."—Ph. Robinson, In My Indian Garden, 82-3.
1879.—"En route I killed two crocodiles; they are usually called alligators, but that is a misnomer. It is the mugger ... these muggers kill a good many people, and have a playful way of getting under a boat, and knocking off the steersman with their tails, and then swallowing him afterwards."—Pollok, Sport, &c., i. 168.
1881.—"Alligator leather attains by use a beautiful gloss, and is very durable ... and it is possible that our rivers contain a sufficient number of the two varieties of crocodile, the muggar and the garial (see [GAVIAL]) for the tanners and leather-dressers of Cawnpore to experiment upon."—Pioneer Mail, April 26.
MUGGRABEE, n.p. Ar. maghrabī, 'western.' This word, applied to western Arabs, or Moors proper, is, as might be expected, not now common in India. It is the term that appears in the Hayraddin Mograbbin of Quentin Durward. From gharb, the root of this word, the Spaniards have the province of Algarve, and both Spanish and Portuguese have garbin, a west wind. [The magician in the tale of Alaeddin is a Maghrabī, and to this day in Languedoc and Gascony Maugraby is used as a term of cursing. (Burton, Ar. Nights, x. 35, 379). Muggerbee is used for a coin (see [GUBBER]).]
1563.—"The proper tongue in which Avicena wrote is that which is used in Syria and Mesopotamia and in Persia and in Tartary (from which latter Avicena came) and this tongue they call Araby; and that of our Moors they call Magaraby, as much as to say Moorish of the West...."—Garcia, f. 19v.
MULL, s. A contraction of Mulligatawny, and applied as a distinctive sobriquet to members of the Service belonging to the Madras Presidency, as Bengal people are called [Qui-his], and Bombay people [Ducks] or [Benighted].
[1837.—"The Mulls have been excited also by another occurrence ... affecting rather the trading than fashionable world."—Asiatic Journal, December, p. 251.]