1673.—"He answered, it is well, and referred our Business to Moro Pundit his Peshua, or Chancellour, to examine our Articles, and give an account of what they were."—Fryer, 79.
1803.—"But how is it with the Peshwah? He has no minister; no person has influence over him, and he is only guided by his own caprices."—Wellington Desp., ed. 1837, ii. 177.
In the following passage (quandoquidem dormitans) the Great Duke had forgotten that things were changed since he left India, whilst the editor perhaps did not know:
1841.—"If you should draw more troops from the Establishment of Fort St. George, you will have to place under arms the subsidiary force of the Nizam, the Peishwah, and the force in Mysore, and the districts ceded by the Nizam in 1800-1801."—Letter from the D. of Wellington, in Ind. Adm. of Lord Ellenborough, 1874. (Dec. 29). The Duke was oblivious when he spoke of the Peshwa's Subsidiary Force in 1841.
PETERSILLY, s. This is the name by which 'parsley' is generally called in N. India. We have heard it quoted there as an instance of the absurd corruption of English words in the mouths of natives. But this case at least might more justly be quoted as an example of accurate transfer. The word is simply the Dutch term for 'parsley,' viz. petersilie, from the Lat. petroselinum, of which parsley is itself a double corruption through the French persil. In the Arabic of Avicenna the name is given as fatrasiliūn.
PETTAH, s. Tam. pēṭṭai. The extramural suburb of a fortress, or the town attached and adjacent to a fortress. The pettah is itself often separately fortified; the fortress is then its citadel. The Mahratti peṭh is used in like manner; [it is Skt. peṭaka, and the word possibly came to the Tamil through the Mahr.]. The word constantly occurs in the histories of war in Southern India.
1630.—"'Azam Khán, having ascended the Pass of Anjan-dúdh, encamped 3 kos from Dhárúr. He then directed Multafit Khán ... to make an attack upon ... Dhárúr and its petta, where once a week people from all parts, far and near, were accustomed to meet for buying and selling."—Abdul Hamīd, in Elliot, vii. 20.
1763.—"The pagoda served as a citadel to a large pettah, by which name the people on the Coast of Coromandel call every town contiguous to a fortress."—Orme, ed. 1803, i. 147.
1791.—"... The petta or town (at Bangalore) of great extent to the north of the fort, was surrounded by an indifferent rampart and excellent ditch, with an intermediate berm ... planted with impenetrable and well-grown thorns.... Neither the fort nor the petta had drawbridges."—Wilks, Hist. Sketches, iii. 123.
1803.—"The pettah wall was very lofty, and defended by towers, and had no rampart."—Wellington, ed. 1837, ii. 193.