1817.—"I am now finishing this letter by candle-light, with the help of a handkerchief tied over the shade."—T. Munro, in Life, i. 511.
[1838.—"We brought carpets, and chandeliers, and wall shades (the great staple commodity of Indian furniture), from Calcutta...."—Miss Eden, Up the Country, 2nd ed. i. 182.]
SHAGREEN, s. This English word,—French chagrin; Ital. zigrino; Mid. High Ger. Zager,—comes from the Pers. saghrī, Turk. ṣāghrī, meaning properly the croupe or quarter of a horse, from which the peculiar granulated leather, also called sāghrī in the East, was originally made. Diez considers the French (and English adopted) chagrin in the sense of vexation to be the same word, as certain hard skins prepared in this way were used as files, and hence the word is used figuratively for gnawing vexation, as (he states) the Ital. lima also is (Etym. Worterbuch, ed. 1861, ii. 240). He might have added the figurative origin of tribulation. [This view is accepted by the N.E.D.; but Prof. Skeat (Concise Dict.) denies its correctness.]
1663.—"... à Alep ... on y travaille aussi bien qu'à Damas le sagri, qui est ce qu'on appelle chagrin en France, mais l'on en fait une bien plus grande quantité en Perse.... Le sagri sa fait de croupe d'âne," &c.—Thevenot, Voyages, iii. 115-116.
1862.—"Saghree, or Keemookt, Horse or Ass-Hide."—Punjab Trade Report, App. ccxx.; [For an account of the manufacture of kimukht, see Hoey, Mon. on Trades and Manufactures of N. India, 94.]
SHAITAN, Ar. 'The Evil One; Satan.' Shaitān kā bhāī, 'Brother of the Arch-Enemy,' was a title given to Sir C. Napier by the Amīrs of Sind and their followers. He was not the first great English soldier to whom this title had been applied in the East. In the romance of Cœur de Lion, when Richard entertains a deputation of Saracens by serving at table the head of one of their brethren, we are told:
"Every man sat stylle and pokyd othir;
They saide: 'This is the Develys brothir,
That sles our men, and thus hem eetes...."
[c. 1630.—"But a Mountebank or Impostor is nick-named Shitan-Tabib, i.e. the Devil's Chirurgion."—Sir T. Herbert, ed. 1677, p. 304.