1872.—"... all which cannot blind us to the fact that the Master is merely another avatar of Dr Holmes himself."—Sat. Review, Dec. 14, p. 768.
1873.—"He ... builds up a curious History of Spiritualism, according to which all matter is mediately or immediately the avatar of some Intelligence, not necessarily the highest."—Academy, May 15th, 172b.
1875.—"Balzac's avatars were a hundredfold as numerous as those of Vishnu."—Ibid., April 24th, p. 421.
AVERAGE, s. Skeat derives this in all its senses from L. Latin averia, used for cattle; for his deduction of meanings we must refer to his Dictionary. But it is worthy of consideration whether average, in its special marine use for a proportionate contribution towards losses of those whose goods are cast into the sea to save a ship, &c., is not directly connected with the Fr. avarie, which has quite that signification. And this last Dozy shows most plausibly to be from the Ar. 'awār, spoilt merchandise.' [This is rejected by the N.E.D., which concludes that the Ar. 'awār is "merely a mod. Arabic translation and adaptation of the Western term in its latest sense.">[ Note that many European words of trade are from the Arabic; and that avarie is in Dutch avarij, averij, or haverij.—(See Dozy, Oosterlingen.)
AYAH, s. A native lady's-maid or nurse-maid. The word has been adopted into most of the Indian vernaculars in the forms āya or āyā, but it is really Portuguese (f. aia, 'a nurse, or governess'; m. aio, 'the governor of a young noble'). [These again have been connected with L. Latin aidus, Fr. aide, 'a helper.']
1779.—"I was sitting in my own house in the compound, when the iya came down and told me that her mistress wanted a candle."—Kitmutgar's evidence, in the case of Grand v. Francis. Ext. in Echoes of Old Calcutta, 225.
1782.—(A Table of Wages):—
"Consumah.........10 (rupees a month).
* * * * * *
Eyah....................5."—India Gazette, Oct. 12.