TINNEVELLY, n.p. A town and district of Southern India, probably Tiru-nel-vēli, 'Sacred Rice-hedge.' [The Madras Gloss. gives 'Sacred Paddy-village.'] The district formed the southern part of the Madura territory, and first became a distinct district about 1744, when the Madura Kingdom was incorporated with the territories under the Nawāb of Arcot (Caldwell, H. of Tinnevelly).
TIPARRY, s. Beng. and Hind. tipārī, tepārī, the fruit of Physalis peruviana, L., N.O. Solanaceae. It is also known in India as 'Cape gooseberry,' [which is usually said to take its name from the Cape of Good Hope, but as it is a native of tropical America, Mr. Ferguson (8 ser. N. & Q. xii. 106) suggests that the word may really be cape or cap, from the peculiarity of its structure noted below.] It is sometimes known as 'Brazil cherry.' It gets its generic name from the fact that the inflated calyx encloses the fruit as in a bag or bladder (φύσα). It has a slightly acid gooseberry flavour, and makes excellent jam. We have seen a suggestion somewhere that the Bengali name is connected with the word tenpā, 'inflated,' which gives its name to a species of tetrodon or globe-fish, a fish which has the power of dilating the œsophagus in a singular manner. The native name of the fruit in N.W. India is māk or māko, but tipārī is in general Anglo-Indian use. The use of an almost identical name for a gooseberry-like fruit, in a Polynesian Island (Kingsmill group) quoted below from Wilkes, is very curious, but we can say no more on the matter.
1845.—"On Makin they have a kind of fruit resembling the gooseberry, called by the natives 'teiparu'; this they pound, after it is dried, and make with molasses into cakes, which are sweet and pleasant to the taste."—U.S. Expedition, by C. Wilkes, U.S.N., v. 81.
1878.—"... The enticing tipari in its crackly covering...."—P. Robinson, In My Indian Garden, 49-50.
TIPPOO SAHIB, n.p. The name of this famous enemy of the English power in India was, according to C. P. Brown, taken from that of Tipū Sultān, a saint whose tomb is near Hyderabad. [Wilks (Hist. Sketches, i. 522, ed. 1869), says that the tomb is at Arcot.]
TIRKUT, s. Foresail. Sea Hind. from Port. triquette (Roebuck).
TIYAN, n.p. Malayāl. Tīyan, or Tīvan, pl. Tīyar or Tīvar. The name of what may be called the third caste (in rank) of Malabar. The word signifies 'islander,' [from Mal. tīvu, Skt. dvīpa, 'an island']; and the people are supposed to have come from Ceylon (see [TIER CUTTY]).
1510.—"The third class of Pagans are called Tiva, who are artizans."—Varthema, 142.
1516.—"The cleanest of these low and rustic people are called Tuias (read Tivas), who are great labourers, and their chief business is to look after the palm-trees, and gather their fruit, and carry everything ... for hire, because there are no draught cattle in the country."—Barbosa, Lisbon ed. 335.
[1800.—"All Tirs can eat together, and intermarry. The proper duty of the cast is to extract the juice from palm-trees, to boil it down to Jagory ([Jaggery]), and to distil it into spirituous liquors; but they are also very diligent as cultivators, porters, and cutters of firewood."—Buchanan, Mysore, ii. 415; and see Logan, Malabar, i. 110, 142.]