1677.—"... Receipt of Custom (at Gombroon) for which he pays the King yearly Twenty-two thousand Thomands, every Thomand making Three pound and a Noble in our Accompt, Half which we have a Right to."—Fryer, 222.
1711.—"Camels, Houses, &c., are generally sold by the Tomand, which is 200 Shahees or 50 Abassees; and they usually reckon their Estates that way; such a man is worth so many Tomands, as we reckon by Pounds in England."—Lockyer, 229.
[1858.—"Girwur Singh, Tomandar, came up with a detachment of the special police."—Sleeman, Journey through Oudh, ii. 17.]
TOMBACK, s. An alloy of copper and zinc, i.e. a particular modification of brass, formerly imported from Indo-Chinese countries. Port. tambaca, from Malay tāmbaga and tămbaga, 'copper,' which is again from Skt. tamṛika and tāmra.
1602.—"Their drummes are huge pannes made of a metall called Tombaga, which makes a most hellish sound."—Scott, Discourse of Iaua, in Purchas, i. 180.
1690.—"This Tombac is a kind of Metal, whose scarcity renders it more valuable than Gold.... 'Tis thought to be a kind of natural Compound of Gold, Silver, and Brass, and in some places the mixture is very Rich, as at Borneo, and the Moneilloes, in others more allayed, as at Siam."—Ovington, 510.
1759.—"The Productions of this Country (Siam) are prodigious quantities of Grain, Cotton, Benjamin ... and Tambanck."—In Dalrymple, i. 119.
TOM-TOM, s. Ṭamṭam, a native drum. The word comes from India, and is chiefly used there. Forbes (Rās-Mālā, ii. 401) [ed. 1878, p. 665] says the thing is so called because used by criers who beat it tām-tām, 'place by place,' i.e. first at one place, then at another. But it is rather an onomatopoeia, not belonging to any language in particular. In Ceylon it takes the form tamaṭṭama, in Tel. tappeta, in Tam. tambattam; in Malay it is toṅtoṅ, all with the same meaning. [When badminton was introduced at Satāra natives called it Ṭamṭam phūl khel, ṭam-ṭam meaning 'battledore,' and the shuttlecock looked like a flower (phūl). Tommy Atkins promptly turned this into "Tom Fool" (Calcutta Rev. xcvi. 346).] In French the word tamtam is used, not for a drum of any kind, but for a Chinese [gong] (q.v.). M. Littré, however, in the Supplement to his Dict., remarks that this use is erroneous.
1693.—"It is ordered that to-morrow morning the [Choultry] Justices do cause the Tom Tom to be beat through all the Streets of the Black Town...."—In Wheeler, i. 268.
1711.—"Their small Pipes, and Tom Toms, instead of Harmony made the Discord the greater."—Lockyer, 235.