c. 1785.—"Topasses, black foot soldiers, descended from Portuguese marrying natives, called topasses because they wear hats."—Carraccioli's Clive, iv. 564. The same explanation in Orme, i. 80.
1787.—"... Assuredly the mixture of Moormen, Rajahpoots, Gentoos, and Malabars in the same corps is extremely beneficial.... I have also recommended the corps of Topasses or descendants of Europeans, who retain the characteristic qualities of their progenitors."—Col. Fullarton's View of English Interests in India, 222.
1789.—"Topasses are the sons of Europeans and black women, or low Portuguese, who are trained to arms."—Munro, Narr. 321.
1817.—"Topasses, or persons whom we may denominate Indo-Portuguese, either the mixed produce of Portuguese and Indian parents, or converts to the Portuguese, from the Indian, faith."—J. Mill, Hist. iii. 19.
TOPE, s. This word is used in three quite distinct senses, from distinct origins.
a. Hind. top, 'a cannon.' This is Turkish tōp, adopted into Persian and Hindustani. We cannot trace it further. [Mr. Platts regards T. tob, top, as meaning originally 'a round mass,' from Skt. stūpa, for which see below.]
b. A grove or orchard, and in Upper India especially a mango-orchard. The word is in universal use by the English, but is quite unknown to the natives of Upper India. It is in fact Tam. tōppu, Tel. tōpu, [which the Madras Gloss. derives from Tam. togu, 'to collect,'] and must have been carried to Bengal by foreigners at an early period of European traffic. But Wilson is curiously mistaken in supposing it to be in common use in Hindustan by natives. The word used by them is bāgh.
c. An ancient Buddhist monument in the form of a solid dome. The word tōp is in local use in the N.W. Punjab, where ancient monuments of this kind occur, and appears to come from Skt. stūpa through the Pali or Prakrit thūpo. According to Sir H. Elliot (i. 505), Stupa in Icelandic signifies 'a Tower.' We cannot find it in Cleasby. The word was first introduced to European knowledge by Mr. Elphinstone in his account of the Tope of Manikyala in the Rawul Pindi district.
a.—
[1687.—"Tope." See under [TOPE-KHANA].