1803.—"I was ... detained by the scarcity of bearers."—Lord Valentia, i. 372.
b.—
1782.—"... imposition ... that a gentleman should pay a rascal of a Sirdar Bearer monthly wages for 8 or 10 men ... out of whom he gives 4, or may perhaps indulge his master with 5, to carry his palankeen."—India Gazette, Sept. 2.
c. 1815.—"Henry and his Bearer."—(Title of a well-known book of Mrs. Sherwood's.)
1824.—"... I called to my sirdar-bearer who was lying on the floor, outside the bedroom."—Seely, Ellora, ch. i.
1831.—"... le grand maître de ma garde-robe, sirdar beehrah."—Jacquemont, Correspondance, i. 114.
1876.—"My bearer who was to go with us (Eva's ayah had struck at the last moment and stopped behind) had literally girt up his loins, and was loading a diminutive mule with a miscellaneous assortment of brass pots and blankets."—A True Reformer, ch. iv.
BEEBEE, s. H. from P. bībī, a lady. [In its contracted form bī, it is added as a title of distinction to the names of Musulman ladies.] On the principle of degradation of titles which is so general, this word in application to European ladies has been superseded by the hybrids Mem-Ṣāhib, or Madam-Ṣāhib, though it is often applied to European maid-servants or other Englishwomen of that rank of life. [It retains its dignity as the title of the Bībī of Cananore, known as Bībī Valiya, Malayāl., 'great lady,' who rules in that neighbourhood and exercises authority over three of the islands of the Laccadives, and is by race a Moplah Mohammedan.] The word also is sometimes applied to a prostitute. It is originally, it would seem, Oriental Turki. In Pavet de Courteille's Dict. we have "Bībī, dame, épouse légitime" (p. 181). In W. India the word is said to be pronounced bobo (see Burton's Sind). It is curious that among the Sákaláva of Madagascar the wives of chiefs are termed biby; but there seems hardly a possibility of this having come from Persia or India. [But for Indian influence on the island, see Encycl. Britt. 9th ed. xv. 174.] The word in Hova means 'animal.'—(Sibree's Madagascar, p. 253.)
[c. 1610.—"Nobles in blood ... call their wives Bybis."—Pyrard de Laval, Hak. Soc. i. 217.]
1611.—"... the title Bibi ... is in Persian the same as among us, sennora, or doña."—Teixeira, Relacion ... de Hormuz. 19.