CANTONMENT, s. (Pron. Cantoonment, with accent on penult.). This English word has become almost appropriated as Anglo-Indian, being so constantly used in India, and so little used elsewhere. It is applied to military stations in India, built usually on a plan which is originally that of a standing camp or 'cantonment.'
1783.—"I know not the full meaning of the word cantonment, and a camp this singular place cannot well be termed; it more resembles a large town, very many miles in circumference. The officers' bungalos on the banks of the Tappee are large and convenient," &c.—Forbes, Letter in Or. Mem. describing the "Bengal Cantonments near Surat," iv. 239.
1825.—"The fact, however, is certain ... the cantonments at Lucknow, nay Calcutta itself, are abominably situated. I have heard the same of Madras; and now the lately-settled cantonment of Nusseerabad appears to be as objectionable as any of them."—Heber, ed. 1844, ii. 7.
1848.—"Her ladyship, our old acquaintance, is as much at home at Madras as at Brussels—in the cantonment as under the tents."—Vanity Fair, ii. ch. 8.
CAPASS, s. The cotton plant and cotton-wool. H. kapās, from Skt. karpasa, which seems as if it must be the origin of κάρπασος, though the latter is applied to flax.
1753.—"... They cannot any way conceive the musters of 1738 to be a fit standard for judging by them of the cloth sent us this year, as the copass or country cotton has not been for these two years past under nine or ten rupees...."—Ft. Wm. Cons., in Long, 40.
[1813.—"Guzerat cows are very fond of the capaussia, or cotton-seed."—Forbes, Or. Mem. 2nd ed. ii. 35.]
CAPEL, s. Malayāl. kappal, 'a ship.' This word has been imported into Malay, kāpal, and Javanese. [It appears to be still in use on the W. Coast; see Bombay Gazetteer, xiii. (2) 470.]
1498.—In the vocabulary of the language of Calicut given in the Roteiro de V. de Gama we have—
"Naoo; capell."—p. 118.