" "... The large and handsome edifices of Garden Reach, each standing by itself in a little woody lawn (a 'compound' they call it here, by an easy corruption from the Portuguese word campaña ...)."—Heber, ed. 1844, i. 28.
1848.—"Lady O'Dowd, too, had gone to her bed in the nuptial chamber, on the ground floor, and had tucked her mosquito curtains round her fair form, when the guard at the gates of the commanding officer's compound beheld Major Dobbin, in the moonlight, rushing towards the house with a swift step."—Vanity Fair, ed. 1867, ii. 93.
1860.—"Even amongst the English, the number of Portuguese terms in daily use is remarkable. The grounds attached to a house are its 'compound,' campinho."—Emerson Tennent, Ceylon, ii. 70.
[1869.—"I obtained the use of a good-sized house in the Campong Sirani (or Christian village)."—Wallace, Malay Archip., ed. 1890, p. 256.]
We have found this word singularly transformed in a passage extracted from a modern novel:
1877.—"When the Rebellion broke out at other stations in India, I left our own compost."—Sat. Review, Feb. 3, p. 148.
A little learning is a dangerous thing!
The following shows the adoption of the word in West Africa.
1880.—From West Afr. Mission, Port Lokkoh, Mr. A. Burchaell writes: "Every evening we go out visiting and preaching the Gospel to our Timneh friends in their compounds."—Proceedings of C. M. Society for 1878-9, p. 14.
COMPRADORE, COMPODORE, &c., s. Port. comprador, 'purchaser,' from comprar, 'to purchase.' This word was formerly in use in Bengal, where it is now quite obsolete; but it is perhaps still remembered in Madras, and it is common in China. In Madras the compradore is (or was) a kind of house-steward, who keeps the household accounts, and purchases necessaries. In China he is much the same as a [Butler] (q.v.). A new building was to be erected on the Bund at Shanghai, and Sir T. Wade was asked his opinion as to what style of architecture should be adopted. He at once said that for Shanghai, a great Chinese commercial centre, it ought to be Compradoric!