1810.—"The Duftoree or office-keeper attends solely to those general matters in an office which do not come within the notice of the crannies, or clerks."—Williamson, V. M. i. 275.
[1858.—"The whole Afghan army consists of the three divisions of Kabul, Kandahar, and Herat; of these, the troops called Defteris (which receive pay), present the following effective force."—Ferrier, H. of the Afghans, 315 seq.]
DUGGIE, s. A word used in the Pegu teak trade, for a long squared timber. Milburn (1813) says: "Duggies are timbers of teak from 27 to 30 feet long, and from 17 to 24 inches square." Sir A. Phayre believes the word to be a corruption of the Burmese htāp-gy̆ī. The first syllable means the 'cross-beam of a house,' the second, 'big'; hence 'big-beam.'
DUGONG, s. The cetaceous mammal, Halicore dugong. The word is Malay dūyung, also Javan. duyung; Macassar, ruyung. The etymology we do not know. [The word came to us from the name Dugung, used in the Philippine island of Leyte, and was popularised in its present form by Buffon in 1765. See N.E.D.]
DUMBCOW, v., and DUMBCOWED, participle. To brow-beat, to cow; and cowed, brow-beaten, set-down. This is a capital specimen of Anglo-Indian dialect. Dam khānā, 'to eat one's breath,' is a Hind. idiom for 'to be silent.' Hobson-Jobson converts this into a transitive verb, to damkhāo, and both spelling and meaning being affected by English suggestions of sound, this comes in Anglo-Indian use to imply cowing and silencing. [A more probable derivation is from Hind. dhamkānā, 'to chide, scold, threaten, to repress by threats or reproof' (Platts, H. Dict.).]
DUMDUM, n.p. The name of a military cantonment 4½ miles N.W. of Calcutta, which was for seventy years (1783-1853) the head-quarters of that famous corps the Bengal Artillery. The name, which occurs at intervals in Bengal, is no doubt P.—H. dam-dama, 'a mound or elevated battery.' At Dumdum was signed the treaty which restored the British settlements after the re-capture of Calcutta in 1757. [It has recently given a name to the dumdum or expanding bullet, made in the arsenal there.]
[1830.—Prospectus of the "Dumdum Golfing Club."—"We congratulate them on the prospect of seeing that noble and gentleman-like game established in Bengal."—Or. Sport. Mag., reprint 1873, i. 407.
1848.—"'Pooh! nonsense,' said Joe, highly flattered. 'I recollect, sir, there was a girl at Dumdum, a daughter of Cutler of the Artillery ... who made a dead set at me in the year '4.'"—Vanity Fair, i. 25, ed. 1867.
[1886.—"The Kiranchi (see [CRANCHEE]) has been replaced by the ordinary Dumdummer, or Pálki carriage ever since the year 1856."—Sat. Review, Jan. 23.
[1900.—"A modern murderer came forward proudly with the dumdum."—Ibid. Aug. 4.]