GAZAT, s. This is domestic Hind. for 'dessert.' (Panjab N. & Q. ii. 184).
GECKO, s. A kind of house lizard. The word is not now in Anglo-Indian use; it is a naturalist's word; and also is French. It was no doubt originally an onomatopoeia from the creature's reiterated utterance. Marcel Devic says the word is adopted from Malay gekok [gēkoq]. This we do not find in Crawfurd, who has tăké, tăkék, and goké, all evidently attempts to represent the utterance. In Burma the same, or a kindred lizard, is called tokté, in like imitation.
1631.—Bontius seems to identify this lizard with the [Guana] (q.v.), and says its bite is so venomous as to be fatal unless the part be immediately cut out, or cauterized. This is no doubt a fable. "Nostratis ipsum animal apposito vocabulo gecco vocant; quippe non secus ac Coccyx apud nos suum cantum iterat, etiam gecko assiduo sonat, prius edito stridore qualem Picus emittit."—Lib. V. cap. 5, p. 57.
1711.—"Chaccos, as Cuckoos receive their Names from the Noise they make.... They are much like lizards, but larger. 'Tis said their Dung is so venomous," &c.—Lockyer, 84.
1727.—"They have one dangerous little Animal called a Jackoa, in shape almost like a Lizard. It is very malicious ... and wherever the Liquor lights on an Animal Body, it presently cankers the Flesh."—A. Hamilton, ii. 131; [ed. 1744, ii. 136].
This is still a common belief. (See [BISCOBRA]).
1883.—"This was one of those little house lizards called geckos, which have pellets at the ends of their toes. They are not repulsive brutes like the garden lizard, and I am always on good terms with them. They have full liberty to make use of my house, for which they seem grateful, and say chuck, chuck, chuck."—Tribes on My Frontier, 38.
GENTOO, s. and adj. This word is a corruption of the Portuguese Gentio, 'a gentile' or heathen, which they applied to the Hindus in contradistinction to the Moros or 'Moors,' i.e. Mahommedans. [See [MOOR].] Both terms are now obsolete among English people, except perhaps that Gentoo still lingers at Madras in the sense b; for the terms Gentio and Gentoo were applied in two senses:
a. To the Hindūs generally. b. To the Telugu-speaking Hindūs of the Peninsula specially, and to their language.
The reason why the term became thus specifically applied to the Telugu people is probably because, when the Portuguese arrived, the Telugu monarchy of Vijayanagara, or Bijanagar (see [BISNAGAR], [NARSINGA]) was dominant over great part of the Peninsula. The officials were chiefly of Telugu race, and thus the people of this race, as the most important section of the Hindūs, were par excellence the Gentiles, and their language the Gentile language. Besides these two specific senses, Gentio was sometimes used for heathen in general. Thus in F. M. Pinto: "A very famous Corsair who was called Hinimilau, a Chinese by nation, and who from a Gentio as he was, had a little time since turned Moor...."—Ch. L.