Translate this page into any of the languages in the pop-down below. The machine translations are not perfect, but they are adequate.
Search this site only
 Google Analytics states that my website recorded 1.3 MILLION pageviews in 2011, up to and including August 27, 2011. You are reading one of the most popular word-lore websites in English.
Pukka, Sahib! Top-Drawer!
The Email Question
“Dear Bill Casselman:
I, Dorothy, received a sterling silver milk mug for my first birthday years ago from a British relative. It is engraved in script; the saying is “Pucca Dotty.” It is stamped on the bottom: London, England. The daughter of the British relative said she only knew me by Pucca. I almost fell from my chair. The only reference I have of that name was on my mug.
I have tried to find out about Pucca but no luck. Anything you can come up with will make me smile and probably cry a little. Now I’m questioning the spelling. Maybe Pukka?”
My answer:
Dorothy -
The word is pukka. “Pukka Dotty” in British slang between, say, 1890 and 1940, would be an affectionate nickname that meant “the best Dorothy that ever could be.”
Pukka is one of those Panjabi or Hindi words that wandering Brits brought back to Old Blighty, that is, back home to England from any of various military duties in India. It’s a handy little adjective of many meanings, both in its original languages and adopted into English.
In ancient Sanskrit it was pakva ‘cooked, ripe, ready.” In Panjabi and Hindi, developed senses occur like ‘mature, of good substance, permanent, of high quality.’ All these meanings entered English too.
The British liked the word as a synonym for ‘real’ or ‘genuine’ or  ‘first-class’ or ‘top drawer.’ E. M. Forster uses it in his famous novel Passage to India writing of two English characters described by a native Indian: “Mr. Fielding wasn’t pukka, and had better marry Miss Quested, for she wasn’t pukka.” They were not the best class of person, it seems. It is still in use that way: “In very proper, upper-class, sniffish Oxford tones, she responded in a pukka English not heard since her grandfather returned from his tour of duty during The Raj.”
In modern London slang, young people still use the word. “Dude, those tats are pukka!” (translation: I like your tattoos.) “We lived in a small hut at first; then we build a pukka house.” A real, genuine residence.
The only common compound is a double-decker noun, pukka sahib ‘a person of sound credentials and probably of a rich family.’ The term is often gently satiric nowadays and suggests British stuffed  shirts oozing haughty disdain for lesser mortals. “He owned a Bentley and so he thought himself a very pukka sahib type; the fact that the family had accrued its wealth from a line of popular toilet cleaners did not in the least faze the uncouth simian.” Sahib is an Urdu word, borrowed from Arabic where çahib meant ‘friend.’ Formerly in India, sahib was the polite equivalent of adding “Sir” to a statement, when an Indian was addressing a European. The man’s wife would be addressed as memsahib (English ma’m for madam + sahib). The normal Urdu feminine, sahiba, never caught on in English.
I’m quite cheered that we could elucidate so niftily this pukka puzzle. Now, let us withdraw to the refectory, nibble on a warm scone besprent with buckwheat honey and sip mayhap a soothing cup, ere long, of Oolong.
copyright © 2012 William Gordon Casselman
|
| |
Any comments, emendations, additional word lore or requests for Latin mottoes?
wordguy@shaw.ca
-------------------------------------------
Reviews of my New Book
Click bookcover for preview
Jenni French of San Fancisco, California writes on her blog "My Corner of the Universe" for March 19, 2011:
Casselman, Bill. Where a Dobdob Meets a Dikdik: A World Lover's Guide to the Weirdest, Wackiest, and Wonkiest Lexical Gems. Avon, MA: Adams Media, 2010.
"I admit it: I'm a word nerd. I love words: weird words, long words, obscure words, funny words. This book is right up my alley. With chapters like "Nautical Words," "Creepy Words," and "Edible Words," I have enjoyed every page of this book.
And the author has quite a way with words, so I have found myself rereading many sentences in this book and slowing my progress through it.
My current favorite sentence is found in a discussion of dog hybrid breed names: "What a revolting concatenation of cutesiness and smarmy nomenclatorial treacle parading under the name of canine hybrid breed names" (19).
I'm sure I'll have another favorite sentence in a day or two.
This book is just that good and just that entertaining."
Author Bill Casselman replies: "Thanks, Jenni!"
Just a reminder that this book contains my ALL-NEW word esssays, none of which are available anywhere else in print or online.
-------------------------------------------
Cindy Lapeña on her blog "Creativity Unlimited" of July 19 ,2011, writes:
Posted by mimrlith in 365 Things to Look Forward to.
Tags: 365 things to look forward to, books, reading
trackback
19. Starting a book
To a certified bibliophile like me, a.k.a. bookworm, one of the most exciting things to look forward to is to start reading a new book. In fact, sometimes the prospect of starting to read a new book is so exciting that I have to hurry to finish the book I am currently reading, just so I can start a new one.
If there’s one thing I can’t resist, it’s a book, especially if it promises to be a good one. Of course there are certain books I just won’t touch or be seen with, but at the risk of being hung by my thumbs by fans of such literature, I will not mention any genres in particular. . .
Seeing a book with a title that totally captivates me, like Where a Dobdob meets a Dikdik (yes, that is a book title!) has me so worked up, I just can’t wait to dive in. I imagine all sorts of deliciously fancifully outrageous words with a title like that. Is it obvious? I just love books on words. You won’t believe how many dictionaries I own. Or books on lexical oddities and other lexical explorations. Yes, I am a logophile of sorts. I love the new words I pick up from new books. I relish finding out the meanings of all manner of words and phrases and expressions. What could be more fun?"
(Replies author Bill Casselman: Please scroll to bottom of page or click here to link to a free seven-page preview of my new book, Where a Dobdob Meets a Dikdik.
--------------------------------------------------
Sample My Newest Book. Click Below.
Jan. 3, 2011
“Mr Casselman,
I wanted to write to thank you for your thoroughly enjoyable [new] book. By background, I am a technologist practicing the somewhat arcane crafts of Information Security.”
David Gamey, Canada
Testimonial Email
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Dear Mr. Casselman,
A search for the origins of an improbable-looking word, paraprosdokian, led me to the first piece of your prose I have had the pleasure of reading, "The Bogus Word Paraprosdokian & Lazy Con Artists of Academe." I have just placed an order for Where a Dobdob Meets a Dikdik, Canadian Words & Sayings, and As The Canoe Tips, and will add more of your titles as I finish these.
I have just retired from a 40-plus year career in book publishing, the last thirty years spent as director/editor of a number of university presses, attempting to sort the genuine writers from the "Lazy Con Artists of Academe." Sad to say, the latter have so over-bred the former that I could no longer see the rare gem in the avalanches of offal that daily swamped my office and desk. I visited your website and spent far too long there; it was a pleasure to meet a real writer through his work.
. . . I revisited the paraprosdokian page, and have finally quit laughing again at “Casselman's Conclusion.” You were not unkind to the "profligate prof-lets." During my years as an acquisitions editor, in rejection letters I often quoted Prof. Moses Hadas, classicist at Columbia University, who wrote a young scholar in response to having been sent the prof-let's first book, "Thank you for sending me your book. I will waste no time reading it."
I know I will enjoy your books. Keep up the good work.
Thank you,
Luther Wilson
Director (Retired)
University of New Mexico Press, among others
Nov. 15, 2010: On Twitter, Doug O'Neill, a happy buyer of my new Dobdob book, writes, "Even funnier flipping through it a second time around."
Thanks, Doug!
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - -
Buy my new book online
at amazon.com
or, shopping in canada, click amazon.ca
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hundreds of links to more word essays; click below.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you enjoyed this column,
please tell your word-loving friends about my site
and ask them to visit it. |
http://casselmanual.blogspot.com/
HOME
|
