upper-roger (*The Glossary, *The Barney-Book): 'A corruption of Skt. yuva-raja, "young king", says Sir Henry, to which the Barneymen add, apropos nothing, that the Nawab Siraj-uddowlah was similarly known to British wordy-wallahs as Sir Roger Dowler.'
+vakeel: Lawyer, pleader. 'One of the oldest mysteries of the courtroom, reputed to be a denizen of the English language since the early seventeenth century.'
+vetiver: See tatty.
+wanderoo: See bandar. In the margins of this a nameless relative has written: 'In the jungles of English, only a little less antique than vakeel, dating back to the 1680s, according to Oracle.'
woolock (*The Glossary): 'Boats of this name were often to be seen on the Hooghly, but I recall neither size nor any details of their construction.'
wordy-wallah (*The Glossary): This phrase, from Hind. vardi-wala, was used in English to mean 'wearer of a uniform'. Those especially gifted in this regard were known as wordy-majors (or woordy-majors). Neel's usage of these terms bore no resemblance to their proper definition.
zubben/zubán: 'Of this word,' writes Neel, 'I can find no evidence in any of my dictionaries. But I know I have heard it often used, and if it does not exist, it should, for no other expression could so accurately describe the subject of the Chrestomathy.'
Amitav Ghosh
