Cheroot
|
|
A cigar with square cut ends. From French cheroute, from Tamil curuttu/churuttu/shuruttu - roll of tobacco. This word could have been absorbed into the French language from Tamil during the early 16th century, when the French were trying to stamp their presence in South India. The word could have then been absorbed into English from French. Source: [1] (http://www.wmich.edu/dialogues/themes/indianwords.htm#links)
Cheroots are traditional in Burma and India, consequently, popular among the British during the days of the British Empire. They are often associated with Burma in literature:
- 'Er petticoat was yaller an' 'er little cap was green,
- An' 'er name was Supi-yaw-lat -- jes' the same as Theebaw's Queen,
- An' I seed her first a-smokin' of a whackin' white cheroot,
- An' a-wastin' Christian kisses on an 'eathen idol's foot:
- —Rudyard Kipling, (1892) "On the Road to Mandalay," from Barrack-room Ballads
- "My brother was unlike us in some things, Sahib. He was fond of the sharab called 'Whisky' and of dogs; he drank smoke from the cheroot after the fashion of the Sahib-log and not from the hookah nor the bidi; he wore boots; he struck with the clenched fist when angered; and never did he squat down upon his heels nor sit cross-legged upon the ground. Yet he was true Pathan in many ways during his life, and he died as a Pathan should, concerning his honour (and a woman). Yea—and in his last fight, ere he was hanged, he killed more men with his long Khyber knife, single-handed against a mob, than ever did lone man before with cold steel in fair fight."
- —Captain Percival Christopher Wren, I.A.R., 1912, Driftwood Spars
External links
- A whackin' white cheroot (http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/Asia/Myanmar/photo844.htm)