dood

noun

dood

noun

Etymology Back-formation from dudhwallah, doodwallah (“milk-man”, literally “milk-ward”), reinterpreting the wallah of milk as a wallah of camels by dint of misremembrance of the Bengali word for “camel” which is উট (uṭ).

1

A riding camel or dromedary.

  • The Chief was lying down beside my dooly, aking a nap while his tent was being prepared, with his head resting on his hand, for he refused to accept the loan of my pillow, when a camel-driver came by, leading a huge dood so carelessly as to bring him right across Sir Colin.1860, William Howard Russell, My Diary in India, in the Year 1858–9, volume 2, London: Routledge, Warne and Routledge, page 25:
  • “I have never seen it,” he replied, “but I have seen them attack a dood.” “What is a dood?” “A camel; one of a troop fording the river.”1892, George Manville Fenn, Gil the Gummer, Or, The Youngest Officer in the East, Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, page 42:

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.