Sunday, November 28, 2010

The word of the day is pukka:

[< Panjabi pakk{amac}, Hindi pakk{amac} cooked, ripe, mature, thorough, substantial, permanent < Sanskrit pakva cooked, ripe, fully developed. Compare CUTCHA adj. in the opposing sense.]      A. adj.
    1. Esp. in South Asian contexts: (of a weight or measure) full, good; the largest possible; (in extended use) complete, in full measure. Now rare.
  Often applied to the larger of two units or weights of the same name. With reference to coins, H. Yule and A. C. Burnell Hobson-Jobson (1886) s.v. pice says: ‘The distinction was sometimes between the regularly minted copper of the Government and certain amorphous pieces of copper which did duty for small change (e.g. in the N.W. Provinces within memory), or between single and double pice, i.e. {oneon4} anna-pieces and {half} anna-pieces.’
    {dag}2. S. Asian. Of a fever: severe; malignant. Also in extended use. Obs.
    3. a. orig. S. Asian or in South Asian context: sure, certain, reliable; genuine, bona fide, correct. Hence more generally: real, not sham; (of information) factually correct; (of persons) authentic, not pretended; proper or correct in behaviour, socially acceptable (cf. ECHT adj.).
    b. Brit. slang. Excellent, superb; ‘cool’.
    4. S. Asian. Of a building or other construction: permanent, solidly-built, esp. made of stone or brick and mortar (opposed to CUTCHA adj.); (of a building material) high-quality.
    5. Reliable, persistent, perennial; (of a position or appointment in South Asia) permanent. Now rare.
    {dag}B. n.
    1. A building material of a permanent nature, esp. a type of solid mortar. Obs.
    2. A copper coin (short for pukka pice: see quot. c1816 at sense A. 1). Obs. rare.  (OED)

"But the play is broadest and best when it parodies the different styles of repertory drama: the Confederacy play (John misses his cue); the French Revolution play (an offstage fan blows the tricolor in Robert’s face); the Russian play (John parks Robert in a wheelchair upstage, away from the inevitable samovar); and the British drawing-room drama (in which the actors, mustachioed and with dreadful pukka accents, face two problems—claiming the paternity of a child and dealing with a malfunctioning cigarette lighter that makes the smoking of a ritual cigar an impossibility)."

 - John Lahr, "Screaming Me-Mes: David Hirson and David Mamet on life in the theatre", 25 October 2010 The New Yorker

I'm going with "proper or correct in behaviour", here, unless anyone has any better ideas.

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