godown

See also: go down

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Malay gudang, from Tamil கிடங்கு (kiṭaṅku, “store room”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: gōʹdoun IPA^(key): /ˈɡoʊ̯daʊ̯n/

Noun

godown (plural godowns)

1. (India, East Africa, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong) A warehouse.
   • 1694, Fort St. George Diary and Consultation Book, entry for 30 April, 1694, Madras: 1918, p. 45,^[1]

     Ordered that the new House in the Fort be forthwith built according to a modell now produced an approved, being 110 foot in length and 55 foot in breadth to be built on the East side the Fort at 18 Foot distance from the godown wall, and at equal distance from the north and south walls.

   • 1896, Joseph Conrad, chapter VII, in An Outcast of the Islands, London: T. Fisher Unwin […], →OCLC, part I, page 79:

     They retired round the corner of the godown and watched Willems curiously through the night, till the short daybreak was followed by the sudden blaze of the rising sun, and Almayer's establishment woke up to life and work.

   • 1950, Neville Shute, chapter 4, in A Town Like Alice‎^[2], London: The Reprint Society, published 1952, page 101:

     There is a sort of village square with wood and palm-leaf native shops grouped round about it; behind this stands a godown for the rice beside the river bank. This godown was empty at the time, and it was here that the party was accommodated.

   • 1987, Gene Wolfe, chapter XXXIII, in The Urth of the New Sun, 1st US edition, New York: Tor Books, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 196:

     At last a certain merchant purchased the weedy little garden in the center of the Old Quarter and built godowns and shops upon its flower beds.

   • 2011, Terry Pratchett, Snuff, page 307 in hardback:

     Sam Vimes awoke from a pig's nightmare to find himself lying on a pile of sacks in a godown in the docks.

Alternative forms

• goedown (archaic)

Descendants

• → Burmese: ဂိုဒေါင် (guidaung)
• Hindustani:

  → Hindi: गोदाम (godām)

  → Urdu: گودام (godām)