koomkie

English

WOTD – 30 December 2011

Alternative forms

• coomkee, khoonkie, koomkee, koonkie

Etymology

Borrowed from Bengali কুমকি (kumki), from Classical Persian کمک (kumak).

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkuːmki/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

koomkie (plural koomkies)

1. A tame female elephant used as a decoy in the capture of wild male elephants.
   • 1807, Thomas Williamson, Oriental Field Sports:

     When an elephant is in a proper state to be removed from the keddah, he is conducted either by koomkies or by tame males.

   • 1810, “Decoy Elephants Catching a Male”, in Enos Bronson, editor, Select Reviews of Literature, and Spirit of Foreign Magazines, volume 3, page 123:

     Though on some occasions the mahouts accompany the koomkies up to the saun, yet it is safer, and generally the most sure and easy mode, for them to dismount in some contiguous cover with their blankets and ropes, leading the koomkies to the saun, towards which they proceed in the most cunning style.

   • 1834, Frederic Shoberl, Natural History of Quadrupeds, volume 1, page 213:

     The drivers remain concealed at a little distance, while the koomkies surround the goondah, as this sort of elephant is called.

   • 1881, Edmund Routledge, Routledge's Every Boy's Annual‎^[2], page 486:

     The hunters rode out on their koomkies, supplied with ropes, and other apparatus, for securing their captives.

   • 1957, The National Geographic Magazine‎^[3], volume 112, page 505:

     With the aid of koomkies, the captives were driven in batches of three or four into a circular stockade […]

See also

• saun