shroff

See also: Shroff

English

Alternative forms

• (obsolete): sheroff, sheraffe, sheriffe, sharoffe, sherrafe, shraff, shrofe, sheraff, shraf

Etymology

A British Indian variant of saraf, from Urdu صراف (sarrāf) and Persian صراف (sarâf), from Arabic صَرَّاف (ṣarrāf).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ʃɹɒf/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ʃɹɔf/, /ʃɹɑf/
• Rhymes: -ɒf, -ɔf, -ɑf

Noun

shroff (plural shroffs)

1. (India) A provider of financial services, especially a small-scale independent banker or money changer or (historical) a local expert at detecting bad coin.
   • 1618, cited in William Foster, The English Factories in India..., page 8:

     The sheraffs are poore and begerly.

   • 1698, John Fryer, “Views the Malabar and Canatick Coasts up to Bombaim”, in A New Account of East-India and Persia, in Eight Letters. Being Nine Years Travels, Begun 1672. And Finished 1681. […], London: […] R[obert] R[oberts] for Ri[chard] Chiswell, letter I (Containing a Twelve Month’s Voyage Through Divers Climates), page 52:

     Amongſt whom were Shroffs, or Money-changers.

   • 1816, 'Quiz', The Grand Master..., canto ii, ll. 18 f.:

     The breakfast soon dispatch'd, they're off,
     To borrow money from a shroff.

   • 1888, Rudyard Kipling, ‘The Broken-Link Handicap’, Plain Tales from the Hills, fol. 2005, page 110:

     Racing leads to the shroff quicker than anything else.

2. (Hong Kong) A cashier, especially for a car park.
   • 1950 November 3, South China Morning Post, page 7:

     An assistant shroff of the Queen Mary Hospital faced Mr. J. Reynolds at Central yesterday charged with the larceny of $10.

   • 2006 July 29, South China Morning Post, page 12:

     It is a source of endless fascination to newcomers to Hong Kong to observe types of employment in the city rarely seen in other parts of the world. Where, away from here, would you come across a shroff, for example?

3. (Hong Kong) The office of such a cashier at a car park etc.

Hypernyms

• banker, usurer, money changer, cashier

Derived terms

• Shroff, shroff office, shroff-shop

Verb

shroff (third-person singular simple present shroffs, present participle shroffing, simple past and past participle shroffed)

1. (India, transitive) To act as a shroff, especially (historical) to inspect coins to detect debasement, counterfeits, clipping, etc. for a commission.
   • 1757 July 7, Robert Clive, letter, cited in John Malcolm, Life of Robert, Lord Clive, Vol. I, page 278:

     I represented... that the money could not be divided till it was shroffed.

   • 1906 April 14, Saturday Review, page 451:

     The potential revenues of China are immense, but they are ‘shroffed’... by every hand through which they pass.

Derived terms

• shroffage, shroffing school

References

• “shroff, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1914.