Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive c10.11

c10.11

1611.—"Bada, a very fierce animal, called by another more common name Rhinoceros. In our days they brought to the King Philip II., now in glory, a Bada which was long at Madrid, having his horn sawn off, and being blinded, for fear he should hurt anybody. . . The name of Bada is one imposed by the Indians themselves; but assuming that there is no language but had its origin from the Hebrew in the confusion of tongues . . . it will not be out of the way to observe that Bada is an Hebrew word, from Badad, ‘solus, solitarius,’ for this animal is produced in desert and very solitary places.” — *Cobarruvias*, s. v.