[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Reference works](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference) › [Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.yule-burnell-1886) › c10.12892 # Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive c10.12892 Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive c10.12892 - **Language:** English ### [c10.12892](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.yule-burnell-1886.c10.12892) \*\*SAGWIRE\*\*, s. A name applied often in books, and, formerly at least, in the colloquial use of European settlers and traders, to the \*\*Gomuti\*\* palm or \*Arenga saccharifera\*, Labill., which abounds in the Ind. Archipelago, and is of great importance in its rural economy. The name is Port. \*sagueira\* (analogous to \*palmeira\*), in Span. of the Indies \*saguran\*, and no doubt is taken from \*sagu\*, as the tree, though not the \*Sago\*-palm of commerce, affords a sago of inferior kind. Its most important product, however, is the sap, which is used as \*\*toddy\*\* (q.v.), and which in former days also afforded almost all the sugar used by natives in the islands. An excellent cordage is made from a substance resembling black horse-hair, which is found between the trunk and the fronds, and this is the \*gomuti\* of the Malays, which furnished one of the old specific names (\*Borassus Gomutus\*, Loureiro). There is also found in a like position a fine cotton-like substance which makes excellent tinder, and strong stiff spines from which pens are made, as well as arrows for the blow-pipe, or \*Sumpitan\* (see \*\*SARBATANE\*\*). "The seeds have been made into a confection, whilst their pulpy envelope abounds in a poisonous juice—used in the barbarian wars of the natives—to which the Dutch gave the appropriate name of 'hell-water'" (\*Crawfurd, Desc. Dict.\* p. 145). The term \*sagwire\* is sometimes applied to the toddy or palm-wine, as will be seen below. - [Previous: c10.12891](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.yule-burnell-1886.c10.12891) - [Next: c10.12893](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.yule-burnell-1886.c10.12893) - [Up: c10](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.yule-burnell-1886.c10) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.yule-burnell-1886.c10.12892](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.yule-burnell-1886.c10.12892) · Pramāṇa