Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive c10.13095

c10.13095

SAPECA, SAPÈQUE, *s.* This word is used at Macao for what we call *cash* (q.v.) in Chinese currency; and it is the word generally used by French writers for that coin. *Giles* says: "From *sapek*, a coin found in Tonquin and Cochin-China, and equal to about half a pfennig (or Thaler), or about one-sixth of a German *Kreutzer*" (*Gloss. of Reference*, 122). We cannot learn much about this coin of Tonquin. *Milburn* says, under 'Cochin China': "The only currency of the country is a sort of cash, called *sappica*, composed chiefly of tutenague (see TOOTNAGUE), 600 making a *quan*: this is divided into 10 *mace* of 60 cash each, the whole strung together, and divided by a knot at each *mace*" (ed. 1825, pp. 444-445). There is nothing here inconsistent with our proposed derivation, given later on. *Mace* and *Sappica* are equally Malay words. We can hardly doubt that the true origin of the term is that communicated by our friend Mr. E. C. Baber: "Very probably from Malay *sa*, 'one,' and *paku*, 'a string or file of the small coin called *pichis*.' *Pichis* is explained by *Crawfurd* as 'Small coin . . . money of copper, brass, or tin. . . It was the ancient coin of Java, and also the only one of the Malays when first seen by the Portuguese.' *Paku* is written by *Favre* *pekū* (*Dict. Malais-Français*) and is derived by him from Chinese *pé-ko*, 'cent.' In the dialect of Canton *pak* is the word for 'a hundred,' and one *pak* is the colloquial term for a string of one hundred cash." *Sapeku* would then be properly a string of 100 cash, but it is not difficult to conceive that it might through some misunderstanding (*e.g.* a confusion of *peku* and *pichis*) have been transferred to the single coin. There is a passage in Mr. *Gerson da Cunha's Contributions to the Study of Portuguese Numismatics*, which may seem at first sight inconsistent with this derivation. For he seems to imply that the smallest denomination of coin struck by Albuquerque at Goa in 1510 was called *cepayqua*, *i.e.* in the year before the capture of Malacca, and consequent familiarity with Malay terms. I do not trace his authority for this; the word is not mentioned in the Commentaries of Albuquerque, and it is quite possible that the *dinheiros*, as these small copper coins were also called, only received the name *cepayqua* at a later date, and some time after the occupation of Malacca (see Da Cunha, pp. 11-12, and 22). [But also see the quotation of 1510 from Correa under PARDAO. This word has been discussed by Col. Temple (Ind. Antiq., August 1897, pp. 222 seq.), who gives quotations establishing the derivation from the Malay sapaku.