Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive c10.468

c10.468

Gate.’ The name is said to be a corruption, and probably is so, but of what it is a corruption is not clear. The quotations given afford different suggestions, and Dr Wilson’s dictum is entitled to respect, though we do not know what *palawā* here means. Sir G. Birdwood writes that it used to be said in Bombay, that Apollo-bandar was a corr. of *palwa-bandar*, because the pier was the place where the boats used to land *palwa* fish. But we know of no fish so called; it is however possible that the *palla* or Sable-fish (Hilsa) is meant, which is so called in Bombay, as well as in Sind. [The *Ain* (ii. 338) speaks of “a kind of fish called *palwah* which comes up into the Indus from the sea, unrivalled for its fine and exquisite flavour,” which is the Hilsa.] On the other hand we may observe that there was at Calcutta in 1748 a frequented tavern called the Apollo (see *Long*, p. 11). And it is not impossible that a house of the same name may have given its title to the Bombay street and wharf. But Sir Michael Westropp’s quotation below shows that *Pallo* was at least the native representation of the name more than 150 years ago. We may add that a native told Mr W. G. Pedder, of the Bombay C.S., from whom we have it, that the name was due to the site having been the place where the “poli” cake, eaten at the Holi festival, was baked. And so we leave the matter.