Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive c10.9277

c10.9277

MATE, MATY, s. An assistant under a head servant; in which sense or something near it, but also sometimes in the sense of a ‘head-man,’ the word is in use almost all over India. In the Bengal Presidency we have a mate-bearer for the assistant body-servant (see BEARER); the mate attendant on an elephant under the mahout; a mate (head) of coolies or jomponnies (qq.v.) (see JOMPON), &c. And in Madras the maty is an under-servant, whose business it is to clean crockery, knives, &c., to attend to lamps, and so forth.