chunam

English

Etymology

From Tamil சுண்ணம் (cuṇṇam, “lime, ground mortar”), from Sanskrit चूर्ण (cūrṇa, “powder; lime”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /tʃʊˈnɑːm/

Noun

chunam (usually uncountable, plural chunams)

1. A type of plaster used in India, made from shell-lime and sand.
   • 1808–1810, William Hickey, Memoirs of a Georgian Rake, Folio Society 1995, p. 226:

     The one Mr Cleveland and I inhabited was, as I have already observed, constructed of mud instead of chunam.

   • 1834, Rám Ráz, Essay on the Architecture of the Hindús, London: […] [F]or the Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland; by John William Parker, […], →OCLC, page 64:

     In all the operations of chunam work, jaggery water, i. e. a solution of molasses or coarse sugar, is invariably added by the builders, and its use appears to have prevailed from the remotest ages.

   • 1888, Rudyard Kipling, “On the City Wall”, in In Black and White (A. H. Wheeler & Co.’s Indian Railway Library; no. 3), 5th edition, Allahabad: Messrs. A. H. Wheeler & Co.; London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, Ld., […], published 1890, →OCLC:

     The floor of the room was of polished chunam, white as curds.

   • 1924 June 4, E[dward] M[organ] Forster, A Passage to India, London: Edward Arnold & Co., →OCLC:

     Look at the flies. Look at the chunam coming off the walls.

Verb

chunam (third-person singular simple present chunams, present participle chunaming or chunamming, simple past and past participle chunamed or chunammed)

1. (transitive) To plaster or waterproof with chunam.
   • The Sydney Morning Herald, Wednesday 8 March 1848

     A PUNT FOR SALE, thirty-four feet long, twelve feet broad, and three feet ten inches deep, chunamed, sheathed, and coppered, carries about fifteen tons.

Anagrams

• Manchu, chuman, maunch