While chatting with my friends at home, I chanced to hear the word "kakkoos". Hailing from tamilnadu, I am sure any "thamizan" would know what it means. It is a word I have never used in any of my conversations as it 'sounded cheap'. I have this tendency to pursue etymological explorations (example kasmaalam came from kashmalam of sanskrit etc..) and I was convinced that this particular word cannot be a tamil word since it ended in "oos"(not referring the oozing after you get into the place), which is not permitted by tamil grammar. Apart from it not being a proper tamil word (or english I believe), I always burst into uncontrollable laughter whenever somebody used that word for expressing his egesting ideas. Somehow it is too funny to hear and cheap to say. A more decorous word is kazivaRai. Well, not that a better word changes the utility of the place intended, but just makes one 'feel better' before using the place. (Well, you will always feel better after using it.)
But this time when this word came up in convo, after reeling out a 2 minute non-stop laughter to the extent of getting spasms in stomach, I decided to get more info about this word. What else but google could provide info about anything and everything that God created ? I googled for that word and ended up getting minimal results of which most of them were had a scatological context. It was used many forums which traded 'good will' through such 'nice' words.
But one link caught my attention : This was somebody by the name of William David Rabindran from Nagercoil who had gone at length to describe how he shat in kakkoos. Though the writeup itself is a recap of of childhood memories, I was left wondering how a man could in this world be patient enough to describe in full detail right from the seating position through..you know what. You can find the link here:
http://www.geocities.com/jingi123/CHILDHOOD_MEMORIES.htm
The part pertaining to our word is as follows:
"Our KAKKOOS was outside in REDMONT. So if we want to go for no.2, we have to go outside the house….taking a PONI with full of water and go to the KAKKOOS open to atmosphere (with NO CEILING - ha ha ) It was having CUBICAL STONES kept in a row. We keep our legs on the TWO adjacent STONEs and go for 2…. What an experience … (THOTTI comes every morning and cleans the KAKKOOS ).. This Kakkoos was for everyone whether NIGHT or DAY any time . We HAVE TO GO OUTSIDE THE HOUSE . I think "
Profound indeed !
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Aankhon ko - आँखों को
I Think It is a portugese word.
ReplyDeleteI remember this from high school grammer book (1976). Jannal is also a portugese word. Mesai is from spanish mesa.
Just out of curiosity, I went online to check the word origin of kakoos. According to Websters Online Dictionary, it is both a Malay and Indonesian word for toilet.
ReplyDeletehaha... this is just perfect! I was looking up google to find the meaning/origin of kakkoos, and I find your rather wonderful description (along with that of Mr. Nagercoil). Way to go!
ReplyDeleteHaha! Et tu brute! I went online searching for the origin of the word and stubled upon this blog. Cant stop giggling whenever anyone says kakkoos either: "pakth oot stephen saar kakkoos katrango." haaaaaaahahahaha.
ReplyDeleteWord Kakoos is derived from a Dutch word kakhuis which means wash room. This is an etymologically borrowed word - possibly from the Dutch East India Company . There is also a possibility of reverse linguistic migration from Indonesia to India by traders. An enclosure for toilet neeeds was alien to Indian and hence Tamil culture. This must have been a revelation of sorts !
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