ACHEEN
n.p. (P. Āchīn [Tam. Attai , Malay Acheh , Achih ] 'a wood-leech'). The name applied by us to the State and town at the N.W. angle of Sumatra, which was long, and especially during the 16th and 17th centuries, the greatest native power on that Island. The proper Malay name of the place is Acheh . The Portuguese generally called it Achem (or frequently by the adhesion of the genitive preposition, Dachem , so that Sir F. Greville below makes two kingdoms), but our Acheen seems to have been derived from mariners of the P. Gulf or W. India, for we find the name so given ( Āchīn ) in the Āīn-i-Akbari , and in the Geog. Tables of Ṣādiḳ Isfahānī. This form may have been suggested by a jingling analogy, such as Orientals love, with Māchīn ( Macheen ). See also under LOOTY.
Historical Citations (12)
"Piratarum Acenorum nec periculum nec suspicio fuit."—S. Fr. Xav. Epistt. 337.
"But after Malacca was founded, and especially at the time of our entry into India, the Kingdom of Pacem began to increase in power, and that of Pedir to diminish. And that neighbouring one of Achem, which was then insignificant, is now the greatest of all."—Barros, III. v. 8.
"Upon the headland towards the West is the Kingdom of Assi, governed by a Moore King."—Cæsar Frederike, tr. in Hakluyt, ii. 355.
"The zabád (civet), which is brought from the harbour-town of Sumatra, from the territory of Achín, goes by the name of Sumatra-zabád, and is by far the best."—Āīn, i. 79.
"... do Pegu como do Dachem."—King's Letter, in Arch. Port. Or. fasc. 3, 669.
"The iland of Sumatra, or Taprobuna, is possessed by many Kynges, enemies to the Portugals; the cheif is the Kinge of Dachem, who besieged them in Malacca.... The Kinges of Acheyn and Tor (read Jor for Johore) are in lyke sort enemies to the Portugals."—Sir Fulke Greville to Sir F. Walsingham (in Bruce, i. 125).
"It so proved that both Ponleema and Governor of Tecoo was come hither for Achein."—Foster, Letters, iv. 3.
"Acem which is Sumatra."—P. della Valle, Hak. Soc. ii. 287.]
"Achín (a name equivalent in rhyme and metre to 'Máchín') is a well-known island in the Chinese Sea, near to the equinoctial line."—Ṣādiḳ Isfahānī (Or. Tr. F.), p. 2.
"Archin." See quotation under BOMBAY MARINE.
"In former days a great many junks used to frequent Achin. This trade is now entirely at an end."—Crawfurd, H. Ind. Arch. iii. 182.
From Hobson-Jobson by Yule & Burnell, 1886.