sb., a. Also 8 Telougou, 9 Telug. [Native name of the language, and of a man of the race. Origin and derivation uncertain. The language is also called Tenugu, which native pundits treat as the original form, and explain as ‘mellifluous,’ from tēne honey. The relationship of either of these names to TELINGA, formerly applied to the same language and people, is disputed. The Tamil name for the language is Vaḍugu or ‘the Northern’; thence the old Portuguese name Badages, and the old German Waruga.]
1. The name of a Dravidian language, spoken on the Coromandel coast of India, north of Madras.
[1731. T. S. Bayer, Lett. to La Croze. Hinc natione Tamulis, Tamulica; Warugis, Warrugica.
1748. J. F. Fritz, Orient. u. Occident. Sprachm., 87. Alphabethum Telugicum sive Warugicum.].
1813. Q. Rev., Oct., 257. Languages and Dialects…. Sanscrit … Telug.
1850. S. Hislop, in G. Smith, Life, iii. (1889), 82. The Telugu began to be spoken even at that village.
1856. Bp. Caldwell, Dravid. Gram., Introd. 5. The Telugu is spoken all along the eastern coast of the Peninsula, from the neighbourhood of Pulicat, where it supersedes the Tamil, to Chicacole, where it begins to yield to the Uriya; and inland it prevails as far as the eastern boundary of the Maratha country and Mysore.
1886. Yule & Burnell, Hobson-Jobson, Teloogoo, the first in point of diffusion, and the second in culture and copiousness, of the Dravidian languages of the Indian Peninsula. Ibid., Telugu is the name given to the language by the people themselves, as the language of Telingāna.
1893. Madras Manual of Administr., III. s.v., Teloogoo is the softest of all Eastern languages … but Teloogoo is a very poor language in everything except outward appearance.
2. One of the Dravidian people or race who speak this language. (See also GENTOO.)
1789. Seir Mutaqherin, II. 93, note (Y.). The first Sipahees that came in Bengal … were all Talingas or Telougous born.
1893. Madras Manual of Administr., III. s.v., The pronunciation of Sanscrit among the Teloogoos corresponds with the purest pronunciation used at Benares.
1903. J. Torrance, Story Maratha Missions, viii. 65. A Telugu applied for baptism.
3. attrib. or adj. Of or pertaining to this language, people or country.
1888. G. Smith, S. Hislop, iii. (1889), 83. The Hislops marched slowly south to Nellore, the Telugu station of his Church.
4. Comb. as Telugu-speaking adj.
1903. United Free Ch. Scot. Mission. Record, Aug., 352/2. There are always in the Telugu-speaking girls.
