"Emshi..You dam fool Jimmy"

[armourersergeant]

Can anyone help me with this word please 'Emshi'

I have seen it in a sentence but do not know what it means. It is written as though a hundred years ago it would have been known so i am guessing it may be Indain/Raja slang or dialect but..

"hurry up" perhaps? is my nearest though it is said as some sort of minor insult/slur

regards

Arm.

[Terry_Reeves]

Arm

Its another form of the Arabic word "Imshi" - "get out" or "go away". The spelling of the word is almost certainly a corruption and has been used by generations of servicemen.

Terry Reeves

[Max]

Hello Arm the following found at this link http://216.239.59.104/search?q=cache:dfeYS...04/+emshi&hl=en

""Emshi"

Yesterday on BBC, I saw a young British soldier in Basra shoo away Iraqis who had come ask the local command to do something about the looting. At first, he told them to step back from the gate in English, then he used probably one of the few phrases in Arabic he knew: “Emshi! Emshi!“

The BBC didn’t show what happened afterwards. I’m assuming the Iraqis left peacefully of course. But I’m sure they didn’t leave happily, not just because they found no help from the British in restoring law and order to Basra, but because they had essentially been told to **** off — in Arabic.

“Emshi” is used mostly with children or dogs. Unless it’s softened with a direction, as in “Emshi alaa dul” (Go straight ahead), or a word like “Maalesh” (Sorry), it hits an adult like a slap in the face. "

[KONDOA]

Hi Arm

As Terry & Max says it is corrupted Arabic but can mean either go or come.

Imshi Yalla - go away quickly

Taal Imshi - Come here /follow me etc.

Agris swire - sit down.

So calm your misssus with a fluent

Taal Imshi agris swire.

Roop

[armourersergeant]

As usual,

quick and imformative answers. I am no longer amazed at the wealth of knowledge this forum can muster.

Thank you

regards

Arm.

[Greg1]

I was in Egypt recently and a heard a tourist use this to a vendor - rather than a firm no thank you. The vendor literally started to foam at the mouth and said 'you use Imshi for a dog not a person!' and followed the tourist back to his bus shouting and threatening. A good idea I think not to use it.

Greg

[armourersergeant]

Another question,

If used by a senior officer around the 1900's would it be safe to assume that he had seen more service in Africa than India? As surely he would have used an indian phrase or word!

regards

Arm.

[BeppoSapone]

Another question,

If used by a senior officer around the 1900's would it be safe to assume that he had seen more service in Africa than India? As surely he would have used an indian phrase or word!

regards

Arm.

Arm

I think that these foreign words were used by soldiers who had never served further east than Colchester. They had been adopted from foreign places, but become part of general army slang.

Some words picked up by the forces/colonialists have made their was into civilian slang: bint, char, decko, wallah etc. Others remained mainly within the forces, charpoy, rooty, bundook, pawnee, basha, chota, burra etc

A lot of words in the English language came back from India and are now part of standard English: chit, bungalow, shampoo etc

[KONDOA]

Another question,

If used by a senior officer around the 1900's would it be safe to assume that he had seen more service in Africa than India? As surely he would have used an indian phrase or word!

Most probably Sudanand Egypt , Arm. That may account for the inferred pronunciation in your text.

Just a bit off topic but: there are a good number of photographs taken at Omdurman which I belive reside att he IWM. I have seen them at the museum in Omdurman and they are quite graphic.

Roop