bobberchee, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

bobberchee n.

[alteration of Hind. ?????? (b?varch?), from Pers.]

(Anglo-Ind.) the servant who does the cooking; a cook.

[1784		G.Hadley Grammar of Moors 22: Cook. Baûberchee].
1810		T. Williamson East India Vade-Mecum I 238: This little neat, cleanly, and cheap dripping-ladle, answers admirably; it being in the power of the babachy to baste any part with great precision.
1848		W.M. Thackeray Vanity Fair 453: ‘Yesterday, Colonel and Mrs. Crawley entertained a select party at dinner at their house in May Fair. Their Excellencies the Prince and Princess of Peterwaradin, H. E. Papoosh Pasha, the Turkish Ambassador [...] Sir Horace Pogey, Hon. Sands Bedwin, Bobbachy Bahawder,’ and an &c.
1859		V.D. Majendie Among the Pandies 271: ‘I say you syce, you just puckrao that ghore’s head, and saf karo his legs;’ or to a cook: ‘Now look’ee ‘ere, you ‘bobbachee,’ if you don’t let me have my char, at char budger another day, I’ll break every bone in your body; I’ve told yer this more than once, don’t let me have to tell yer again, that’s bus!’.
1866		G.O. Trevelyan ‘Dawk Bungalow’ in Fraser’s Mag. Feb. 224: And every night and morning The bobarchee shall kill The sempiternal moorghee, And we’ll all have a grill.
1867		S.L. Blanchard Yesterday and Today in India 38: Then there is a Bobachee, or cook, as a matter of course, and he, if he have any self-respect, will require an assistant.
1886		Yule & Burnell Hobson-Jobson 75/2: Bobachee, s. A cook (male). This is an Anglo-Indian vulgarisation of b?warch?, a term originally brought, according to Hammer, by the hordes of Chingiz Khan into Western Asia.
1893		T.B. Strange Gunner Jingo’s Jubilee 140: ‘If you wish to preserve your appetite, never inspect the cook’s proceedings,’ is a wise maxim in many lands. But plum pudding was a mystery to the jungle wallah who acted as bobbachee.
1896		F.J. Fraser ‘Little Number Three’ in Belgravia (London) 430: ‘Run over to the mess, kitmutghar! But fetch me some gurrum-porny first, and jildy from the bobberjee!’.
1909		E.C. Cox My Thirty Years in India 24: One’s cook was a man, known in Bengal as a bobajee.
1919		G.G.B. Iver In An Indian District 11: Next in importance is the cook or khansamah also known as the bawarchi (the ‘bobberchi’ in mem-sahib’s Hindustani).

In compounds

bobberchee-khana (n.) [alteration of Hind. ??????-???? (b?varch?-kh?n?), from Pers.]

(Anglo-Ind.) the kitchen; any place where a cook prepares meals.

[1784		G.Hadley Grammar of Moors 22: Bauwerchee-hkaunneb, kitchen, (cook’s place)].
1853		H. Moses Englishman’s Life in India 177: Of course, the cook and his Portuguese assistants have nothing to do with them. He lives and sleeps in the bobbergy-house, or kitchen.
1879		E.H. Rogers How to Speak Hindustani 6: The following are a few other common instances of incorrect spelling and pronunciation used by Anglo-Indians: - bobberchy-conner for b?warchi-kh?n? (a cook-house); .
1886		Yule & Burnell Hobson-Jobson 76/1: Bobachee-Connah, s. H. b?warch?-kh?na, ‘Cook house,’ i.e. Kitchen; generally in a cottage detached from the residence of a European household.
1894		C.T. Arthur [A.T. Crawford] Reminiscences Indian Police Official 182: ‘Tim; always travelled with the cook, being chained at night to the ‘Bobbajikhana,’ or cook’s cart, under which he slept a few yards from the fire, my two servants sleeping near.