‖ picotah, picottah
(pɪˈkɒtə)
Also pa-, picota, paecottah.
[Hindī, etc., a. Pg. picota a pump-brake (in a ship).]
The name applied in parts of India to a device for raising water, consisting of a beam, resting on an upright support, which is weighted at one end and has a bucket suspended from the other; the operator stands upon it and uses his own weight to dip and raise the bucket; the same as the shadoof of the Nile.
| 1807 F. Buchanan Journ. Mysore I. 15 In one place I saw people employed in watering a rice field with the Yatam, or Pacota, as it is called by the English. 1885 C. G. W. Lock Workshop Receipts Ser. iv. 91/2 Termed a paecottah or picota in Bengal. |