godown

Borrowed from Malay gudang, from Tamil கிடங்கு (kiṭaṅku, “store room”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡodaʊn/

godown (plural godowns)

1. (India, East Africa, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong) A warehouse.
   • 1694, Fort St. George Diary and Consultation Book, entry for 30 April, 1694, Madras: 1918, p. 45,

     Ordered that the new House in the Fort be forthwith built according to a modell now produced an approved, being 110 foot in length and 55 foot in breadth to be built on the East side the Fort at 18 Foot distance from the godown wall, and at equal distance from the north and south walls.

   • 1896, Joseph Conrad, An Outcast of the Islands, Chapter 7,

     They retired round the corner of the godown and watched Willems curiously through the night, till the short daybreak was followed by the sudden blaze of the rising sun, and Almayer’s establishment woke up to life and work.

   • 1950, Neville Shute, A Town Like Alice, London: The Reprint Society, 1952, Chapter 4, p. 101,

     There is a sort of village square with wood and palm-leaf native shops grouped round about it; behind this stands a godown for the rice beside the river bank. This godown was empty at the time, and it was here that the party was accommodated.

   • 2011, Terry Pratchett, Snuff, page 307 in hardback:

     Sam Vimes awoke from a pig's nightmare to find himself lying on a pile of sacks in a godown in the docks.