tonjon

From Hindi तामजान (tāmjān).

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈtɑnˌdʒɑn/
• (India) IPA^(key): /ˈʈɔnˌdʒɔn/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈtɒndʒɒn/

tonjon (plural tonjons)

1. (South Asia, chiefly historical) An open sedan chair raised on single poles front and back. [1804]
   • 1925, George Nathaniel Curzon, British Government in India, volume II, page 21:

     The old tonjons were still to be seen in the basement at Barrackpore some years before my time, but when I enquired for them, they had disappeared.

   • 1931 June, Frank E. Bushby, "Old-Time Conveyances in Calcutta", Bengal Past & Present, Vol. XLI, Nos. 81–82, p. 139:

     The equivalent for the men-folk, apart from those who rode on horse-back was the tonjon, which was a kind of open chair with poles extending at the back and front and carried by four coolies in the same way as the palki... The tonjon went out of use many year ago.

• tomjohn, tamjan

• jampan

• “tonjon, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
• “tonjon”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.