jetuka

jetuka

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Assamese জেতুকা (zetuka).

Noun

jetuka (uncountable)

1. (India) Henna (Lawsonia inermis), as used in Assam. (clarification of this definition is needed)
   • 1949, The Eastern Anthropologist, vol. 3, p. 74:

     The leaves of the Jetuka shrub give a red juice when crushed.

   • 1965, Praphulladatta Goswami, Folk-literature of Assam, p. 8:

     It is a pleasant sight to see a young girl with her blackened teeth, her palms reddened with the juice of jetuka leaves, her head bedecked with orchid, swaying her figure gracefully and singing erotic quatrains […].

   • 2015, Ranjita Biswas, translating Arupa Patangia Kalita, Written in Tears, Harper Perennial 2015, p. 2:

     Her palms, decorated with jetuka, picked up the grains.