View source for Cheroot

{{Short description|Cylindrical cigar without a filter}}
[[File:Cheroot making leaves or cheroot leaves 2013-07-03 11-19.jpg|thumbnail|Cheroot-making leaves or cheroot leaves]]

The '''cheroot''' is a filterless cylindrical [[cigar]] with both ends clipped during manufacture. Since cheroots do not taper, they are inexpensive to roll mechanically, and their low cost makes them popular.

The word 'cheroot' probably comes via [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]] ''charuto'',<ref>{{cite web |title=cheroot (n.) |url=https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=cheroot |website=etymonline.com |accessdate=December 5, 2019}}</ref> originally from [[Tamil language|Tamil]] ''curuttu/churuttu/shuruttu'' (சுருட்டு), "roll of tobacco". This word could have been absorbed into the French language from Tamil during the 18th century, when the French were trying to stamp their presence in [[South India]]. The word could have then been absorbed into [[English language|English]] from French.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.wmich.edu/dialogues/themes/indianwords.htm#links |url-status=dead |title=Etymology of Selected Words of Indian Language Origin |publisher=Wmich.edu |access-date=2004-06-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140220033539/http://www.wmich.edu/dialogues/themes/indianwords.htm#links |archive-date=2014-02-20}}</ref> Cheroots are originated from the city of [[Tiruchirappalli]] in the [[South India|South Indian]] state of [[Tamil Nadu]]. Cheroot are longer than another filter-less Indian-origin product, the [[beedi]].

==Asia==
[[Image:InleCheroot.jpg|thumb|180px|Preparation of cheroots, [[Inle Lake]], Myanmar]]
[[Image:NyaungshweCheroot.jpg|240px|thumb|Cheroots sold in the market at [[Nyaungshwe]], Myanmar]]
<!--[[File:A Burmese Girl Watts and Skeen, Burma Albumen print 1890.jpg|thumb|A Burmese Girl Holding a Cheroot, Watts and Skeen, Burma Albumen print1890]]-->
Cheroots are traditional in [[Myanmar]] and [[India]], and consequently were popular among the British during the days of the [[British Empire]]. They are often associated with Myanmar in literature:

{{quote|<poem>'Er petticoat was yaller an' 'er little cap was green,
An' 'er name was [[Supayalat|Supi-yaw-lat]] – jes' the same as [[Thibaw Min|Theebaw]]'s Queen,
An' I seed her first a-smokin' of a whackin' white cheroot,
An' a-wastin' Christian kisses on an 'eathen [[Cult image|idol's]] foot:</poem>|[[Rudyard Kipling]]| (1892)<ref>{{cite web |last=Kipling |first=Rudyard |authorlink=Rudyard Kipling |title=Barrack-Room Ballads |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2819/2819-h/2819-h.htm#2H_4_0014 |location=Mandalay}}</ref> "[[Mandalay (poem)|Mandalay]]", from ''[[Barrack-room Ballads]]''}}

{{quote|My brother was unlike us in some things, [[Sahib#Colonial and modern use|Sahib]]. He was fond of the ''[[Wine|sharab]]'' called '[[Whisky]]' and of dogs; he drank smoke from the cheroot after the fashion of the Sahib-log and not from the [[hookah]] nor the ''[[beedi|bidi]]''; he wore boots; he struck with the clenched fist when angered; and never did he [[Squatting position|squat]] down upon his heels nor sit cross-legged upon the ground. Yet he was true [[Pashtun people|Pathan]] in many ways during his life, and he died as a Pathan should, concerning his honour (and a woman). Yea&mdash;and in his last fight, ere he was hanged, he killed more men with his long [[pesh-kabz|Khyber knife]], single-handed against a mob, than ever did lone man before with cold steel in fair fight.|Captain [[P. C. Wren|Percival Christopher Wren]], I.A.R.|1912, ''Driftwood Spars''}}

Apparently, cheroot smoking was also associated with resistance against tropical disease in India. [[Verrier Elwin]] wrote in a foreword (1957) to ''Leaves from the Jungle: Life in a Gond Village'':

{{quote|A final thing strikes me as I re-read the pages of the Diary that follows is that I seem to have spent much of my time falling ill. I attribute this to the fact that in those days I was a non-smoker. Since I took to the cheroot, I have not had a single attack of malaria, and my health improved enormously in later years."|''Leaves from the Jungle: Life in a Gond Village'', [[Oxford University Press]], 1992, p.xxix}}

Although a cheroot is defined as cylindrical, home-rolled cheroots in Myanmar are sometimes conical.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://travel2photograph.wordpress.com/2011/03/04/cigars-and-cheroots-a-burmese-facial-feature/|title=Cigars and Cheroots|website=Travel2photograph.wordpress.com|date=4 March 2011 }}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Beedi]]
* [[Cigar]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{Wiktionary|cheroot|stogie}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20060320121140/http://www.smokemag.com/0698/america.htm Making cheroots]
{{Cigarettes}}
{{Alcohol in India}}
{{Social issues in India}}
[[Category:Cigars]]
[[Category:Tobacco in India]]
[[Category:Smoking in India]]