oontn.

1815 F. R. Hastings Jrnl. 11 Feb. in Private Jrnl. (1858) I. 337 As we approached the camp his oont-surwars (camel-riders) went ahead of us.

1892 R. Kipling Barrack-room Ballads 27 O the oont, O the oont, O the commissariat oont! With 'is silly neck a-bobbin' like a basket full o' snakes.

1894 A. G. Leonard Camel 101 The baggage [camel], known as ‘Gamal’ and ‘Unt’ respectively in Egypt and India.

1900 Pall Mall Gaz. 1 Jan. 1/3 A mule..requires more experience in handling than the bubbling oont of India.

1933 Bulletin (Sydney) 26 Apr. 33/2 Hell! what a lot of calculation had to go into piloting a couple of smelly oonts!

1978 D. Stuart Wedgetail View 120 It's funny about camels, y'know..so long as the wheels'll keep rolling without bogging the old oonts'll keep moochin' along.

1989 M. Wiggins John Dollar (1990) iv. 158 They had yet to go afield by any other route except the one that wound around the cliff which they had named the oont because it looked a little like a camel.

1857 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. Oct. 487 An old Sindee oontwallah, or camel-fellow.

1902 Chambers's Jrnl. July 431/1 To judge from the selection of pillage, some one conversant with the interior economy of the caravan was involved, and it was significant that a number of the oont-wallahs (camel-drivers) were missing.

1986 Los Angeles Times (Nexis) 21 July i. 6/1 Khan represents a consensus among the oont wallahs (camel drivers) who were interviewed one hot July morning in the port area of Karachi.