I was thinking about regional vocabulary and wanted to share the most hyper-local one (per square miles) that I have. When I was a kid in Hong Kong, the little pay booths that they have in parking lots were “shroffs.” Didn’t matter if it was manned or just a little machine: you paid for your parking at a “shroff.”
And it’s such a weird leftover high-tide mark of the British Empire!
The OED lists three definitions of “shroff,” and all of them are now historical (i.e., not currently used) except for the silly ol’ parking ticket pay booth.
shroff, n. meanings, etymology, pronunciation and more in the Oxford English Dictionary
In India: a money changer, moneylender, or banker, esp. one whose work facilitates trade. Now historical.
In China: an evaluator of precious metals; an expert in detecting counterfeit coins. Now historical.
In Southeast Asia and Hong Kong: a cashier or money collector. Now esp. in Hong Kong: a cashier at a car park.
