The office, bureau, or administrative department of a dufterdar or similar official in historical South Asian governance.
Derived from 'dufter' or 'daftar' plus the English '-y' or '-ery' suffix, meaning a place of work or collection of related things. Similar to how 'cannery' is where cans are made, 'duftery' is where documents are kept and administered.
Adding '-ery' to English words is like adding a building to the word—'brew' becomes 'brewery,' 'bake' becomes 'bakery.' When English speakers encountered Indian administrative systems, they used the same trick: 'duftery' is where all the dufter work happened!
Complete word intelligence in one call. Free tier — 50 lookups/day.