And Then There Were None vocabulary

a slang term taken from Punjabi words for "Absolute" ("first class", "absolutely genuine" for English users) and "master", but meaning "true gentleman" or "excellent fellow". The expression was used in the British Empire to describe Europeans or to describe an attitude which British administrators were said to affect, that of an "aloof, impartial, incorruptible arbiter of the political fate of a large part of the earth's surface".

The word "pukka" is still used formally in 21st-century English to describe something as "first class" or "absolutely genuine". As a slang term, it is often used by British service-people.