May be from Malayalam rather than Tamil. In Malayalam, the dish with gravy is Curry, and dry dishes are never described as curry. Portuguese had at least initially more interaction with the west coast of the Indian peninsula, than the east coast, I suppose.
But even in Malayalam, curry/kari could also be used as an umbrella term for any accompaniments with rice, dry and wet. 'Chorum kariyum' - in this context curry is accepted as all the stuff that you eat with a regular rice meal (including the dry 'thoran'), atleast in where I'm from.
