MON ŒIL! (popular), _expressive of refusal or disbelief_, “don’t you
wish you may get it?” or “do you see any green in my eye?” See NÈFLES.
MONÔME, _m._ (students’), _yearly procession in single file through
certain streets of Paris of candidates to the government schools_.
MONORGUE (thieves’), _I_, _myself_.
MONSEIGNEUR, _m._ (thieves’), or pince ----, _short crowbar with which
housebreakers force open doors or safes_. Termed “Jemmy, James, or the
stick.”
Ils font sauter gâches et serrures ... avec une espèce de
pied de biche en fer qu’ils appellent cadet, monseigneur,
ou plume.--=CANLER.=
MONSEIGNEURISER (thieves’), _to force open a door_, “to strike a
jigger.”
MONSIEUR, _m._ (artists’), le ----, _the principal figure in a
picture_. (Popular) Un ----, _a twopenny glass of brandy_; _a five-sous
glass of wine from the bottle at a wine retailer’s_; ---- Vautour, or
Père Vautour, _the landlord_; also _an usurer_.
Vous accorder un nouveau délai pour le capital? ... mais
depuis trois ans ... vous n’avez pas seulement pu rattraper
les intérêts.--Ah! père Vautour, ça court si vite vos
intérêts!--=GAVARNI.=
Monsieur à tubard, _a well-dressed man_, _one who sports a silk hat_;
---- bambou, _a stick_, a gentleman whose services are sometimes put
in requisition by drunken workmen as an irresistible argument to meet
the remonstrances of an unfortunate better half, as in the case of
Martine and Sganarelle in Molière’s _Le Médecin malgré lui_; ----
Lebon, _a good sort of man, that is, one who readily treats others to
drink_; ---- de Pètesec, _stuck-up man, with dry, sharp manner_; ----
hardi, _the wind_; ---- Raidillon, or Pointu, _proud, stuck-up man_;
(thieves’) ---- de l’Affure, _one who wins money at a game honestly or
not_; ---- de la Paume, _he who loses_; (theatrical) ---- Dufour est
dans la salle, _expression used by an actor to warn another that he
is not acting up to the mark and that he will get himself hissed_, or
“get the big bird.” (Familiar and popular) Un ---- à rouflaquettes,
_prostitutes bully_, or “pensioner.” For list of synonyms see POISSON.
Monsieur de Paris, _the executioner_. Formerly each large town had its
own executioner: Monsieur de Rouen, Monsieur de Lyon, &c. Concerning
the office Balzac says:--
Les Sanson, bourreaux à Rouen pendant deux siècles,
avant d’être revêtus de la première charge du royaume,
exécutaient de père en fils les arrêts de la justice depuis
le treizième siècle. Il est peu de familles qui puissent
offrir l’exemple d’un office ou d’une noblesse conservée de
père en fils pendant six siècles.
Monsieur personne, _a nobody_. (Brothels’) Monsieur, _husband of the
mistress of a brothel_.
Monsieur, avec son épaisse barbiche aux poils tors et
gris.--=E. DE GONCOURT=, _La Fille Elisa_.
(Cads’) Monsieur le carreau dans l’œil, _derisive epithet applied to a
man with an eye-glass_; ---- bas-du-cul, _man with short legs_.
MONSTRE, _m._, _any words which a musician temporarily adapts to a
musical production composed by him_.
MONSTRICO, _m._ (familiar), _ugly person_, _one with a_ “knocker face.”
MONTAGE DE COUP, _m._ (popular), _the act of seeking to deceive by
misleading statements_.
Mon vieux, entre nous,
Te n’coup’ pas du tout
Dans c’montage de coup;
Faut pas m’monter l’coup.
=AUG. HARDY.=
MONTAGNARD, _m._ (popular), _additional horse put on to an omnibus
going up hill_.
MONTAGNE DU GÉANT, _f._ (obsolete), _gallows_, “scrag, nobbing cheat,
or government signpost.”
MONTANT, _m. and adj._ (thieves’), _breeches_, “trucks, hams,
sit-upons, or kicks.” (Military) Grand ---- tropical, _riding
breeches_; petit ----, _drawers_. (Familiar) Montant, _term which is
used to denote anything which excites lust_.
MONTANTE, _f._ (thieves’), _ladder_. Literally _a thing to climb up_.
MONTE-À-REGRET (thieves’), abbaye de ----, _the guillotine_. Formerly
_the gallows_. This name was given the scaffold because criminals were
attended there by one or more priests, and on account of the natural
repugnance of a man for this mode of being put out of his misery.
Michel records the fact, that at Sens, one of the streets leading to
the market-place, where executions took place, still bore, a few years
ago, the name of Monte-à-regret. Chanoine de ----, _one sentenced to
death_. Termed also “grognon,” or _grumbler_. Monter à l’abbaye de
----, _to be guillotined_, meant formerly _to be hanged_, to suffer the
extreme penalty of the law on “wry-neck day,” when the criminal before
being compelled to put on the “hempen cravat,” would perhaps utter for
the edification of the crowd his “tops, or croaks,” that is, his last
dying speech. It is curious to note how people of all nations have
always striven to disguise the idea of death by the rope by means of
some picturesque or grimly comical circumlocution. The popular language
is rich in metaphors to describe the act. In the thirteenth century
people would express hanging by the term “mettre à la bise;” in the
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries an executed criminal was spoken of as
“vendangeant à l’eschelle, avoir collet rouge, croître d’un demi-pied,
faire la longue lettre, tomber du haut mal,” and later on: “Servir de
bouchon, faire le saut, faire un saut sur rien, donner un soufflet à
une potence, donner le moine par le cou, approcher du ciel à reculons,
danser un branle en l’air, avoir la chanterelle au cou, faire le guet à
Montfaucon, faire le guet au clair de la lune à la cour des monnoyes.”
Also, “monter à la jambe en l’air.” Then a hanged man was “un évêque
des champs” (on account of executions taking place in the open country)
“qui bénit des pieds,” and hanging itself, “une danse où il n’y a pas
de plancher,” which corresponds to the expression, “to dance upon
nothing.” The poor wretch was also said to be “branché,” a summary
proceeding performed on the nearest tree, and he was made to “tirer la
langue d’un demi-pied.” The poet François Villon being in the prison of
the Châtelet in 1457, under sentence of death for a robbery supposed to
have been committed at Rueil by himself and some companions, several of
whom were hanged, but whose fate he luckily did not share, thus alludes
with grim humour to his probable execution:--
Je suis François, dont ce me poise,
Né de Paris emprès Ponthoise,
Or, d’une corde d’une toise,
Saura mon col que mon cul poise.
When Jonathan Wild the Great is about to expiate his numerous crimes,
and his career is soon to be terminated at Tyburn, Fielding makes him
say: “D--n me, it is only a dance without music; ... a man can die but
once.... Zounds! Who’s afraid?” Master Charley Bates, in common with
his “pals,” called hanging “scragging”:--
“He’ll come to be scragged, won’t he?” “I don’t know what
that means,” replied Oliver. “Something in this way, old
feller,” said Charley. As he said it, Master Bates caught
up an end of his neckerchief, and holding it erect in the
air, dropped his head on his shoulder, and jerked a curious
sound through his teeth; thereby intimating, by a lively
pantomimic representation, that “scragging” and hanging
were one and the same thing.--=DICKENS=, _Oliver Twist_.
The expression is also to be met with in Lord Lytton’s _Paul
Clifford_:--
“Blow me tight, but that cove is a queer one! and if he
does not come to be scragged,” says I, “it will only be
because he’ll turn a rusty, and scrag one of his pals!”
Again, the same author puts in the mouth of his hero, Paul Clifford,
the accomplished robber, the “Captain Crank,” or chief of a gang of
highwaymen, a poetical simile, “to leap from a leafless tree”:--
Oh! there never was life like the Robber’s--so
Jolly, and bold, and free;
And its end--why, a cheer from the crowd below
And a leap from a leafless tree!
Penny-a-liners nowadays describe the executed felon as “taking a
leap into eternity;” facetious people say that he dies in a “horse’s
nightcap,” _i.e._, a halter, and the vulgar simply declare that he
is “stretched.” The dangerous classes, to express that one is being
operated upon by Jack Ketch, use the term “to be scragged,” already
mentioned, or “to be topped;” and “may I be topped!” is an ejaculation
often heard from the mouths of London roughs. Formerly, when the place
for execution was at Tyburn, near the N. E. corner of Hyde Park, at
the angle formed by the Edgware Road and the top of Oxford Street, the
criminal brought here was said to put on the “Tyburn tippet,” _i.e._,
Jack Ketch’s rope. The Latins used to describe one hanged as making the
letter I with his body, or the long letter. In Plautus old Staphyla
says: “The best thing for me to do, is with the help of a halter, to
make with my body the long letter.” Modern Italians say of a man about
to be executed, that he is sent to Picardy, “mandato in Picardia.”
They also use other circumlocutions, “andare a Longone,” “andare a
Fuligno,” “dar de’ calci al vento,” “ballar in campo azurro.” Again,
the Italian “truccante” (_thief_), in his “lingue furbesche” (_cant of
thieves_), says of a criminal who ascends the scaffold, the “sperlunga,
or faticosa” (_gallows_), with the “margherita, or signora” (_rope_)
adjusted on his “guindo” (_neck_) by the “cataron” (_executioner_),
that he may be considered as “aver la fune al guindo.” The Spanish
“azor” (_thief_, in _Germania_, or Spanish cant), under sentence of a
“tristeza” (_sentence of death_), when about to be executed left the
“angustia” (_prison_) to go to the gallows, or “balanza,” which is now
a thing of the past, having been superseded by the hideous “garote.”
The German “broschem-blatter” (_thief_, in “rothwelsch,” or German
cant), when sentenced to death was doomed to the “dolm,” or “nelle,” on
which he was ushered out of this world by the “caffler” (_German Jack
Ketch_).
MONTER (popular), d’un cran, _to obtain an appointment superior to
that one possesses already_; _to be promoted_; ---- à l’arbre, or à
l’échelle, _to be fooled_. Alluding to a bear at the Zoological Gardens
being induced to climb the pole by the prospect of some dainty bit
which is not thrown to him after all. Also _to get angry_, “to get
one’s monkey up;” ---- en graine, _to grow old_. Literally _to run to
seed_; ---- des couleurs, le Job, or un schtosse, _to deceive one by
false representations_, “to bamboozle;” ---- une gamme, _to scold_, “to
bully-rag;” ---- un coup, _to find a pretext_; _to lay a trap for one_.
C’est des daims huppés qui veulent monter un coup à un
ennemi.--=E. SUE.=
Monter le coup, or un battage, _to deceive one by misleading
statements_. Ça ne prend pas, tu ne me monteras pas le coup, “No go,”
_I am aware of your practices and_ “twig” _your manœuvre_, or “don’t
come the old soldier over me.” Faire ---- à l’échelle, _to make one
angry_, “to make one lose his shirt.” Se ---- le bourrichon, or le
baluchon, _to fly into a passion about some alleged injustice_. Also
_to be too sanguine, to form illusions about one’s abilities, or about
the success of some project_.
Oh! je ne me monte pas le bourrichon, je sais que je ne
ferai pas de vieux os.--=ZOLA=, _L’Assommoir_.
Se ---- le coup, se ---- le verre en fleurs, _to form illusions_.
Essayer de ---- un bateau à quelqu’un, _to seek to deceive one_, “to
come the old soldier” _over one_. (Thieves’) Monter un arcat, _to
swindle_, “to bite;” ---- un gandin, _to deceive_, “to stick, or to
best;” ---- un chopin, _to make all necessary preparations for a
robbery_, “to lay a plant;” ---- à la butte, _to be guillotined_.
Un jour, j’ai pris mon surin pour le refroidir. Après tout,
mon rêve c’est de monter à la butte.--_Mémoires de Monsieur
Claude._
Monter sur la table, _to make a clean breast of it_; _to inform against
one_, “to blow the gaff.” It also means _to tell a secret_, “to split.”
While his man being caught in some fact
(The particular crime I’ve forgotten),
When he came to be hanged for the act,
Split, and told the whole story to Cotton.
_Ingoldsby Legends._
(Theatrical) Monter une partie, _to get together a small number of
actors to give out of Paris one or two performances_; (military) ----
en ballon, _practical joke at the expense of a new-comer_. During the
night, to both ends of the bed of the victim are fixed two running
nooses, the ropes being attached high up on a partition by the side
of the bed. At a given signal the ropes being pulled, the occupant of
the bed finds himself lifted in the air, with his couch upside down
occasionally.
MONTEUR, _m._ (theatrical), de partie, _an actor whose spécialité is
to get together a few brother actors for the purpose of performing
out of town_; (popular) ---- de coups, or de godans, _swindler_;
_one who is fond of hoaxing people_; _one who imposes on others_,
“humbug.” Concerning the latter term the _Slang Dictionary_ says: “A
very expressive but slang word, synonymous at one time with hum and
haw. Lexicographers for a long time objected to the adoption of this
term. Richardson uses it frequently to express the meaning of other
words, but, strange to say, omits it in the alphabetical arrangement
as unworthy of recognition! In the first edition of this work, 1785
was given as the earliest date at which the word could be found in
a printed book. Since then ‘humbug’ has been traced half a century
further back, on the title-page of a singular old jest-book, ‘_The
Universal Jester_, or a pocket companion for the Wits: being a choice
collection of merry conceits, facetious drolleries, &c., clenchers,
closers, closures, bon-mots, and humbugs, by Ferdinando Killigrew.’
London, about 1735-40. The notorious orator Henley was known to the
mob as Orator Humbug. The fact may be learned from an illustration in
that exceedingly curious little collection of caricatures published in
1757, many of which were sketched by Lord Bolingbroke, Horace Walpole
filling in the names and explanations. Haliwell describes humbug as ‘a
person who hums,’ and cites Dean Milles’s MS., which was written about
1760. In the last century the game now known as double-dummy was termed
humbug. Lookup, a notorious gambler, was struck down by apoplexy when
playing at this game. On the circumstance being reported to Foote, the
wit said, ‘Ah, I always thought he would be humbugged out of the world
at last!’ It has been stated that the word is a corruption of Hamburg,
from which town so many false bulletins and reports came during the
war in the last century. ‘Oh, that is Hamburg (or Humbug),’ was the
answer to any fresh piece of news which smacked of improbability. Grose
mentions it in his _Dictionary_, 1785; and in a little printed squib,
published in 1808, entitled _Bath Characters_, by T. Goosequill, humbug
is thus mentioned in a comical couplet on the title-page:--
Wee Thre Bath Deities bee
Humbug, Follie, and Varietee.
Gradually from this time the word began to assume a place in periodical
literature, and in novels written by not over-precise authors. In the
preface to a flat, and most likely unprofitable poem, entitled _The
Reign of Humbug, a Satire_, 8vo, 1836, the author thus apologizes for
the use of the word: ‘I have used the term _humbug_ to designate this
principle (wretched sophistry of life generally), considering that it
is now adopted into our language as much as the words dunce, jockey,
cheat, swindler, &c., which were formerly only colloquial terms.’ A
correspondent, who in a number of _Adversaria_ ingeniously traced
bombast to the inflated Doctor Paracelsus Bombast, considers that
humbug may, in like manner, be derived from Homberg, the distinguished
chemist of the Court of the Duke of Orleans, who, according to the
following passage from Bishop Berkeley’s _Siris_, was an ardent and
successful seeker after the philosopher’s stone:--
Of this there cannot be a better proof than the experiment
of Monsieur Homberg, who made gold of mercury by
introducing light into its pores, but at such trouble and
expense that, I suppose, nobody will try the experiment
for profit. By this injunction of light and mercury,
both bodies became finer, and produced a third different
to either, to wit, real gold. For the truth of which
fact I refer to the memoirs of the French Academy of
Sciences.--=BERKELEY=, _Works_.”
_The Supplementary English Glossary_ gives the word “humbugs” as the
North-country term for certain lumps of toffy, well flavoured with
peppermint. (Roughs’) Monter à cheval, _to be suffering from a tumour
in the groin, a consequence of venereal disease, and termed_ poulain,
_foal_, hence the jeu de mots; (wine retailers’) ---- sur le tonneau,
_to add water to a cask of wine_, “to christen” _it_. Adding too much
water to an alcoholic liquor is termed by lovers of the “tipple” in its
pure state, “to drown the miller.”
MONTEUR DE COUPS, _m._ (popular), _story-teller_; _cheat_.
MONTEUSE DE COUPS, _f._ (popular), _deceitful woman_; _one who_
“bamboozles” _her lover or lovers_.
MONTPARNO (thieves’), _Montparnasse_. See MÉNILMONTE.
J’ai flasqué du poivre à la rousse.
Elle ira de turne en garno,
De Ménilmuche à Montparno,
Sans pouvoir remoucher mon gniasse.
=RICHEPIN.=
MONTRER (theatrical), la couture de ses bas, _to break off a stage
engagement by the simple process of leaving the theatre_; (familiar and
popular) ---- toute sa boutique, _to expose one’s person_.
Ah! non ... remettez votre camisole. Vous savez, je n’aime
pas les indécences. Pendant que vous y êtes, montrez toute
votre boutique.--=ZOLA.=
MONTRE-TOUT, _m._ (popular), _short jacket_. Termed also “ne te
gêne pas dans le parc.” (Prostitutes’) Aller à ----, _to go to the
medical examination, a periodical and compulsory one, for registered
prostitutes, those who shirk it being sent to the prison of
Saint-Lazare_.
MONU, _m._ (cads’), _one-sou cigar_.
MONUMENT, _m._ (popular), _tall hat_, or “stove-pipe.”
MONZU, or MOUZU, _m._ (old cant), _woman’s breasts_. Termed, in other
varieties of jargon, “avant-postes, avant-scènes, œufs sur le plat,
oranges sur l’étagère,” and in the English slang, “dairies, bubbies, or
Charlies.”
MORASSE, _f._ (printers’), _proof taken before the forme is finally
arranged_; ---- _final proof of a newspaper article_. Also _workman who
remains to correct such a proof, or the time employed in the work_.
(Thieves’) Morasse, _uneasiness_; _remorse_. Battre ----, _to make a
hue and cry_, “to romboyle,” in old cant, or “to whiddle beef.”
MORASSIER, _m._ (printers’), _one who prints off the last proof of a
newspaper article_.
MORBAQUE, _m._ (popular), _disagreeable child_. See MORBEC.
MORBEC, _m._ (popular), _a variety of vermin which clings tenaciously
to certain parts of the human body_.
MORCEAU, _m._ (freemasons’), d’architecture, _speech_; (popular) ----
de gruyère, _pockmarked face_, “cribbage-face;” ---- de salé, _fat
woman_. Un ----, _a slatternly girl_. (Thieves’) Manger le ----, _to
peach_, “to blow the gaff.”
Le morceau tu ne mangeras
De crainte de tomber au plan.
=VIDOCQ.=
(Literary) Morceau de pâte ferme, _heavy, dull production_. (Artists’)
Faire le ----, _to paint details skilfully_. (Military) Le beau temps
tombe par morceaux, _it rains_.
MORD (familiar and popular), ça ne ---- pas, _it’s no use_; _no go_.
MORDANTE, _f._ (thieves’), _file_; _saw_. The allusion is obvious.
MORDRE (popular), se faire ----, _to be reprimanded_, “to get a
wigging;” _to get thrashed_, or “wolloped.”
MORESQUE, _f._ (thieves’), _danger_.
MORFE, _f._ (thieves’), _meal_; _victuals_, or “toke.”
Veux-tu venir prendre de la morfe et piausser avec mézière
en une des pioles que tu m’as rouscaillée?--_Le Jargon de
l’Argot._
MORFIANTE, _f._ (thieves’), _plate_.
MORFIGNER, MORFILER (thieves’), _to do_; _to eat_. From the old word
morfier. Rabelais uses the word morfialler with the signification of
_to eat_, _to gorge oneself_.
La, la, la, c’est morfiallé cela.--=RABELAIS=, _Gargantua_.
MORFILER, or MORFILLER (thieves’), _to eat_, “to yam.”
Un vieux fagot qui s’était fait raille pour
morfiller.--=VIDOCQ.= (_An old convict who had turned spy
to get a living._)
Termed also morfier. Compare with morfire, or morfizzare, _to eat_, in
the lingue furbesche, or Italian cant. Se ---- le dardant, _to fret_.
Dardant, _heart_.
MORGANE, _f._ (old cant), _salt_.
C’est des oranges, si tu demandais du sel ... de la
morgane! mon fils, ça coûte pas cher.--=VIDOCQ.= (_Here are
some potatoes; just you ask for salt, my boy; it’s cheap
enough._)
MORGANER (roughs’ and thieves’), _to bite_. Morgane le gonse et chair
dure! _Bite the cove! pitch into him!_
MORICAUD, _m._ (thieves’), _coal_; _wine-dealer’s wooden pitcher_.
MORI-LARVE, _f._ (thieves’), _sunburnt face_.
MORLINGUE, _m._ (thieves’), _money_; _purse_, “skin.” Faire le ----,
_to steal a purse_, “to fake a skin.”
MORNANTE, _f._ (thieves’), _sheepfold_. From morne, _sheep_.
MORNE, _f. and adj._ (thieves’), _sheep_, or “wool-bird.” Termed
“bleating cheat” by English vagabonds. Courbe de ----, _shoulder of
mutton_. Morne, _stupid_; _stupid man_, “go along.”
MORNÉE, _f._ (thieves’), _mouthful_.
MORNIER, MORNEUX, or MARMIER, _m._ (thieves’), _shepherd_.
MORNIFFER (popular), _to slap one’s face_, “to fetch a bang,” or “to
give a biff,” as the Americans have it. Termed _to give a_ “clo,” at
Winchester School.
MORNIFLE, _f._ (thieves’), _money_, or “blunt.”
When the slow coach paused, and the gemmen storm’d,
I bore the brunt--
And the only sound which my grave lips form’d
Was “blunt”--still “blunt!”
=LORD LYTTON=, _Paul Clifford_.
Mornifle tarte, _spurious coin_, or “queer bit.” Refiler de la ----
tarte, _to pass off bad coin_; _to be a_ “snide pitcher, or smasher.”
Properly mornifle has the signification of _cuff on the face_.
MORNIFLEUR TARTE, _m._ (thieves’), _coiner_, or “queer-bit faker.”
MORNINGUE, or MORLINGUE, _m._ (thieves’), _money_, or “pieces;”
_purse_. Faire le ----, _to pick a pocket_. In the old English cant “to
fang” _a pocket_.
O shame o’ justice! Wild is hang’d,
For thatten he a pocket fang’d,
While safe old Hubert, and his gang,
Doth pocket of the nation fang.
=FIELDING=, _J. Wild._
Termed in modern English cant “to fake a cly,” a pickpocket being
called, according to Lord Lytton, a “buzz gloak”:--
The “eminent hand” ended with--“He who surreptitiously
accumulates bustle, is, in fact, nothing better than a buzz
gloak.--_Paul Clifford_.
Porte ----, _purse_, “skin, or poge.”
MORNOS, _m._ (thieves’), _mouth_, “bone-box, or muns.” Probably from
morne, _mutton_, the mouth’s most important function being to receive
food.
MORPION, _m._ (popular), _strong expression of contempt_; _despicable
man_, or “snot.” Literally _crab-louse_. Also a _bore_, one who clings
to you as the vermin alluded to.
MORPIONNER (popular), _is said of a bore that you cannot get rid of_.
MORSE (Breton cant), _barley bread_.
MORT, _f. and adj._ (popular), marchand de ---- subite, _physician_,
“pill.”
C’est bien sûr le médecin en chef ... tous les marchands de
mort subite vous ont de ces regards-là.--=ZOLA.=
Lampe à ----, _confirmed drunkard whose thirst cannot be slaked_.
(Familiar and popular) Un corps ----, _an empty bottle_. The English
say, when a bottle has been emptied, “Take away this bottle; it has
‘Moll Thompson’s’ mark on it,” that is, it is M. T. An empty bottle is
also termed a “marine, or marine recruit.” “This expression having once
been used in the presence of an officer of Marines,” says the _Slang
Dictionary_, “he was at first inclined to take it as an insult, until
someone adroitly appeased his wrath by remarking that no offence could
be meant, as all that it could possibly imply was: one who had done his
duty, and was ready to do it again.” (Popular) Eau de ----, _brandy_.
See TORD-BOYAUX. (Thieves’) Etre ----, _to be sentenced_, “booked.”
Hirondelle de la ----, _gendarme on duty at executions_. (Military
school of Saint-Cyr) Se faire porter élève-mort _is to get placed on
the sick list_. (Gamesters’) Mort, _stakes which have been increased by
a cheat, who slily lays additional money the moment the game is in his
favour_.
MORTE PAYE SUR MER, _f._ (thieves’), _the hulks_ (obsolete).
MORUE, _f._ (popular), _dirty, disgusting woman_.
Vous voyez, Françoise, ce panier de fraises qu’on vous
fait trois francs; j’en offre un franc, moi, et la
marchande m’appelle ... Oui, madame, elle vous appelle ...
morue!--=GAVARNI.=
Also _prostitute_. See GADOUE. Grande ---- dessalée, _expression of the
utmost contempt applied to a woman_. Pedlars formerly termed “morue,”
_manuscripts_, for the printing of which they formed an association,
“clubbed” together.
MORVIAU, _m._ (popular), _nose_. Termed also “pif, bourbon, piton,
pivase, bouteille, caillou, trompe, truffe, tubercule, trompette,
nazareth;” and, in English slang, “conk, boko, nob, snorter, handle,
post-horn, and smeller.” Lécher le ----, _to kiss_. The expression is
old.
Lécher le morveau, manière de parler ironique, qui signifie
caresser une femme, la courtiser, la servir, faire l’amour.
Dit de même que lécher le grouin, baiser, être assidu et
attaché à une personne.--=LE ROUX=, _Dict. Comique_.
The term “snorter” of the English jargon has the corresponding
equivalent “soffiante” in Italian cant.
MORVIOT, _m._ (popular), _secretion from the mucous membrane of the
nose_, “snot.”
Dans les veines d’ces estropiés,
Au lieu d’sang il coul’ du morviot.
Ils ont des guiboll’s comm’ leur stick,
Trop d’bidoche autour des boyaux,
Et l’arpion plus mou qu’ du mastic.
=RICHEPIN.=
Morviot, _term of contempt_, not quite so forcible as the English
expression “snot,” which has the signification of _contemptible
individual_. Petit ----, _little scamp_.
MOSCOU, _m._ (military), faire brûler ----, _to mix a vast bowl
of punch_. Alluding to the burning down of Moscow by the Russians
themselves in 1812.
MOSSIEU À TUBARD, _m._ (popular), _well-dressed man_, a “swell cove.”
Tubard is a _silk hat_.
MOT, _m._ (popular), casser un ----, _to have a chat_, or “chin music.”
MOTTE, _f._ (general), _pudenda mulierum_. Termed also “chat,” and
formerly by the poets “le verger de Cypris.” Le Roux, concerning the
expression, says:--
La motte de la nature d’une femme, c’est proprement le
petit bois touffu qui garnit le penil d’une femme.--_Dict.
Comique._
Formerly the false hair for those parts was termed in English “merkin.”
(Thieves’) Motte, _central prison, or house of correction_. Dégringoler
de la ----, _to come from such a place of confinement_. The synonyms
of prison in different varieties of slang are: “castue, caruche,
hôpital, mitre, chetard or jetard, collège, grosse boîte, l’ours, le
violon, le bloc, boîte aux cailloux, tuneçon, austo, mazaro, lycée,
château, lazaro.” In the English lingo: “stir, clinch, bastile, steel,
sturrabin, jigger, Irish theatre, stone-jug, mill,” the last-named
being an abbreviation of treadmill, and signifying by analogy _prison_.
The word is mentioned by Dickens:--
“Was you never on the mill?” “What mill,” inquired Oliver.
“What mill? why the mill,--the mill as takes up so little
room that it’ll work inside a stone-jug.--_Oliver Twist._
In Yorkshire a prison goes by the appellation of “Toll-shop,” as shown
by this verse of a song popular at fairs in the East Riding:--
But if ivver he get out agean,
And can but raise a frind,
Oh! the divel may tak’ toll-shop,
At Beverley town end!
This “toll-shop” is but a variation of the Scottish “tolbooth.”
The general term “quod” to denote a prison originates from the
universities. Quod is really a shortening of quadrangle; so to be
quodded is to be within four walls (_Slang Dict._).
MOTUS DANS L’ENTREPONT! (sailors’), _silence!_ “put a clapper to your
mug,” or “mum’s the word.”
MOU, _m._ (popular), avoir le ---- enflé, _to be pregnant_, or “lumpy.”
MOUCHAILLER (popular and thieves’), _to scan_, “to stag;” _to look at_,
“to pipe;” _to see_.
J’itre mouchaillé le babillard ... je n’y itre mouchaillé
floutière de vain.--_Le Jargon de l’Argot._
MOUCHARD, _m._ (popular), _portrait hung in a room_; (popular and
thieves’) ---- à becs, _lamp-post_, the inconvenient luminary being
compared to a spy. Mouchard, properly _spy_, one who goes busily about
like a fly. It formerly had the signification of _dandy_.
A la fin du xviiᵉ siècle, on donnait encore ce nom aux
petits-maîtres qui fréquentaient les Tuileries pour voir
autant que pour être vus; C’est sur ce fameux théâtre des
Tuileries, dit un écrivain de l’époque, qu’une beauté
naissante fait sa première entrée au monde. Bientôt
les “mouchars” de la grande allée sont en campagne au
bruit d’un visage nouveau; chacun court en repaître ses
yeux.--=MICHEL.=
MOUCHARDE, _f._ (thieves’), _moon_, “parish lantern, or Oliver.”
Mais déjà la patrarque,
Au clair de la moucharde,
Nous reluque de loin.
=VIDOCQ.=
La ---- se débine, _the moon disappears_, “Oliver is sleepy.”
MOUCHE, _f._, _adj., and verb_ (general), _police, or police officer_;
_detective_. Compare with the “mücke,” or spy, of German cant;
(thieves’) _muslin_; (students’) ---- à miel, _candidate to the Ecole
Centrale des Arts et Manufactures, a great engineering school_.
Alluding to the bee embroidered in gold on their caps. (Popular)
Mouche, _bad_, or “snide;” _ugly_; _stupid_. C’est bon pour qui qu’est
----, _it is only fit for_ “flats.” Mouche, _weak_.
Il a reparu, l’ami soleil. Bravo! encore bien débile, bien
pâlot, bien “mouche,” dirait Gavroche.--=RICHEPIN.=
Non, c’est q’ j’ me ----, _ironical negative expression meant to be
strongly affirmative_. Synonymous of “non, c’est q’ je tousse!” Vous
n’avez rien fait? Non, c’est q’ j’ me ----, _you did nothing? oh!
didn’t I, just!_
MOUCHER (popular), le quinquet, _to kill_, “to do” _for one_; _to
strike, to give a_ “wipe.”
Allons, mouche-lui le quinquet, ça l’esbrouffera.
--=TH. GAUTIER.=
Moucher la chandelle, _to give oneself up to solitary practices_; _to
act according to the principles of Malthus with a view of not begetting
children_. For further explanation the reader may be referred to a work
entitled _The Fruits of Philosophy_; ---- sa chandelle, _to die_, “to
snuff it.” For synonyms see PIPE. Se ---- dans ses doigts (obsolete),
_to be clever, resolute_. Se faire ---- le quinquet, _to get one’s
head punched_. (Gamesters’) Se ----, _is said of attendants who, while
pretending to make use of their handkerchiefs, purloin a coin or two
from the gaming-table_. It is said of such an attendant, who on the sly
abstracts a gold piece from the stakes laid out on the table, il s’est
“mouché” d’un louis.
MOUCHERON, _m._ (popular), _waiter at a wine-shop_; _child_, or “kid.”
MOUCHES, _f. pl._ (popular), d’hiver, _snow-flakes_. Tuer les ----, _to
emit a bad smell_, capable of killing even flies. Termed also tuer les
---- à quinze pas. (Theatrical) Envoyer des coups de pied aux ----, _to
lead a disorderly life_.
MOUCHETTES, _f. pl._ (popular), _pocket-handkerchief_, “snottinger,
or wipe.” Termed “madam, or stook,” by English thieves. Des ----!
_equivalent to_ du flan! des navets! des nèfles, &c., forcible
expression of refusal; may be rendered by “Don’t you wish you may get
it!” or, as the Americans say, “Yes, in a horn.”
MOUCHEUR DE CHANDELLES, _m._ (popular). See MOUCHER.
MOUCHIQUE, _adj._ (popular and thieves’), _base_, _worthless_, _bad_,
“snide.”
C’était un’ tonn’ pas mouchique,
C’était un girond tonneau,
L’anderlique, l’anderlique,
L’anderliqu’ de Landerneau!
=GILL.=
The English cant has the old word “queer,” signifying base, roguish,
or worthless--the opposite of “rum,” which signified good and genuine.
“Queer, in all probability,” says the _Slang Dictionary_, “is
immediately derived from the cant language. It has been mooted that it
came into use from a ‘quære’ (?) being set before a man’s name; but
it is more than probable that it was brought into this country by the
gipsies from Germany, where _quer_ signifies _cross_, or _crooked_.”
(Thieves’) Etre ---- à sa section, or à la sec, _to be noted as a
bad character at the police office of one’s district_. The word
“mouchique,” says Michel, is derived from “mujik,” _a Russian peasant_,
which must have become familiar in 1815 to the inhabitants of the parts
of the country invaded by the Russians.
MOUCHOIR, _m._ (popular), d’Adam, _the fingers_, used by some people as
a natural handkerchief, “forks;” ---- de bœuf, _meadow_. Termed thus on
account of oxen having their noses in the grass when grazing; ---- de
poche, _pistol_, or “pops.” (Familiar and popular) Faire le ----, _to
steal pocket-handkerchiefs_, “to draw a wipe.” Coup de ---- (obsolete),
_a box on the ear_, a “wipe in the chaps.”
Voyez le train qu’a m’ fait pour un coup de mouchoir que
j’lui ai donné.--=POMPIGNY=, 1783.
(Theatrical) Faire le ----, _to pirate another author’s productions_.
MOUCHOUAR-GODEL (Breton cant), _pistol_.
MOUDRE (popular), or ---- un air, _to ply a street organ_.
MOUF (popular), abbreviation of _Mouffetard_, the name of a street
almost wholly tenanted by rag-pickers, and situate in one of the lowest
quarters of Paris. Quartier ---- mouf, _the Quartier Mouffetard_. La
tribu des Beni Mouf-mouf, _inhabitants of the Quartier Mouffetard_.
Champagne ----, or Champagne Mouffetard, _a liquid manufactured by
rag-pickers with rotten oranges picked out of the refuse at the
Halles_. The fruit, after being washed, is thrown into a cask of water
and allowed to ferment for a few days, after which some brown sugar
being added, the liquid is bottled up, and does duty as champagne. It
is the Cliquot of poor people.
MOUFFLANTÉ, _adj._ (popular), _comfortably, warmly clad_.
MOUFFLET, _m._ (popular), _child_, or “kid;” _urchin_; _apprentice_.
MOUFION, _m._ (popular), _pocket-handkerchief_, “snottinger, or wipe.”
MOUFIONNER (popular), _to blow one’s nose_. (Thieves’) Se ---- dans le
son, _to be guillotined_. Literally _to blow one’s nose in the bran_.
An allusion to an executed convict’s head, which falls into a basket
full of sawdust. Termed also “éternuer dans le son, or le sac.” See
FAUCHÉ.
MOUGET, _m._ (roughs’), _a swell_, or “gorger.” Des péniches à la ----,
_fashionable boots, as now worn, with pointed toes and large square
heels_.
MOUILLANTE, _f._ (thieves’), _cod_; (popular) _soup_.
MOUILLÉ, _adj._ (popular), être ----, _to be drunk_, or “tight.” See
POMPETTE. Etre ----, _to be known in one’s real character_. Alluding to
cloths which are soaked in water to ascertain their quality. (Thieves’)
Etre ----, _to be well known to the police_.
MOUILLER (popular), se ----, _to drink_, “to have something damp,” or
as the Americans have it, “to smile, to see the man.” The term is old.
Mouillez-vous pour seicher, ou seichez pour
mouiller.--=RABELAIS.=
Also _to get slightly intoxicated_, or “elevated.” (Theatrical)
Mouiller à, or dans, _to receive a royalty for a play produced on
the stage_. Se ----, _to take pains in one’s acting_. (Thieves’) Se
---- les pieds, _to be transported_, “to lump the lighter, or to be
lagged.” (Roughs’) En ----, _to perform some extraordinary feat with
great expenditure of physical strength_. Les frères qui en mouillent,
_acrobats_. (Military) Mouiller, _to be punished_.
MOUISE, _f._ (thieves’), _soup_.
Vous qui n’avez probablement dans le bauge que la mouise de
Tunebée Bicêtre vous devez canner la pégrenne.--=VIDOCQ.=
MOUKALA, _m._ (military), _rifle_. From the Arab.
MOUKÈRE, or MOUCAIRE, _f._ (popular), _ugly woman_; _girl of
indifferent character_; (military) _mistress_. Ma ----, _my young_
“’ooman.” Avoir sa ----, _to have won the good graces of a fair one_,
generally a cook in the case of an infantry soldier, the cavalry having
the monopoly of housemaids or ladies’ maids, and sappers showing a
great penchant for nursery-maids.
MOULARD, _m._ (popular), superlative of moule, _dunce_, or “flat.”
MOULE, _m. and f._ (popular), une ----, _face_, or “mug.” Also _a
dunce_, _simpleton_, or “muff.”
Foutez-moi la paix! Vous êtes une couenne et une
moule!--=G. COURTELINE.=
Le ---- à blagues, _mouth_, or “chaffer.” Literally _the humbug-box_.
Un ---- à boutons, _a twenty-franc piece_. Un ---- à claques, _face
with impertinent expression which invites punishment_. Termed also
---- à croquignoles. Un ---- à gaufres, or à pastilles, _a face pitted
with small-pox marks_, “crumpet-face, or cribbage-face.” Un moule à
gaufres is properly _a waffle-iron_. Un ---- à poupée (obsolete), _a
clumsily-built, awkward man_.
Ah! ah! ah! C’grand benêt! a-t-il un air jaune ... dis
donc eh! c’moule à poupée, qu’ veux-tu faire de cette
pique?--_Riche-en-gueule._
Un ---- à merde, _behind_, “Nancy.” For synonyms see VASISTAS. Also
_a foul-mouthed person_. Un ---- de gant, _box on the ear_, or “bang
in the gills.” Un ---- de bonnet, head, or “canister.” Un ---- de
pipe à Gambier, _grotesque face_, or “knocker face.” Un ---- à melon,
_humpback_, or “lord.” (Military) Envoyer chercher le ---- aux
guillemets, _to send a recruit on a fool’s errand_, to send him to
ask the sergeant-major for _the mould for inverted commas_, the joke
being varied by requesting him to fetch the key of the drill-ground.
Corresponds somewhat to sending a greenhorn for pigeon’s milk, or a
pennyworth of stirrup-oil.
MOULER (familiar and popular), un sénateur, _to ease oneself by
evacuation_, “to bury a quaker;” (artists’) ---- une Vénus, _same
meaning_. Artists term “gazonner,” _the act of easing oneself in the
fields_. See MOUSCAILLER.
MOULIN, _m._ (popular), de la halle (obsolete), _the pillory_.
Mais pour qu’à l’avenir tu fass’ mieux ton devoir,
Fais réguiser ta langu’ sur la pierre infernale,
Et puis j’te f’rons tourner au moulin de la halle.
_Amusemens à la Grecque_, 1764.
Moulin, _hairdresser’s shop_; ---- à café, _mitrailleuse_. Thus termed
on account of the revolving handle used in firing it off, like that of
a coffee-mill. Also _street organ_; ---- à merde, _slanderer_; ---- à
vent, _the behind_. See VASISTAS. Concerning the expression Le Roux
says:--
Moulin à vent, pour cul, derrière. Moulin à vent,
parcequ’on donne l’essor à ses vents par cette
ouverture-là.--_Dict. Comique._
(Thieves’) Moulin, _receiver’s_, or “fence’s,” _house_. Termed also
“maison du meunier.” Porter du gras-double au ----, _to steal lead and
take it to a receiver of stolen property_, “to do bluey at the fence.”
(Police) Passer au ---- à café, _to transport a prostitute to the
colonies_.
MOULINAGE, _m._ (popular), _prattling_, “clack.”
MOULINER (popular), _to talk nonsense_; _to prattle_. A term specially
used in reference to the fair sex, and an allusion to the rapid,
regular, and monotonous motion of a mill, or to the noise produced
by the paddles of a water-mill, a “tattle-box” being termed moulin à
paroles.
MOULOIR, _m._ (thieves’), _mouth_, “bone-box, or muns;” _teeth_,
“ivories, or grinders.”
MOULURE, _f._ (popular), _lump of excrement_, or “quaker.” Machine à
moulures, _breech_, or “Nancy.” See VASISTAS.”
MOUNICHE, _f._ (thieves’), _woman’s privities_, “merkin,” according to
the _Slang Dictionary_.
MOUNIN, _m._ (thieves’), _child_, or “kid;” _apprentice_.
MOUNINE, _f._ (thieves’), _little girl_.
MOUQUETTE, _f._ (popular), _cocotte_, or “poll.” See GADOUE.
Assez! Taisez vos becs!... à la porte les mouquettes!
--=P. MAHALIN.=
MOURE, _f._ (thieves’), _pretty face_, “dimber mug.”
MOURIR (popular), tu t’en ferais ----! _is expressive of refusal_.
Literally _if I gave you what you want you would die for joy_. See
NÈFLES.
MOURON, _m._ (popular), ne plus avoir de ---- sur la cage, _to be
bald_, _or to sport_ “a bladder of lard.” For synonymous expressions
see AVOIR.
MOUSCAILLE, _f._ (thieves’), _excrement_, or, as the Irish say,
“quaker.”
MOUSCAILLER (thieves’), _to ease oneself by evacuation_. The synonyms
are “mousser, enterrer son colonel, aller faire une ballade à la lune,
mouler un sénateur, mouler une Vénus, gazonner, aller au numéro cent,
déponer, fogner, flaquer, écrire à un Juif, déposer une pêche, poser
un pépin, un factionnaire, or une sentinelle; envoyer une dépêche à
Bismark, flasquer, touser, faire corps neuf, déposer une médaille de
papier volant, or des Pays-Bas (obsolete), faire des cordes, mettre une
lettre à la poste, faire le grand, faire une commission, débourrer sa
pipe, défalquer, tarter, faire une moulure, aller quelque part, aller
à ses affaires, aller où le roi va à pied, filer, aller chez Jules,
ierchem, aller où le roi n’envoie personne, flaquader, fuser, gâcher
du gros, galipoter, pousser son rond, filer le cable de proue, faire
un pruneau, aller au buen-retiro, aller voir Bernard, faire ronfler
le bourrelet, la chaise percée, or la chaire percée.” In the English
slang, “to go to the West Central, to go to Mrs. Jones, or to the
crapping-ken, to the bog-house, to the chapel of ease, to Sir Harry; to
crap, to go to the crapping-case, to the coffee-shop, to the crapping
castle,” and, as the Irish term it, “to bury a quaker.”
MOUSCAILLEUR, _m._ (popular), _scavenger employed in emptying
cesspools_, or “gold-finder.”
MOUSQUETAIRE GRIS, _m._ (popular), _louse_, or “grey-backed ’un.”
MOUSSAILLON, _m._ (sailors’), _a ship-boy_, or “powder-monkey.” From
mousse, _ship-boy_.
MOUSSANTE, _f._ (popular and thieves’), _beer_, or “gatter.” Un pot
de ----, a “shant of gatter.” A curious slang street melody, known
in Seven Dials as _Bet the Coaley’s Daughter_, mentions the word
“gatter”:--
But when I strove my flame to tell,
Says she, “Come, stow that patter,
If you’re a cove wot likes a gal,
Vy don’t you stand some gatter?”
In course I instantly complied,
Two brimming quarts of porter,
With sev’ral goes of gin beside,
Drain’d Bet the Coaley’s daughter.
Moussante mouchique, _bad, flat beer_, “swipes, or belly vengeance.”
MOUSSARD, _m._ (thieves’), _chestnut tree_.
MOUSSE, _f._ (popular and thieves’), _excrement_; _wine_. The word is
old. Villon, a poet of the fifteenth century, uses it with the latter
signification. For quotation see JOUER DU POUCE. (Popular) De la ----!
_nonsense!_ “all my eye,” or “all my eye and Betty Martin.” Is also
expressive of ironical refusal; “yes, in a horn,” as the Americans say.
MOUSSECAILLOUX, _m._ (popular), _infantry soldier_, “wobbler, or
beetle-crusher.”
MOUSSELINE, _f._ (thieves’), _white bread_, or “pannum,” alluding to a
similarity of colour. Also _prisoner’s fetters_, “darbies.”
MOUSSER (popular), _to ease oneself by evacuation_. See MOUSCAILLER.
Also _to be wroth_, “to have one’s monkey up.” Faire ---- quelqu’un,
_to make one angry by_ “riling” him.
MOUSSERIE, _f._ (thieves’), _privy_, “crapping-ken.”
MOUSSEUX, _adj._ (literary), _hyperbolic_.
MOUSSUE, _f._ (thieves’), _chestnut_.
MOUSTACHU, _m._ (familiar), _man with moustache_.
MOUSTIQUE, _m._ (popular), avoir un ---- dans la boîte au sel, _to be_
“cracked,” “to have a slate off.” For synonymous expressions see AVOIR.
MOUT, _adj._ (popular), _pretty_, _handsome_.
MOUTARDE, _f._ (popular), _excrement_. Baril à ----, _the behind_. For
synonyms see VASISTAS. The expression is old.
En le lançant, il dit: prends garde,
Je vise au baril de moutarde.
_La Suite du Virgile travesti._
MOUTARDIER, _m._ (popular), _breech_, or “tochas.” See VASISTAS.
Et en face! Je n’ai pas besoin de renifler ton
moutardier.--=ZOLA.=
MOUTON, _m._ (popular), _mattress_, or “mot cart;” (general) _prisoner
who is set to watch a fellow-prisoner, and, by winning his confidence,
seeks to extract information from him_, a “nark.”
Comme tu seras au violon avant lui, il ne se doutera pas
que tu es un mouton.--=VIDOCQ.=
Deux sortes de coqueurs sont à la dévotion de la police:
les coqueurs libres, et les coqueurs détenus autrement dit
moutons.--_Mémoires de Canler._
MOUTONNAILLE, _f._ (popular), _crowd_. Sheep will form a crowd.
MOUTONNER (thieves’ and police), _to play the spy on fellow-prisoners_.
Celui qui est mouton court risque d’être assassiné par les
compagnons ... aussi la police parvient-elle rarement à
décider les voleurs à moutonner leurs camarades.--=CANLER.=
MOUTROT, _m._ (thieves’), _Prefect of police_. Le logis du ----, _the
Préfecture de Police_.
MOUVANTE, _f._ (thieves’), _porridge_.
MOUVEMENT, _m._ (swindlers’), concierge dans le ----, _doorkeeper in
league with a gang of swindlers_, for a description of which see BANDE
NOIRE.
MOUZU, _m._ (thieves’), _woman’s breasts_, “Charlies, or dairies.”
MUCHE, _adj. and m._ (prostitutes’), _polite, timid young man_;
(popular) _excellent_, _perfect_, “bully, or ripping.”
MUETTE, _f._ (Saint-Cyr School), _drill exercise in which cadets
purposely do not make their muskets ring_. This is done to annoy any
unpopular instructor. (Thieves’) Muette, _conscience_. Avoir une puce à
la ----, _to feel a pang of remorse_.
MUFE, or MUFFLE, _m. and adj._ (thieves’), _mason_; (familiar and
popular) _mean fellow_; _mean_.
Son pâtissier s’était montré assez mufe pour menacer de la
vendre, lorsqu’elle l’avait quitté.--=ZOLA=, _Nana_.
Mufe, _scamp_, _cad_, “bally bounder.”
Elles restaient gaies, jetant simplement un “sale mufe!”
derrière le dos des maladroits dont le talon leur arrachait
un volant.--=ZOLA=, _Nana_.
MUFFÉE, _f._ (popular), en avoir une vraie ----, _to be completely
intoxicated_. See POMPETTE.
MUFFETON, MUFFLETON, _m._ (popular), _young scamp_; _mason’s
apprentice_.
MUFFLEMAN (popular), _mean fellow_.
MUFFLERIE, _f._ (popular), _contemptible action_; _behaviour like a
cad’s_.
MUFLE, _m._ (thieves’), se casser le ----, _to meet with_. Termed also
“tomber en frime.”
Tel escarpe ou assassin ne commettra pas un crime un
vendredi, ou s’il s’est cassé le mufle devant un ratichon
(prêtre).--_Mémoires de Monsieur Claude._
MUFRERIE, _f._ (popular), _disparaging epithet_; ---- de sort! _curse
my luck!_
MUITAR, _f._ (thieves’), être dans la ----, _to be in prison_, or “in
quod.”
MULET, _m._ (military), _marine artillery man_; (printers’)
_compositor_, or “donkey.” “In the days before steam machinery was
invented, the men who worked at press,” says the _Slang Dictionary_,
“the pressmen, were so dirty and drunken a body that they earned the
name of pigs. In revenge, and for no reason that can be discovered,
they christened the compositors “donkeys.’” (Thieves’) Mulet, _devil_.
Les meusniers, aussi ont une mesme façon de parler que les
cousturiers, appelant leur asne le grand Diable, et leur
sac, Raison. Et rapportant leur farine à ceux ausquels elle
appartient, si on leur demande s’ils en ont point prins
plus qu’il ne leur en faut, respondent: Le grand Diable
m’emporte, si j’en ay prins que par raison. Mais pour tout
cela ils disent qu’ils ne desrobent rien, car on leur
donne.--=TABOUROT.=
MURAILLE (familiar and popular), battre la ----, _to be drunk and to
reel about, now in the gutter, now against the wall_.
MURER (popular), je te vas ----! _I’ll knock you down, or I’ll double
you up!_ See VOIE.
Là il commença à m’embrasser. Ma foi, comme pour le verre
de vin, il n’y avait pas de refus. Il ne me déplaisait pas,
cet homme. Il voulut même m’habiller avec une chemise de
sa femme. Mais voici qu’il me propose des choses que je ne
pouvais accepter, et qu’il me menace de me murer si je dis
un mot.--_Echo de Paris._
MURON, _m._ (thieves’), _salt_.
MURONNER (thieves’), _to salt_.
MURONNIÈRE, _f._ (thieves’), _salt-cellar_.
MUSARDINE, _f._ (familiar), _name given some forty years ago to a
more than fast girl, or to a girl of indifferent character_, termed
sometimes by English “mashers,” a “blooming tartlet.”
On dit une musardine, comme jadis on disait une
lorette.--=ALBÉRIC SECOND.=
The synonyms corresponding to various epochs are:--Under the
Restauration “femme aimable,” a term of little significance. In Louis
Philippe’s time, “lorette,” on account of the frail ones mostly
dwelling in the Quartier Notre Dame de Lorette. Under the Third Empire
“chignon doré” (it was then the fashion, as it still is, for such women
to dye their hair a bright gold or auburn tint), or “cocodette,” the
feminine of “cocodès,” _young dandy_. Now-a-days frequenters of the
Boulevards use the term “boudinée,” “boudiné, bécarre, or pschutteux,”
being the latest appellations for the Parisian “masher.” The term
“musardine” must first have been applied to fast girls frequenting the
Bals Musard, attended at the time by all the “dashing” elements of
Paris. “In English polite society, a fast young lady,” says the _Slang
Dictionary_, “is one who affects mannish habits, or makes herself
conspicuous by some unfeminine accomplishment, talks slang, drives
about in London, smokes cigarettes, is knowing in dogs and horses, &c.”
MUSÉE, _m._ (popular), le ---- des claqués, _the Morgue_.
MUSELÉ, _m._ (popular), _dunce_, or “flat;” _good-for-nothing man_.
Alluding to a muzzled dog who cannot use his teeth.
MUSETTE, _f._ (popular), _voice_. Couper la ---- à quelqu’un, _to
silence one_, “to clap a stopper on one’s mug;” _to cut one’s throat_.
MUSICIEN, _m._ (thieves’), _dictionary_; _variety of informer_, or
“snitcher;” (familiar) ---- par intimidation, _a street melodist who
obtains money from people desirous of getting rid of him_.
J’y ai retrouvé aussi le “musicien par intimidation,”
l’homme à la clarinette, qui s’arrête devant les cafés du
boulevard en faisant mine de porter à ses lèvres le bec de
son instrument. Les consommateurs épouvantés se hâtent de
lui jeter quelque monnaie afin d’éviter l’harmonie.
--=ELIE FRÉBAULT=, _La Vie de Paris_.
It, however, occurs occasionally that people annoyed by the harmonists
of the street have their revenge whilst getting rid of them without
having to pay toll, as in the case of the “musicien par intimidation.”
One day a French artist in London, who every day was almost driven mad
by the performances of a band of green-coated German musicians, hit
upon the following singular stratagem. Placing himself at the window,
and facing his tormentors, he applied a lemon to his lips. The effect
was instantaneous, as through an association of ideas the mouths of
the musicians began to water to such an extent that, unable to proceed
with their symphony, they surrendered the battlefield to the triumphant
artist. (Popular) Des musiciens, _beans_, alluding to the wind they
generate in the bowels. (Printers’) Des musiciens, _large number of
corrections made on the margin of pages_; _unskilled compositors who
are unable to proceed with their work_.
MUSIQUE, _f._ (popular), _second-hand articles_; _odd pieces of cloth
sewn together_; _kind of penny loaf_. Termed also “flûte.” Also _what
remains in a glass_; (thieves’) _informing_; _informers_.
La deuxième classe, que les voleurs désignent sous le nom
de musique, est composée de tous les malfaiteurs qui, après
leur arrestation, se mettent à table (dénoncent).--=CANLER.=
Passer à la ----, _to be placed in the presence of informers for
identification_; (card-sharpers’) _swindling at cards_.
MUSIQUER (card-sharpers’), _to mark a card with the nail_.
MUSSER (popular), _to smell_.
MUTILÉS, _m. pl._ (military), _soldiers of the punishment companies
in Africa, who are sent there as a penalty for purposely maiming
themselves in order to escape military service_.
MYLORD, _m._ (popular), _hackney coach_, “growler.”
N
NAGEANT, or NAGEOIR, _m._ (thieves’), _fish_.
NAGEOIRES, _f. pl._ (popular), _large whiskers in the shape of fins_;
_arms_, or “benders;” _hands_, or “fins.” Un monsieur à ----, _a
prostitute’s bully_, or “pensioner.” For list of synonyms see POISSON.
NAÏF, _m._ (printers’), _employer_, or “boss.” The expression is
scarcely used nowadays.
Le vieux pressier resta seul dans l’imprimerie
dont le maître, autrement dit le “naïf,” venait de
mourir.--=BALZAC.=
NARQUOIS, or DRILLE, _m._ (old cant), formerly _a thievish or vagrant
old soldier_.
Drilles ou narquois sont des soldats qui truchent la
flamme sous le bras, et battent en ruine les entiffes et
tous les creux des vergnes ... ils ont fait banqueroute
au grand coëre et ne veulent pas être ses sujets ni le
reconnaître.--_Le Jargon de l’Argot._
Parler ---- formerly had the signification of _to talk the jargon of
vagabonds_.
NASE, _m._ (popular), _nose_.
NASER QUELQU’UN (popular), is equivalent to “avoir quelqu’un dans le
nez,” _to have a strong dislike for one_, _to abominate one_.
NAVARIN, _m._ (thieves’), _turnip_; (popular) _scraps of meat from
butchers’ stalls retailed at a low price to poor people_.
NAVET, _m._ (familiar), _hypocrite with bland polished manners_, a kind
of Mr. Pecksniff; _fool_, _dunce_, or “flat.” Le champ de navets, _the
cemetery_.
Je ne sais pas seulement à quel endroit du champ de navets
on a enterré le pauvre vieux, j’étais au dépôt.
--=LOUISE MICHEL.=
(Familiar and popular) Avoir du jus de ---- dans les veines, _to be
lacking in energy_, _to be a_ “sappy.” Des navets! _an ejaculation of
refusal_.