Gold Hat-band, subs. (old University).—A nobleman undergraduate; a tuft
(q.v.).
1628. Earle, Microcosmography. His companion is ordinarily some
stale fellow that has been notorious for an ingle to gold hatbands,
whom hee admires at first, afterwards scornes.
1889. Gentleman’s Mag., June, p. 598. Noblemen at the universities,
since known as ‘tufts,’ because of the gold tuft or tassle to their
cap, were then known as gold hatbands.
Goldie-locks, subs. (old).—A flaxen-haired woman. Goldy-locked = golden
haired.
1598. Florio, Worlde of Wordes. Biondella ... a golden-lockt wench,
as we say a goldilocks.
1605. Ben Jonson, The Fox, i., 1. Thence it fled forth, and made
quick transmigration to goldy-locked Euphorbus.
Gold Mine, subs. phr. (common).—A profitable investment; a store of
wealth, material or intellectual.
1664. H. Peacham, Worth of a Penny, in Arber’s Garner, vol. VI., p.
249. Some men ... when they have met with a gold mine, so brood
over and watch it, day and night, that it is impossible for Charity
to be regarded, Virtue rewarded, or Necessity relieved.
1830 Tennyson, Dream of Fair Women, p. 274. Gold-mines of
thought—to lift the hidden ore.
1882. Thormanby, Famous Racing Men, p. 81. Mendicant ... ran
nowhere in the Cup ... in reality she was destined to prove a gold
mine, for ten years afterwards she brought her owner £80,000
through her famous son, Beadsman.
1883. Sat. Review, 28 Apr. 533/2. His victory proved a gold mine to
the professional bookmakers.
1887. Froude, Eng. in West Indies, ch. v. Every one was at law with
his neighbour, and the island was a gold mine to the
Attorney-General.
Golgotha, subs. (old).—1. The Dons’ gallery at Cambridge; also applied
to a certain part of the theatre at Oxford. [That is, ‘the place of
skulls’: Cf., Luke xxiii. 33, and Matthew xxvii. 33, whence the pun:
Dons being the heads of houses.]
1730. Jas. Miller, Humours of Oxford, Act ii., p. 23 (2nd ed.).
Sirrah, I’ll have you put in the black-book,
rusticated,—expelled—I’ll have you coram nobis at Golgotha, where
you’ll be bedevilled, Muck-worm, you will.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1791. G. Huddesford, Salmagundi, (Note on, p. 150). Golgotha, ‘The
place of a Scull,’ a name ludicrously affixed to the Place in which
the Heads of Colleges assemble.
1808. J. T. Conybeare in C. K. Sharpe’s Correspondence (1888), i.,
324. The subject then, of the ensuing section is Oxford News ... we
will begin by golgotha ... Cole has already obtained the Headship
of Exeter, and Mr. Griffiths ... is to have that of University.