students; occasionally Latinized into “dimidium dimidiumque.” Cooper is
HALF-AND-HALF, made of stout and porter. The term of HALF-AND-HALF is
also applied to the issue of marriages between gipsies and “white
people.”
~Half-a-stretch~, six months in prison.
~Half-a-tusheroon~, half-a-crown.
~Half-baked~, soft, doughy, half-witted, silly. HALF-ROCKED has a
similar meaning.
~Half-foolish~, ridiculous; means often wholly foolish.
~Half Jack.~ _See_ JACKS.
~Half-mourning~, to have a black eye from a blow. As distinguished from
“whole-mourning,” two black eyes.
~Half-rocked~, silly, half-witted. Derived from a vulgar idea that in
the Westcountry children are nursed in a peculiar manner, which in
afterlife affects their wits. They are said to be nursed bottom upwards,
so as to sleep without much rocking. If this is inconsequent it is the
fault of the saying and not of the dictionary. Compare HALF-BAKED.
~Half-seas-over~, reeling drunk.—_Sea._ Used by Swift.
~Hall~, THE, Leadenhall Market, among folk who get their livings there,
in the same way as “The Garden” refers to Covent Garden.
~Hand~, a workman or helper, a person. “A cool HAND,” explained by Sir
Thomas Overbury to be “one who accounts bashfulness the wickedest thing
in the world, and therefore studies impudence.”
~Hander~, a second, or assistant. At some schools blows on the hand
administered with a cane are so called.
~Handicap~, an arrangement by which, in any description of sport, every
competitor in a race is supposed to have a chance of winning equal to
the chances of his opponents. HANDICAPPING, in horse-racing signifies
the adjudgment of various weights to horses differing in age, power, and
speed, so as to place them as much as possible on an equality. At other
sports this equalization is managed by means of starts.
The old game of HANDICAP (hand i’ the cap) is a very different affair;
and, as it is now almost obsolete, being only played by gentlemen in
Ireland, after hunting and racing dinners, when the wine has circulated
pretty freely, merits a description here. It is played by three persons,
in the following manner:—A wishes to obtain some article belonging to
B, say a horse; and offers to “challenge” his watch against it. B
agrees; and C is chosen as HANDICAPPER to “make the award”—that is, to
name the sum of money that the owner of the article of lesser value
shall give with it, in exchange for the more valuable one. The three
parties, A, B, and C, put down a certain stake each, and then the
HANDICAPPER makes his award. If A and B are both satisfied with the
award, the exchange is made between the horse and watch, and the
HANDICAPPER wins, and takes up the stakes. Or if neither be satisfied
with the award, the HANDICAPPER takes the stakes; but if A be satisfied
and B not, or _vice versâ_, the party who declares himself satisfied
gets the stakes. It is consequently the object of the HANDICAPPER to
make such award as will cause the challenger and challenged to be of the
same mind; and considerable ingenuity is required and exhibited on his
part. The challenge having been made, as stated, between A’s watch and
B’s horse, each party puts his HAND into a CAP or hat [or into his
pocket] while C makes the award, which he purposely does in as rapid and
complex a manner as possible. Thus, after humorously exaggerating the
various excellences of the articles, he may say—“The owner of the
superior gold lever watch shall give to the owner of the beautiful
thoroughbred bay horse, called Flyaway, the watch and fifteen
half-crowns, seven crowns, eighteen half-guineas, one hundred and forty
groats, thirteen sovereigns, fifty-nine pence, seventeen shillings and
sixty-three farthings. Draw, gentlemen!” A and B must instantly then
draw out and open their hands. If money appears in both, they are
agreed, and the award stands good; if money be in neither hand, they are
also agreed, but the award is rejected. If money be only in one hand,
they are not agreed, the award is off, and the stakes go as already
stated. Very frequently, neither A nor B is sufficiently quick in his
mental calculation to follow the HANDICAPPER, and not knowing on the
instant the total of the various sums in the award, prefers being “off,”
and, therefore, “draws” no money. As in this event the HANDICAPPER gets
the stakes, the reason for the complex nature of his award is obvious.
When HANDICAPPING has once commenced in a convivial party, it is
considered unsportsmanlike to refuse a challenge. So when the small
hours draw on, and the fun becomes fast and furious, coats, boots,
waistcoats, even shirts are challenged, HANDICAPPED, and exchanged,
amidst an almost indescribable scene of good humoured joviality and
stentorian laughter. This is the true HANDICAP. The application of the
term to horse-racing has arisen from one or more persons being chosen to
make the award between persons, who put down equal sums of money, on
entering horses unequal in power and speed for the same race. So that
the HANDICAP has ultimately come to be regarded as an arrangement of a
purely business-like nature, by which means affairs, no matter how much
they may differ in degree, may be arranged satisfactorily by all
parties. The use of the word is spreading rapidly, and it has already a
sense beyond that of mere sporting.
~Handicap~, to make even, as a Roland for an Oliver. Not long since in a
pedestrian enclosure, a pugilist who had been specially retained on one
side struck a member of the other party, who not being a fighting-man
received the blow with apparent contentment. The injured person had,
however, determined on being revenged, and about an hour afterwards he
knocked the professional down with a big stick, using the words at the
same time, “that HANDICAPS us” (that makes us even). The word is often
used thus also: A man finding himself inferior to another at fisticuffs
will, seizing a weapon, exclaim, “I’ll HANDICAP you,” _i.e._, I’ll bring
you to my level (or “level myself up”) with this.
~Handle~, a nose; the title appended to a person’s name; also a term in
boxing, “to HANDLE one’s fists,” to use them against an adversary.
~Handling~, a method of concealing certain cards in the palm of the
hand, or in fashionable long wristbands; one of the many modes of
cheating practised by sharpers.
~Hand-me-downs~, second-hand clothes. _See_ REACH-ME-DOWNS.
~Hand-saw~, or CHIVE FENCER, a man who sells razors and knives in the
streets.
~Handseller~, or CHEAP JACK, a street or open-air seller, a man who
carries goods to his customers, instead of waiting for his customers to
visit him.
~Hanging~, in difficulties. A man who is in great straits, and who is,
therefore, prepared to do anything desperate to retrieve his fortunes,
is said, among sporting men, to be “a man HANGING,” _i.e._, a man to
whom any change must be for the better.
~Hangman’s wages~, thirteenpence halfpenny.—_Old. 17th century._
“’Sfoot, what a witty rogue was this to leave this fair
thirteenpence halfpenny, and this old halter,” intimating aptly—
“Had the hangman met us there, by these presages
Here had been his work, and here his wages.”
_Match at Midnight._
The clothes of the culprit were also the hangman’s wages. See one of
Lord Bacon’s aphorisms, beginning “A cursed page.”
~Hang out~, to reside,—in allusion to the ancient custom of hanging out
signs.
~Hang up~, to rob with violence, to garrotte. Most likely from
throttling associations in connexion with the practice of garrotting.
~Hannah~, “that’s the man as married HANNAH,” a Salopian phrase to
express a matter begun or ended satisfactorily. Meaning actually,
“that’s the thing.”
~Hansel~, or HANDSEL, the lucky money, or first money taken in the
morning by a pedlar.—_Cocker’s Dictionary_, 1724. “Legs of mutton
(street term for sheep’s trotters, or feet) two for a penny; who’ll give
me a HANSEL? who’ll give me a HANSEL?” Hence, earnest money,
first-fruits, &c. In Norfolk, HANSELLING a thing is using it for the
first time, as wearing a new coat, taking seisin of it, as it were.
Danish, HANDSEL; _Anglo-Saxon_, HANDSELEN.
~Ha’porth o’ coppers~, Habeas Corpus.—_Legal slang._
~Ha’porth o’ liveliness~, the music at a low concert, or theatre. Also a
dilatory person.
~Happy-go-lucky~, careless, indifferent as to the favours or reverses of
fortune.
~Haramzadeh~, a very general Indian term of contempt, signifying
base-born.—_Anglo-Indian._
~Hard lines~, hardship, difficulty. Soldiers’ term for hard duty on the
lines in front of the enemy. LINES was formerly synonymous with _Lot_,
_see_ Ps. xvi. 6.—_Bible version_—“The LINES are fallen unto me in
pleasant places;” _Prayer-Book do._—“The LOT is fallen unto me in a
fair ground.”
~Hard mouthed un~, any one difficult to deal with, a sharp bargainer, an
obstinate person. Derivation obvious.
~Hard tack~, ship biscuits. This is a term used by sailors to
distinguish their ordinary sea-bread from that obtained on shore, which
is called soft TACK, or soft tommy. HARD TACK is also a phrase used by
the London lower classes to signify coarse or insufficient food.
~Hard-up~, a cigar-end finder, who collects the refuse pieces of smoked
cigars from the gutter, and having dried them, smokes them, or sells
them as tobacco to the very poor. _See_ TOPPER.
~Hard-up~, in distress, poverty-stricken.—_Sea._
~Hardy~, a stone.—_North._
~Harebrained~, reckless, unthinking.
~Harry~, or OLD HARRY, (_i.e._, Old Hairy?) the Devil; “to play OLD
HARRY with one,” _i.e._, ruin or annoy him.
~Harry-soph~, (ἐρίσοφος, very wise indeed), a student of law or physic
at Cambridge who, being of the same standing as the students in arts in
his year, is allowed to wear a full-sleeved gown when they assume their
B.A. gowns, though he does not obtain his actual degree so soon. An
undergraduate in his last year is a Senior Soph, in his last term a
Questionist.
~Harum-scarum~, wild, dissipated, reckless; four horses driven in a
line. This is also called SUICIDE. _See_ TANDEM, RANDEM, UNICORN, &c.
~Hash~, a mess, confusion; “a pretty HASH he made of it;” to HASH UP, to
jumble together without order or regularity. The term also occurs in the
phrase “to settle his HASH,” which is equivalent to “give him his
gruel,” or “cook his goose,” _i.e._, to kill him.
~Hatchet~, “to throw the HATCHET,” to tell lies. Same as “to draw the
long bow.”
~Hatchet~, “to sling the HATCHET,” to skulk.—_Sea._
~Hawbuck~, a vulgar, ignorant, country fellow, but one remove from the
clodpole.
~Hawse holes~, the apertures in a ship’s bows through which the cables
pass; “he has crept in through the HAWSE-HOLES,” said of an officer who
has risen from the grade of an ordinary seaman, whose original position
in the vessel was forward—before the mast.—_Navy._
~Hay bag~, a woman.
~Haymarket Hectors~, bullies who, in the interest of prostitutes, affect
the neighbourhood of Leicester Square and the Haymarket.
~Haze~, to confuse and annoy a subordinate by contradictory,
unnecessary, and perplexing orders.
~Hazy~, intoxicated, also dull and stupid.
~Head-beetler~, the bully of the workshop, who lords it over his
fellow-workmen by reason of superior strength, skill in fighting, &c.
Sometimes applied to the foreman.
~Header~, a plunge head foremost into water, or a fall in the same
posture from accident. Nowadays a theatrical expression for any
supposedly daring jump of hero or heroine in sensational dramas.
~Head or tail~, “I can’t make HEAD OR TAIL of it,” _i.e._, cannot make
it out. Originally a gambling phrase.
~Head-rails~, the teeth.—_Sea._
~Head-serag~, a master, overseer, or other important personage; from
SERANG, a boatswain.—_Bengalee_, and _Sea_.
~Heap~, “a HEAP of people,” a crowd; “struck all of a HEAP,” suddenly
astonished.
~Heat~, a bout, or turn, in horse or foot racing. By means of heats the
field is gradually reduced.
~Heavy dragoons~, bugs, in contradistinction from fleas, which are
“light infantry.”—_Oxford University._
~Heavy wet~, malt liquor—because the more a man drinks of it, the
heavier and more stupid he becomes.
~Hedge~, to get away from any dangerous spot. “We saw the slop coming,
and HEDGED at once.”
~Hedge~, to secure oneself from loss over one bet by making others.
HEDGING, as a system of betting, is entirely dependent upon what happens
in the market after a horse has been backed. From information, or good
judgment, a backer selects, say, three horses, A, B, and C, whom he
thinks likely to advance in the betting, and takes 50 to 1—say £1000 to
£20—against each of them. As the race-day approaches the horse A may
fall out of the betting, from accident or other cause, and have to be
written off as a dead loss of £20. But the other two horses, as
anticipated, improve in public favour, and the backer, who now becomes a
HEDGER, succeeds in laying 5 to 1—say £500 to £100—against B, and 2 to
1—say 500 to £250—against C. The account then stands thus:—A is a
certain loss of £20; but if B wins, the HEDGER will receive £1000 and
pay £500; balance in favour, £500. If B loses, the HEDGER will receive
£100 and pay £20; balance in favour, £80. If C wins, the hedger will
receive £1000 and pay £500; balance in favour, £500. If C loses, the
HEDGER will receive £250 and pay £20; balance in favour, £230.
Deducting, then, the loss of £20 on A, the HEDGER’S winnings will be
considerable; and he cannot lose, providing his information or judgment
lead to the required result. It must be borne in mind that very often a
man who feels inclined to go in for a HEDGING speculation, may back half
a dozen horses, not one of which sees a short price or goes to the post;
besides which it must never be forgotten, that, however well turf
speculations may look on paper, they are subject to the contingency of
the bets being honourably paid on settling-day—the Monday after a
race—when unfortunately there are often more “receivers” than “payers”
at the clubs. However, turf transactions are among professionals
conducted at least as honourably as are any other business matters; and
it is only the fledgling swell, to whom the Legislature gives special
opportunities of losing his money, who is generally _non est_ when
paytime comes. “The Druid” in _Post and Paddock_ has remarked:—
“The term HEDGING has been quite superseded by “laying off;” and we
had, in fact, quite forgotten it till we saw it stated in the papers
lately, by a clergyman, who did not answer a question on doctrine as
the Bishop of Exeter exactly liked, that his lordship addressed him
to this effect: ‘You are HEDGING, sir; you are HEDGING!’”
Usually correct as “The Druid” was, he seems to have fallen into an
error here, as HEDGING, and “laying off,” have been exchangeable terms,
as far as the oldest turfite can say. It should be remembered that
HEDGING is generally done with the man who has originally laid the odds;
for as a natural consequence, when the backer finds it convenient to
hedge, the layer finds it equally so to back the horse back,—the first
loss being considered always the best by bookmakers who _are_
bookmakers. Besides which, the layer has generally a lot of “dead
money”—money to the good over horses he has laid against, which have
since been struck out—and this he profitably expends in backing certain
horses back for the purpose of levelling up the book.
~Hedge-popping~, shooting small birds about the hedges, as boys do;
unsportsmanlike kind of shooting.
~Heel-tap~, the small quantity of wine or other beverage left in the
bottom of a glass, considered as a sign that the liquor is not liked,
and therefore unfriendly and unsocial to the host and the company. _See_
DAY-LIGHT.
~Heigh-ho!~ a cant term for stolen yarn, from the expression used to
apprize the dishonest shopkeeper that the speaker had stolen yarn to
sell.—_Norwich Cant._
~Hell~, a fashionable gambling-house. Small places of this kind are
called “silver hells.” Reason obvious.
~Hell and Tommy~, utter destruction.
~Helter-skelter~, anyhow, without regard to order or precedence.
~Hempen cravat~, the hangman’s noose.
~Hen and Chickens~, large and small pewter pots.
~Hen-pecked~, said of one whose wife “wears the breeches.” From the
action of the hen in paired cage-birds.
~Herring-pond~, the sea; “to be sent across the HERRING-POND,” to be
transported.
~Hiding~, a thrashing. Webster gives this word, but not its root, HIDE,
to beat, to flay by whipping. Most likely from the part attacked. The
threat of thrashing is sometimes conveyed thus:—“I’ll tan (or dress)
your HIDE.”
~Higgledy-piggledy~, confusedly, all together,—as pigs lie.
~High and dry~, an epithet applied to the _soi-disant_ “orthodox” clergy
of the last century, for whom, while ill-paid curates did the work, the
comforts of the Establishment were its greatest charms.
“Wherein are various ranks, and due degrees,
The Bench for honour, and the Stall for ease.”
Though often confounded with, they are utterly dissimilar to, the modern
High Church or Anglo-Catholic party, who now receive the title at times;
while their opponents receive the corresponding appellation of “Low and
Slow,” and the so-called “Broad Church” is defined with equal felicity as
the “Broad and Shallow.” Humourists have divided these three portions of
one Church into Attitudinarians, Platitudinarians, and Latitudinarians.
~High Church~, term used in contradistinction from “Low Church.”
~Highfalutin’~, showy, affected, tinselled, affecting certain pompous or
fashionable airs, stuck up; “come, none of yer HIGHFALUTIN’ games,”
_i.e._, you must not show off or imitate the swell here.—_American_
slang, now common in Liverpool and the East-end of London. From the
_Dutch_, VERLOOTEN. Used generally now in the sense of fustian,
high-sounding, unmeaning eloquence, bombast.
~High-flier~, anything above the common order. Apt students, fast
coaches, and special trains are sufficient instances of the extreme
openness of the qualification.
~High-fly~, “ON THE HIGH-FLY,” on the genteel or letter-bearing begging
system.
~High-flyer~, a genteel beggar or swindler. A begging-letter impostor.
~High-flyer~, a large swing, in frames, at fairs and races. The first
fast coaches were called high-flyers on account of their desperate
speed.
~High jinks~, “ON THE HIGH JINKS,” taking up an arrogant position,
assuming an undue superiority. Scott explains this game in _Guy
Mannering_. Nowadays HIGH JINKS is often used to mean a jollification.
~High-lows~, laced boots reaching a trifle higher than ankle-jacks.
~High-strikes~, corruption of _Hysterics_.
~Hipped~, bored, offended, crossed, low-spirited, &c. This may have been
originally hypped, and have had some connexion with hypochondriacal
affections.
~Hitched~, an Americanism for married. From the word HITCH, used in
America in the sense of to harness.
~Hittite~, a facetious sporting term for a prize-fighter. Derived from
the Bible.
~Hivite~, a student of St. Begh’s College, Cumberland, which is
pronounced and generally written St. Bee’s. Literally, Hive-ite.
~Hoax~, to deceive, or ridicule,—Grose says this was originally a
University cant word. Corruption of HOCUS, to cheat.
~Hob and nob~, to act in concert with another; to lay “heads together;”
to touch glasses in drinking; to fraternize in a convivial meeting or
merry-making. Originally meaning “foot and head,”—the touching of the
top of one glass with the bottom of another, and then reversing the
order. Nowadays it means simply to clink glasses together as a
salutation before imbibing.
~Hobbadehoy~, a youth who has ceased to regard himself as a boy, and is
not yet regarded as a man.
~Hobble~, trouble of any kind. A man is said to be in a HOBBLE when he
has offended the proprieties in any way, “from pitch and toss to
manslaughter.”
~Hobbled~, committed for trial; properly said of animals fed by the
wayside, with their forelegs fastened together. Hence people who gather
burdens about them are said to get into HOBBLES.
~Hob Collingwood~, according to Brockett, a north country term for the
four of hearts, considered an unlucky card.
~Hobson’s choice~, “this or none.” Hobson was a carrier at Cambridge,
and also a letter-out of horses for hire; and is said to have always
compelled his customers to take the horse that stood in the stall next
the stable-door or none at all. He was a benefactor to the town, and
Hobson’s Conduit still stands as a memorial of him.
~Hock-dockies~, shoes.
~Hocks~, the feet and ankles; CURBY HOCKS, round or clumsy feet and
ankles. Term originating with horsey men.
~Hocus~, to drug a person for purposes of robbery. The potion generally
consists of snuff and beer among rogues of the lowest class, and is by
them called “snuffing a bloke;” or sometimes, when the drug is
administered to a woman for purposes other than those of robbery,
“snuffing a blowen.”
~Hocus pocus~, gipsy words of magic, similar to the modern “presto fly.”
The gipsies pronounce “_Habeas Corpus_,” HAWCUS PACCUS (_see_ Crabb’s
_Gipsies’ Advocate_, p. 18); can this have anything to do with the
origin of HOCUS POCUS? Turner gives OCHUS BOCHUS, an old demon. Pegge,
however, states that it is a burlesque rendering of the words of the
Roman Catholic Church service at the delivery of the host, HOC EST
CORPUS, which the early Protestants considered as a species of
conjuring, and ridiculed accordingly.
~Hodge~, a countryman or provincial clown. Most country districts in
England have one or more families in the name of HODGE; indeed, GILES
and HODGE appear to be the favourite hobnail nomenclature. HODGE is said
to be simply an abbreviation of Roger.
~Hog~, a shilling.—_Old Cant._
~Hog~, “to go the whole HOG;” “the whole HOG or none,” to do anything
with a person’s entire strength, not “by halves;” realized by the phrase
“in for a penny in for a pound.” Bartlett claims this to be a pure
American phrase; whilst Ker, of course, gives it a Dutch origin.—_Old._
“To go the whole HOG” is frequently altered by those people who believe
there is wit in circumlocution, into “the entire animal,” or “the
complete swine!”
~Hoga~, do. “That wont HOGA,” _i.e._, that wont do, is one of the very
commonest of the Anglo-Indian slang phrases.
~Hogmagundy~, the process by which the population is increased.
“There’s many a job that day begun
That ends in Hogmagundy.”—_Burns._
~Hogmany night~, New Year’s Eve, when presents are solicited by the
young folk.—_Scotch._
~Hogo~, a tremendous stench. From _haut goût_. Now often pronounced
FOGO.
~Hoisting~, shoplifting.
~Hold hard~, an exclamation made when a sudden stoppage is desired.
Originally an expression used in riding or driving, now general.
~Hollow~, “to beat HOLLOW,” to excel.
~Holy Joe~, a sea-term for a parson.
~Holy Land~, a very old term for the Seven Dials,—where St. Giles’s
Greek is spoken.
~Homo~, a man. _Lingua Franca_; but _see_ OMEE, the more usual Cockney
pronunciation.
~Hondey~, a Manchester name for an omnibus, and the abbreviation of
HONDEYBUSH, the original Lancashire pronunciation of the word.
~Honest Shilling~, a shilling earned by a process actually immoral, but
not positively illegal. The money earned by a prostitute is said to be
honest, as distinguished from that obtained by a thief. Probably from
the story of the converted burglar, who determined to sin no more
himself, and who lectured against dishonesty, but sent his wife out
regularly every evening with instructions to earn an HONEST SHILLING.
~Honey blobs~, a Scotch term for large ripe, yellow gooseberries.
~Honour bright~, an asseveration which means literally, “by my honour,
which is bright and unsullied.” It is often still further curtailed to
“HONOUR!” only.
~Hook~, an expression at Oxford, implying doubt, either connected with
Hookey Walker, or with a note of interrogation (?) “Yes, with a HOOK at
the end of it!” _i.e._, with some reservation, generally that of doubt,
by the speaker.
~Hook~, to steal or rob. _See_ the following.