Acause, conj. (vulgar).—A corruption of ‘because.’
Accommodation House, subs. (popular).—A brothel. Also frequently
applied to what in police court phraseology are known as disorderly
houses, i.e., houses where rooms can be hired for shorter or longer
periods as desired.—See Bed house.
According to Cocker.—See Cocker.
According to the Revised Statutes.—See Revised statutes.
Account. To go on the account, verb. phr. (old nautical).—To join in a
fillibustering or buccaneering expedition; to turn pirate. Ogilvie
says, probably from the parties sharing, as in a commercial venture.
1812. Scott, Letter to a Friend. I hope it is no new thing for
gentlemen of fortune who are going on the account to change a
captain now and then.
To account for (sporting).—To kill; literally to be answerable for
bringing down one’s share of the shooting; to make away with.
1846–48. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, ch. xx. The persecuted animals
[rats] bolted above ground: the terrier accounted for one, the
keeper for another.
1858. Letter from Lahore, 28 September, in Times, 19 November. In
the course of one week they were hunted up and accounted for; and
you know that in Punjab phraseology accounting for means the
extreme fate due to mutineers. [M.]
Accounts. To cast up one’s accounts, verb. phr. (old cant).—To vomit.
Still common; quoted by Grose [1785]. The expression sometimes runs,
amongst seafaring men, to audit one’s accounts at the Court of Neptune.
Eng. Synonyms. To shoot the cat; to cat.
French Synonyms. Semer des miettes (lit. to sow or scatter crumbs);
piquer le renard (lit. to goad the fox). Cf. ‘to shoot the cat.’ The
old French phrase was chasser or escorcher le renard, either because,
says Cotgrave, ‘in spueing one makes a noise like a fox that barks, or
because the flaying of so unsavory an animal will make any man spue’;
renverser (lit. to overturn, to upset); faire restitution (lit. to make
amends; to restore); revoir la carte (lit. to look at the bill of fare
again).
(Thieves’).—To turn Queen’s evidence.
Accumulatives, subs. (American).—These journalistic sparring matches
are essentially a ‘Yankee notion.’ In England they are called codicils
(q.v.), under which see an amusing example which will illustrate their
character, as also the length to which American editors sometimes go in
heaping Ossa upon Pelion.
Accumulator, subs. (racing).—A bettor, who when successful with one
horse, carries forward the stakes to another event.
Ace of Spades, subs. phr. (old).—A widow. Though obsolete in England,
it is quoted by the New York Slang Dictionary (1881) as still current
in America.
Ack, intj. (Christ’s Hospital).—No! refusal of a request, e.g., ‘Lend
me your book.’ ‘Ack!’
Ackman, Ackpirate (old), Or Ackruff (American), subs.—A freshwater
thief; a ruffian who in conjunction with watermen robs and sometimes
murders on the water. [Ack (unknown derivation, unless a corrupted form
of ark, a boat; or wherry) + man, etc.] Quoted by Grose [1785], and
also by Clark Russell, in Sailor’s Language [1883].
Acknowledge the Corn, verb. phr. (American).—To make an admission of
failure; to admit being outwitted. The various stories professing to
account for derivation are discussed in detail in Americanisms, Old and
New: the most circumstantial and certainly the best authenticated, runs
as follows:—In 1828, the Hon. Andrew Stewart was in Congress discussing
the principle of ‘Protection,’ and said in the course of his remarks,
that Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky sent their haystacks, cornfields, and
fodder to New York and Philadelphia for sale. The Hon. Charles A.
Wickliffe, from Kentucky, jumped up and said, ‘Why that is absurd; Mr.
Speaker, I call the gentleman to order. He is stating an absurdity. We
never send haystacks or cornfields to New York or Philadelphia.’ ‘Well,
what do you send?’ ‘Why, horses, mules, cattle, hogs.’ ‘Well, what
makes your horses, mules, cattle, hogs? You feed a hundred dollars’
worth of hay to a horse, you just animate and get upon the top of your
haystack and ride off to market. How is it with your cattle? You make
one of them carry fifty dollars’ worth of hay and grass to the Eastern
market. Mr. Wickliffe, you send a hog worth ten dollars to an Eastern
market; how much corn does it take at thirty-three cents per bushel to
fatten it?’ ‘Why, thirty bushels!’ ‘Then you put that thirty bushels of
corn into the shape of a hog, and make it walk off to the Eastern
market.’ Mr. Wickliffe jumped up and said: ‘Mr. Speaker, I acknowledge
the corn.’ [De Vere’s Americanisms [1872] p. 47.] Latterly the
expression has been used in England in the sense of simply to make an
admission.
1860. Haliburton (Sam Slick), The Season Ticket, No. 9. ‘He had a
beard that wouldn’t acknowledge the corn to no man’s.’
1865. Bacon, Handbook of America, p. 361. Acknowledge the corn, to
confess a charge or imputation.
1883. G. A. Sala, Living London, p. 97. Mr. Porter acknowledges the
corn as regards his fourteen days’ imprisonment, and is forgiven by
his loving consort.
Acorn. A horse foaled of an acorn, subs. phr. (old).—The gallows.
Euphemisms for hanging, the ‘tree’ itself, and the victim of the law’s
majesty were, at the time when the death penalty was a common
punishment, both many and curious. A horse foaled of an acorn, is
obviously an allusion to the timber of which the triple tree (q.v.) was
constructed. The widows of those who had suffered the extreme penalty
of the law were termed hempen widows (q.v.); the children of such, or
those likely to meet with death by hanging, hempseed (q.v.); and hempen
fever (q.v.) represented the dread malady itself.
1760–61. Smollett, Sir L. Greaves, ch. viii. I believe as how ’tis
no horse, but a devil incarnate; and yet I’ve been worse mounted,
that I have—I’d like to have rid a horse that was foaled of an
acorn (i.e., he had nearly met with the fate of Absalom).
1827. Lytton, Pelham, ch. lxxxii. ‘The cove ... is as pretty a
Tyburn blossom as ever was brought up to ride a horse foaled by an
acorn.’
1839. Harrison Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard [1889], p. 8. Tom Sheppard
was always a close file, and would never tell whom he married. Of
this I’m certain, however, she was much too good for him.... As to
this little fellow ... he shall never mount a horse foaled by an
acorn, if I can help it.
Acquaintance. To scrape acquaintance, verb. phr. (common).—To make
acquaintance. Probably from ‘bowing and scraping’ to a person, in order
to curry favor.
1698. Farquhar, Love and a Bottle [ed. 1711], p. 5, Lucinda. Pray
good Cæsar, keep off your paws; no scraping acquaintance for
Heaven’s sake.
This phrase has a classical origin, an account of which from the pen of
Dr. Doran, F.S.A., appears in the Gentleman’s Magazine [N.S. xxxix.
230] in an article on ‘The Masters of the Roman World during the
Happiest Years of the Human Race.’
There is an anecdote connected with Hadrian and the custom of
bathing, from which is derived the proverbial saying of scraping an
acquaintance. The Emperor, entering a bath, saw an old soldier
scraping himself with a tile. He recognised the man as a former
comrade—his memory on such points never failed him—and, pitying his
condition that he had nothing better than a tile for a flesh-brush,
he ordered the veteran to be presented with a considerable sum of
money, and a costly set of bathing garments. Thereupon all the old
soldiers of the Imperial Army became as anxious to claim fellowship
with the Emperor as the Kirkpatricks of Great Britain and Ireland
are proudly eager to establish kinship with the Empress of the
French. As Hadrian entered the bath the day after that on which he
had rewarded his former comrade, he observed dozens of old soldiers
scraping themselves with tiles. He understood the intent, but
wittily evaded it. ‘Scrape one another, gentlemen,’ said he, ‘you
will not scrape acquaintance with me!’
Acquisitive, subs. (American).—Plunder; booty; pickings. A noun formed
from the adjective.
Acreocracy, subs. (common).—The landed interest. Possibly of American
coinage [of simulated Greek formation, from English acre + Greek
κρατέω, to hold sway or to govern]. Compare with democracy, mobocracy,
aristocracy, etc.
1878. Hallberger’s Illustrated Magazine, p. 622. The introduction
of a plutocracy among the aristocracy and the acreocracy though it
has tended somewhat to vulgarize our social institutions, etc.
Acres, subs. (theatrical).—A coward. From Bob Acres, in Sheridan’s
Rivals [1775]; here the character part is of a blusterer, one who talks
big, but when put to the push, to use his own words, ‘his courage
always oozed out of his finger ends.’ Cf., Abigail for a waiting maid;
Samson for a strong man; Job for a monument of patience, and others.
Across Lots. To go across lots, verb. phr.—To proceed by the shortest
route; similarly to do anything in the most expeditious manner. The
phrase had its rise in the natural tendency of settlers, in
thinly-populated districts, to shorten the distance from point to point
by leaving the road and striking across vacant lots. Brigham Young
familiarized its idiomatic use in the now notoriously historic saying
attributed to that ‘Saint,’—‘We’ll send them (the Gentiles) to hell
across lots.’
1848. Lowell, Biglow Papers.
Past noontime they went trampin’ round
An’ nary thing to pop at found,
Till, fairly tired o’ their spree,
They leaned their guns agin a tree,
An’ jest ez they wuz settin’ down
To take their noonin’, Joe looked roun’
And see (acrost lots in a pond
That warn’t mor’n twenty rod beyond),
A goose that on the water sot
Ez ef awaitin’ to be shot.
1854. J. C. Neal, Charcoal Sketches, i., p. 35 [to a
grumbler]:—‘You would cut across the lot, like a streak of
lightning, if you had a chance.’
1887. Scribner’s Magazine. ‘I didn’t see Crossby go by, did you?’
‘He’d have had to foot it by the path cross-lots, replied Ezra,
gravely, from the doorstep.’
Acteon, subs. (old).—A cuckold; from the horns planted on the head of
Acteon by Diana.
Acting the Deceitful, verb. phr. (old theatrical).—Performing; mumming;
acting.—Duncombe.
Active Citizen, subs. (popular).—A louse. For synonyms, see Chates.
Act of Parliament, subs. (old).—A military term for small beer, five
pints of which, by an Act of Parliament, a landlord was formerly
obliged to give gratis to each soldier billetted upon him. For
synonyms, see Cold blood.
Actual. The actual, subs. (popular).—Money, when spoken of
collectively. The fact of the existence of innumerable synonyms for the
‘modern staff of life’ goes far to bear out the latter-day contention
that it is not the ‘evil’ itself [‘money is the root of all evil’—Old
Saw] but the lack of it that is to be deplored. The central idea
enshrined in many of these terms will well repay comparative study, a
vein of subtle, and sometimes grim humor and pathos running through not
a few of them. This applies equally to English slang, and to the
French, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese argots. Compare for example
the English ‘feathers’ with the Spanish amigos (friends), the Italian
agresto (sour grapes), and the French du foin (hay), or de l’os (bone),
and obviously many a new side-light upon national habits and modes of
thought may be obtained therefrom. The English and French, the two
nations whose slang vocabularies are by far the most copious extant,
have respectively upwards of 130 and 50 synonymous terms for money. The
generic names are as follows:—
Eng. Synonyms. Ballast; beans; blunt (i.e., specie,—not soft, or rags,
i.e., bank-notes); brads; brass; bustle; coal; coppers (copper money,
or mixed pence); chink; chinkers; chips; corks; dibs; dimmock; dinarly;
dirt; dooteroomus (or doot); dumps; dust; dye stuffs; feathers; family
plate (silver); dollars; gent (silver,—from argent); gilt; haddock (a
purse of money); hard stuff (or hard); horse nails; huckster; John;
John Davis; loaver; lour (the oldest cant term for money); mopusses;
muck; needful; nothings (money collected in a hat by
street-performers); ochre (gold); oof; ooftish; pewter; palm oil;
pieces; posh; queen’s pictures; quids; rags (bank-notes); ready; ready
gilt; ready John; redge (gold); rhino; rowdy; shadscales (or scales);
shot; shekels; sinews of war; shiners (sovereigns); shin plasters (or
plasters); skin (a purse of money); Spanish; spondulics; stamps; stiff
(cheques, or bills of acceptance); stuff; stumpy; tin (silver); tow;
wad; wedge (silver); wherewith; and yellow-boys (sovereigns). In the
17th century money was often called ‘shells’—is this the origin of ‘to
shell out’?—and ‘Oil of Angels’ (q.v.).
French Argot. De l’artiche (thieves’: retirer de l’artiche, is to pick
the pockets of a drunkard); du morningue; du foin (lit. hay); du plâtre
(thieves’: lit. plaster); du poussier (thieves’: lit. coal-dust; Cf.,
English ‘coal’ and ‘dust’); des soldats (thieves’: Falstaff, in Merry
Wives of Windsor, ii., 2, says ‘money is a good soldier’); de la
mornifle (this thieves’ term for money, whether good or counterfeit,
originally signified false money only; there is a grim suggestiveness
between the orthodox meaning of the word, ‘a slap on the face,’ and its
slang signification); de la sauvette (also a basket used by rag-pickers
and collectors of street refuse); de l’huile (lit. oil); du beurre
(pop.: lit. butter); de la braise (pop.: ma braise is a term of
endearment among the Lyonnais, and is equivalent to mon trésor, my
treasure); du bath (thieves’: the tip-top; the excellent. From a
superior kind of Bath note paper, which, in 1848, was hawked about the
streets of Paris, and sold at a low price. Thus papier bath became
synonymous with excellent paper. In a short time the qualifying term
alone remained, and received a general application.—Argot and Slang);
du graissage (pop.: lit. grease, Cf., ‘palm oil,’ and ‘greasing the
palm’ in English slang); de la thune (thieves’: in old French cant the
Roi de la Thune was the king of the beggars, and the old prison of
Bicêtre, where free board and lodging was provided for many of the
fraternity, was called La Thune. It is easy to see why the name of a
place, where beggars congregated in considerable numbers and received
relief, should pass into use to signify pecuniary alms); de la miche de
profonde (pop. and thieves’: this exactly corresponds to the English
‘loaver’); de l’oignon pèse (pop.: lit. heavy onion. Cf., Fourbesque
argume); du sable (pop.: lit. sand); des pimpions (thieves’: Qy., from
pimpant, fine, spruce, smart); de l’os (familiar: lit. bone); du nerf
(lit. sinew. Cf., English ‘sinews of war’); des pepettes (pop.:
pepette, a coin of the value of fifty centimes); des achetoires (pop.:
from acheter, to buy); de la galette (pop.: lit. sea biscuit); des
picaillons (pop.: probably a corruption of picaron, a Spanish coin); de
ce qui se pousse (pop.: that which pushes itself forward. Cf., English
proverb, ‘It’s money makes the mare to go’); de quoi (pop.: the
wherewithal. Cf., English ‘the needful,’ the ‘ready’), de l’oignon
(pop.: lit. onion. Fourbesque has also argume, lit. in Italian, an
onion); de l’oseille (pop.: lit. sorrel); de la douille (thieves’ and
pop.: from a kind of large fig much esteemed in Paris); des jaunets
(lit. buttercups. Cf., English ‘yellow-boys’); des sous (lit. pence);
de la graisse (pop. and thieves’: lit. ‘grease.’ Cf., palm oil); de
l’affare (a thieves’ term, probably from the argotic verb affurer, to
cheat, steal, or deceive); du metal (lit. metal); du zinc (lit. zinc);
du pèze (from the Italian pezzo, a piece; Spanish peso, a silver coin,
weighing an ounce); du pedzale; des noyaux (popular); des sonnettes
plombes (plomb = lead); des sonnettes (lit. bells. Cf., English
‘chinkers’); du quantum (from the Latin); du gras (lit. fat); de
l’atout (lit. trumps in cards); de l’huile de main (lit. hand oil, the
English ‘palm grease’); des patards (obsolete copper coins, value ¼d.;
now applied particularly to a two-sous piece, and to money generally);
de la vaisselle de poche (lit. pocket plate: vaisselle = gold and
silver plate); du carme (from the game of Trictrac); de la pécune (lit.
cash); des ronds (lit. circles; from the shape of coins); de la bille
(from billon); du “sine quâ non” (from the Latin; meaning obvious); du
sit nomen (from the Latin); quibus (an abbreviation of quibus fiunt
omnia).
Italian Fourbesque. Agresto (lit. sour grapes); albume (lit. white of
egg), argume (lit. onions); asta, asti (from Ital. asta, a staff);
contramaglia (silver money); brunotti (lit. brownish); penne (lit.
feathers); smilzi (from Ital. smilzi = menu); squame (lit. chips or
scales).
Spanish Germania. Amigos (lit. friends); florin (here can be traced the
Spanish connection with the Netherlands); sangre (lit. blood).
Portuguese Calão.—Parne.
German Synonyms (Gaunersprache).—See Gilt.
Ad., Adver. subs. (printers’).—An abbreviated form of ‘advertisement.’
1854. Dickens, Household Words, xiii., 9. The really interesting
ads are in the body of the paper.
1888. New York Times, Ap. 6.
[The country editor’s wife—] ... reads the ads with the editor,
Just to find what each has paid.
‘But the column ad of the jeweller, there,’
So he says, ‘and the harness, and human hair,
Must be taken out in trade!’
She wears the corsets he gets for ads,
And rattles his sewing machine;
She uses the butter, and cups, and things,
The country subscriber so faithfully brings,
With a cheerfulness seldom seen.
Adam, subs. (old).—A sergeant or bailiff; a master man or foreman. Now
used by thieves in the sense of an accomplice. Explained by
commentators as a reference to the fact that the buff worn by a bailiff
resembled the native buff worn by our first parent, or from his keeping
the garden.
1598. Shakspeare, Comedy of Errors, iv., 3. Ant. S.... What Adam
dost thou mean? Dro. S. Not that Adam that kept the Paradise, but
that Adam that keeps the prison: he that goes into the calf-skin
that was killed for the prodigal.
1848. Sinks of London Laid Open, p. 96. Adam, a henchman, an
accomplice.
Adam’s Ale, or sometimes simply Adam, and in Scotland Adam’s Wine.—A
colloquialism of long standing for water, humorously suggesting that
anything stronger was unknown to our first parents. Duncombe wittily
adds a comment that our first father’s drink is best with brandy. This
also would appear to be the view taken in most of the French and German
equivalents.
Eng. Synonyms. Fish broth; aqua pompaginis.
French. Anisette de barbillon (a popular term); essence de parapluie
(popular: lit. essence of umbrella); l’Adam’s ale (a literal
translation of the English term); limonade (popular: a caustic comment
surely upon the virtues of lemonade); lance (popular and thieves’: this
term also does duty for ‘rain’; properly written l’ance, derived from
the Spanish Germania ansia, itself an abbreviation of angustia, an
allusion to the employment of water as a means of torture); sirop or
ratafia de grenouilles (popular: lit. syrup of frogs); sirop de
l’aiguière (popular: lit. pitcher syrup); sirop de baromètre (popular,
barometer syrup).
German Gaunersprache. Gänsewein (lit. goose-wine).
Italian Fourbesque. Lenza (the remarks on French lance quoted above,
apply equally here).
1643. Prynne, Sov. Power of Parl., II., 32. They have been shut up
in prisons and dungeons ... allowed onely a poore pittance of
Adam’s ale, and scarce a penny bread a day to support their lives.
[M.]
1786–9. Wolcot [P. Pindar], Lousiad, c. ii., line 453.
Old Adam’s beverage flows with pride,
From wide-mouth’d pitchers, in a plenteous tide.
1884. Daily Telegraph, April 1, p. 5, col. 2. The spectral banquet
graced now only by Adam’s ale, or the sick-room toast and water.
1886. John Coleman, Elfie, pt. I., ch. ii. For my part, I stuck to
Adam’s ale, which Elfie brought from the spring.
Adam Tiler, subs. (old slang).—A pickpocket’s associate; one who
receives stolen goods, and then runs off with them. [From Adam, an
accomplice + tiler, a watchman. Cf., Masonic term.] For synonyms, see
Fence.
Added to the List (racing).—An abbreviation of ‘added to the list of
geldings in training.’ Among French thieves, désatiller is the term
employed to signify castration; or, where the operation is performed
upon a man, abélardiser, i.e., to mutilate a man, as Chanoine Fulbert
mutilated Abélard, the lover of his daughter or niece, Héloise.
Addition, subs. (old).—A term for various toilet requisites, used by
women; such as paint, rouge, powder, etc.
1704. Centlivre, Platonick Love, Act iii., Scene 1. Milliner. Be
pleased to put on the addition madam. Mrs. Dowdy. What does she
mean now? to pull my skin off, mehap, next. Ha, Peeper, are these
your London fashions? Peeper. No, no, addition is only paint,
madam.
Addition, Division, and Silence! phr. (American).—A Philadelphia
expression, which, for a time, had a vogue as a catch phrase. It is
properly rendered multiplication, division, and silence! William M.
Tweed, or as he is more familiarly known ‘Boss’ Tweed, is generally
credited with this expression. Being asked what in his view was the
proper qualification for a member of a ring or trust, in which all play
into each other’s hands for mutual advantages, he replied
multiplication, division, and silence!
Addle Cove, subs. (common).—A foolish man; an easy dupe; literally, a
rank sucker (q.v.), and equivalent to addle-head, addle-pate,
addle-plot, all of which are common dictionary words. Why Barrère and
Hotten have followed the lead of Grose in classing these words as slang
is hardly clear. Dialectical they may have been, but all English was
similarly placed prior to the 15th century, and the first reference
given by Murray, bears the date of A.D. 1250.
Adept, subs. (thieves’).—An expert amongst the light-fingered gentry.
It is quite an open question whether adept, even in a thief’s sense,
can fairly be classed as slang, the meaning being obviously identical
with that commonly attached to the word.
Adjective Jerker, subs. phr. (literary).—A term of derision applied,
like ink-slinger (q.v.), to those who write for the press. The special
allusion in the present case is doubtless to the want of discrimination
which young writers, and reporters on low-class papers, often exhibit
in the use of a plethora of adjectives to qualify a simple statement of
fact.
1888. St. Louis Globe Democrat, April 29. Genevieve spent four
hours last night in constructing a three-line letter, which she
sent to an adjective jerker on a society weekly, and in which she
said she would spend the summer months in the Rocky Mountains.
Adjutant’s Gig, subs. phr. (military).—The barrack roller. Men under
punishment are generally put to the task of drawing this machine.
Admiral. To tap the Admiral, verb phr. (nautical).—A practice otherwise
known as ‘sucking the monkey.’ Explained in Peter Simple as having
originally been used amongst sailors for drinking rum out of cocoa nuts
from which the milk had been extracted and replaced by spirits, an
evasion of the regulation prohibiting the purchase of ardent liquors
when on shore in the tropics. The Germans have an analogous expression
Den affen saugen, to ‘suck the monkey,’ with the same signification.
Nowadays it is applied to drinking on the sly from a cask by inserting
a straw through a gimlet hole, and to drinking generally.
1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends (the Black Mousquetaire).
What the vulgar call sucking the monkey,
Has much less effect on a man when he’s funky.
Admiral of the Blue, subs. phr. (old).—A publican or tapster; from the
colour of his apron; now obsolete. Cf., Admiral of the red.
1731. Poor Robin [Pseudonym of Robert Herrick] Almanac.
As soon as customers begin to stir,
The admiral of the blue, cries, ‘Coming, sir!’
Or if grown fat, the mate his place supplies;
And says, ’tis not my master’s time to rise.
Of all our trades, the tapster is the best,
He has more men at work than all the rest.
Admiral of the Narrow Seas, subs. phr. (nautical).—A man who, under
drink, vomits into the lap of his neighbour or vis-à-vis.
Admiral of the Red, subs. phr. (popular).—A wine-bibber; one whose face
by its redness bears evidence of a fondness for the bottle. Formerly
the highest rank of naval officers was divided into three grades or
classes denominated from the colours hoisted by them, Admirals of the
Red, White, or Blue squadron. Now there are four grades; Admiral of the
Fleet, Admiral, Vice-admiral, and Rear-admiral. The French call the
bottle or copper-nose possessed by admirals of the red betterave (lit.
a beetroot); also un piton passé à l’encaustique; and un piffard. Cf.,
Admiral of the blue.
Admiral of the White, subs. phr. (familiar).—Quoted as ‘a white-faced
person; a coward; a woman in a faint.’ Rarely heard, and at best but an
extremely weak imitation of kindred phrases, to wit, admiral of the
blue, and admiral of the red.
Admirals of the Red, White, and Blue, subs. phr. (familiar).—Beadles;
hall-porters; and such-like functionaries when sporting their gorgeous
liveries of office.
Adonize, verb. (rare). [French adoniser; from adonis + ize].—To make
beautiful or attractive; to adorn oneself with a view of attracting
admiration; said only of men.
1818. S. E. Ferrier, Marriage, ch. ix. ‘Venus and the Graces, by
Jove!’ exclaimed Sir Sampson, bowing with an air of gallantry; ‘and
now I must go and adonize a little myself.’ The company then
separated to perform the important offices of the toilette.
1850. F. E. Smedley, Frank Fairleigh, ch. xl. ‘He positively
refused to face the ladies till he had changed his shooting
costume, so I left him up at the hall to adonize.’
Adsum, verb. (Charterhouse).—The response made in answering to
names-calling.
1855. Thackeray, The Newcomes, p. 774. ‘At the usual evening hour
the chapel bell began to toll, and Thomas Newcome’s hands outside
the bed feebly beat time. And just as the last bell struck, a
peculiar sweet smile shone over his face and he lifted up his head
a little, and quickly said, ‘adsum,’ and fell back. It was the word
we used at school when names were called; and lo, he whose heart
was as that of a little child had answered to his name, and stood
in the presence of the Master.’
Adullamites, subs. (parliamentary).—A nickname, in the first instance,
for a party of seceding Liberals, namely, Messrs. Horsman, Lowe, Earl
Grosvenor, Lord Elcho, etc., who in 1866 voted with the Tories, when
Earl Russell and Mr. Gladstone introduced a measure for the extension
of the Franchise. In the debate on the 30th March John Bright said they
had agreed to draw back into a political cave of adullam. The reference
is to those who, with King David, took refuge in the cave of adullam (1
Sam. xxii., 1). The political party in question were also known
collectively as ‘The Cave.’
1878–80. Justin McCarthy, History of Our Own Times, p. 142. The
little third party were at once christened the adullamites, and the
name still survives and is likely long to survive its old political
history. Ibid., p. 143. The wild cheers of the Conservatives and
the adullamites showed on which ‘sword sat laurel victory.’ Ibid.,
p. 152. [Lord Derby] had at once invited the leading members of the
adullamite party to accept places in his Administration.
The primary usage has been extended as explained in the following
quotations.
1870. Notes and Queries, March 5, p. 241. The Scriptural ‘cave of
adullam’ has become an adopted byword for a small clique who unite
to obstruct the party with which they usually associate.
1884. New York Times, July 19. The Conservative party then
presented a tolerably solid front against the extension of the
franchise, and received besides a large reinforcement of
adullamites from the Liberal side.
Advance Backward, verb. (American).—A rather odd way of expressing
retrogression.
1888. Chicago Inter-Ocean, Jan. 23. The advice given to his company
by a raw Yankee captain to advance backward, seems paralleled in
the Chicago Tribune of the 18th inst.
Advantage (Californian).—See Pocket advantage.
Æger, subs. (Univ.). Lat. sick.—Same as Ægrotat (q.v.).
1870. Chambers’ Journal, June 18, p. 395. Dick laughed. ‘I’ll get
the receipt from him. I often want a good thing for an Æger.’
1888. H. Smart, in Temple Bar, February, p. 213. ‘Instead of
applying for leave to my tutor, I had resorted to the old device of
pricking Æger.’
Ægrotat, subs. (Univ.).—[L. he is sick, 3rd pers. sing. pres. ind. of
ægrotare, to be sick from ægrotus, sick, from æger, sick]. In English
universities a medical certificate given to a student, showing that he
has been prevented by sickness from attending to his duties, or his
examination; also used for the degree taken by those so excused. Also
called Æger (q.v.).
1794. Gent. Mag., p. 1085. They [at Cambridge] sported an Ægrotat,
and they sported a new coat!
1864. Babbage, Passages from the Life of a Philosopher, 37. I sent
my servant to the apothecary for a thing called an Ægrotat, which I
understood ... meant a certificate that I was indisposed.
Reading ægrotat.—In some universities leave taken, commonly in
December, in order to get time to read for one’s degree.
Affair of Honour, subs. (old).—Killing an innocent man in a duel. This
euphemism was largely in vogue during the Regency days.
Affidavit Men, sub. phr. (old slang), or, as they also used to be
called, Knights of the Post.—False witnesses who attended Westminster
Hall and other Courts of Justice, ready to swear anything for hire;
they were distinguished by having straws stuck in the heels of their
shoes.—See Straw bail under Bail.
Affinity, subs. (American).—A cant term in frequent use amongst
so-called free-lovers. One’s affinity is supposed to be a person of the
opposite sex, for whom an attachment so strong is felt that even if
already married, as more often than not is the case, the husband will
abandon his legitimate wife, and vice versâ, in favour of the new
attraction, or affinity as he or she is called. The argument is
generally only an excuse for unbridled sexual license; indeed, it is
inconceivable that it could be otherwise, except in a society of
seraphs and archangels.
Afflicke, subs. (old).—See quotation.
1610. Rowland’s Martin Mark-all, p. 38 (H. Chub’s Repr., 1874).
Afflicke, a theefe.
Afflictions, subs. (drapers’).—Mourning goods, half-mourning being
designated mitigated afflictions (q.v.).
Affygraphy, subs. (common).—‘It fits to an affygraphy,’ i.e., to a
nicety—to a T; also of time—‘in an affygraphy.’
Afloat, adv. (common).—On the move; en évidence. This term is of
nautical origin.
To have one’s back-teeth well afloat, is to be well-primed with liquor;
in short, to be in one of the many degrees of intoxication.
1888. Missouri Republican, Jan. 25. When sober on the bench Judge
Noonan is a model of all the virtues. On Friday night, however, in
company with Dr. Munford, of Kansas City, ex-Speaker Wood, Mr.
Charles Mead, and several other gentlemen, his honor once more
drank until, as an onlooker put it, his back teeth were well
afloat.
A-Fly, adv. (vulgar).—See Fly.
Afterclap, subs. (American).—An attempt to unjustly extort more in a
bargain or agreement than at first settled upon. [Derived from after +
clap, a blow or shock.] Current in England since the beginning of the
fifteenth century, signifying an unexpected subsequent event; something
happening after an affair is supposed to be at an end.
After-Dinner Man; Afternoon’s Man.—Generally read to mean a tippler;
one given to long potations after the mid-day meal, formerly the most
substantial taken during the twenty-four hours. Smythe Palmer, however,
appears to throw a different gloss upon the term, for he says [N. and
Q., 5 S., viii., 112], Afternoones men—equivalent to after-dinner men.
It was the custom, formerly, to dine in the halls of our Inns of Court
about noon, and those who returned after dinner to work must have been
much devoted to business, or obliged to work at unusual hours by an
excess of it.—See quot. from Earle.
1614. Overbury, A wife, etc. (1638), 196. Make him an afternoones
man.
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel. Democr. to Reader (1657), 44. Bervaldus
will have drunkards, afternoon men, and such as more than
ordinarily delight in drink, to be mad.
1628. Earle, Microcosmography (A Player). Your Innes of Court men
were undone but for him, hee is their chiefe guest and employment,
and the sole businesse that makes them afternoones men.
1830. Dublin Sketch Book. The good Baronet (Sir Francis Burdett)
was not only a foxhunter, but a celebrated after-dinner man. It
must have been a good bout indeed in which he was worsted.
After Four, subs. phr. (Eton).—From 3 to 6 p.m. on half-holidays; 4 to
5 on whole schoolday.
Afternoon Farmer, subs. phr. (popular).—This expression for one who
procrastinates, or who misses an opportunity is, in reality, a
provincialism. It is quoted in more than one of the English Dialect
Society’s Glossaries as a very common phrase for one who is always
behind, i.e., late in preparing his land, in sowing or harvesting his
crops. It is only slang when used figuratively apart from agricultural
pursuits.
After Twelve, subs. phr. (Eton).—From noon till 2 p.m.
1861. Whyte Melville, Good for Nothing, p. 39. I used to visit him
regularly in the dear old college from the after twelve.
Against Collar. To work against collar, verb. phr. (popular).—To battle
or cope with difficulties; ‘to kick against the pricks’; ‘to pull
against the tide.’
1876. C. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 114. ‘It
is always thought to be a bad plan to let journeymen Cheap Johns
get into debt with their employers. It is bad in two ways, for if
they owe their governors a few pounds, they are working an uphill
game, or against collar, and that don’t suit their book, and it
destroys the independence which is, and always should be, between
the master and the man.’
Against the Grain, adv. phr. (popular).—Against the fibres of the wood;
hence, in opposition to the wish; unwillingly; unpleasantly;
reluctantly. ‘It went against the grain to do it, but I knew I must,’
is a common expression.
1673. Dryden, Amboyna, Act i. Seizing their factories I like well
enough, it has some savour in’t; but for this whoresome cutting of
throats, it goes a little against the grain.
1693. Dryden, Juvenal, i., 202. Though much against the grain
forc’d to retire.
1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 2. Nothing in nature is so ungrateful as
story-telling against the grain, therefore take it as the author
has given it you.
1868. Wilkie Collins, The Moonstone, 1st Period., ch. xi. As I had
promised for them, the other servants followed my lead, sorely
against the grain, of course, but all taking the view that I took.
1884. W. C. Russell, Jack’s Courtship, ch. xxiii. It went against
my grain to leave the poor chap alone.
Agaze, adv. (American thieves’).—Astonished; open-eyed.
Aggerawator, subs. (common); also Haggerawator, both forms being
corruptions of ‘aggravator.’—A lock of hair brought down from the
forehead, well greased, and then twisted in spiral form upon the
temple, either toward the ear, or conversely toward the outer corner of
the eye. This style of dressing the hair was formerly much affected by
costermongers, male and female, and other street folk, but the
‘ornament’ is now rarely seen. It appears to be known among certain
classes in France, especially prostitutes’ bullies.
Eng. Synonyms. Kiss-curls; cobbler’s knots; cow-licks; Newgate knockers
(from a supposed resemblance to the knocker on the prisoner’s door at
Newgate); number sixes; bellropes (being wherewith to draw the belles);
bow-catchers; spit-curls; lovelocks, etc.
French Argot. Des guiches; des rouflaquettes (from being sported by
prostitutes’ bullies), des accroche-cœeurs (lit. heart-hooks).
1836. Dickens, Sketches by Boz, p. 132. His hair carefully twisted
into the outer corner of each eye, till it formed a variety of that
description of semi-curls, usually known as ‘aggerawators.’
From the following they would appear at one time to have formed part of
the personal adornment of women in Australia.
1859. Frank Fowler, Southern Lights and Shadows, p. 38. The ladies
are addicted to ... straw-coloured gloves, and strained hair,
embellished with two or three c’s—aggravators they call
them—running over the temple.
Agility, subs. (low).—A woman who, in mounting a stile, or, when being
swung, exposes more of her person than is usually counted decent, is
said to show her agility. The story told is an absurdly vulgar play
upon words.
Agitate the Communicator! verb. phr. (common).—Ring the bell!
Agitator, subs. (common).—A bell-rope, or knocker.
Agogare, intj. (American thieves’).—Be quick! a warning signal [from
agog].—New York Slang Dictionary.
Agony. To pile up the agony. verbal phr. (popular).—To intensify a
statement or relation by exaggerated or blood-curdling details.
Newspapers pile on the agony when ‘writing up’ murder, divorce, and
other sensations.
1857. C. Bronté, in Mrs. Gaskell’s Life, ch. xxv. What climax there
is does not come on till near the conclusion; and even then, I
doubt whether the regular novel-reader will consider the ‘agony
piled sufficiently high’ (as the Americans say), or the colours
dashed on to the canvas with the proper amount of daring.
1881. W. Black, Beautiful Wretch, ch. vi. ‘Sooner or later that
organ will shake the Cathedral to bits; the vibrations were
fearful. I thought there was a great deal too much noise. You lose
effect when you pile up the agony like that.’
Agony column, subs. phr. (popular).—The second column of the Times;
originally so-called from the fact of its being devoted to
advertisements for missing friends, and private communications, many of
which are of a harrowing character. Most London newspapers, for the
phrase is chiefly local, have now a similar column. Subjoined are a few
examples of these advertisements:—
I am not sure of identity. Are you Juan of 1873? Longing to see
you.—B.
My darling, how often do I say from my heart come and let us reason
together that we may be happy here and live and love for ever. God
bless and spare us to meet again.
Satisfied.—Meet Friday outside Farringdon Street Station, Three
p.m. Have slip paper in coat button-hole.—J. T.
HERBERT WILLIAM BONNETT, who left Bristol on Thursday, Sept. 5, is
REQUESTED to COMMUNICATE at once with his uncle at Keynsham. If any
shipping agent is aware of his taking passage in any boat leaving
England, either London, Liverpool, or elsewhere, please write at once
to Mr. J. D. Coates, Keynsham, near Bristol. All expenses will be paid.
The earliest mention in Murray’s Dictionary is dated 1880, but from the
following quotation it will be seen that the term has been in use for
at least twenty years.
1870. L. Oliphant, Piccadilly, part II., p. 78. The advertisement
of the committee, which appeared in the agony column of the Times,
who wanted to know how I wished the money applied.
1881. W. Black, Beautiful Wretch, ch. xxiii. There were anonymous
appeals to the runaways in agony columns.
Agony Piler, subs. (theatrical).—An actor who performs blood-curdling
parts in sensational plays.
Aground, adv. (common).—Stuck fast; stopped; at a loss; ruined; like a
boat or vessel aground.
Ain’t, sometimes A’N’T, verb. phr. (vulgar).—A corruption for (1) ‘am
not’; (2) ‘are not’; (3) ‘is not.’ This vulgarism appears to be of much
older standing than set down in the New English Dictionary, where the
earliest example is dated 1778.
1710. Swift, Journal to Stella, 24 Nov., Letter ix. I ain’t vexed
at this puppy business of the bishops, although I was a little at
first.
1800. Coleridge, Piccolomini, II., xiii. Ter. Where’s the hurry?
Come, one other composing draught.... Goetz. Excuse me—ain’t able.
Ter. A thimble-full! Goetz. Excuse me.
1835. Dickens, Sketches by Boz, p. 275. ‘You are a clever fellow,
Tottle, ain’t you?’
Air and Exercise, subs. phr. (old).—To have had air and exercise,
signified that one had undergone a whipping at the cart’s tail. About
the beginning of the present century the same operation was termed
shoving the tumbler (q.v.). Among thieves at the present time, air and
exercise means penal servitude; in America it is only applied to a
short term of imprisonment.
Airing, subs. (racing).—When it is not intended that a horse shall win
a race for which it is brought to the starting post, it is said to be
out for an airing.
1889. Evening Standard, June 25 (Sir Chas. Russell’s speech in
Durham-Chetwynd case).—What he (Sir C. Russell) meant was that Sir
G. Chetwynd never did anything so gross and vulgar as that [tell
the jockey to ‘pull’ horses], and that if horses were pulled, that
was not the way in which in any class of turf society instructions
were given. A wink was as good as a nod, and trainers and jockeys,
from various trivial circumstances, very easily gathered whether a
particular horse was only out for an airing, or whether it was on
the job.
Air Line, or Air Line Road (American).—To take the air line; to go
direct, and by the shortest route; idiomatically, to avoid
circumlocution. The origin of this expression is to be found in the
straight lines of railway, without expensive detours and grades, which
in the New World are rendered possible by the vast expanses of unbroken
level. These lines of railway are called air line roads, or straight
shoots (q.v.). De Vere remarks that since the number of such roads has
increased in the more thickly settled parts of the Union, the
advantages of direct lines between two great centres over others which
meander from town to town have become very manifest, and for a few
years a tendency to build such air lines has agitated Legislatures,
from whom and from financial circles in the States and abroad help is
asked. These lines not unfrequently run for long distances by the side
of older lines.
1888. St. Louis Globe Democrat, Jan. 24. The obese style once
admired is now disliked. Many old English authors had too much
rhetoric for our age. Of one thing we are profoundly convicted,
that we have no time to spare for superfluities. An author must
take the air line or we will not travel.
1888. Florida Times Union Advertisement, Feb. 11. Ask for tickets
viâ Augusta or Atlanta and the Piedmont air line.
Air One’s Heels, verb. phr. (popular).—To loiter; to hang about.
Air One’s Vocabulary, verb. phr. (old).—To talk for talking’s sake; to
show off by one’s talk; ‘to flash the gab.’ One of the wits of the time
of George IV., when asked what was going on in the House of Commons
answered that Lord Castlereagh was airing his vocabulary. The term is
now rarely heard, but the practice is with us always.
Airy, subs. (vulgar).—A corruption of ‘area,’ e.g., ‘Down the airy
steps.’
A-Jakes.—See Ajax.
Ajax, subs. (old). (Pronounced with both ‘a’s’ long).—The name of this
hero furnished many unsavoury puns to our ancestors, from its
similarity in sound to the two English words, a jakes. In some of the
passages the allusion is rather obscure, as in this:
1609. Ben Jonson, Epicœne, or The Silent Woman, iv., 5. A stool
were better, sir, of Sir Ajax, his invention.
It is plainer in Shakspeare:
1594. Love’s Labour Lost, v., 2. Your lion, that holds his poll-ax,
sitting on a close stool, will be given to Ajax.
The cause of all this vein of low wit was, perhaps, Sir John
Harrington, who in 1596 published his celebrated tract called The
Metamorphosis of Ajax, by which he meant the improvement of a jakes, or
necessary, by forming it into what we now call a water-closet, of which
Sir John was clearly the inventor. For this offence to her delicacy,
Queen Elizabeth kept him for some time in disgrace. Used directly for a
necessary house.
1611. Cotgrave, Eng. Treasury, p. 16. Which (like the glorious Ajax
of Lincoln’s Inne, I saw in London) laps up naught but filth and
excrements.
1720. Hosp. of Incurab. Fooles, p. 6. Adoring Sterculio for a god,
no lesse unworthily then shamfully constituting him a patron and
protector of Ajax and his commodities.
To the above work of Sir J. Harrington, Ben Jonson seems to allude, as
a masterpiece in its way, when, at the conclusion of a dirty poem, he
says,
1574–1637. On the Famous Voyage, vol. VI., p. 290:
And I could wish for their eterniz’d sakes,
My muse had plough’d with his that sung A-jax.
The rhyme here proves that the pronunciation of the time was suited to
the English meaning. Even Camden condescends to play upon this word.
Speaking of the French word pet, he says,
1605. Remains, p. 117. Inquire, if you understand it not, of
Cloacina’s Chaplains, or such as are well read in Ajax.—See Jakes.
Akerman’s Hotel, subs. (obsolete).—Newgate prison was once so called.
The governor’s name was Akerman.—See Cage.
Akeybo.—A slang phrase used in the following manner:—He beats akeybo,
and akeybo beat the devil.—Hotten.
A-la-Mort.—See Amort.
Albany Beef, subs. phr. (American).—The popular name of the flesh of
the sturgeon. This, in color and taste, has some resemblance to beef,
especially when cut in steaks and grilled. Albany is a town on the
Hudson River as high as which the fish in question is or was to be
caught in large numbers, and as a matter of course, it consequently
formed a not inconsiderable factor in the food supply of the
inhabitants—hence the term Albany beef.
Albertopolis, subs. (popular).—A nickname formerly given by Londoners
to the Kensington Gore district, out of compliment to the late Prince
Consort. The Albert Hall and the Exhibition buildings of 1862, with
which Prince Albert was so closely identified, are situated within the
radius; and the Albert Memorial is hard by.
1864. E. Yates, Broken to Harness, ch. xxxiii., p. 366 (1877). Mr.
Cauthar tripped out of the house, and devoted the remainder of the
evening to working out a composition for the nutriment of the hair,
which, under the name of Cauthar’s Crinibus, has an enormous
circulation over the infant heads of albertopolis.