Anonyma, subs. (popular).—A lady of the demi-monde; generally, though
not invariably, applied to one of the better class. Women of this
status were also called by the Times pretty horsebreakers, a notorious
anonyma (circa 1868) having been a good horsewoman. Another and earlier
name was Incognita; this as well as anonyma had reference to the
unrecognised position these ladies hold in what is called ‘Society,’
which tries to shut its eyes to a product of its own vice. The French
cocotte best corresponds to the English term. For synonyms generally,
see Barrack hack.
1864. G. A. Sala, Quite Alone, ch. i. Is that anonyma driving twin
ponies in a low phaeton, a parasol attached to her whip, and a
groom with folded arms behind her? Bah! there are so many anonymas
nowadays. If it isn’t the Nameless One herself, it is Synonyma.
1865. Ouida, Strathmore, ch. vi. ‘I’m getting tired of Mondes, one
confounds so easily with Demi-monde, and aristocrats that are so
near allied to anonyma.’
1881. Doran, In and about Drury Lane, vol. II., p. 159. Those
anonymas, who dress with such exquisite propriety lest they should
be mistaken for modest women.
1889. Modern Society, July 13, p. 852. ‘Christopher’s Honeymoon,’
by Mr. Malcolm Watson, produced at the Strand, on Wednesday, is not
wholly bad, but it is too thin. The honeymooner is surprised at his
wedding breakfast by the news that a former wife, whom he thought
dead, is still alive. Matters are still further complicated when
his mother-in-law mistakes his buxom laundress for a fair anonyma.
Another. You’re another, phr. (common).—A retort—in usage hardly
courteous or suave. Generally spoken in anger or resentment. The
quotations which follow specify clearly the manner of use. It is
interesting to note how very old is this common rejoinder—nearly 350
years; it is, moreover, an example which fully illustrates the value of
the historical method in dealing with slang words and phrases.
c. 1534. N. Udall, Roister Doister, III., v., p. 58 (Arber). R.
Royster. If it were another but thou, it were a tenane. M. Mery. Ye
are an other your selfe, sir. [M.]
1750. Fielding, Tom Jones, bk. IX., ch. vi. ‘You mistake me,
friend,’ cries Partridge, ‘I did not mean to abuse the cloth; I
only said your conclusion was a non-sequitur.’ ‘You are another,’
cries the Serjeant, ‘an’ you come to that. No more a sequitur than
yourself.’
1836. Dickens, Pickwick, ch. xv., p. 123. ‘Sir,’ said Mr. Tupman,
‘you’re a fellow.’ ‘Sir,’ said Mr. Pickwick, ‘you’re another.’
1888. Sir W. Harcourt, Speech at Eighty Club, Feb. 21. You know the
little urchins in the street have a conclusive argument. They say
‘you’re another.’
Another Acrobat, phr. (music-hall).—Another drink—acrobat being a play
upon the word ‘tumbler,’ i.e., a glass.
Another Guess, adj., or Another Guess Sort of Man, phr. (old). A cute
man; one who is, in modern lingo, up to snuff (q.v.). ‘Guess’ suggests
an erroneous derivation; the word is really a corruption of
‘another-gates’ [according to Murray the original genitive case ‘of
another-gate, i.e., of another way, manner, or fashion’].
Another Lie Nailed to the Counter, phr. (American).—A detected slander.
The practice of nailing spurious coins to shop counters is, even yet,
not an obsolete custom in country districts; and hence, probably, is
derived this colloquialism.
1888. Texas Siftings, Oct. 20. ‘Who employed you last?’ ‘A
Republican speaker, who had me back up his declaration that
Cleveland was in the habit of beating his wife!’ ‘But that lie was
nailed a good while ago.’ ‘I know it,’ chuckled the C.L., ‘but it’s
easy enough to pull out the nail.’
Antagonise, verb. (sporting).—This, ‘to act as an opponent,’ sounds
very like slang; but, as a matter of fact, so long as the antagonising
forces are of the same kind the word is legitimate enough. It has been
so used from 1634 downwards, by Herbert, Keats, John Stuart Mill, and
others. Only when (as for example in America a person in political
phraseology is said to antagonise a measure when it is meant that he
opposes it) the word is used in connection with antagonistic forces not
of a kind can it be regarded as partaking of slang. In the quotation by
Barrère from the Saturday Review (no date given: refer, however, to
Sat. R., Dec. 18, 1886, p. 799) the word is used in a perfectly correct
manner.
1886. Saturday Review on Sporting Slang, 18 Dec, p. 799, col. 1.
Dingley Dell sent Jones and Robinson to the wickets, where they
were antagonised with the leather by Alf and the Young Phenomenon.
Anthony, or To Cuff Anthony, verb. (old).—To knock one’s knees together
from an infirmity. Also called to cuff Jonas.
Antony, or Anthony Cuffin, subs.—A knock-kneed man.
Anthony, or Tantony Pig, subs. (old).—See Tantony pig.
1787. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. The favourite or
smallest pig in the litter; to follow like a tantony pig, i.e., St.
Anthony’s pig, signified to follow close at one’s heels. St.
Anthony, the hermit, was a swine herd, and is always represented
with his bell and pig.
Antimony, subs. (printers’).—Type; so called from one of its component
parts.
Anyhow. Anyhow you can fix it, phr. (American).—A slang expression of
acquiescence as, e.g., ‘I don’t know if you’ll succeed, but anyhow you
can fix it.’
Any Other Man! phr. (American).—A call to order addressed to prosy,
discursive speakers when they give themselves over to the use of
synonymous terms.
Any Racket, subs. (rhyming slang).—A penny faggot.
Anything. Like, or as anything, adv. phr. (common).—A vulgarism rather
than slang. Used in the same manner, as are like one o’clock; like old
boots (q.v.), when a person is at a loss for a simile.—See Winkey.
1542. Udall’s Erasmus Apoph., p. 32. The young maiden, where the
lokers on quaked and trembled for feare, daunced without any feare
at all emong sweardes and kniues, beyng as sharpe as anythyng.
1740. Richardson, Pamela, ii., 57. O my dear father and mother, I
fear your girl will grow as proud as anything.
1840. Barham, I. L. (Misadv. at Margate).
The tear-drop in his little eye again began to spring,
His bosom throbb’d with agony, he cried like anything.
1878. Carroll, Through a Looking Glass, iv., 73. They wept like
anything to see such quantities of sand.
Anythingarian, subs. (common).—A contemptuous term for one who is
apathetic as regards his political or religious creed, or other matters
upon which mankind generally hold decided views. [From anything +
arian, after trinit-arian, unit-arian.]
1717. Entertainer, Nov. 6 [quoted in N. & Q., 7 S., vi., 66]. Nor,
which is ten times worse, Free-thinkers, Atheists, Anythingarians.
1738. Swift, Polite Conversation (conv. i.).
Lady Sm. What religion is he of?
Lady Sp. Why, he is an anythingarian.
Lady Ans. I believe he has his religion to chuse, my lord.
1849. C. Kingsley, Alton Locke, ch. xxii. They made puir Robbie
Burns an anythingarian with their blethers.
Anythingarianism, subs. (popular).—The creed or doctrine of an
Anythingarian.—[See preceding].
1851. C. Kingsley (Life, i., 215). Schiller’s ‘Gods of Greece’
expresses, I think, a tone of feeling very common, and which finds
its vent in modern Neo-Platonism—Anythingarianism.
Anything Else.—See Not doing anything else.
Anywhere Down There! (tailors’).—If, in a workroom or elsewhere where
tailors congregate, an article is dropped upon the floor, anywhere down
there! is used as a kind of catch-phrase.
Apartments. To have apartments to let, verb. phr. (popular).—1. To take
rank in the estimation of one’s fellows as an idiot; ‘a born fool’—one
who is empty-headed, not furnished with brains.
English Synonyms. To be dotty; to have a screw loose; to be balmy; to
have a bee in one’s bonnet (Scotch); to be off one’s chump; to have no
milk in the cocoa-nut; to be touched; to be balmy in one’s crumpet; to
be wrong in the upper storey; to have rats in the upper storey; to have
a tile loose; to be half baked.
French Synonyms. Avoir une écrevisse dans la tourte, or dans le
vol-au-vent (popular: that is ‘to have a crawfish in the pie,’ or ‘in
the head.’ Cf., ‘to have rats in the upper storey’); avoir la boule
détraquée (popular: lit. ‘to have one’s ball turned’); avoir le coco
félé (popular: lit. ‘to have one’s cocoa nut cracked.’ In English slang
the head is also called a ‘cocoa-nut’); avoir le trognon détraquée
(popular: ‘to have a bee in one’s bonnet.’ Trognon is also a slang term
for the head or ‘noddle’); avoir un asticot dans la noisette (popular:
lit. ‘to have a maggot in one’s nut.’ In English slang the head is
likewise ‘the nut.’ Cf., also the expression ‘a worm in the bud’);
avoir un bœuf gras dans le char (popular); avoir un cancrelat dans la
boule (popular: lit. ‘to have a cockroach in one’s ball’—‘ball’ here
referring to the head or ‘nut.’ Cancrelat is properly kakerlac or
American cockroach); avoir un hanneton dans le reservoir (popular: lit.
‘to have a May-bug’ or ‘cockchafer in one’s cistern’ or ‘well.’ This
seems to be on all fours with ‘a bee in one’s bonnet.’ The phrase
sometimes runs avoir un hanneton dans le plafond, i.e., to have a
cockchafer in one’s ceiling, and here the analogy between the two
phrases is more clearly marked); avoir un moustique dans la boite au
sel (popular: lit. ‘to have a mosquito in the salt-box or cellar’);
avoir un voyageur dans l’omnibus (popular); avoir une araignée dans le
plafond (popular: lit. ‘to have a spider in the head’; plafond, ‘a
ceiling,’ be it noted is a slang term for ‘the head’); avoir une
grenouille dans l’aquarium (popular: lit: ‘to have a frog in one’s
aquarium’); avoir une hirondelle dans le soliveau (popular: ‘to have a
swallow in the head’); avoir une Marseillaise dans le Kiosque
(popular); avoir une punaise dans le soufflet (popular: ‘to have a bug
in one’s brain’); avoir une sardine dans l’armoire à glace (popular:
‘to have a sardine in the head or brain.’ Armoire à glace = the head);
avoir une trichinne dans le jambonneau (popular: jambonneau, the head);
avoir une sauterelle dans la guitare (popular: lit. ‘to have a
grasshopper in the guitar’).
For other synonyms, see Tile loose.