1875. Stonehenge, Brit. Sports, I., II., iv., § 5. If ... wild cubs
cannot be found, a bagman or two must be obtained. [M.]
Bagnio, subs. (old).—A brothel. [From Italian bagno, a bath, properly a
hot bath; whence an application as in the case of stew (q.v.), for a
house of prostitution.]
1624. Massinger, Parliament of Love, II., ii. To be sold to a
brothel or a common bagnio.
1851. Thackeray, English Humour, V. (1858), 243. How the prodigal
drinks and sports at the bagnio.
1861. Wright, Domestic Manners in England during the Middle Ages,
491. They were soon used to such an extent for illicit intrigues,
that the name of a hothouse or bagnio became equivalent to that of
a brothel.
Bag of Bones, subs. phr. (familiar).—A lean, attenuated person;
sometimes called a ‘walking skeleton.’ The French have un sac à os
(often contracted into sacdos)—a literal translation. The term is quite
modern, being traced by Murray no further back than 1838, when Dickens
used it [in Oliver Twist, iv., 64].
Bag o’ Moonshine, subs. phr. (common).—Nonsense.—See All moonshine.
Bag of Nails, subs. phr. (American thieves’).—A state of confusion or
topsy-turveydom. [Qy. from ‘bacchanals.’]
Bag of Tricks, phr. (common).—Generally, the whole bag of tricks;
i.e., every expedient.
Bagpipe, subs. (common).—A windy talker; a senseless chatter-box. The
derivation is obviously from the musical instrument of the same name.
Verb. (old).—A lascivious practice; too indecent for explanation.
Bags, subs. (popular).—An ironical nickname for trousers, thought by
some to be of University origin, and borrowed from ‘the variegated
bags’ of Euripides—τους θυλάκους τους ποικίλους (Cyclops., 182).
1853. Rev. E. Bradley (‘Cuthbert Bede’), Adventures of Verdant
Green, p. 51. Just jump into a pair of bags and Wellingtons. Ibid.,
p. 5. His black go-to-meeting bags.
1870. Chambers’ Journal (Christmas Number). ‘But, holloa!’ he
cried, as he caught sight of his legs. ‘Parsons don’t wear light
tweed bags!’... Jack had to unpack his portmanteau and get out his
evening inexpressibles.
1874. M. Collins, Frances, ch. xv. His well-shapen hip and calf
were hidden in loose-fitting bags of corduroy.
1880. Punch, Jan. 10, p. 6. The spread of education and liberal
ideas.—His Grace the Duke of Poplar and Bermondsey. ‘Just look at
these bags you last built me, Snippe! J’ever see such beastly bags
in your life? I shall always be glad to come and dine with you, old
man; but I’ll be hanged if you shall ever measure me for another
pair of bags!’ Mr. Snippe (of Snippe and Son, St. James’s Street).
‘You’ve always grumbled about your bags, as you call ’em, ever
since you were my fag at Eton; and at Christchurch you were just as
bad, even though my poor dear old governor used to come all the way
down and measure you himself. It ain’t the fault of the bags, my
dear Popsy—it’s the fault of the legs inside ’em! So, shut up, old
Stick-in-the-mud, and let’s join the ladies—the duchess has
promised to give us “Little Billee.”’
When made of startling material, or ‘cut’ in an exaggerated style of
fashion they become howling bags.
English Synonyms. Dittoes; kicks; kicksies; bum-bags; sit-upons;
unmentionables; continuations; hams; inexpressibles; abridgements;
drumstick-cases; and ducks (when made of white material).
French Synonyms. Dalzar; falzar.
Intj. (schoolboy).—Bags! or bags I! is frequently used to assert a
claim to some article or privilege. Analogous schoolboy slang is fains
or fain it (q.v.) for demanding a truce during the progress of a game,
and which is always granted by the opposing party. In other schools
pike I or prior pike serve to lay claim to anything, or for asserting
priority of claim. Also bar! e.g., ‘He wanted me to do so and so, but I
barred not.’ Cf., Fain, Pike, and Bar.
To have the bags, phr. (popular).—This phrase is erroneously given by
Hotten (and Barrère has followed suit), as to have the bags off. The
meaning is to be of age, and thus to possess all the rights and
privileges of adultship; also to have plenty of money. Obviously an
allusion to the transition from child’s attire to the garments of
manhood.
Bags of mystery, subs. phr. (common).—Sausages and saveloys are so
called—from the often mysterious character of their compounds.
Presumably composed of minced ‘meat,’ but so highly flavoured and
seasoned that no man can tell whereof they are made.
To take the bags (athletic).—To act as ‘hare’ in ‘Hare and Hounds,’ a
game too well known to need description in this place.
(Stock Exchange).—Buenos Ayres Great Southern Railway Bonds.—Formed
from the initial letters, thus B-A-G-S.
Baijan.—See Bejan.
Bail. Straw-bail or straw-shoes, subs. (common).—A nickname for a
person willing for a consideration, to give evidence, or act as bail.
Formerly men were much more ostentatious in plying a vocation of
perjury than is now happily possible. It was no uncommon thing for such
openly to perambulate the entrances to the law-courts ready for any
chance customer. They made known their occupation by wearing a piece of
straw just sticking out of their shoes. The Quarterly Review (xxxiii.,
344) points out that the practice is a very ancient one, Athens having
abounded in straw-shoes. The modus operandi was much the same then as
in later days. When it was ‘desirable’ to season Attic testimony with
bribery and perjury, the scene outside a Greek court of justice might
be thus described. An advocate or lawyer who wanted a convenient
witness knew by these signs [the straws in the sandals] where to find
one, and the colloquy between the parties was brief. ‘Don’t you
remember’ said the advocate—(the party looked at the fee and gave no
sign: but the fee increased and the powers of memory increased with
it). ‘To be sure I do!’ ‘Then come into the court and swear it.’ And
straw-shoes went into the court and swore it. As b.c., so A.D.
1754—before and after.
1754. Fielding, Jonathan Wild, book I., chap. ii. Charity took to
husband an eminent gentleman whose name I cannot learn; but who was
famous for so friendly a disposition, that he was bail for above a
hundred persons in one year. He had likewise the remarkable honour
of walking in Westminster Hall with a straw in his shoe.
At present lawyers use straw-bail to designate insufficient bail.
Closely allied to this term, and used much in the same manner, is ‘a
man of straw.’ The figure is the effigy of a man, stuffed with straw;
hence, ‘a man of straw,’ the semblance of a man—a person of neither
substance nor responsibility; or one put forward to screen a real
delinquent. A curious usage, akin to the foregoing, is also sometimes
heard among sailors. For example, a strike for wages having taken place
amongst the crew of a ship, ‘blacklegs’ (q.v.), or ‘straw-yarders’ as
they were called in nautical phraseology, took the place of the
strikers. On the meaning of the expression being asked, it was
explained that a ‘straw-yarder’ was a man about the docks who had never
been to sea, and knew little or nothing of the duties of a seaman.
To give or take leg-bail, phr. (common).—To escape, either from arrest,
or from prison; literally, to be indebted to one’s legs for flight. For
exhaustive list of synonyms, see Amputate.
1775. Adair, American Indians, 277. I had concluded to use no
chivalry, but give them leg-bail instead of it, by ... making for a
deep swamp. [M.]
1815. Scott, Guy Mannering, ch. iii. ‘I e’en gae them leg-bail, for
there’s nae ease in dealing wi’ quarrelsome fowk.’
1848. Marryat, Poacher, xxii. Given them leg-bail, I swear.
The phrase is sometimes amplified thus:—to take leg-bail and give land
security.
Bail Up! also Bale Up! intj. (Australian).—A bushranger’s phrase for
‘stand and deliver’! ‘Shell out’!
1880. Blackwood’s Mag., July, p. 91. [Australian loq.] ‘Bail up!
Bail up!’ shout the two red-veiled attackers, revolvers in hand.
1887. G. L. Apperson, All the Year Round, July 30, p. 68, col. 1.
In times gone by, it was by no means an uncommon occurrence [in
Australia] for a coach to be ‘stuck up’ by a band of bushrangers,
whose shouts of bail up, an invitation equivalent to our ‘shell
out,’ supported by revolver barrels, terrified the hearts of the
passengers. But a coach is now seldom interfered with, and to
‘stick up’ is applied to less daring attempts to rob.
2. Hence, colloquially, a demand for instant payment. Equivalent to the
English fork out! stump up! etc. For synonyms, see Shell out.
Bait, subs. (common).—Anger; rage; indignation. Derived from the
figurative sense of ‘to bait,’ i.e., to worry; harass; or tease.
1882. F. Anstey, Vice-Versâ, ch. v. ‘I went calmly on, smoking my
cigar as if nothing was the matter. That put the Proctor in a bait,
I can tell you!’
Baitland, subs. (nautical).—Admiral Smyth in his Sailors’ Word Book
quotes this as ‘an old word, formerly used to signify a port where
refreshments could be procured.’
Bake, verb. (Winchester College).—To rest, or lie down.
Baked, ppl. adj. (common).—Collapsed; exhausted; done up; e.g., ‘toward
the end of the course the crew were regularly baked.’ A common
colloquialism at the beginning of the present century; but the punning
idea involved is very ancient. To bake one’s bread in the sense of ‘to
do for one’ occurs as early as 1380, as will be seen from the following
quotation.
1380. Sir Ferumb, 577. For euere my bred had be bake; myn lyf dawes
had be tynt.
Half-baked (common) is said of a dull-witted or imbecile person, i.e.,
one who is ‘soft’ or inexperienced, in contrast to one who is baked in
the sense of ‘seasoned,’ quick-witted, etc.
1864. Notes and Queries, 3 S., vi., 494, 2. He is only
half-baked—put in with the bread, and taken out with the cakes.
Baker, subs. (Winchester College).—A cushion. These were of two kinds;
that used in ‘College’ was of large size, oblong in shape, and green in
colour. The other used in ‘Commoners’ was thin, narrow, much smaller,
and of red colour. The term baker is also applied to anything placed
upon a form to sit upon, e.g., a blotting book or other article; in
short, anything comfortable to sit upon.
(American).—A loafer. The word is generally attributed to Baron de
Mandat Grancey, who, in his work Cowboys and Colonels, innocently
translated the word ‘loafer’ as baker.
To spell baker (colloquial).—To attempt a difficult task. In the old
spelling books ‘baker’ was frequently the first word of two syllables
to which a child came when learning to spell.
Baker-Kneed, also Baker-legged, adj. (common).—1. Knock-kneed;
disfigured by crooked legs. This deformity, incident to bakers, arising
from the constrained position in which they knead bread, is said to be
the almost certain penalty of habitually bearing any burden of bulk in
the right hand, or of excessive force constantly exerted by the right
side of the body. The knees gradually incline inwards until they
closely resemble the right side of the letter K.
1607. Dekker, Westward Hoe, Act ii., Sc. 2. Will women’s tongues,
like bakers’ legs, never go straight?
1692. L’Estrange, Life of Æsop. Æsop ... was ... flat-nos’d,
hunch-back’d, blabber-lipp’d, a long misshapen head; his body
crooked all over, big-belly’d, baker-legg’d, and his complexion so
swarthy that he took his very name from ’t; for Æsop is the same
with Æthiop.
1754. B. Martin, Eng. Dict., 2 ed. Bakes-legg’d, straddling, with
the legs bowing outward.
1812. Colman, Poetical Vagaries, p. 13. His voice had broken to a
gruffish squeak. He had grown blear-eyed, baker-kneed, and gummy.
2. Effeminate. Either an attributive usage of the foregoing, or an
allusion to the popular belief that a woman’s legs are never straight.
Compared physiologically with those of a man this is doubtless true;
but otherwise most women would resent the imputation as a libel.
1652. Gaule, Hagastrom, 186. Baker-kneed signifies effeminate.
Baker Layer, subs. (Winchester College).—A Junior who used to take a
prefect’s green baker (q.v.) in and out of ‘Hall’ at meal times. The
term is now obsolete.
Baker’s Dozen, subs. (colloquial).—Thirteen reckoned as twelve.
Formerly, so careful were ‘the powers that be’ regarding the supply of
bread, that bakers were liable to heavy penalties for any deficiency in
the weight of loaves. So hedged in, indeed, was the sale of bread, that
the weight of loaves was fixed by law, for every price from
eighteenpence down to twopence, but penny loaves or rolls were not
specified in the statute. Bakers, therefore, when selling the latter,
in order to be on the safe side, gave, for a dozen of bread, an
additional loaf, known as ‘inbread.’ A similar custom of giving extra
quantity was formerly observed with regard to coal, and publishers
nowadays reckon thirteen copies of a book as twelve. That the term
baker’s dozen was thoroughly colloquial at the latter end of the
sixteenth century is apparent from the first of the following
quotations:
1596. Nashe, Saffron Walden, in works III., ii. Conioyning with his
aforesaid Doctor Brother in eightie eight browne baker’s dozen of
Almanackes.
1639. Will of Francis Pynner, of Bury, Gent., dated April 26
[Camden Society’s ‘Bury Wills’]. The yerely sume of ffiue pounds
p’cell of the said yerely rents to be bestowed in wheaten bread, to
be made into penny loaves, and upon eu’y Lord’s day, called Sonday,
throughout eu’y yere of the said terme [40 years or thereabouts],
fowre and twenty loaves of the said bread, with the inbread allowed
by the baker for those twoe dosens of bread, to be timely brought
and sett vpon a forme towards the vpp’end of the chancell of the
said p’ish church of St. Marie, and ... the same twoe dosens of
bread to be giuen and distributed ... to and amongst fowre and
twentie poore people.... And they, the said clarke, sexton, and
bedell, shall alwaies haue the inbread of all the bread aforesaid
ovr and besides their shares in the said twoe dosens of bread.
1733. Fielding, Don Quixote, III., vi. I could not number them. I
dare swear there were a good round baker’s dozen, at least.
1825. Scott, St. Ronan’s Well, ch. xxviii. ‘As to your lawyer, you
get just your guinea’s worth from him—not even so much as the
baker’s bargain, thirteen to the dozen.’
Baker’s dozen is occasionally used in a somewhat more figurative sense,
and is not confined to the technicalities of trade. It is employed to
signify thirteen or fourteen. It is so quoted in Grose (1785), but the
usage is apparently much older than that, for Hudson, the navigator,
when he discovered the bay to which his name is given, designated a
cluster of thirteen or fourteen islands on the east shore of it. The
Baker’s Dozen, as may be seen on the charts; and even French atlases
exhibit these islands as La Douzaine du boulanger.
To give one a baker’s dozen is to pummell a man well; to thrash him
soundly—a humorous allusion to the good measure implied by the phrase.
Bakes, subs. (American thieves’).—A schoolboy.
Bakester, subs. (Winchester College).—One who bakes (see Bake); a
sluggard. The term is now obsolete.
Baking Leave, subs. (Winchester College).—Permission to bake (q.v.) in
a study in ‘Commoners,’ or in a ‘scob’ place in College. In this sense
the term is obsolete; but it is now used of leave to sit in any other
person’s ‘toys’ (q.v.)—a sort of bureau.
Baking Place, subs. (Winchester College).—A kind of sofa in ‘Studies’
of ‘Commoners.’
Balaam, subs. (journalistic).—A term applied to all kinds of
miscellaneous matter, generally of a trumpery and indifferent
character, used as ‘padding’ in periodical publications. Evidently from
Numbers xxii., 30, in which the ass spoke ‘with man’s voice.’ Balaam
hence denotes ‘the speech of an ass,’ and is well applied to the stupid
jokes, and silly paragraphs with which odd corners and short columns
are often lengthened out. Brewer claims an American origin, but Webster
only calls it ‘a cant term.’ In any case the term has clearly reference
to nonsense to be thrown in to fill space, or nonsense thrown out as
refuse. The curious point in the story of Balaam is that the ass talks
like a philosopher and the prophet behaves like a donkey. The term was
popularised by its frequent use in Blackwood’s Magazine.
1826. Scott, Mal. Malagr. iii., 3. How much Balaam (speaking
technically) I have edged out of your valuable paper.
1839. Lochart, Scott, lxx. (1842), 622. Balaam is the cant name for
asinine paragraphs about monstrous productions of nature and the
like, kept standing in type to be used whenever the real news of
the day leave an awkward space that must be filled up somehow. [M.]
Balaam-Basket or Balaam-Box, subs. (journalistic).—1. The receptacle
for Balaam (q.v.).
2. When articles or other contributions are rejected they are put in
the Balaam-basket, which may either be a pigeon-hole (to await return
to the author); the waste paper basket; or, as the readiest mode of
extinction, the flames. In any case, the destination is said to be the
Baalam-basket or box.
1827. Blackw. Mag., xxi., 340. Several dozen letters on the same
subject now in our Balaam-box.
1873. Hall, Modern English, p. 17. An essay for the Edinburgh
Review, in ‘the old unpolluted English language,’ would have been
consigned by the editor to his Balaam-basket.
1877. Notes and Queries, 5 S., vii., 270, 2. At the risk of getting
into your Balaam-box, I venture to record the whole contents of my
bundle as they lie before me.
Balaclava-Day, subs. (military).—A soldier’s pay day. Balaclava, in the
Crimean War [1854–6], was the base of supply for the English troops;
and, as pay was drawn, the men went down to make their purchases.
Balance, subs. (American).—A balance properly is that which balances or
produces equilibrium. It is the difference between two sides of an
account—the amount of which is necessary to make the one equal to the
other. It is not the rest or the remainder, yet we continually hear of
the balance of this or that thing. In the sense of ‘rest,’ ‘residue,’
or ‘remainder,’ balance is the purest slang.
1846. Albany Journal, Jan. 7. The yawl returned to the wreck, took
ten or eleven persons and landed them, and then went and got the
balance from the floating cabin. [b.]
1861. Boston Transcript, Dec. 27. ‘We listened to Wendell Phillips
for about half an hour, and having an engagement elsewhere, we were
forced to leave, and so lost the balance of his oration.’ [de v.]
The word is thus used very much like the Scottish lave (what is left),
employed by Burns in the line—
‘I’ll get a blessing with the lave,
And never miss it.’
In some parts of Virginia the word ‘shank’ is quaintly used for the
same purpose, and one friend will say to another, ‘Suppose you come in
and spend the shank of the evening with me?’ The vulgarism is becoming
common in England, as witness the following:—
1875. Blackwood’s Magazine, April, 443. Balance, long familiar to
American ears, is becoming so to ours. In an account of a ship on
fire we read ‘Those saved remained the balance of the night
watching the burning wreck.’ [M.]
1883. P. Fitzgerald, Recreations of a Literary Man, 170. Everyone
is away shooting or riding; a balance of the ladies is left. [M.]
Balbus, subs. (University).—A Latin prose composition. In Arnold’s
well-known text book, Latin Prose Composition, balbus turns up at every
corner; he is here, there, and everywhere; he appears to be willing and
able to do anything, and go anywhere; in fact it is balbus this, and
balbus that, until the wonder is whether balbus was not something of a
prig or bore, or both. At all events those who used the text book in
question, cannot fail to remember that doughty old fossil of a Roman to
their dying day.
1870. Quarterly Review. Balbus was in constant use.
Balderdash, subs. (old).—1. Adulterated wine; a mixture of liquors such
as wine and beer, milk and beer, etc.