1876. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 321. For
Nottingham is a rare place for good eating; here you may buy
anything to eat of the commonest person, or in the commonest place
with confidence that it is good, clean, and wholesome, very
different to dirty Birmingham and the Brums.
Adj. (Winchester College).—Mean; poor; stingy. A superlative form is
dead brum. [There are two derivations suggested; viz. (1) from bruma =
winter; and (2) traditional in ‘College’ that it is an abbreviated form
of brevissimum.] A popular French equivalent, used both as a
substantive and adjective, is rapiat.
Brumby, subs. (Australian).—A wild horse. An Antipodean counterpart of
the American ‘broncho.’
Brummagem, subs. (popular).—1. A nickname for Birmingham.
1862. Cornhill, Nov., p. 648. We have just touched for a rattling
stake of sugar (i.e., a large stake of money) at Brum.
2. (old).—Base money of various denominations has been so
called—especially groats in 17th century—hence its application to
anything spurious or unreal—as in adjectival sense.—See also Brummagem
buttons and Brums.
1691. G. Miege, New State Eng., 235. Bromicham, particularly noted
a few years ago for the counterfeit groats made here, and from
hence dispersed all over the kingdom. [M.]
1754. B. Martin, Eng. Dict., 2 ed. Bromidgham, money of base metal.
1834. Southey, The Doctor, ch. cxl. He picked it up, and it proved
to be a Brummejam of the coarsest and clumsiest kind, with a head
on each side.
Adj.—Counterfeit; unreal; sham; showy; pretentious.—See substantive,
senses 1 and 2.
1637. Calendar Dom. St. Papers, 105. Those swords which he ...
pretends to be blades of his owne makeing are all Bromedgham blades
and forraine blades.
1686. D’Urfey, Commonwealth of Women, I., i. A Brummingham, son of
a wh—, affront the Noble Admiral!
1866. G. Eliot, Felix Holt, ch. v. ‘The most of the middle class
are as ignorant as the working people about everything that doesn’t
belong to their own Brummagem life.’
1883. Echo, March 28, p. 1, col. 5. There is little of a Brummagem
character about the municipal, parochial, and philanthropic work of
Birmingham, whatever we may think of some of her industrial
productions.
Brummagem Buttons, subs. (common).—Counterfeit coin.
1836. Dickens, Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, I., p. 11.
Bad silver, Brummagem buttons, etc.
1873. Saturday Review, Nov., p. 661. They [Brummagem buttons] were
marvellously inexpensive, and being such ingenious imitations of
the spade guineas and half-guineas then current that many
Englishmen might have failed to detect the difference; they must
have been of very great ‘use to the Indians’ indeed.
Brummish, adj. (common).—Doubtful; counterfeit. [From Brum (q.v.) +
ish.]
1805. G. Colman, John Bull Brit. Theat., 55. Two guineas ... one
seems light and t’other looks a little brummish. [M.]
Brums, subs. (Stock Exchange).—London and North Western Stock.
(Formerly London and Birmingham Ry.).
1887. Atkin, House Scraps.
We kneel at the feet of our ‘Nancys,’
We load them with ‘cottons’ and ‘tapes.’
If anything tickles our fancy,
We buy them Brums, ‘Caleys’ or ‘Apes.’
Brush.—1. See Brother of the brush.