A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English

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title: A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English :

Colloquialisms and Catch Phrases, Fossilised Jokes and Puns,

General Nicknames, Vulgarisms, and Such Americanisms As

author: Have Been Naturalised 8Th Ed. /

Partridge, Eric.; Beale, Paul.

publisher: Taylor & Francis Routledge

isbn10 | asin: 0415065682

print isbn13: 9780415065689

ebook isbn13: 9780203379981

language: English

subject English language--Slang--Dictionaries, Slang--Dictionaries,

publication date: Americanisms.

1984

lcc: PE3721.P3 2003eb

ddc:

427/.09

subject: English language--Slang--Dictionaries, Slang--Dictionaries,

Americanisms.

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A DICTIONARY OF SLANG AND UNCONVENTIONAL ENGLISH

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OTHER ROUTLEDGE BOOKS BY ERIC PARTRIDGE

A Concise Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English

(1989, edited by Paul Beale from Partridge’s materials)

Origins

An Etymohgical Dictionary of Modern English

Fourth edition

Smaller Slang Dictionary

Second edition (paperback)

The Routledge Dictionary of Historical Slang

that is, up to 1914,

edited by Jacqueline Simpson

A Dictionary of Catch Phrases

British and American, from the Sixteenth Century to the Present Day

Second edition (edited by Paul Beale)

A Dictionary of Clichés

Fifth edition (paperback)

Shakespeare’s Bawdy

An Essay and a Glossary

Third edition (paperback)

You Have a Point There

A Guide to Punctuation and its Allies

with a chapter on American practice by John W.Clark

(paperback)

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Page iii Eric Partridge A DICTIONARY OF SLANG AND UNCONVENTIONAL ENGLISH Colloquialisms and Catch Phrases Fossilised Jokes and Puns General Nicknames Vulgarisms and

such Americanisms as have been naturalised

Edited by Paul Beale

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Page iv 1st edition, 1937 2nd edition, enlarged, 1938

3rd edition, much enlarged, 1949 4th edition, revised, 1951

5th edition, in two volumes, supplement much enlarged, 1961 6th edition, in two volumes

supplement revised and enlarged, 1967 7th edition, in two volumes supplement revised and enlarged, 1970

7th edition reprinted, in one volume, 1983 8th edition published in 1984 by Routledge & Kegan Paul Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e -Library, 2006.

To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. ISBN 0- 203-37998- 5 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-38847-X (OEB Format)

ISBN 0-415-06568-2 (Print Edition)

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Page v TO THE MEMORY OF THE LATE ALFRED SUTRO OF SAN FRANCISCO LOVER OF LOVELY THINGS IN ART AND LITERATURE DEVOTEE TO KNOWLEDGE

AND TRUE FRIEND

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Contents

Preface to the 8th Edition

ix Preface to the 1st Edition

xiii Acknowledgments

xvii Arrangement within Entries

xix Dating

xxi Bibliographical Abbreviations

xxiii Abbreviations and Signs

xxix THE DICTIONARY

1 Appendix

1373 Evolution of the phonetic alphabet—Army slang in the South African War—Association football—Australian surfing slang—Australian underworld terms current in 1975—Back slang—Bird- watchers’ slang—Body—Canadian adolescents’ slang—Charterhouse—Chow-chow— Clergymeris diction in the Church of England—Cockney catch phrases—Cockney speech—Colston’s—Constables—Crown and Anchor—To die—Drinks, Drunkenness—Drop a brick —Drugs—Dupes—Echoism in slang—Ejaculations-Epithets and adverbial phrases—Eton—Euphemisms—Felsted—

Food—Fools’ errands—Fops and gallants—Grafters’ and market-traders’ slang—Gremlins—Guard-room—Harlots— Harrow—Harry—Hauliers’ slang—Hooligan—Imperial Service College—Initials for names—Interpolation—ITMA— Jazz terms—Jive and swing—Kibosh—Kilroy was here—King’s Own Schneiders—Know—Korean War slang—Long time no see!—Loo—Lovers’ acronyms—Mah-Jong—Mans—Men— Miscellanea—Mock auction slang—Money—Moving-picture slang—Nicknames—O.K.—Occupational names—Ocker —‘Oxford—er(s)’—Paint the town red—Parlyaree—Pie in the sky—Pip-squeak—Prisoner-of-war slang—Public and Grammar School slang in 1968—Railwaymen’s slang and nicknames—Regional names—Rhodesian Army slang current in 1976—‘Rhubarb’—Rogues and beggars in C.18— Shelta—Shortenmgs—Spanglish—Stonyhurst—Strine— Surnames, truncated—Swahili—Tavern terms in C.17— Tiddlywinks—Tombola—Two-up—Verbs in C.18 slang—War slang, 1939–45—Westmmster—Wmchester—Women in C.18 slang

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Page ix Preface to the 8th Edition

The greatest and, I hope, the most helpful change effected in this new edition of A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English is the conflation of the original text of the first (1937) edition with all the subsequent Addenda that became, by 1961, so numerous as to warrant a second volume over half the size of the original. Besides making the Dictionary easier to consult and to browse in, this reunification has made it possible to correct a number of small inconsistencies, blind entries, duplications and one or two downright contradictions, all of which had gradually and almost inevitably crept in during the thirty busy years of Eric Partridge’s piecemeal work of updating between 1937 and when the 7th edition went to the printer.

The second major change is the incorporation of the material accumulated by E.P. between 1967 and his last suggestion for a new entry, a mere six weeks before his death at the age of eighty- five on 1 June 1979. His notes, which he gave to me in autumn 1978, comprised some 5,000 entries: many entirely new; some additions, modifications and corrections to existing entries; a few back-datings. Nearly 1,000 of these were my own contributions, made during the course of a regular and copious correspondence that began in early 1974 when I

was nearing the end of twenty-one years with the Intelligence Corps. These 1,000 may be considered to have been ‘vetted’ and approved; post-1978 ‘P.B.’ entries and citations, unless otherwise attributed, are my own responsibility. An Appendix has now been added to contain items too unwieldy to fit comfortably into the main body of the text; it includes, for example, a chart showing the evolution of the signallers’ phonetic alphabet that has given rise to many slang terms ( O Pip, Charlie Oboe, etc.); some self -contained bodies of slang, e.g. that of prisoners of war in WW2; terms used in Housey/Tombola/Bingo and Tiddlywinks; a short discourse on the nonsense-prefix HARRY; and so on.

Other changes are less obvious, because they are omissions. E.P. included a considerable number of ‘solecisms and catachreses’, in other words illiteracies, or phrases couched in a grammar inconsistent with that of Standard English, and malapropisms. Many of these he treated more authoritatively and at greater length in his later Usage and Abusage, and the enquirer may seek them there, as those interested in the long- dead solecisms, many from the time when Modern English was still experimental, may look in the OED for the oddities and dead-end offshoots that E.P. dug out from its columns. I have omitted all such unless I know them to be or to have been used deliberately for (usually) humorous effect. Also disregarded are most of the familiar elisions of the aren’t, weren’t, sort, and phonetic renderings of what is merely slovenly (or perhaps dialect)

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Page x

speech, e.g. y’ or ya’ or yer for ‘you’ or ‘your’, tempory for ‘temporary’, ‘cordin’ for ‘according’, etc.

I have deleted some entries dealing with what either E.P. or his source Baumann glossed rather patronisingly as ‘solecisms’ that were, I maintain, simply examples of Cockney dialect. My deletion is not from prejudice against Cockney, but rather a recognition of it as a true dialect— and if that be included as ‘unconventional English’, then so too should be the whole of the English Dialect Dictionary. A line must be drawn somewhere (see as the monkey said)! The phonetic renderings were not, in many instances, completely accurate in any case. Here I must recommend without reserve The Muvver Tongue, 1980, by two highly observant, born-and-bred, dyed-in-the-wool East Londoners, Robert Barltrop and Jim Wolveridge. I found a particularly helpful corrective their astringent, practical, unromantic view of rhyming slang, examples of which of course appear widely in this Dictionary. It has

been a pleasure to learn from them, as it has from Professor G.A.Wilkes, without whose Dictionary of Australian Colloquialisms, 1978, this edition would be so much the poorer. Because of E.P.’s background, born in New Zealand, being educated in Australia and serving 1915–18 in the AIF, he sometimes attributed words and phrases to those countries that should properly be allowed a much wider usage; his knowledge of Australian terms since ca. 1920 was not direct (see his own extensive acknowledgments to Baker and to Prentice). Professor Wilkes’s work has therefore proved an invaluable fund of later twentieth century contexts, and I have, in some instances, preferred his interpretation of a term or phrase to E.P.’s original. It seems appropriate here to say that with so much very good cover already available on Austral English, it would be impertinent of me, even if I were qualified by any more than my six happy years of working with Australian servicemen, to do other than concentrate entirely, in any future edition of this Dictionary, on the slang and unconventional English used in Great Britain alone.

From this feeling that the Dictionary should try to deal mainly with British English stems my decision to ignore,

except in minor references, any mention of the jargons generated by the two great imported fads that have swept the country while this work was in preparation: those of skateboarding and of Citizens’ Band radio. Neither, so far as I am aware, has had any real impact on our ‘normal’ unconventional English; both are completely derivative. Skateboarding talk comes almost unchanged from that of its parent, surfboarding, which is itself already quite well covered by the new entries in the 7th edition (see AUSTRALIAN SURFING, in the Appendix); while ‘CB’, or ‘Breakers’ ‘talk, so redolent of its American background, has been extensively treated in a number of glossaries for enthusiasts. Researchers comparing the 7th edition with Farmer & Henley, and with Ware, will find that E.P. considered some of their entries to be Standard English, on the ground, I presume, of their entry without qualification in the OED. He noted his omissions; I have omitted most of his noted omissions because, with space important, their continued inclusion would be an unnecessary duplication. They formed part of the 1st edition of this

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Page xi

Dictionary, so are now mostly historical, and they were, in most instances, unhelpful because unglossed. Some items of pidgin, e.g. fowlo=fowl, have been left out (unless they have become recognised as slang, as all same like and long time no see) since they are merely examples of the inability of speakers of other languages— in this instance, mainly the Chinese—to get their tongues around certain English sounds. Many of the omissions are of course still available in E.P.’s sources, Yule & Burnell and Barrère & Leland. I have further omitted all nicknames of individuals, no matter how famous, unless they have some bearing on other terms or phrases. This means that nearly all E.P.’s borrowings from Dawson, 1908, have been dropped—but again, Dawson remains to be consulted. On the other hand, the stock of ‘inevitable’ nicknames, those automatically adhering to a surname, like ‘Chippy’ Carpenter, ‘Dusty’ Miller and ‘Dolly’ Gray, which were such a feature of late nineteenth century and earlier twentieth century Service life, has been slightly augmented (see Appendix). The one exception to the ‘individuals’ is in the

world of earlier twentieth century cricket and tennis, where I have left E.P.’s entries untouched, as a tribute to his ardent love of both games, for one has only to read Corrie Denison, Glimpses, 1928, a pseudonymously written thinly fictionalised account of his early life, to realise what an importance sport always held for him.

Readers familiar with earlier editions will soon realise that I have tried, as far as possible, to get away from the ‘Quartermasters’ English’. The result is that E.P.’s goose, be sound on the and goose, shoe the will now be found at sound on the…and shoe the…, and cross-referenced from goose, n. Phrases in which the emphasis is less on the action, more on the object, e.g. get the goose, are subsumed as additional senses of the noun; or, as was the case in this instance, where goose, n., 3, was already defined as’a (theatrical) hissing’, it has been removed from its former goose, get the and used to amplify that definition. The process involved in this rearrangement brought to light more than a few duplications, and it enabled me to save space by eliminating them. The network of crossreferences has thus been extended and strengthened throughout the text. A further minor but necessary alteration has been the suppression of ‘one’s’ as an alphabetically significant element. I surmise from internal evidence that

E.P. soon realised the disadvantage of his original scheme, but that it was by then too late to change it; in this edition, therefore, the phrase come one’s cocoa (for example), instead of being entered at come off it…/come one’s cocoa…/come round…, files now at come clean…/come (one’s) cocoa…/come Cripplegate … I hope that I have fulfilled with the preparation of this volume the trust that Eric Partridge laid upon me; I can say only that it has been an honour and a very great pleasure to me to make the attempt. It has also given me a renewed and even greater respect for all those anonymous and otherwise unremembered ancestors of ours who were able to laugh in the blackest of hells, be it in the stews of Alsatia, in the condemned cell awaiting execution at Tyburn, or in all the horror of the trenches, and to cheer their fellow victims with a word or phrase that sparkled so brightly as to be treasured and repeated over and

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Page xii over—for what is this Dictionary, really, but a pile of fossilised jokes and puns and ironies, tinselly gems dulled eventually by overmuch handling, but gleaming still when held up to the light. April 1982 Paul Beale

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Page xiii

Preface to the 1st Edition

This dictionary, at which I have worked harder than (I hope, but should not swear) I shall ever work again and which incorporates the results of a close observation of colloquial speech for many years, is designed to form a humble companion to the monumental Oxford English Dictionary, from which I am proud to have learnt a very great amount.

A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, i.e. of linguistically unconventional English, should be of interest to word-lovers; but it should also be useful to the general as well as the cultured reader, to the scholar and the linguist, to the foreigner and the American. I have, in fact, kept the foreigner as well as the English-speaker in mind;

and I have often compared British with American usage. In short, the field is of all English other than standard and other than dialectal.

Although I have not worked out the proportions, I should say that, merely approximately, they are:

Slang and Cant 50%

Colloquialisms 35%

Solecisms and Catachreses 6½%

Catch-phrases 6½%

Nicknames 1½%

Vulgarisms ½%

(By the last, I understand words and phrases that, in no way slangy, are avoided in polite society.) For the interrelations of these classes, I must refer the reader to my Slang To-day and Yesterday: a Study and a History, where these interrelations are treated in some detail.

The degree of comprehensiveness? This may best be gauged by comparing the relevant terms in any one letter (I suggest a ‘short’ one like o or v) of either The Oxford English Dictionary and its Supplement or Farmer and Henley’s Slang and its Analogues with the terms in the same letter here (including the inevitable Addenda). On this point, again, I have not worked out the proportions, but I should guess that whereas the OED contains roughly 30 per cent more than F. & H., and F. & H. has some 20 per cent not in the OED, the present dictionary contains approximately 35 per cent more than the other two taken together and, except accidentally, has missed nothing included in those two works. Nor are my additions confined to the period since ca. 1800, a period for which—owing to the partial neglect of Vaux, Egan, ‘John Bee’, Brandon, ‘Ducange Anglicus’, Hotten, Ware, and Collinson, to the literally complete neglect of Baumann and Lyell, and the virtually

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Page xiv

complete neglect of Manchon, not to mention the incomplete use made of the glossaries of military and naval

unconventional terms—the lexicography of slang and other unconventional English is gravely inadequate: even such

17th–18th century dictionaries as Coles’s, B.E.’s, and Grose’s have been only culled, not used thoroughly. Nor has

proper attention been given, in the matter of dates, to the various editions of Grose (1785, 1788, 1796, 1811, 1823)

and Hotten (1859, 1860, 1864, 1872, 1874): collation has been sporadic.

For Farmer & Henley there was only the excuse (which I hasten to make for my own shortcomings) that certain

sources were not examined; the OED is differently placed, its aim, for unconventional English, being selective—it has

omitted what it deemed ephemeral. In the vast majority of instances, the omissions from, e.g., B.E., Grose, Hotten,

Farmer & Henley, Ware, and others, were deliberate: yet, with all due respect, I submit that if Harman was

incorporated almost in toto, so should B.E. and Grose (to take but two examples) have been. The OED, moreover,

has omitted certain vulgarisms and included others. Should a lexicographer, if he includes any vulgarisms (in any

sense of that term), omit the others? I have given them all. (My rule, in the matter of unpleasant terms, has been to

deal with them as briefly, as astringently, as aseptically as was consistent with clarity and adequacy; in a few

instances, I had to force myself to overcome an instinctive repugnance; for these I ask the indulgence of my

readers.)

It must not, however, be thought that I am in the least ungrateful to either the OED or F. & H. I have noted every

debt* to the former, not merely for the sake of its authority but to indicate my profound admiration for its work; to

the latter, I have made few references—for the simple reason that the publishers have given me carte blanche

permission to use it. But it may be assumed that, for the period up to 1904, and where no author or dictionary is

quoted, the debt is, in most instances, to Farmer & Henley —who, by the way, have never received their dues.

It has, I think, been made clear that I also owe a very great deal to such dictionaries and glossaries as those of

Weekley, Apperson; Coles, B.E., Grose; ‘Jon Bee’, Hotten; Baumann, Ware; Manchon, Collinson,† Lyell; Fraser &

Gibbons, and Bowen.

Yet, as a detailed examination of these pages will show, I have added considerably from my own knowledge of

language-byways and from my own reading, much of the latter having been undertaken with this specific end in

view.

bring off, in the earlier editions.] One of the most

[The following comments originally formed part of E.P.’s entry at

remarkable lacunae of lexicography is exhibited by the failure of the accredited dictionaries to include such terms.

One readily admits that the reason for these omissions is excellent and that a very difficult problem has thereby

been posed. The result is that students of Standard English (British and American) are obliged to seek the definitions

of Standard words either in dictionaries of slang, such as, for the

Often, indeed, I have preferred its evidence to that on which I came independently.

† Professor W.E.Collinson’s admirable Contemporary English: A personal speech record, 1927 (Leipzig and Berlin), is

mentioned here for convenience’ sake.

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Page xv US, Berrey & Van den Bark’s Thesaurus and, for Britain and its Dominions, Farmer & Henley’s Slang and its Analogues (Meagre for the Dominions, and out of print since ca. 1910) and this dictionary of mine, or in encyclopedias and specialist glossaries of sex—where, probably, they won’t find many of the words they seek. But also I am fully aware that there must be errors, both typographical and other, and that, inevitably, there are numerous omissions. Here and now, may I say that I shall be deeply grateful for notification (and note) of errors and for words and phrases that, through ignorance, I have omitted.‡

‡ With information on their milieu and period, please! This applies also to omitted senses of terms and phrases that are already represented in this work. Acknowledgments It is a pleasure to thank, for terms that I might well have failed to encounter, the following lady and gentlemen: Mr J.J.W.Pollard, Mr G.D.Nicolson, Mr G.Ramsay, Mr K.G.WynessMitchell, Mr G.G.M.Mitchell, Mr A.E.Strong, Mr

Robert E.Brown (of Hamilton), all of New Zealand; Mr John Beames, of Canada; Mr Stanley Deegan, Mrs J. Litchfield, Mr H.C.McKay, of Australia; Dr Jean Bordeaux, of Los Angeles. From Great Britain: Mr John Gibbons (most unselfishly), Mr Alastair Baxter (a long, valuable list), Mr

Julian Franklyn (author of This Gutter Life), Mr John Brophy, Professor J.R.Sutherland, Mr J.Hodgson Lobley, RBA, Mr Alfred Atkins, the actor, Major- General A.P.Wavell, C.M.G., Commmander W.M.Ross, Major A.J.Dawson, Mr R.A.Auty, Mr Allan M.Laing, Mr R.A.Walker, Mr G.W. Pirie, Mr D.E.Yates, Mr Joe Mourant, Mr Hugh Milner, Sgt T.Waterman, the Rev. A.K.Chignell, the Rev. A.Trevellick Cape, Mr Henry Gray, Mr E.Unné, Mr Malcolm McDougall, Mr R.B.Oram, Mr L.S.Tugwell, Mr V.C.Brodie, Mr Douglas Buchanan, Mr Will T.Fleet, Mr Fred Burton, Mr Alfred T. Chenhalls, Mr Digby A.Smith, Mr George S.Robinson (London), Mr Arthur W.Allen, Mr Frank Dean, Mr M.C. Way, Mr David MacGibbon, Mr A.Jameson, Mr Jack Lindsay, Mr ‘David Hume’ (of ‘thriller’ fame), Mr J.G. Considine, the Rev. M.Summers, Mr C.H.Davis, Mr H.E.A. Richardson, Mr J.Hall Richardson, Mr R.Ellis Roberts, Mr George Baker (who has a notable knowledge of unconventional English and no selfishness), Mr F.R.Jelley, Mr Barry Moore, Mr H.C.Cardew -Rendle, Mr Norman T.McMurdo, Mr R.H.Parrott, Mr F.Willis (Sheffield), Mr E.C.Pattison (of A Martial Medley), and, for introducing me to the work of Clarence Rook and the early work of Edwin Pugh, Mr Wilson Benington.

London, 11 November 1936 E.P. 2nd edition, July 1937

Hearty thanks must be—and readily are—given to the following gentlemen for notice of errors and omissions:— Dr W.P.Barrett; Colonel Bates; Mr Wilson Benington; Mr John Brophy; Lt-General Sir J.R.E.Charles, KCB; Dr M.Clement, MD; ‘Mr J.J.Connington’, very generously; Mr B.Crocker; Mr James Curtis, author of that masterly

underworld novel, The Gilt Kid; Mr Brian Frith; M.François Fosca; Mr Julian Franklyn (a very valuable list); Mr David Garnett; Mr G.W. Gough; Mr Robert Graves; Mr Harold James; Mr Gershon Legman; Mr J.Langley Levy; Mr Jack Lindsay; Dr E.V.Lucas; Mr David MacGibbon; Mr H.L.Mencken; Mr Hamish Miles; Mr George Milne; Mr Raymond Mortimer; Mr Robert Nott; (notably); Mr Basil de Sélincourt; Mr Kazim Raza Siddiqui Dr C.T.Onions, CBE; Mr H.D.Poole; Mr Vernon Rendall (Lucknow); Mr G.W.Stonier, most generously; Professor J.R.Sutherland; the leaderwriter in The Times (15 Feb. 1937) and the reviewer in The Times Literary Supplement; Mr Evelyn Waugh; MajorGeneral A.P.Wavell, CMG (extensively); Professor Ernest Weekley; Mr Wilfred Whitten. 3rd edition, July 1948

I must particularise the kindness of Mr Sidney J.Baker and Lieut. Wilfred Granville, RNVR, without whose published and unpublished works these addenda would be so very much poorer; for the new South African matter, I am indebted to the four correspondents that supplied me with South African cant for A Dictionary of the Underworld, where, by the way, the curious will find a much fuller treatment of such cant terms as are included in A Dictionary of Slang and many not there included, this applying especially to terms of American origin. Of Service contributors, one of the most valuable has been Sgt-Pilot F.Rhodes (to quote his rank in September 1942); Sgt Gerald Emanuel (letter of 29 March 1945) vies with him; and Flying-Officer Robert Hinde and Wing -Commander Robin McDouall have been most helpful. My best Army contributor has been Lieut. Frank Roberts, R A, now a

master at Cotton College. Nor may I, without the grossest discourtesy, omit the names of Mr F.W.Thomas (of The Star); the late Professor A.W.Stewart (widely known as ‘J.J.Connington’, writer of detective novels); and, above all, Mr Albert Petch (of Bournemouth)—three loyal helpers. Also, at the eleventh hour, I have received a valuable set of pellucid and scholarly notes from Mr Laurie Atkinson. 5th edition, March 1960 Among my numerous helpers, all of whom I warmly thank for their patience and generosity, there are a few whose names could not be omitted from even the most cavalier and perfunctory list: Sidney J.Baker, author of The Australian Language and The Drum; Harold Griffiths, of New Zealand; Mr Douglas Leechman and Professor F.E.L.Priestley, of Canada; Colonel Albert F.Moe, of Arlington, Virginia; and, in Britain, Laurie Atkinson (wellinformed and scholarly)—Julian Franklyn, author of The Cockney and A Dictionary of Rhyming Slang—Wilfred Granville, whose Sea Slang of the Twentieth Century is so very unfortunately out of print—and Albert Petch of Bournemouth, tireless gleaner and tenacious rememberer.

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Page xvi 6th edition, 1966

In merest and minimal decency I must name these ten: Mr Barry Prentice, of Rodd Point, New South Wales, a mass of material, valuable, discriminated, scholarly; Mr Harold Griffiths of New Zealand; Dr Douglas Leechman and Professor F.E.L.Priestley, both of Canada; Colonel Albert F. Moe, LJSMC Ret., of Arlington, Virginia, entries and datings, some Naval, some general. In Britain these: Mr Julian Franklyn, author of Shield and Crest and A Dictionary of Rhyming Slang; Mr Wilfred Granville, author of A Dictionary of Sailor’s Slang and A Dictionary of Theatrical Slang;

Mr Albert Petch, ‘wadges’ of pertinent matter; Mr Peter Sanders, copious and scholarly; Mr Frank Shaw of Liverpool. Several contributors have been helping me since well before World War II; the oldest of these, Mr Gregory Mitchell, of Onehunga, New Zealand, died in March 1965. 7th edition, 1969

To the list of contributors, I have to add Mr Oliver Stonor and Colonel Archie White, VC. E.P.

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Page xvii Acknowledgments

Following precedent, it gives me very great pleasure to thank all the kind people whose help and encouragement have so much enriched this 8th edition—without that help it might, indeed, never have appeared at all. I name first the stalwarts of Eric Partridge’s ‘Old Guard’, whose names appear not only in earlier editions but also again and again in the manuscript notes that he handed over to me: Laurie Atkinson, London; Robert Claiborne, New York; Col. Albert F.Moe, Arlington, Va.; Barry Prentice, Sydney; all have given me warm and continuing encouragement. Next, ‘new’, 8th edition correspondents with E.P.: F.J.French (RAF terms); David Hillman, Geneva (rhyming slang); Robin Leech, Edmonton, Alberta; Lt Cdr Frank Peppitt, RNR (nautical terms); Sir Edward Playfair (the world of business); and Gavin Weightman, of New Society . Paul Janssen, of Tilff, Belgium, and J.B.Mindel, BSc MRCVS, of Kfar Tabor, Israel, were E.P. helpers since the late 1960s, and have generously and in friendship continued to ‘serve the cause’ for me.

Now ‘my’ helpers, to whom the opening remark applies just as warmly: they are, in particular, Deputy Assistant Commissioner David Powis, OBE, QPM, whose generous blanket permission to quote from his expert and lucidly commonsensical treatise has so enriched this

compilation’s stock of cant and police terms; Major Tim Carew, MC, who granted me free range of his work on regimental nicknames; Patrick O’Shaughnessy, whose glossary of market traders’ argot follows a long line on from Mayhew through Allingham; Frank McKenna, and his publishers Messrs Faber & Faber, for railwaymen’s words and phrases; Robert Barltrop, co-author, with Jim Wolveridge, of the present definitive work on Cockney, has provided valuable correction and perspective on the talk of Londoners, and especially on rhyming slang; Red Daniells, photographer and witty writer, has, with his wife Margaret, also given considerable help with rhyming slang; and the great debt this edition owes to Prof. G.A.Wilkes is noted elsewhere. Mrs Camilla Raab has not only supplied me with new material, but in her capacity as sub-editor of this edition has provided very welcome essential professional assistance, as well as introduction to Leo Madigan, and John Malin, late PO, RN, with their funds of C.20 nautical slang. The RAF is represented by Sqn/Ldr G.D.Wilson, sometime Education Officer at RAF Leuchars; and the Home Office, for prison and drug terms, by J.D.Cleary. My old friend Capt. Ted Bishop gave help with army slang, and led me to Douglas Dunford, of the Beaulieu Motor Museum, expert and authority on motorcycling lore and language. More motorcycling terms came from Mike Partridge; a fine set of WRNS and FAA material from Miss Margot Wood, BA ALA (sometime Leading Writer, WRNS); and David Severn, BA ALA (‘banged -out’ printer) provided me with fresh

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Page xviii printing slang. Professor Richard Cobb, CBE, elucidated some army terms; Kenneth Williams courteously answered my queries on Parlyaree used in ‘Round the Horne’; John B.Smith, of Bath University, has also helped over a wide field; Professors Michael Booth and E.G.Quin amplified the notes on HOOLIGAN (see Appendix); and Professor John Widdowson acted as kindly middle- man to other ‘one-off’ correspondents. Brigadier Pat Hayward gave early help on army terms; as did my former comrades-in-arms Peter Jones and Eddie Haines, both late of the Intelligence Corps. Many other people have given me, deliberately or unwittingly, one or more terms each: all such borrowings have been—following E.P.’s pleasant custom— acknowledged at the appropriate entry in the text. Special thanks are due to Chris and Mary Irwin at whose ‘Bookhouse’ in Loughborough I bought the copy of the 7th edition of DSUE that led me to write to E.P. in the first place; to Allan Chapman, FLA, tutor in reference librarianship, whose profound grasp of his subject made him my unfailing ‘source of sources’; and to all my helpful colleagues past and present at the library of Loughborough Technical College and College of Art. Just in time, I received great help with teenagers’ talk from my niece and nephew, Mrs Joanna Williamson, B Ed, and James Williamson.

Finally, my best thanks to my wife Daphne, without whose loving patience and understanding support this whole enterprise might perhaps have started but would surely not (‘How can? Never happen!’) have been completed. Paul Beale

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Page xix

Arrangement within Entries

It is impossible, and undesirable in a dictionary of this sort where so much of the enjoyment is to be gained by browsing, to impose a rigid uniformity on every entry. However, for the general run of terms and phrases not needing discursive treatment, and bearing in mind certain professorial criticisms of the earlier editions as ‘inconsistent’, I have tried to stick to this layout:

Keyword (classified as noun, verb, adjective, etc.). Definition or explanation: register (i.e. colloquial, slang, jocular, ironic; and main users, e.g. army, prisoners, general, etc): datings (see section on Dating).

This may be followed by the source, not necessarily the first—the finding of which is usually a matter of pure luck—

but an early example of the term’s use in print; where this is a private letter to the editor, that is noted. If this is to be followed by editorial comment, e.g. further elucidation, an etymology, cross-references, etc., the source is always in parentheses. If the source is the last element of the entry, then private informants are noted in parentheses, e.g. ‘(L.A., 1976.)’=Laurie Atkinson, letter of 1976; printed sources stand free, e.g. ‘Tempest, 1950’=Paul Tempest, Lag’s Lexicon, 1950. Entries ending ‘(P.B.)’ are those contributed by the present editor; many—probably most—were seen and approved by E.P. during the five years before his death.

A cross- reference to an entry in bold type leads to that word or phrase in the main text; one in SMALL CAPS means that the entry is to be found in the Appendix.

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Dating

Much of E.P.’s dating was based on his extensive reading of his sources, and further afield; and upon intelligent ‘guesstimation’: if a term appeared in Grose, 1785, and there was no previous record of it, then E.P. assumed it to be ‘late C.18—’. But the words and phrases that are dealt with in this Dictionary are by their very nature unlikely to be found in print until, in many instances, long after their introduction into the (usually lower strata of the) spoken language. Datings must therefore be treated with caution, and with careful regard to the sources given. A date preceded by a dash and followed by a name in parentheses, as ‘—1859 (H., 1st ed.)’ or ‘—1923 (Manchon)’, means that the term to which it refers is not recorded before Hotten’s 1st edition, 1859, or Manchon, 1923, but is assumed to have been in use for some while previously. E.P. made considerable use of a number of earlier slang dictionaries,

which means that the same citations keep on appearing; it would be uneconomical to use any but the shortest titles for them, and expansions of the abbreviations used are listed under Bibliographical Abbreviations.

E.P. used the abbreviation ‘ob.’ a great deal in the 1st edition. After working on the Dictionary for four years I am still not sure whether he was ‘playing it safe’ by calling usages ‘obsolescent’, or whether he actually meant ‘obsolete’. I have in many entries assumed the latter, which accounts for the frequent terminal date 1930, or the note ‘ob. by 1930’ (to which should probably be added ‘and long before’). It is often very difficult to say for certain when a term has become obsolescent, or even quite extinct (except in historical use): for instance ‘soul-case’, a body, has a decidedly old-fashioned ring to it, and indeed it is recorded by Grose, 1785—yet it is still ‘alive and well’ in the Merchant Navy two centuries later. Other signs used are: + after a date means that the term is known to have been in use in that year, and that it probably lingered in speech for a few years afterwards; † means obsolete—dead except in historical use.

Dating even for the last 150 years can in most cases be only conjectural. For this 8th edition the following divisions have been used merely as a rough guide:

later C.19 ca. 1860–85+

since late C.19 from ca. 1885

early C.20 ca. 1900–1930

since early C.20 from ca. 1910

earlier C.20 ca. 1900–1950

mid-C.20 ca. 1940–60

since mid-C.20

ca. 1950 onwards

later C.20 ca. 1960–80+

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Bibliographical Abbreviations

APOD The Australian Pocket Oxford Dictionary, ed. Grahame Johnston, OUP, Melbourne, 1976. Apperson G.L.Apperson, English Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases, 1929.

Apple Peter McCabe, Apple to the Core, 1972.

Arab Andie Clerk, Arab, ca. 1960.

Aytoun & Martin W.E.Aytoun and Sir Theodore Martin, The Book of Ballads, ed. ‘Bon Gaultier’, 1845,

B., 1941,1942, 1943, Sidney J.Baker, New Zealand Slang,1941; Australian Slang, 1942; Australian Slang, 3rd ed., 1945, 1953, 1959 1943; The Australian Language, 1945; Australia Speaks, 1953; The Drum, 1959. B.E. B.E.’s Dictionary of the Canting Crew, prob. dated 1698–9.

B. & L. Barrére and Leland, A Dictionary of Slang, Jargon and Cant, 1889 (A-K); 1890 (L-Z). B. & P. Brophy and Partridge, Songs and Slang of the British Soldier, 1914–18 (3rd ed., 1931).

Republished by André Deutsch, 1965, as The Long Trail.

Barnhart Clarence L.Barnhart, et al., A Dictionary of New English, 1973.

Basil Hall Fragments of Voyages and Travels, 1st series, 3 vols; 2nd series; 3rd series, 1831–3.

Baumann Heinrich Baumann, Londonismen, 1887.

Beatles R.Carr and T.Tyler, The Beatles, 1975.

Bee ‘Jon Bee’ [pseud., i.e. John Badcock], Dictionary, 1823.

Berrey Lester V.Berrey, ‘English War Slang’, Nation (USA), 9 Nov. 1940.

‘Bill Truck’ [pseud., i.e. John Howell], ‘The Man-o’-War’s Man’, Blackwood’s, 1820s (reprinted, London and

Edinburgh, 1843).

Blaker Richard Blaker, Medal Without Bar, 1930.

Bootham Anon., Dictionary of Bootham [School] Slang, 1925.

Bowen Frank Bowen, Sea Slang, 1929.

Boxiana Pierce Egan, Boxiana, 4 vols, 1818–24.

Brandon Brandon’s Glossary of Cant in ‘Ducange Anglicus’.

COD Concise Oxford Dictionary.

Carew Major Tim Carew, MC, How the Regiments Got Their Nicknames, 1974.

Cheapjack Philip Allingham, Cheapjack, 1934.

Coles E.Coles, Dictionary, 1676.

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Collinson W.E.Collinson, Contemporary English, 1927.

DCCU A Dictionary of Contempomry and Colloquial Usage, 1971.

DCpp. Eric Partridge, A Dictionary of Catch Phrases, 1977.

DNB Dictionary of National Biography.

Dawson L.Dawson, Nicknames and Pseudonyms, 1908.

Dennis C.J.Dennis, The Moods of Ginger Mick, 1916.

Dick William Dick, A Bunch of Ratbags, 1965.

‘Ducange The Vulgar Tongue, 1857.

Anglicus’

Dunford Douglas Dunford, Beaulieu Motor Museum, Motorcycle Department.

EDD Joseph Wright, The English Dialect Dictionary, 1898–1905.

Egan’s See Grose.

Grose

F. & G. Fraser & Gibbons, Soldier and Sailor Words and Phrases, 1925.

F. & H. Farmer & Henley, Slang and its Analogues, 7 vols, 1890– 1904.

Fowler H.W.Fowler, Modern English Usage, 1926.

Franklyn, Julian Franklyn, Dictionary of Rhyming Slang, 1960.

Rhyming

Franklyn

As above, 2nd ed., 1961.

2nd

Gilderdale Michael Gilderdale, ‘A Glossary for Our Times’, News Chronicle, 22 May and (=Gilderdale, 2) 23 May

1958.

Gilt Kid James Curtis, The Gilt Kid, 1936.

GoodenoughRev. George Goodenough, The Handy Man Afloat and Ashore, 1901.

Gowing T.Gowing, A Soldier’s Experience, or, a Voice from the Ranks: a Personal Narrative of the Crimean

Campaign…., 1902 ed.

Granville Wilfred Granville, A Dictionary of Sailors’ Slang, 1962; and many private communications. Grose Francis Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (1785, 1788, 1796, 1811, 1823). Hence, Egan’s

Grose=Egan’s ed. of Grose, 1823. Grose, P.= E.P.’s annotated reprint of the 3rd ed.

Groupie Jenny Fabian and Johnny Byrne, Groupie, 1968.

H. John Camden Hotten, The Slang Dictionary, 1859, 1860, etc.

H. & P. J.L.Hunt & A.G.Pringle, Service Slang, 1943.

Haden-

Anthony Haden-Guest, ‘Slang It to Me in Rhyme’, Daily Telegraph mag., 17 Dec. 1972.

Guest

Harman [prob.] A Caveat or Warening, for Commen Cursetors vulgarely called Vagabones, set forth by Thomas

Harman, 1567.

Hawke Christopher Hawke, For Campaign Service, 1979.

Heart Colin Evans, The Heart of Standing, 1962.

Hillman David Hillman, of Geneva, a long list of rhyming slang in post-WW2 use. Letter received 15 Nov. 1974. Hollander

Xaviera Hollander, The Best Part of a Man, 1975.

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Home Glossary of Terms and Slang Common in Penal Establishments, issued July 1978 by the Board of Visitors Office Section, P4 Division.

Irwin Godfrey Irwin, American Tramps’ and Underworld Songs and Slang, 1931.

Jackson C.H.Ward-Jackson, It’s a Piece of Cake, 1943.

Jackson, 2 C.H.Ward-Jackson, ed., Airman’s Song Book, 1945.

Jagger Anthony Scaduto, Mick jagger, 1974.

Janssen Paul Janssen, of Tilff, Belgium: many communications since late 1960s.

Jice DooneJice Doone, Timely Tips for New Australians, 1926.

‘Jon Bee’ See Bee.

Jonathan Jonathan Thomas, English as She is Fraught, 1976.

Thomas

Knock Sidney Knock, Clear Lower Deck, 1932.

L.A. Laurie Atkinson: a copious supply of terms, Forces’ and gen., received from 1948 onwards. L.L.G. London Literary Gazette.

Landy Eugene E.Landy, The Underground Dictionary, New York, 1971; London, 1972.

Leechman Douglas Leechman, numerous communications, esp. in 1959.

Lester S.Lester, Vardi the Palarey, n.d. [ca. 1937].

Lewis W.J.Lewis, The Language of Cricket, 1934.

Lex. Bal.

The Lexicon Balatronicum, or 4th ed. of Grose, 1811.

Londres Albert Londres, The Road to Buenos Ayres, Intro. Theodore Dreiser, 1928.

Lyell T.Lyell, Slang, Phrase and Idiom in Colloquial English, 1931.

M.T. Patrick O’Shaughnessy, Market Traders’ Slang: a Glossary of Terms Used in Boston and Elsewhere, 1979.

First appeared, in two parts, in Lore & Language, vol. 2, no. 3 and no. 8.

MacArthur Alex. MacArthur & H.Kingsley Long, No Mean City, 1935.

& Long

McKenna,

Frank McKenna, A Glossary of Railwaymen’s Talk (Ruskin College History Workshop Pamphlet no. 1), Glossary 1970.

McKenna, Frank McKenna, The Railway Workers 1840–1970, 1980.

McNeil Glossary to The Chocolate Frog [and] The Old Familiar Juice: Two Plays by Jim McNeil, pub’d Sydney and

London, 1973.

Manchon J.Manchon, Le Slang, 1923.

Marples Morris Marples, Public School Slang, 1940.

Marples, 2 Morris Marples, University Slang, 1950.

Matthews W.Matthews, ‘London Slang at the Beginning of the XVIII Century’, Notes & Queries, 15, 22, 29 June

1935.

Mayhew Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor, 3 vols, 1851.

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Minsheu John Minsheu, Guide into the Tongue, 1627.

Moe Albert F.Moe, Colonel (ret’d) US Marine Corps, numerous private communications, 1959–79. Morris E.E.Morris, Austral English, 1898.

Musings ‘Guns, Q.F.C. & Phyl Theeluker’, Middle Watch Musings, 4th ed., ca. 1912.

Muvver Robert Barltrop & Jim Wolveridge, The Muvver Tongue, 1980 (ISBN 904526 46 1).

Nevinson H.W.Nevinson, Neighbours of Ours, 1895.

‘No. 747’ Francis Wylde Carew, ‘No. 747’: Being the Autobiography of a Gipsy, Bristol, 1891.

Norman Frank Norman, Bang to Rights, 1958. (The richest nonlexical source-book since Gilt Kid: E.P.) OED The Oxford English Dictionary. ‘Sup.’, unless otherwise shown,=the Supplement of 1933. Onions C.T.Onions, A Shakespeare Glossary, 1919 ed.

P.B. Paul C.Beale, editor of this present Dictionary. Own contributions; and entries in 7th ed. or later

manuscript notes, radically altered from E.P.’s original.

P-G-R

Eric Partridge, Wilfred Granville, Frank Roberts, A Dictionary of Forces’ Slang: 1939–1945, 1948. P.P., P.P., Rhyming Slang, 1932 (see entry at Beggar boy’s ass).

Rhyming

Slang

Pawnshop John G.Brandon, The Pawnshop Murder, 1936.

Murder

Partridge, Eric Partridge, A Dictionary of R.A.F.Slang, 1945.

1945

Petch Albert E.Petch, bookseller, of Bournemouth, and WW1 Infantryman, numerous communications since

1945.

Pettman C.Pettman, Africanderisms, 1913.

Phantom Robert Prest, F4 Phantom: a Pilot’s Story, 1979.

Piper Steven Piper, The North Ships: the Life of a Trawlerman, 1974.

Powis Deputy Assistant Commissioner David Powis, QPM, The Signs of Crime: a Field Manual for Police, 1977. Pugh

Edwin Pugh, The Cockney at Home, 1914.

Pugh, 2 Edwin Pugh, The Spoilers, 1906.

R.S. Ramsey Spencer, copious notes and helpful comments over the years.

Railway Harvey Sheppard, Dictionary of Railway Slang, 1964; and 2nd ed., 1966.

Rats Lawson Glassop, We Were the Rats, 1944.

Richards Frank Richards, Old Soldier Sahib, 1936.

Rook Clarence Rook, The Hooligan Nights, orig. pub. 1899; reprinted OUP, 1979.

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SOD The Shorter Oxford Dictionary.

Sampson Dialect of Gypsies of Wales, 1926.

Sessions Session Papers of the Central Criminal Court, 1729–1913.

Shaw The late Frank Shaw, many notes from Merseyside.

Sinks

Anon., Sinks of London Laid Open, Duncombe, London, 1848.

Slang Eric Partridge, Slang To-day and Yesterday, rev. ed., 1935.

Smart & B.C.Smart & H.T.Crofton, The Dialect of the English Gypsies, rev. ed., 1875.

Crofton

Spy C.E.Westmacott, The English Spy, 1825; vol. II, 1826.

TLS The Times Literary Supplement.

‘Taffrail’ ‘Taffrail’ [i.e. Capt. H.Taprell Dorling, DSO, RN], Carry On, 1916; esp. the article ‘the Language of the

Navy’, orig. pub. not later than 1915.

Tempest Paul Tempest, Lag’s Lexicon: a Comprehensive Dictionary and Encyclopaedia of the English Prison of

Today, 1950.

Thornton R.H.Thornton, American Glossary, 1912.

Underworld Eric Partridge, A Dictionary of the Underworld (British & American), 1949.

Vaux J.H.Vaux’s ‘Glossary of Cant, 1812’, in his Memoirs, 1819.

W. Ernest Weekley, Etymological Dictionary of Modern English.

W. & F.

Harold Wentworth & S.B.Flexner, Dictionary of American Slang, 2nd Supplemented ed., 1975. Ware J.Redding Ware, Passing English of the Victorian Era, 1909.

Wilkes G.A.Wilkes, A Dictionary of Australian Colloquialisms, 1978.

Words! Eric Partridge, Words, Words, Words!, 1933.

Y. & B. Henry Yule & A.C.Burnell, Hobson-Jobson, rev. ed., 1903.

E.P.: To several other correspondents, I owe much; their material being, in the main, corrective or modificatory or supplementary, they are not mentioned above. Especially, Dr David Aitken, Mr N.T.Gridgeman, Professor F.E.L.Priestley, Dr D.Pechtold and Mr C.A.Roy.

P.B.: Other sources and contributors less heavily drawn upon may be found cited in full at the appropriate entries. Enquirers seeking a fuller coverage of ‘unconventional English’ are strongly recommended to use, as companion

volumes to this one, E.P.’s Dictionary of Catch Phrases (see DCpp. above) and Underworld, and Wilkes. Another vitally important work in this field is The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren, 1959, by Iona and the late Peter Opie, a marvellous book, and essential reading because so much ‘children’s talk’ has naturally spilled over, even if only allusively, into adult slang and colloquial English.

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Page xxix Abbreviations and Signs AA

anti-aircraft

AIF Australian Imperial Force abbr. abbreviation, or shortening; abbreviated, abridged. adj. adjective; adjectival(ly) adv. adverb; adverbial(ly) after after the fashion of; on the analogy of annon.

anonymous

app. apparently Aus. Australia(n) BWI British West Indies Brit. British; Britain c.

cant, i.e. language of the underworld

century

c.p. a catch-phrase c. and low ca.

cant and low slang

about (the year…)

Can. Canada; Canadian

cf.

compare

coll. colloquial(ism); colloquially d.

died

derog.

derogatory

dial. dialect; dialectal(ly) Dict. Dictionary E.P. Eric Partridge ed. edition elab.elaborate(s or d); elaboration Eng. English esp. especially etym.

etymology; etymological(ly)

euph.

euphemism; euphemistic(ally)

from; derived from

exclam.

exclamation

FAA Fleet Air Arm fem. feminine fig. figurative(ly) fl.

flourished

Fr.

French

gen. general(ly); usual(ly) Ger. German

Gr.

Greek

Ibid. in the same authority or book id.

the same

imm.

immediate(ly)

interj.

interjection

It.

Italian

jargon, i.e. technical(ity)

joc. jocular(ly); humorous L.

Latin

lit.

literal(ly)

literary

Literary English, i.e. unused in ordinary speech

M.C.P.

male chauvinist pig

M.E. Middle English MN Merchant Navy military mainly army usage, perhaps including naval; cf. later ‘Services’ mod.

modern

noun

North, in N. Africa; N. Country (of England)

N.B. note carefully NZ

New Zealand

nonaristocratic P.B.: I take this to mean what is, in later C.20. aristocratic known as ‘non-U’

O.E. Old English; i.e. before ca. 1150 ob. obsolescent (see note at Dating) occ. occasional(ly) on

on the analogy of

opp. opposite; as opposed to orig. original(ly); originate(d), or -ing pej. pejorative(ly) Pl

plural; in the plural

Port. Portuguese poss.

possible; possibly

ppl participle; participial prec. preceded; preceding (cf. prec.=compare the preceding entry) prob.

probable; probably

pron.

pronounced; pronunciation

pub. published quot’n

quotation

q.v. which see!

RAF Royal Air Force

RFC Royal Flying Corps (1912–18)

RM Royal Marines

RN Royal Navy

RNAS Royal Naval Air Service (1914–18)

ref.

reference

Regt or regt Regiment

resp. respective(ly)

rev. revised

s. slang

S.E. Standard English

s.v.

see at

sc. supply!; understand!

Scot. Scottish

Services the Armed Forces of the Crown

sing. singular

sol. solecism; solecistic

Sp.

Spanish

synon. synonymous(ly)

temp. in or at the time of

US the United States of America; American

usu. usual(ly)

v. verb

v.i. intransitive verb

v.t. transitive verb

var. variant; variation

vbl n. verbal noun

vulg. vulgarism

WRNS Women’s Royal Naval Service

WW1 The First World War, 1914–19

WW2 The Second World War, 1939–45

> become(s); became

= equal(s); equal to; equivalent to

†; +; − See Dating

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Page 1 A A.A. of the G.G. (or Gee-Gee)

, The Institute of the Horse and Pony Club, founded 1930. (Sir Frederick Hobday, in Saturday Review, 19 May 1934.) Lit., the Automobile Associa -tion of the Gee -Gee (or horse). P.B.: prob. an ephemeral pun. A.B . An able-bodied seaman: prob. since very early C.19. Moe cites Bill Truck, Feb. 1826, and The Night Watch, 1828, at II, 121. A.B.C . An Aerated B read Company’s tea-shop: from ca. 1880; coll. by 1914.—2. Ale, bread, and cheese on ‘going-home night’: Christ’s Hospital School: C.19.—3. A crib: Rugby schoolboys’: late C.19–early 20. Ex letters forming cab, n., 4, q.v.—4. An Australian-born Chinese: Aus. and Far East: since ca. 1950, perhaps earlier. Also American-born Chinese. (P.B.)—5. See easy as ABC. a.b.f . A final ‘last drink’: from ca. 1915. I.e. an absolutely bloody final drink. a.c.a.b

. See all coppers… AC—DC or A.C.—D.C

. (Usu. of male) both heterosexual and homosexual: adopted, ca. 1959, ex US. A pun on electricity’s ‘A.C. or D.C’: alternating current or direct current. Cf. plug in both ways. A/C Plonk . An Aircraftman 2nd class (AC2): RAF: since early 1920s. (New Statesman, 30 Aug. 1941; Jackson.) Ex plonk, n., 1, mud. Cf. P/O Prune, Plonk’s superior officer. a-cockbill . Free; dangling free: nautical coll. > j.: since early C.19. ‘Greenwich Hospital’, in L.L.G., 21 Feb. 1824 (Moe); Manual of Seamanship, vol. I, 1937, p. 424 (Eric Gell). a cooloo . All; everything: RAF, esp. regulars with service in the Middle East: ca. 1925–50—but since ca. 1914 in army usage. (Jackson.) Prob. ex Arabic cooloo, all. a -crash of , go. To assault (a person): low coll.:—1923 (Manchon). à d’autres ! ‘Tell that to the Marines!’; expression of disbelief: fashionable London c.p.: ca. 1660–80, See DCpp. a.d. (or A.D. )

. A d rink: male dancers’ coll., inscribed on danceprogrammes: early C.20. Ware. a.f

. Having met with (come across) a ‘flat’, who has, to the speaker’s advantage, laid his bets all wrong: the turf:— 1823 (Bee); † by 1870. A from a bull’s foot or a windmill or the gable-end . Usu. not know A…: see KNOW, in Appendix. A.I.F . Deaf: Aus. rhyming s.: later C.20. (McNeil.) AIF orig.=Australian Imperial Forces. a.k

. ‘arse over kettle’ (Can.: C.20): Can. army signallers’: WW1. Cf. ack over tock. a.k.a

. ‘“a.k.a.”—“also known as”—is New Wave, or rock press, for “formerly”’ (Peter York, in Harpers & Queen, July 1977). Ex police j. à la … In the fashion of; in such-and-such a way or manner: coll.: late C.19–20. ‘Trying to bring his entire family into politics à la So-and-So’ (B.P.).—2. In very à la, absolutely in fashion: often used ironically, disparagingly or contemptuously: ‘She thought she was the cat’s whiskers—oh, very à la!’: middle-class feminine: mid-C.20. (P.B.)

à la cart—and horse . ‘A jocular perversion of à la carte’ (Petch): C.20. Al

. Excellent, first class: orig. of ships (Lloyd’s Register); then of persons and things (Dickens, 1837). Variants: A1 copper-bottomed (Charles Hindley, 1876); ob. by 1930; A1 at Lloyd’s: from ca. 1850; first- class, letter A, no. 1:— 1860 (H., 2nd ed.). US form: A no. 1.—2. A commander of 900 men: Fenian coll. > j.: ca. 1865–90. Erroneously no. 1. (A lower officer was known as B.) A over T

. See arse over tip. a.p

. The right procedure, the correct thing to do: RN College, Dartmouth: from ca. 1930. (Granville.) I.e. Admiralty p attern. aap . See zol. Aaron . A cadger: c.; the Aaron, a captain of thieves: ? C.17–19. Cf. abandannad, a pickpocket. ab

. An Aboriginal: Aus.: ca. 1870–1920. (A.Macdonald, In the Land of Pearl and Gold, 1907.) Displaced by Abo. abaa

. A non-unionist; hence, adj.: silly: proletarian:—1903 (F. & H. rev.). abaccering

, vbl n. Loafing: canalmen’s: C.20. (D.A.Gladwin, The Canals of Britain, 1973.) Peppitt suggests ‘perhaps for abackering’; P.B.: or ex smoking, or chewing, (to)bacco? Abadan . ‘When Persia nationalised her oil wells under President Mossadeq [ca. 1952] any driver who was too liberal with engine oil was nicknamed “Abadan”’ (McKenna, Glossary, p. 41): railwaymen’s.

abaddon

. A thief turned informer: c.: late C.19–early 20.? a pun on a bad ’un and the angel Abaddon. abandannad

. A thief specialising in bandanna handkerchiefs: c.:—1864 (H., 3rd ed.). There is perhaps a pun on abandoned.—2. Hence, any petty thief: c.: late C.19–early 20. abandoned habits . The riding dresses of demi-mondaines in Hyde Park: ca. 1870–1900. abandonment

. Bankruptcy of a railway company: financiers’ and brokers’: ca. 1880–1905. B. & L. abber

. At Harrow School, an abstract or an absit: from 1890s. OXFORD -ER. abbess

(1782+), Lady Abbess (−1785). The keeper of a brothel: late C.18–19. A procuress: C.19. Ex Fr. abbesse, a female brothel- keeper. Cf. abbot and see esp. F. & H. Peter Pindar, John Wolcot (d. 1819): ‘So an old abbess, for the rattling rakes,/A tempting dish of human nature makes,/And dresses up a luscious maid.’ Abbeville Kids

, the. Focke -Wulf pilots (or pilots and planes): RAF: 1942; ob. by 1946. Partridge, 1945, ‘Our airmen first met them over or near Abbeville and…like the Dead End Kids of cinematic fame, they have no very rosy future’.

abbey lubber . A lazy monk: ca. 1538–1750: coll. >, by 1600, S.E.—2. A lazy, thriftless person: nautical, ca. 1750–1900. abbot

. The husband, or the preferred male, of a brothel-keeper (see abbess): C.19. Cf. the old S.E. terms, abbot of misrule, abbot of unreason, a leader in a disorderly festivity. Abbott’s Priory . The King’s Bench Prison: ca. 1820–80;? ex Sir Charles Abbott, Lord Chief Justice, 1818. Likewise, Abbott’s Park, the rules thereof. Bee. Abbott’s teeth . A ca. 1820–40 var. of Ellenborough’s teeth. (Pierce Egan, Life in London, 1821.) Cf. prec. entry. Abby, pl Abbies . An Abyssinian cat: domestic: C.20. Bournemouth Echo, 18 Jan. 1968. abdabs

. In don’t come—or, give me—the old abdabs, don’t tell me the tale: C.20, esp. WW2. By itself, abdabs was, in WW2, occ. used for ‘afters’.—2. In the screaming abdabs, an attack of delirium tremens: since late 1930s. Since ca. 1942, abdabs has sometimes been hab-dabs. This is prob. the orig. of the abdabs ‘given’ in sense 1.—3. In have the screaming abdabs, to be in a state of enraged frustration: RN, MN: since ca. 1950. (Peppitt.)

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Page 2 abdar

. A teetotaller: Anglo-Indian: later C.19–earlier 20. (B. & L.) Ex Hindustani for a water-carrier. abdominal

, n. An abdominal case: medical coll.: C.20. A.P. Herbert, Holy Deadlock, 1934. abdominal crash . An aeroplane smash; a heavy fall: RFC: later WW1. (F. & G.) On gutser. Abdul

. A Turkish soldier; collectively, the Turks: army coll.: from ca. 1915. (B. & P.) Ex frequency of Abdul as a Turkish name. abe . In on (one’s) abe, indigent; very short of money: Aus.: earlier C.20. (B., 1942.) ‘Disguised rhyming S.’, says E.P.— but on what? abel-whackets . See able-w(h)ackets. Aberdeen booster . See Scotsman’s fifth at HAULIERS’, in Appendix. Aberdeen cutlet

. A dried haddock: later C.19–early 20. By F. & H. denoted familiar, but definitely s. Cf. Billingsgate pheasant and Yarmouth capon. Abergavenny . A penny: rhyming s.: later C.19–early 20. abfab

. ‘They looked real “abfab” (absolutely fabulous), another of our bodgie [q.v.] words’ (Dick): Aus. teenagers’: mid1950s. Abigail . A lady’s-maid: from ca. 1616, though not recorded fig. till 1663: coll. >, by 1800, S.E.; by 1930, out-moded literary. Ex the Bible. In Beaumont & Fletcher, Fielding, Smollett. abishag . Illegitimate child of a mother seduced by a married man: c.: ca. 1860–1930. (B. & L.) Ex Hebrew for ‘the mother’s error’. able-w(h) ackets . A nautical card-game in which every lost point—or game —entails a whack with a knotted handkerchief (Grose, Smyth): coll.: from ca. 1780; † by 1883, witness Clark Russell’s nautical dict. Abney Park . In gone to…, dead: London proletarian:—1909 (Ware); † by 1930. Ex Abney Park Cemetery, Stoke Newington, north London.

abo, Abo . Australian Aboriginal: Aus. coll.: mid-C.19–20. Wilkes, ‘Not always intended as derogatory, but now [1977] increasingly taken to be so.’ Cf. ab; aboliar. aboard . See fall aboard of. aboliar (or A-)

; properly abo-liar. A regular writer on Aborigine lore or of Aborigine stories: s. (from ca. 1910) >, by 1925 coll. and by 1936 virtually j. It is a coinage of the (Sydney) Bulletin, which, by the way, also coined Billjim and Maori-land . Cognate, and from the same mint, is aboriginality, a (preferably original ) contribution to Aborigine lore: Aus. coll.: C.20. Gen. in pl, in which shape it heads a column in the Bulletin. abolished . Ironically, punished very lightly: a pun on admonished: army: since late 1940s. (P.B.) abominable

. A late C.19–20 sol., or joc. coll., for abdominal; esp. in abominable pains.—2. Very unpleasant: coll., from ca. 1860: the same with the adv. (-bly). Cf. the S.E. senses and abominate. abominable ‘no’-man, the . One who persists in failing to conform: since ca. 1955. A pun on ‘the abominable snow-man’. abominate

. To dislike ‘intensely’, i.e. very much: from ca. 1875: coll. aboriginality

. See aboliar. abortion

. As in ‘That hat’s an abortion’—ludicrous, or very ugly: Aus., since late 1940s (B.P.): also some Brit. usage (P.B.). Abortion Express, the

. See Leaping Lena. about

. See other way about; something about… about as high

. See high as three pennyworth… about proper

. An illiterate var. of proper, adv., q.v. about rlght

. Correct; adequate; coll.:—1850 (Frank Smedley); since WW1, also about it. abont the size of it (, that’s)

. Approximately right: coll.: since ca. 1870. Perhaps orig. US. P.B.: in later C.20, among the low and raffish, sometimes used in conjunction with a (male) gesture in which the left hand grasps the upper right arm, the right forearm, hand lightly clenched, being allowed to flop forward and down, representing the penis: ‘that’s about the size of it—like a baby’s hand holding an orange.’

About Turn . Hébuturne, a village in France: army on the Western Front: WW1. (F. & G.) By Hobson-Jobson. above board

. Openly; without artifice or dishonesty. Coll. verging on, and occ. achieving, S.E. Ex position of hands in cardplaying for money. Earliest record, 1608 (Apperson). above oneself

. Too ambitious or confident, not by nature but momentarily: C.20. above par

. In excellent health, spirits, money in hand, mild drunkenness. All from ca. 1870, ex stocks and shares at a premium. Cf. below par. abrac, Abrac . Learning: ca. 1820–50. (‘Jon Bee’, 1823.) Corruption of Arabic or abbr. of abracadabra. Abraham . ‘A clothier’s shop of the lowest description’: chiefly East End of London and ex the Jewish name; ca. 1870–1920.— 2. The penis: low: late C.19–20; ob. Whence Abraham’s bosom, the female pudend. Abra(ha)m- cove or - man . A pseudo-madman seeking alms; a genuine lunatic allowed on certain days to leave Bethlehem Hospital (whence bedlam beggar) to beg. The term flourished most ca. 1550–1700, A. cove being, however, unrecorded in C.16; this sense > archaic only ca. 1830; ex Luke 16 (Lazraus); described by Awdelay, Harman, Shakespeare, Mas-singer, B.E., Grose.—2. Also, in late C.18–19, a mendicant pretending to be an old naval rating cast on the

streets. Cf. abram, q.v.—3. (Only Abram man.) A thief of pocket-books: c. (—1823); † by 1870. Bee. Abraham Grains (or g-) . A publican brewing his own beer: c.: late C.19–20. Abraham Newland . A banknote, ex the Bank of England’s chief cashier of 1778–1807: ca. 1780–1830; Scott uses it in 1829. W.N.Glascock, Saints and Sailors, 1829, I, 21, has Newland (Moe). H., 2nd ed. (1860), records the c.p. (?orig. the words of a song), sham Abraham you may, but you mustn’t sham Abraham Newland. Bradbury, q.v. Abra(ha)m-sham

. A feigned illness or destitution: C.19. Ex sham Abra(ha)m, to pretend sickness (—1759), in C.19 mainly nautical and often do Abra(ha)m; also—see Abraham Newland—to forge banknotes, † by 1840. Abraham suit, on the . Engaged in any begging-letter dodge that will arouse sympathy: c.: from ca. 1860: ob. B. & L. abraham (or abram) work . Any sham or swindle, esp. if commercial: mid-C.19–early 20. As adj. abra(ha)m =spurious: see prec. Abrahamer

. A vagrant: low (—1823); † by 1900. ‘Jon Bee’, who defines Abrahamers as ‘a lot, or receptacle full of beggars, half naked, ragged, and dirty’: an ambiguous set of words. Abraham’s balsam . Death by hanging: C.18 low. Punning S.E. Abraham’s balm (tree). Abraham’s willing . A shilling: rhyming s.: –1859 (H., 1st ed.). Abrahampstead

; Cricklewitch; Goldbergs Green; Yidsbury. London Jewish self-mocking nicknames for the districts of Hampstead, Cricklewood, Golders Green, and Finsbury: later C.20. (J.B.Mindel, 1981.) abram, n . A malingerer. nautical: C.19–early 20.—2. As adj., c.: mad, C.16–17, naked, C.17–18, this latter developing ex auburn corrupted, for (as in Shakespeare) abra(ha)m, later abramcoloured,=auburn, hence fair. Cf. the abrannoi (naked) of Hungarian gipsy (V.Sackville-West, Knole and the Sackvilles, 1922).—3. For Sham Abram, see

Abra(ha)m-sham. abram

, v. To feign sickness:? ca. 1840–90. (Sinks, 1848.) Perhaps rhyming s., but more prob. ex the n. abram cove

. ‘A Naked or poor Man, also a lusty strong Rogue’ (B.E.); the latter being of the 17th Order of the Canting Crew: c.: C.17–early 19. Cf. abram, 2. Abram man . See Abraham-cove. Abramsham . See Abraham-sham. abram work

. See abraham work.

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Page 3 abridgements

. Knee-breeches.? Nonce word: Bulwer Lytton’s play, Money, 1840. abroad

. In error, wide of the mark (Dickens); earlier (Pierce Egan, 1821), all abroad, with additional sense of ‘confused’; all abroad is, in the former sense, now ob. From ca. 1860; both coll.—2. Also, (of convicts) transported: ca. 1810–90. The London Guide, 1818.—3. At Winchester College, C.19, (come) abroad meant to return to work after being ill. abroaded

. Living on the Continent as a defaulter from England: Society, 1860–90.—2. Sent to a penal settlement whether at home or in the Colonies: police, ca. 1840–80. Cf. abroad .—3. In c., imprisoned anywhere: ca. 1870–1920. abs

. At Winchester College in C.19; ob. by 1930: absent; to take away; to depart (quickly). Ca. 1840, abs a tolly, to put out a candle; late C.19–20, to extinguish a candle demands the ‘notion’ dump it. To have one’s wind absed is to get a ‘breather’ or ‘winder’. abscotchalater

. See absquatulate. absence

in its Eton sense (a roll-call) is now j., but it may orig. have been s.: see esp. ETON, §1, in Appendix. absent rider

. ‘A man who has not turned up for duty. This is based on a race-course term for the jockey who fails to arrive at the course’ (McKenna, Glossary, p.41): railwaymen’s mid-C.20. absent without leave . (Of one) having absconded: from ca. 1860.—2. In c., escaped from prison: id. absence without leave, give (one)

. To discharge (one) suddenly from employment: from ca. 1820; ob. Bee. absent-minded beggax

. A soldier: semi-joc. coll.: 1899–1902. Ex Kipling’s poem. absentee

. A convict: semi-euph. coll.: ca. 1810–60. absoballylutely

; absobloodylutely. Absolutely, utterly: late C.19–20; C.20. The former occurs in W.L.George, The Making of an Englishman, 1914, and both were, by 1940, rather ob. (With thanks to Mr R.W.Burchfield.) Note that absobloodylutely is the most frequent of the bloody

interpolations, as not fucking likely is of the fucking interpolations. absolute, an . An absolute certainty: coll.: early C.20. (Pugh.) Cf. moral. —2. In on the absolute, on the granting of the decree absolute: divorce-agency coll.: C.20. A.P.Herbert, Holy Dead-lock, 1934. absolutely ! Certainly! Coll. intensification of ‘yes’: C.20. absolutely true

. Utterly false: Society: ca. 1880. Ware. Ex title of book. absorb

. To drink (liquor): v.t. and i.: C.20, as in ‘He absorbs a lot, you know!’ absquatalate

. To depart, gen. hastily or in disgrace; as the rare v.t.: to cause to do this: 1844 (OED). Orig. US (1837), anglicised ca. 1860, ob. by 1900. Thornton; H., 1st ed. An artificial word: perhaps on abscond and squat, with a L. ending, perhaps that of undulate, as of a snake undulating and slithering away. During the 1830s–70s, such arbitrary humorous forms abounded in US slangy and colloquial speech: and to seek reason in, and for, their origin is perhaps unreasonable. As in England of ca. 1580–1720— and since—slang has owed much to scholars in their more convivial moods and moments, so too in US. These spontaneous word-playings by the light -hearted literate

were often adopted by the semi-literate and occ. by the illiterate. abstain from beans . To take no part in politics: not very gen.:—1923 (Manchon); ob. by 1930. abstropelous

. A C.18–mid-19 var. of obstropolous. absurd

is coll. in its loose, Society usage: from ca. 1920. D. Mackail, Greenery Street, 1925, ‘Besides, caveat emptor and— generally speaking—don’t be absurd.’ Aby, Aby, Aby my boy ! Chanted, usually with the rest of the song: a Jew-baiting c.p.: ca. 1920–39. Abyssinia ! I’ll be seeing you!: since mid-1930s. Michael Harrison, Vernal Equinox, 1939. By a pun. Abyssinian medal

. A button showing in the fly: military: ca. 1896–1914. (Ware.) Ex the Abyssinian War (1893–6). Cf. Star of the East. ac

. Accumulator: electricians’: C.20. (Partridge, 1945.) E.g. in trolley-ac, an accumulator on wheels, used for starting aircraft engines: RAF: since mid-C.20. (P.B.)—2. As the Ac,

the Royal Academy: artists’: ca. 1870–1940. Ware. academic nudity

. ‘Appearance in public without cap or gown’ (Ware): Oxford University:—1909; † by 1921. academician

. A harlot: ca. 1760–1820. Ex academy, a brothel: c. of late C.17–18. (B.E., Grose.) In C.19, academy=a thieves’ school: cf. Fagan in Oliver Twist. But in late C.19–20, academy is also a hard-labour prison and (—1823) its inmates are academicians . Bee. academics . (University) cap and gown: from ca. 1820; ob. Coll. rather than s.; the j. would be academicals.

Academite

. ‘A graduate of the old Royal Naval Academy at Portsmouth’: nautical coll.: from early C.19. W.N.Glascock, Sailors and Saints, 1829, I, 167 (Moe). Academy

. See academician.—2. Abbr. Academy-figure, a ‘half- life’ drawing from the nude: artists’, C.20.—3. A billiard-room: ca. 1885–1910. Ware, ‘Imported from Paris’.—4. A lunatic asylum: ca. 1730–90. Alexander Cruden in a pamphlet, 1754.—5. As the Academy, Platonism and Platonists: from the 1630s: academic s. >, in C.18 university coll. >, by 1830, philosophic j. The other four of the chief schools of Greek philosophy are The Garden (Epicureanism), The Lyceum (Aristotelianism), The Porch (Stoicism), and The Tub (Cynicism): same period and changes of status. Fowler. acater

. A ship chandler: nautical coll.: C.19–early 20. (Bowen.) A survival of †S.E. acatur, a purveyor: ex Fr. acheteur, a buyer. Acca . In Meanjin (Melbourne), 1/1977, Dr K.S.Inglis has an article titled ‘Accas and Ockers: Australia’s New Dictionaries’. To the title, the editor, Jim Davidson, subjoins this footnote: ‘ ăćca (slightly derog.) 1, n. An academic rather than an intellectual, particularly adept at manipulating trendiologies, usually with full scholarly apparatus. Hence 2, n . A particularly sterile piece of

academic writing.’ But no indication about date of orig. Prompted by Ocker, q.v. acceleration

. Starvation; esp. die of acceleration: vagrants’ c.; from ca. 1880; ob. (B. & L.) Also accelerator, a Union relieving officer: id.: id. Ex refusals ‘to give food to the dying outcast’. accident . An untimely, or accidental, call of nature: coll.: 1899. OED.—2. See street accident. accident-maker

. A report dealing with accidents and disasters: London journalists’ (—1887): † by 1920. Baumann. accidentally on purpose (earlier, often accidentally done…)

. With (usu. malicious) purpose veiled: c.p.: C.20. See DCpp. accommodation house

. A brothel; a disorderly house: coll.: ca. 1820–1920. Bee. accommodator

. One who negotiates a compounding of felonies or other crimes: c.: later C.19–early 20. B. & L. according

. In that’s (all) according, a coll. abbr. of the cautious that’s according to, i.e. dependent on, the circumstances. Not in the sense, in accordance with .

according to Cocker . Properly, correctly: since ca. 1760. Ex Edward Cocker, 1631–76, engraver and teacher, whose famous Cocker’s Arithmetic, pub. posthumously in 1678 Icon-fined to commercial questions only), was popular for nearly a century. The US phase (partly acclimatised in England by 1909: Ware) is according to Gunter, a famous mathematician: the C.19 nautical, according to John Norie, the editor of a much-consulted Navigator’s Manual. according to Hoyle . Correct; correctly: coll.: late C.19–20. Ex Edmond Hoyle’s The Polite Gamester, 1752; soon titled Mr Hoyle’s Games of Whist…, 12th edition, 1760; then as Hoyle’s Games Improved, 1786; in C.19, there appeared innumerable reeditings, improvements, enlargements, abridgments. Cf. according to Cocker. according to plan

. Joc. and ironic for ‘willy-nilly’, for anything that did not go according to plan: orig. army, later

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Page 4 WW1; then a gen. c.p. more Ex Ger. plangemäss, a euph. misrepresentation in communiqués reporting loss of ground. (W.; B. & P.) See DCpp . account , n. In go on the a., to turn pirate, or buccaneer: coll.:— 1812 (Scott). account for

. To kill: sporting coll., from ca. 1840 (Thackeray, 1842) >, by 1890, S.E. accounts . See cast up (one’s) accounts. accounts for the milk in the coco(a)-nut, that

. A c.p. rejoinder on first hearing a thing explained: ca. 1860–1910. Ex ‘a clever but not very moral story’ (H., 5th ed.). The phrase was current in Can., late C.19–earlier 20 (Leechman). See coconut, and milk in the coconut. accrue chocolate

. ‘To make oneself popular with the officers’ (Bowen): RN: early C.20. Cf. brown-nosing. accunmulator

. (Racing) a better carrying forward a win to the next event: turf coll. > j.: from ca. 1870. ace

, n. A showy airman: RFC/RAF (ironic) coll.: since ca. 1918. (F. & G.) Ex the lit. S.E. sense, a crack fighter-pilot.—2. A flagship or other ‘key’ vessel: RN: from ca. 1914. Ex card -games. See guard the ace.—3. ‘One bad peach—we call it an “ace”—turns the whole lot bad. We say, “Get that bleedin’ ace out”’ (Thomas Skeats, barrow- boy, reported in Daily Mail, 24 July 1963): street-traders’: since ca. 1920. (Also applied to any other fruit.) A singleton.—4. Var. of ace of spades, 1.—5. In within on ace of, almost: C.18– 20: coll. >, by 1800, S.E. (‘Facetious’ Tom Brown, 1704.) Orig. ambs- or ames-ace.—6. In on (one’s) ace, alone: Aus.: C.20. Wilkes. ace

, adj. Excellent; ‘star’: coll.: from ca. 1932. Daily Express, 20 Apr. 1937, speaking of an orchestra: ‘London’s ace players improvising hot numbers’. John Winton, HMS Leviathan, 1967, of its RN—esp. its FAA—use, writes, ‘The word “ace” meant anything superlative, desirable, well planned or well executed. “Dank” was its antonym and “fat” almost its synonym, meaning satisfied, ready, in a good or advantageous position.’ P.B.: ace was still in use, as an adj. of high praise, in the RAF, early 1970s, and among comprehensive school youngsters in 1978. The latter gave even higher praise to anything by describing it as pearly ace. ace- high

. As high as possible: coll.: adopted, ex US, ca. 1925. Alice Campbell, Desire to Kill, 1934, ‘Ace-high in public esteem’. Ex card-games. ace in the hole . A hidden asset, to be produced when necessary for best advantage: coll. when used gen.: since mid-C.20, when adopted ex US poker-players’. Alan Hunter, Gently Sahib, 1964 (P.B.). Ace King Queen Jack . A joc., non-Catholic description of the sign of the cross: late C.19–20.—2. A widow’s pension: RN: from ca. 1930. P -G-R. ace of spades . A widow: low:—1811 (Lex. Bal.); † by 1890.—2. The female pudend: low: mid-C.19–20. F. & H., ‘Hence, to play one’s ace and take the Jack=to receive a man.’—3. A black-haired woman: proletarian:—1903 (F. & H., rev.). ace of trouble

. The ace of spades: late C.19–mid-20. (Petch.) achage

. An aching state: joc. coll.: C.20. After breakage. SOD. acher.

A painful blow or kick, esp. in the testicles: since ca. 1960. Jonathan Thomas, 1976.—2. See acre. aching tooth

. In have an a.t., to have a desire, a longing (for): coll.: late C.16–20; in C.19–20, mostly dial. Lodge, 1590; North, 1742; 1887, Parish & Shaw, Dict. of Kent Dialect. (Apperson.)—2. (have…at a person.) To be angry with: coll.: C.18. N.Bailey, 1730. acid

, n. ‘Heavy sarcasm; scornful criticism’ (Granville): RN > gen. (esp. in come the (old) acid, q.v.): C.20.—2. LSD, the psychedelic drug: Can., from 1966 (Leechman); by 1967 also Brit, as in A.Diment, The Dolly Dolly Spy, 1967. Whence, acid-head, a user thereof (Ibid.). Both of these terms occur also in Peter Fryer, ‘A Toz of “Zowie”’ in the Observer colour sup., 3 Dec. 1967.—3. In, e.g., “‘Don’t give me the old acid.” Don’t try to fool me with a lot of nonsense’ (Jonathan Thomas, 1976): later C.20. See come the acid .—4. In put the acid on, ‘To make the kind of demand (for money, information, or sex) that will either yield results or eliminate that possibility. Ex acid test’ (Wilkes): Aus., NZ: C.20. Cf. hard word.—5. See put the acid in. acid drop . A rating that’s always either arguing or quarrelling or complaining: RN: C.20. Granville. acid rock

. ‘Modern music which, when accompanied by unusual lighting and extreme amplification, is evocative of LSD hallucinations’ (Powis): later C.20. ack

. An airman, esp. AC1 (Aircraftman 1st Class) or AC2: RAF College, Cranwell: ca. 1920–30. (Gp Capt A.Wall, 1945.) A vocalisation of ac.—2. Assistant: army: from ca. 1940. E.g. Ack Adj, the assistant adjutant (P-G -R); Ack IG, an assistant instructor of gunnery (P.B.: still current early 1970s, where ack adj was ob. by 1950). Ex the orig. signallers’ PHONETIC ALPHABET, q.v. in Appendix. ack , v. To acknowledge, e.g. a letter or signal: Forces’ and Civil Service > gen. clerical: C.20. ack

! No!, as a refusal of a request: Christ’s Hospital: C.19. Cf. Romany ac!, stuff! ack-ack

. Anti-aircraft guns and gunfire: Services’: WW2. Hence Ack-Ack, AA Command (H. & P., 1943). Reader’s Digest, Feb. 1941, ‘To avoid the “ack-acks” (anti-aircraft guns).’ Cf. Archie, q.v.—2. As challenge, with response beer-beer, a joc. of early WW2. For both, see PHONETIC ALPHABET, in Appendix.

ack adj . See ack, 2. Ack and Quack

. The A & Q (Adjutant and Quartermaster) Department: army: ca. 1925–50. P-G-R. ack-charlie

. To ‘arse-crawl’ (q.v.); an ‘arse-crawler’: Services’, esp. army: WW2. Ex the signalese for a-c. P-G-R. ack emma

. Air Mechanic: RFC, 1912–18, and RAF, 1918. The rank became, in Jan. 1919, aircraftman. Jackson.—2. A.m.: services’: from 1915. For both, see PHONETIC ALPHABET, in Appendix. ack over toc(k) . See arse over turkey. ack Willie

. Absent without leave: Aus. army: WW2. (B., 1943.) Signalese for first two letters of AWOL, the official abbr. ackermaracker

. Tea (the beverage): low: since ca. 1920. (James Curtis, They Drive by Night, 1938.) E.P.’s orig. etym. was, ‘The form (acker-mar- acker) suggests tea reversed and distorted from act to ack; ack elab. to acker; and, with a swift mar interpolated, acker repeated.’ In 1970 he added: in TLS, 16 Oct. 1970, ‘Anthony Burgess castigates me for

my fanciful explanation of the orig., but, with all his marvellous ingenuity and celebrated cerebration (I write this not ironically but admiringly), he has proposed no origination. My own, I admit, is too ingenious by half. I doubt whether the etym. will ever be solved. On maturer consideration I tentatively suggest that s. char, tea, has been back-slanged to rach and then elaborated.’—2. As ackamaraka, in ‘“Don’t give me the old ackamaraka”=don’t tell me tall yarns, don’t try to bluff me’ (Tempest, 1950): prisons’s.: mid -C.20. ackers

. Ac tivity at physical exercises: Pangbourne Nautical College: since ca. 1950. (Peppitt.) The ‘OXFORD/RN -ER(S)’.—2. See Akkas. ’ackin’ corf . A hacking cough: ‘pseudo-vulgarly in jest’ (Collinson, 1927); i.e. coll. when joc., illiterate when serious. ackle

. To fit, or function, properly, esp. as in ‘It (or she) won’t ackle’: RFC/RAF, 1917–19, perhaps orig. ex dial.; still current late 1970s, and has long been gen. Also ‘Can you ackle it?’=can you make it work? (E.P.; P.B.) ackman

. A fresh-water thief: c.: mid-C.18–19. Corruption of arkman, q.v. F. & H. adduces also ack-pirate and ack-rif. acknowledge the corn

, v.i. Admit, acknowledge: adopted, ex US,—1883 (Sala); ob. by 1930. The US sense: to admit failure or outwritting (see, esp., Thornton). acky . Dirty; nasty: mostly childish and domestic: prob. dial. > s.: C.20. ‘Ugh! Nasty! Acky! Put it down at once!’ Perhaps prompted by cacky. (P.B.)—2. See Akky. acorn . See horse foaled by an…

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Page 5 acquaintance

. See scrape acquaintance. acquire

. To steal: coll.: C.20. Not euph., for it is used joc. But cf.:— 2. To obtain illicitly or deviously: army euph. coll.: WW2. PG -R. acre . See knave’s acre.—2. Buttocks, backside: Aus.: since late 1930s. Wilkes. Acres

; Bob Acres. A coward, esp, if boastful: coll., † in C.20. Ex a character in Sheridan’s Rivals, 1775. acro

. An acrobat: circus peoples’: late C.19–20. acrobat

. A drinking-glass: music-hall:—1903 (F. & H., rev.). Punning tumbler. across

. In get across, v.t., to irritate or offend (a person): coll.: C.20.—2. See come across; put it across. across the pavement

. Underworld term for ‘a street situation, e.g., “Let’s do one across the pavement” may mean “Let’s commit a robbery in the street”’ (Powis): since (?) ca. 1960. act, bung on an . See bung on an act. act bored, superior

, etc. To behave as if bored, superior, etc.: Can., orig. (ca. 1920) sol., but by 1955, coll. (Leechman.) act Charley More

. To act honestly; to do the fair thing: RN: C.19–20. (Granville.) Charley More was a Maltese publican whose house sign bore the legend ‘Charley More, the square thing’. act green . To feign ignorance, as of a recruit: coll.: late C.19–20. Mostly, or orig., RN lowerdeck, as in Sidney Knock, Clear Lower Deck, 1932. A source communicated, with comments, by Moe. act of parliament . (Military) small beer perforce supplied free to a soldier: late C.18–early 19. Grose. act the angora

. To play the fool: Aus.: C.20. (B., 1942.) Elab. of…goat. act your age ! Behave naturally, not as if you were much younger!: since ca. 1920.

Acteon

. A cuckold: C.17–18. B.E., Grose.—2. To cuckold: late C.17–early 18. (B.E.) Coll. Ex legend of Diana and Acteon. acting dicky

. A temporary appointment: naval: since very early C.18. It occurs in John Davis, The Post-Captain, 1806 (Moe); ob. On acting-order.—2. (Often a.D.) A man acting in the name of an enrolled solicitor: legal:—1903 (F. & H., rev.). action dish

. A dish resembling an old favourite; acting rabbit-pie is made of beef: RN: C.20. (Bowen.) Ex acting officer. acting Jack

. An acting sergeant: police: C.20. (Free-Lance Writer, April 1948.) Cf. the Army’s acting lance-jack, an acting lance corporal. acting lady . An inferior actress: ironic theatrical coll.: 1883, Entr’acte (Feb.); † by 1920. (Ware.) Mrs Langtry’s socialcumtheatrical success in 1882 caused many society women to try their luck on the stage; mostly with deplorable results. acting rabbit-pie

. See acting dish, and cf.: acting scran

. ‘Food substituted for that promised on the mess menu’ (P-G-R): RN officers’: since ca. 1920. acting the deceitful

. (Theatrical.) Acting: C.19. Sinks. acting the maggot

, vbl n. and ppl adj. Shirking work: (mostly Anglo-Irish) bank-clerks’:—1935. action

. Activity, esp. if great; excitement, as in ‘Where’s the action?’ Adopted, ca. 1968, by British ‘underground’ (nonEstablishment; not drug addicts’).—2. Sexual intercourse, as in ‘He got all the action he wanted’ (Hollander): adopted, ca. 1970, ex US. DCCU, 1971; W. & F. record it as used in print in 1968. action(- )man

. A sarcastically derogatory term for one who is really or only apparently over-efficient and military, enjoying route marches, assault courses and the like: Services’: since ca. 1960. Ex the ‘Action-man’ doll, which can be dressed in all sorts of uniforms and fighting gear. (P.B.) active citizen

. A louse: low (—1811); † by 1890. Lex. Bal. Cf. bosom friend. active tack

. Active service: Guardsmen’s: 1939+. Roger Grinstead, They Dug a Hole, 1946. actor

. ‘A bluffer, a spiv [q.v.]’ (Tempest): prisons’ s.: mid-C.20. actor-proof

was, ca. 1870–1940, applied to an actor who tried hard and selfishly for laughs and for rounds of applause: theatrical. Michael Warwick in the Stage, 3 Oct. 1968. actor’s Bible , the. The Era: theatrical coll.: ca. 1860–1918. (Ware.) A fling at sacred matters prompted by the sensation caused by Essays and Reviews.

actressy

. Characteristic of an actress; theatrical or somewhat melodramatic in manner: coll.: late C.19–20. Edward Shanks, The Enchanted Village, 1933. actual

, the. Money, collectively, esp. if in cash: mid-C.19–20. At this word, F. & H. has an admirable essayette on, and list of English and foreign synonyms for, money. In 1890 there were at least 130 English, 50 French synonyms. actual , your. See yer actual. ad

. An advertisement: printers’ coll.: 1852, in Household Words, V, 5/2 (with thanks to Mr R.W.Burchfield, editor of the OED Sup). Mr Burchfield’s team has now traced it back to 1841, when, on 1 May in Britannia, Thackeray used it. In C.20 gen. Sometimes ádvert, q.v., rarely adver. ad lib

. A coll. abbr. of ad libitum, as much as one likes: C.19–20. ad(-)lib

, v. To speak without a script, or to add extemporaneously to a script; in music, to improvise: coll.: adopted, in early 1930s, ex US. adad ! An expletive: coll.: ca. 1660–1770. Prob. ex egad!

Adam , n. A bailiff, a police sergeant: C.16–17. Shakespeare.—2. In mid-C.17–19 c., an accomplice: with tiler following, a pickpocket’s assistant. Coles, 1676; B.E.; Grose.—3. A foreman: workmen’s:—1903 (F. & H., rev.); ob. by 1930. Adam , adam, v. (Gen. in passive.) To marry: c.: 1781, G. Parker, ‘“What, are you and Moll adamed?” “Yes…and by a rum Tom Pat too”’; † by 1850. Ex Adam and Eve.—2. In full, Adam and Eve, to leave: rhyming s.: late C.19–20. (Birmingham) Evening Despatch, 19 July 1937. Also, to depart (hurriedly): rhyming s. on leave: since ca. 1920. (Franklyn 2nd.)—3. See not know from Adam; when Adam… Adam and Eve . To believe: rhyming s.:—1914. (F. & G.).—2. See Adam, v., 2; Adam and Eve on a raft. Adam and Eve ball . A Cinderella dance: since ca. 1925. Adam and Eve on a raft

. Eggs on toast: mostly military: C.20. (F. & G). L.A. adds ‘Hoxtonian [Inner London] for fried eggs on toast. T.E.Lawrence, The Mint . Not only RAF, but in my experience: Services’ and non-aristocratic.’ Leechman, however, writes (1959) from Canada, ‘Properly two poached eggs on toast, one egg being alone on a raft…it is firmly entrenched as “Short order” restaurant slang’. Cf:

Adam and Eve wrecked . Scrambled eggs: mostly army: C.20. F. & G. Adam and Eve’s togs . Nudity: proletarian London (—1909); slightly ob. (Ware.) Cf. birthday suit. Adam tier . See Adam, n., 2. Adam was an oakum-boy in Chatham Dockyard, when . See when Adam… Adamatical . Naked: C.20. ‘This’, remarks one Of my correspondents, ‘is Standard English, but I can find no dictionary giving this definition’; neither can I, but then I classify it as jocularly erudite coll.—probably on the analogy of such words as problematical and sabbatical. Adamising

. A cadet’s being lowered naked on to the parade ground at night, he being able to return only by presenting himself to the guard: Sandhurst: ca. 1830–55. Mockler-Ferryman, 1900. Adam’s ale . Water: coll.: C.17–18; joc. S.E. in C.19–20, but now outworn. (Prynne.) The Scottish equivalent is Adam’s wine: — l859 (H., 1st ed.).

add . To come to the correct or wished-for total: coll.: 1850, Dickens. OED Sup.—2. In it doesn’t add up, it fails to make sense: coll.: C.20. Hence, it all adds up, it does make sense —at last (Petch). Ex sense 1. add a stone to (someone’s) cairn . To honour a person as

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Page 6 much as possible after his death: coll.; C.18–19. Ex a Celtic proverbial saying, recorded by traveller Pennant in 1772. add lustre to your cluster

. See use knacker-lacquer… added to the list

. I.e. of geldings in training; hence, castrated: turf s.:— 1874 (H., 5th ed.). Orig. a euph. addel . See addle. Adders

. Addison’s walk: Oxford University: late C.19–20. By the ‘OXFORD -ER’. addition

. Paint or rouge or powder for the face: ca. 1690–1770. Mrs Centlivre: ‘Addition is only paint, madam.’ Society s. addle

; often spelt addel. Putrid drinking water: nautical: late C.19–20. Bowen. Ex addled. addle cove . A fool; a facile dupe: late C.18–19. On addle-head or -pate. Addle (or Addled) Parliament

. The Parliament of 1614: coll. nickname. OED. addle-plot

. ‘A Martin Mar-all’ (B.E.); a spoil-sport: coll.: late C.17–18. addlings

. ‘Pay accumulated on a voyage or during a commission’: nautical, esp. RN: late C.19–20. Bowen. addressed to

. (Of a missile, esp. a shell) aimed at: military: 1915; ob. F. & G. a -deary me

! Dear me!: lower-class coll. (—1896) and dial. (—1865). EDD. adept

. A pickpocket; a conjuror: c.: C.18.—2. An alchemist: c.: mid-C.17–18. B. & L. adj. (or A.)

, n. Adjutant; esp. the Adj., one’s adjutant: Army officers’, and perhaps later, the Other Ranks: C.20. (Blaker.) Also used in the vocative. Hence: adj. (or A.) , v. Army officers’ s., from ca. 1910 as in Blaker, ‘“Yes,” said the Colonel. “You’re all right. That’s why I want you to Adj. for me.”’ adjective-jerker

. A journalist: literary: late C.19–20; ob. Cf. ink-slinger. Adji , the. The RAF’s shape of adj. Partridge, 1945. Cf.: Adjie

. An Adjutant: Aus.: C.20. B., 1942. adjutant’s at

. ‘A blonde member of the Auxiliary Territorial Service’: army: WW2. P-G-R. adjutant’s gig

. (Military) a roller, esp. that of the barracks: ca. 1870– 1914. adjutant’s nightmare . ‘A confidential Army Telephone Book: Army Officers’: 1916–18. B. & P., ‘Very complicated and frequently revised’. Adkins’s Academy

. A certain London house of correction: c. (—1823); † by 1860. Bee. admen

. (Singular, little used.) Advertising managers of periodicals and large firms; executive employees of advertising agencies: since ca. 1955: orig. s.: by 1965, coll. Admin

. Administration; administrative: Services’ coll.: 1939+. PG-R. administer

(a blow or rebuke). To give, deal: mid-C.19–20: joc. coll. >, by 1900, S.E.. admiral

. One’s father: Eton: ca. 1800–50. Spy, 1825.—2. As the Admiral, the officer-in- change of RAF Air/Sea Rescue Boats: from ca. 1930. (H. & P.) Cf. airmaids, q.v.—3. See Kiss me Hardy!; next in line for admiral; tap the admiral.

Admiral Browning

. Human excrement: RN: C.20. Personified colour. admiral of the blue

. A publican; a tapster: ca. 1730–1860. (In C.17, the British Fleet was divided into the red, white, and blue squadrons, a division that held until late in C.19.) admiral of the narrow seas . A drunk man vomiting into another’s lap: nautical: early C.17–mid-19. (Grose, 2nd ed.) See TAVERN TERMS, §7. admiral of the red

. A wine- bibber: C.19, mainly nautical. Cf.: admiral of the white . A coward: mid-C.19–early 20. Never very much used. Admiral’s broom

. ‘Used humorously to give the Navy an equivalent of the Field Marshal’s baton’ (Petch, 1946): coll.: C.20. In Mar. 1967 Mr Ramsey Spencer writes, ‘This goes back to the Dutch Admiral Martin Tromp (the elder), who beat the English Fleet under Blake at the Battle of Dungeness in Nov. 1652. The Encyclopedia Britannica says that the statement that he sailed up the Channel with a broom at his masthead in token of his ability to sweep the seas is probably mythical. I think it was Newbolt who wrote a song called “The Admiral’s Broom” about the turn of this century.’ Admiral’s Mate, the

. ‘A boastful, know-all rating’: RN: C.20. (Granville.) Ironic.

Admiral’s Regiment, the . The Royal Marines: military: mid-C.19–20; ob. Also GlobeRangers, Jollies, Little Grenadiers. admirals of the red, white, and blue . Bedizened beadles or bumbles: C.19. Admiralty brown . Toilet paper: R Aus. N: since ca. 1910. Issue and colour. Admiralty clown . A Naval physical-training instructor: RN: since ca. 1945. Admiralty ham . Any tinned meat: RN: late C.19–20. Bowen. Admiralty-made coffin . An Armed Merchant Cruiser; collectively, such ships formed the Suicide Squadron: RN: WW2. Many were sunk during the first two or three years of WW2. (Granville.) admiration . Abbr. note of admiration, admiration-mark (written!): coll.: C.20. mainly printers’, publishers’, authors’: rare. ado

. See dead for ado; once for ado. adod ! Var. of adad! Adonee

. God: c.:? ca. 1550–1890; B. & L., vaguely classifying as ‘old cant’. Ex the Hebrew. adonis

. A kind of wig: ca. 1760–1800: coll. bordering on S.E. Cf. Adonis (1765+), a beau. OED. adonise

. (Of men) to adorn one’s person: C.17–19. Society s. that > Society j. adorable

. H.A.Vachell, 1933, ‘a much debased word; a diabolical twin of “deavie”’: upper and upper-middle class: from ca. 1925. adore . To like (very much): mid-C.19–20; (mostly Society) coll. Ados (pron. Aydoss). Assistant Director of Ordnance Services: army (H. & P.): WW2 and later. His Deputy was, of course, called ‘Daydoss’. Simple acronyms. adrift . Harmless (C.17); discharged (C.18–19); temporarily missing or absent without leave (mid -C.19–20); wide of the mark, confused (C.20: coll.). Nautical. B.E. has ‘I’ll turn ye adrift, a Tar - phrase, I’ll prevent ye doing me any harm’; Bowen records the third sense. In the’absent without leave’ nuance, it has, since ca. 1920, been current among RAF regulars.—2. (Of a knot) undone: RN: C.20. Granville.—3. (Of kit) missing: id. ‘If there’s anything adrift it will come off your slop chit, nobody else’s. All right?’

(Heart). See also quot’n at knickers in a twist for its application to people. (P.B.) ’Ads . God’s: a coll. minced oath occurring in combination (Adsbody, adsheart): late C.17–early 19. Congreve, Smollett. OED. Adullamites . As a political nickname, recorded as early as 1834, but made current in 1866 for a group of seceding Liberals; by 1870, any obstructionists of their own party. Soon coll., now historical. (Cf. cave, q.v.) Ex a reference by Bright to 1 Samuel 22, 1, 2. OED. W. adventure(s), at (all) . At random, wholly at risk: coll.>, by 1600, S.E.; late C.15– 18. Caxton, Berners, Locke. OED. ádvert

(See ad. above) ‘was used by J.Blackwood in 1860 (Letters of George Eliot, 1954, III, 244)’: R.W.Burchfield, New Statesman, 17 Mar. 1966. advertisement conveyancers . Sandwich men: London society: ca. 1883–5. (Ware.) Coined by Gladstone and ridiculed by Society. advertising

. Given to seeking publicity—and using it: coll.: C.20. As in ‘He’s an advertising (sort of) blighter.’ Abbr. selfadvertising. Adzooks ! A coll. expletive or oath: mid-C.18-mid-C.19. I.e.

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Page 7 God’s hooks >‘d’s hooks > ads-hooks > Adzooks. Cf. ‘Ads, q.v. æger

. A medical certificate; a degree taken by one excused for illness (1865): coll. >, by 1890, j. Ex œgrotat (—1794), the same—though always j. aerated , esp. as ‘Don’t get aerated!’—excited or angry: since ca. 1930. (Petch.) Sometimes heard as ‘aeriated’. aerated amateurs

. Pre-WW2 Auxiliaries of the RAF—in 1947, recognised as the Royal Auxiliary Air Force. (P.B.) aerial coolies

. Those airmen who dropped supplies to the Chindits in Burma: Army and RAF: 1943–5. P-G-R. aerial ping-pong

. Australian Rules Football: Sydneysiders’: since ca. 1950. Mostly in ref. to the game in Victoria. (B.P.) aeroplanes . A bow tie: Aus.: since ca. 1938. B., 1942. Ætna

. ‘A small boiler for “brewing”’: Winchester: from ca. 1860; ob. B. & L. afeard . Afraid: C.16–20: S.E. until early C.18, then dial. and coll.; in C.20, sol. Lit., afeared, terrified, ex † afear. Also ‘feard. affair

. Of things, esp. buildings, machines: coll. from ca. 1800, C.20 S.E. Gen. with a preceding adj. or a sequent adj. phrase. E.g. ‘The house was a crazy affair of old corrugated iron’.—2. Male or female genitals: C.19–20; if used euph., it is ineligible, but if used lazily the term is s.— 3. One’s current lover: homosexuals’: current 1970. affair of honour

. A duel resulting in an innocent man’s death: ca. 1800–70. Coll. affidavit men

. Professional witnesses ready to swear to anything: late C.17–18. (Cf. knights of the post, q.v.) B.E., Grose. affigraphy

. See affygraphy. afflicke

, a thief, is either c. or low: C.17. Rowlands, in Martin Markall, But see flick. afflicted

. Tipsy: coll.: early C.18–early 20. (Franklyn, 1737.) Orig. euph. afflictions

. Mourning clothes and accessories: chiefly drapers’, midC.19–20; ob. Hence, mitigated afflictions, half-mourning. affluence of incohol

, esp. under the… The influence of alcohol: jocularly intentional spoonerism: Aus. since late 1950s. (B.P.) But Australia owes it to ‘the legion of North Country comedians who have used the phrase in their “drunk” sketches for years’ (David Holloway in Daily Telegraph, 23 Feb. 1967). affluent society

, the. In 1958 Professor J.K.Galbraith published his book so titled and almost immediately the phrase became a c.p., both in Britain and in the USA. By some people, the unthinkers, it has been held to synonymise ‘the welfare state’; by many, to be basically optimistic, whereas, in the fact, the book is only mildly so. William Safire, The New Language of Politics, New York, 1968. Affs , the. Black Africans: since ca. 1960—and far commoner in South Africa than in Britain. (Roderick Johnson, 1976.) affygraphy

, to an. Exactly; precisely. In an afygraphy, immediately. Early C.19–early 20. Moe notes its occurrence in The Night

Watch (II, 85), 1828. Perhaps a confusion of affidavit and autobiography, and influenced, as Dr Leechman has pointed out, by (in) half a jify. afloat

; with back teeth well afloat. Drunk: from late 1880s; ob. by 1930. afore and ahind (ahint) , before and behind resp., have, since ca. 1880, been either low coll. or perhaps rather sol. when they are not dial. Africa speaks

. Strong liquor from South Africa: Aus. and NZ: C.20. (B., 1941 and 1942.) In The Drum, 1959, B. defines it as ‘cheap fortified wine’. African . ‘A tailor-made cigarette’ (B., 1959): Aus.: since late 1940. African harp . See fish-horn. African Woodbine . Marijuana cigarette: drug addicts’: 1970s. (Home Office.) Woodbine=a well-known brand of cheaper cigarette. Afro

. ‘Having the hair in a spherical, bushy and tightly curled mass, in the style of certain Negroes’ (Powis, 1977). A

style much imitated, for a while in the 1970s, by ‘Whitey’ youth: adopted, early 1970, ex US. DCCU, 1971. aft . Afternoon as in ‘this aft’. Mostly lower-middle class: C.20. Also Can.: since ca. 1910. Brian Moore, The Luck of Ginger Cofey, 1960.—2. In get aft, to be promoted from the lowerdeck to the rank of officer: RN coll.: C.19–20. Granville, ‘The officers’ quarters are in the after-part of the ship’.—3. In be taken aft, to go, as a defaulter, before the Commander: RN coll.: C.20. Granville.—4. See carry both sheets aft. aft through the hawse- hole . (Of an officer) that has gained his commission by promotion from the lower-deck: RN: mid-C.19–20. (Granville.) See hawse-holes… after . Afternoon: Aus.: C.20. (Cf. afto.) H.Drake Brockman, The Fatal Days, 1947, ‘Did you see Mr Scrown this after, Les?’ A much earlier example occurs in Edward Dyson, Fact’ry ‘Ands, 1906. (With thanks to Mr R.W.Burchfield.) See also

arvo. after Davy

. See Alfred Davy. after -dinner

, or afternoon(’s), man. An afternoon tippler: resp.: C.19–20, C.17–19: coll. verging on S.E. Overbury, Earle, Smythe-Palmer. after four , after twelve. 4–5 p.m., 12–2 p.m.: C.19 Eton; the latter is in Whyte Melville’s Good for Nothing. Perhaps rather j. than coll. after game , come the. To say, ‘I told you so’: Aus. coll.: since ca. 1925. B., 1942. after his end (or hole), he is or was

, etc. A workmen’s c.p., applied to a man ‘chasing’ a girl: C.20. after the Lord Mayor’s show (comes the shit -cart)

. A WW1 army c.p. addressed to a man just back from leave, esp. if in time for an imminent ‘show’. B. &. P. Orig. Cockney: late C.19. See DCpp. after you, Claude -no, after you Cecil ! A c.p. since ca. 1940, from the BBC programme, ‘Itma’. Now, 1983, ob. though lingering. The Can. version was after you, my dear Alphonse—no, after you, Gaston. (Leechman, 1959.) By 1970, †. See DCpp.

after you is manners . A late C.17–early 20 c.p. implying the speaker’s consciousness, usu. joc. and ironic, of inferiority. See DCpp. after you

, partner! After you!: coll. c.p.:—1927 (Collinson). Ex cards, esp. bridge. after you with

(the thing). A joc. rejoinder to fuck the…!: c.p.: C.20. after you with the po

, Jane! A c.p. that, ca. 1880–1925, was used during—and refers to—the days of outdoor privies; it lasted until much later, but mostly in burlesque of old -fashioned bedroom usage. after you with the push ! A London street c.p. addressed with ironic politeness to one who has roughly brushed past: ca. 1900–14. Ware. after you with the trough

! A c.p. addressed to someone who has belched and implying that he is a pig and has eaten too fast: North Country: since ca. 1930. (David Wharton.) afterbirth . Rhubarb: Aus. soldiers’: WW2. B., 1943. afternoon

! Good afternoon!: coll.: mid-C. 19–20. Cf. day! and morning! aftexnoon buyer

. One on the look-out for bargains: provincial coll.:—1903 (F. & H., rev.). afternoon farmer

. A procrastinator: s. only in non-farming uses. Mid-C.19– 20, ob. H., 3rd ed. afternoon man

. See after -dinner man. afternoon tea

. Detention after 3 p.m.: Royal High School, Edinburgh (— 1903). afternoonified

. Smart: Society, esp. in London: 1897– ca. 1914. Ware quotes an anecdote. afters

. The second course, if any; thus ‘Any afters?’=’ Any pudding?’: army: C.20. (F. & G.) Also RN lowerdeck, as in Knock, 1932. By 1945, at latest, it had become gen. ‘Often with sexual implication, as in “What’s for afters?”—used by a male at evening meal.’ (Petch.) afto . Afternoon: Aus.: since ca. 1920. B., 1942. See also arvo. Ag and Fish

. See Min. of Ag. below.

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Page 8 against

. Against (i.e. for) the time when: low coll. when not dial.: mid-C.19–20. J.Greenwood, ‘If I don’t get the break-fuss ready against Jim comes in’ (Baumann). against (the) collar . In difficulties; at a disadvantage: ca. 1850–1900. against the grain . Unwilling(ly), unpleasant(ly): mid-C.17–19, coll.; in C.20, S.E. Ray, Swift, Dickens. (Apperson.) Agamemnons

, the Old. The 69th Foot Regiment, now the Welch: military: C.19–20; ob. F. & G., ‘From their service with Nelson on board HMS Agamemnon, 1793–5’. agardente . ‘Fiery spirits…smuggled on board in the Mediterranean’: RN coll.: mid-C.19–20. (Bowen.) Ex Sp. agua ardiente, brandy. agate . A very small person: late C.16–17; coll. > S.E. Ex the tiny figures cut on agate seals. - age

. A beatnik suffix, as in dressage (clothes)— understandage (understanding)—workage (employment): since ca. 1959. (Anderson.) age before beauty is mostly a girl’s mock courtesy to a somewhat older man: late C.19–20. (Mrs S.Pearce, 1975.) See DCpp. age of miracles is past

, the. A cynical cliché that, since ca. 1945, has become a c.p. See DCpp. agen

, agin (esp. the government). Against; in late C.19–20, sol.; earlier, S.E. These are Southern forms of the † again, against. (W.) P.B.: in later C.20 sometimes used for deliberate, humorous, effect. agent , n. One in charge of the job; esp. an ‘outside’ (not an office) man: Public Works’ coll.:—1935. agent

, v. To act as literary agent for (an author or his work): authors’ coll.: since ca. 1930. E.C.R.Lorac, Death before Dinner, 1942. agents . In have (one’s) agents, to be well-informed: army and RAF: since ca. 1939. (Rohan D.Rivett, Behind Bamboo, 1946; E. P., Forces’ Slang (1939–45), 1948.) With an allusion to secret agents. Cf. my spies tell me…, q.v.

-agger

. Mostly in Charterhouse words. E.g. combinaggers, a combination suit (esp. of football attire). From ca. 1890. (A. H.Tod, 1900.) This prefix is very common in Oxford -er words, e.g. Jaggers. See also HARROW and cf. - ugger, under OXFORD -ER(S) in Appendix. aggerawator

, rarely agg(e)ravator; occ. hagrerwa(i)ter or -or. A wellgreased lock of hair twisted spirally, on the temple, towards either the ear or the outer corner of the eye; esp. among costermongers: ca. 1830–1910. For a very early mention, see Dickens’s Sketches by Boz; Ware. Cf. beaucatchers, Newgate knockers. Aggie

. Any ship named Agamemnon: RN: C.19–20. Bowen.—2. Miss Agnes Weston, the philanthropist: nautical: late C.19– 20; ob. Ibid.—3. As aggie, a marble made of agate—or of something that, in appearance, resembles agate: children’s: since ca. 1880. Manchester Evening News, 27 Mar. 1939.—4. Agoraphobia: sufferers’ and associates’: later C.20. Community Care, 12 June 1980. (P.B.)—5. In see Aggie, to visit the w.c.: schools’: mid-C.19–20. Aggie-on-a-horse, or Aggie- on-horseback . HMS Weston-super- Mare: RN: C.20. (Granville.) ‘Weston’ evokes the ‘Aggie’ of ‘Aggie Weston’s’, below.

Aggie Weston’s . The Agnes Weston Sailors’ Home: nautical: late C.19–20. Cf.:Aggie’s

. A Sailor’s Rest House: RN: C.20. ‘These Rest Houses were founded by the late Dame Agnes Weston—the “Mother of the Navy”—at Portsmouth and Devonport’ (Granville). aggranoy or agronoy ; aggrovoke or agrovoke. To annoy; to irritate: Aus.: since ca. 1920. (B., 1942.) The former, however, is also Cockney of ca. 1880+. Blend of aggravate, annoy and provoke. aggravation . A station: rhyming s.:C.20. F. & G. aggregate

, v.t. To amount, in aggregate, to: 1865 (OED): coll. >, by 1920, S.E. aggro

. Now usu. n., but earlier also adj.: trouble-making; aggression and aggressiveness; aggravation or annoyance: orig. hippies’, hence their allies’: since ca. 1965; by 1969, gen., as in ‘Don’t be so bloody aggro, man!’; ‘The aggressive side of his personality…his aggro, as he called it’ (Groupie, 1968). Influenced by other words ending, whether deliberately or, as in demo, accidentally with—o, it has been a useful portmanteau word for a blend of all that is threatening about a mob. In Duff Hart-Davis’s

novel, Spider in the Morning, 1972, one of the characters defines and derives it thus: ‘“Aggro”? Big trouble. It’s short for “aggravation”. Opposite of “hassle”, which is small.’ But by 1978 the sense had weakened for some, so that an apology for a minor inconvenience could be phrased ‘I’m sorry to give you this aggro.’ aggy

. ‘A grouser’: RN: C.20. Perhaps ex ‘agony column’. agility

. In show (one’s) agility, of women, in crossing a stile, in being swung, to show much of the person: ca. 1870–1914. Perhaps a pun on virility, but prob. of anecdotal orig., as Dr Douglas Leechman, who tells one, assured me (1969) he heard ca. 1900. agin

. See agen.

Agincourt . Achicourt, near Arras: army: WW1. Blaker. agitate

. To ring (a bell): joc. coll.: from ca. 1830. Cf.: agitator

. A bell-rope; a knocker: ca. 1860–1900. Ex prec. agolopise

. See ajolopise. agonised buttons

. Anodised, of military ‘brass’ buttons given a permanent shine: army: since ca. 1960. By Hobson-Jobson. (P.B.) agony

. Difficulty, problem; story one has to tell: c.: from ca. 1930. (Gilt Kid.) Ex Conway Training Ship s.: late C.19– earlier 20. Masefield.—2. A newly -joined young officer nervous or confused in command: army Other Ranks’: WW1. F. & G. —3. As Agony, Agny, near Arras: army: WW1. Blaker.—4. As Agony, ‘inevitable’ nickname for any man surnamed Pain(e) or Payn(e): Services’: late C.19–earlier 20. (Cdr C. Parsons, RN ret, 1973.)—5. In pile up (or on ) the agony, to exaggerate: adopted, ex US, ca. 1855; > in C.20, coll., with up now rare. Also put on the agony. agony-bags

. Scottish bagpipes: English (not Scottish) Army officers’: from ca. 1912. agony column

. The personal column in a newspaper’s advertisements (first in The Times). Laurence Oliphant, in Piccadilly, 1870; W.Black, 1873. Coll. by 1880.—2. The letters-and-answers page of women’s magazines. (Petch.) Since ca. 1950. agony in red

. A vermilion costume: London society: ca. 1879–81. Ware. Ex Aestheticism. agony-piler

. (Theatrical) an actor of sensational parts: ca. 1870–1910. agony-waggon

. A medical trolley: military: 1916–18. agree like bells

. Explained by the fuller form, a.l.b., they want nothing but hanging: coll. verging on (proverbial) S.E.: 1630, T.Adams; 1732, Fuller; ob. in C.20. (Apperson.) Cf. the C.18–20 (ob.) agree like pickpockets in a fair. agree like the clocks of London

. To disagree at, and on, all points: proverbial coll.: late C.16–early 18. Nashe, Ray. The elder Disraeli ascribes it, tentatively, to some Italian clock-maker. agreement . See three nines agreement. agricultural

. See cow-shot. Prob. influenced also by mow, n. and v., in cricket j. agricultural one

. See do a rural. agricultural stroke

. There are variants, as in ‘the terms “rustic stroke” and “cow shot” are still in use as deprecatory epithets’ (New Society, 22 July 1982). around . At a loss; ruined: C.18–20. Coll. > in C.19, S.E. ah

, ah! ‘An exclamatory warning to a child’ (Petch): coll.: C.20 or perhaps v. much earlier; if that be so, the expression has long been informal S.E. ah , que je can be bete! How stupid I am: ‘half-society’ (Ware): ca. 1899–1912. Macaronic with Fr. je, I, and bête, stupid. ahead like a whale . See whale, 4.

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Page 9 ahind

, ahint. See afore. aid

. See what’s it in aid of? aidh . Butter: Shelta: C.18–20. B. & L. Aglers

, the. The 87th Foot Regiment; from ca. 1881, the 1st Battalion of the Royal Irish Fusiliers: military: from early C.19; ob. At Barossa, in the Peninsular War, they captured the eagle (Fr. aigle) of a French regiment. Ailsa . Glasgow & South-Western [Railway] Deferred Ordinary Stock (A.J.Wilson): Stock Exchange (—1895). Ailsa being a Scottish Christian name; more prob., however, from Ailsa Craig, the cone-like island off the coast of Ayrshire, Scotland. aim

. The person that aims: coll.: from ca. 1880. Cf. S.E. shot. ainoch

. Thing: Shelta: C.18–20. B. & L. ain’t

. Sol. for am, or is or are, not. Swift, 1710. As=are not, also dial.; as=am or is not, mainly Cockney.—2. Sol. for has not, have not: C.19–20; esp. London. ‘I ain’t done nothing to speak on’ (Baumann). ain’t ain’t grammar . A c.p. used joc. in correcting someone saying ain’t: since ca. 1920. ain’t it a treat

. A street: rhyming s.: from ca. 1870. Pugh (2): ‘Bits of him all up an’ down the ain’t-it-a-treat as fur as the old “Glue Pot”.’ ain’t it grand to be bloomin’ well dead ! c.p. current in the 1930s, from a Leslie Sarony song of the period. (Vernon Noble, 1976.) See DCpp. ain’t love grand

! c.p. adopted, ca. 1930, ex US; earlier in Aus. See DCpp. ain’t Nature grand

(? or!) is a ‘c.p. apposite to anything from illegitimate offspring to tripping over on a muddy path.’ (L.A.): late C.19– 20. ain’t you (or yer) wild yon (or ye’) cant get at it ? A c.p. loudly and jeeringly intoned at young girls passing: Cockneys’: ca. 1910–30. (Franklyn, 1968.) See DCpp. ain’t you got no couf

? ‘Where are your manners, dress -sense, etc.?’: army c.p.: mid-1970s. A pun on the couth of S.E. uncouth; the illiterate form is deliberate, clearly originated by the jocularly erudite. (P.B.; E.P.) air , n. In in the air, (of news, rumours) generally known or suspected, but not yet in print: C.19 coll., C.20 S.E; likely to happen: coll.: since ca. 1920; uncertain, problematic, remote or fanciful: C.19 coll., C.20 S.E.—2. As in ‘left in the air’, without support: army coll.: since ca. 1940. P -G-R.—3. In on the air, (wireless telegraphy) on the ‘wireless’ [i.e. radio] programme; if applied to a person, it often connotes that he—or she—is important, or notorious, as news or publicity: resp. 1927 (OED) and 1930: coll.; by 1935, verging S.E.—4. Hence, on the air, by radio: since ca. 1935: coll. >, ca. 1955, familiar S.E. ‘I heard it on the air.’—5. In take the air, to go for a walk: coll. > S.E.: C. 19–20. Also, make oneself scarce: coll.: from ca. 1880.—6. See give the air; hot air; lay on air. air and exercise . A flogging at the cart’s tail: c: late C.18-early 19. Grose.— 2. Penal servitude: c.: C.19.—3. ‘The pillory, revolving’ (Bee): joc.: ca. 1820–40.—4. A short term in jail: Aus.: C.20. (B., 1942.) Ex 2. air (one’s) bum . See airing, 3. air commode

. An Air Commodore: RAF s.: since ca. 1925. Jackson. air disturber

. A telegraphist rating: RN: since ca. 1930. (Granville.) Cf. such derogatory terms, as grub-spoiler, a Navy cook, and:air-flapper . A (semaphore) signaller: army: early C.20. F. & G. air (one’s) heels

. To loiter, dawdle about: mid-C.19–early 20: s. >, by 1900, coll. air- hole

. ‘A small public garden, gen. a dismally converted graveyard’: London Society: 1885–95. Ware ascribes it to the Metropolitan Public Gardens Assn. P.B.: cf. the later C.20 city planners’ j. use of lung for a public park. Air House , the. The Air Ministry: RAF officers’: from ca. 1919. (Jackson.) On the analogy of the army War House. airman-chair

. A chairman: music-halls’: ca. 1880–1900. (Ware.) By transposition of ch and the duplication of air. air -merchant

. A balloon-officer; a flying man: army: 1917. F.P.H.Prick van Wely, ‘War Words and Peace Pipings’, in English Studies, 1922. air pie and a walk around

. A clerk’s lunch: from ca. 1880. Jim Wolveridge, in He Don’t Know ‘A’ from a Bulls Foot, 1978, writing about Stepney in the 1930s, adds the moving comment ‘Expressions like “I’m living on Air Pie” for “I’m going hungry”, “I havn’t had bit nor bite all day”, or “I’ve seen more dinner times than dinners”…were said in a wryly humorous way, but the bitter reality behind them was a long way from funny.’ air-pill . A bomb dropped from an aircraft: Services’: from ca. 1916; ob. by WW2. F. & G. air (one’s) pores

. To be naked: earlier C.20. Cecil Barr, ‘Amour’ French for Love, 1933. air shot

. ‘Intercourse without ejaculation. After the tube drill where firing is carried out but without a torpedo in the tube’ (John Malin, 1979): RN Submariners’: mid-C.20. air-to-mud . Air-to-ground, as ‘a very small spread in the bullet group —fine for air-to-air, but not so good for air-to mud’ (Phantom): RAF aircrews’: later C.20. Cf. mud -movers, bomber crews. air (one’s) vocabulary . To talk for the sake of talking or for that of effect: coll.: ca. 1820–1920. Air Works , the. The Royal Air Force: RAF: since ca. 1935. ‘Not contemptuous’ (L.A.). airing

. A race run with no intention of winning: turf: ca. 1870– 1914.—2. In give it an airing!, take it away!: coll.: from ca. 1890. Later, also=be quiet!—3. In give (one’s) bum an airing, to visit the w.c.: low: mid - C.20. One woman daytripper to another, getting off a coach, ca. 1950, ‘Shan’t be a moment, Florrie. Must just go and give me bum an airin” (P.B.).—4. In take an airing, to go out as a highwayman: C.18. Anon., A Congratulatory Epistle from a Keformed Rake upon Prostitutes, 1728. airmaids

. Crew of the Air/Sea Rescue boats: RAF: WW2. (H. & P.) Cf. admiral, 2.? Suggested by ‘mermaids’. airmen of the shufty

. Airmen of the watch (in the watch tower on the station): RAF: from ca. 1938. (Jackson.) See shufty. airs

. In give (one) self airs, to put on ‘side’ or ‘swank’: coll. in C.18, then S.E. Fielding. airs and graces

. Faces: rhyming s.: C.20. Cf. Epsom Races, q.v.—2. Braces (for trousers): not very common rhyming s.: C.20.— 3. The Epsom Races: id. Jack Jones, ed., Rhyming Cockney Slang, 1971. Airships , their. The Air Council: RAF: 1947+. (‘Peterborough’ in the Daily Telegraph, 11 Sep. 1947.) A skit on the RN their Lordships, the various ‘Lords’ at the Admiralty. airy , n.Ventilator: prison s.: later C.20. J.McVicar, McVicar by Himself, 1974. airy-fairies . (Large) feet: Cockney: C.20. (London Evening News, 20 Nov. 1937.) Cf. the adj.—2. See:Airy-Fairy

, n. A member of the RNAS; later, Fleet Air Arm: RN coll.: WW1-WW2. (Eric Gell, 1979.) airy-fairy

, adj. As light or dainty as a fairy: coll., now (1935) verging on S.E.: 1869 (W.S.Gilbert). Ex Tennyson’s airy, fairy Lilian (OED Sup.).—2. Shallowly and unthinkingly fanciful, e.g. in argument: coll.: since mid -1920s, I seem to remember; certainly common by ca. 1935. airyard matey

. A civilian mechanic in a Naval Air Station: RN: 1940+. (PG-R.) Cf. the much older dockyard matey. airyvated , ppl adj. Excited; worked-up: low: 1930s. (Gilt Kid.) Ex synon. aerated or aereated. Ajax

. A jakes, a water -closet: late C.16–18. A spate of cloacal wit was loosed by Sir John Harington’s tract, The Metamorphosis of Ajax, 1596. ajay . An amateur journalist: schools of authorship and journalism: since ca. 1920. ajolopise ; more correctly agolopise. To apologise: non-U, joc. perversion: earlier C.20. Ak

. A var. of Ack, q.v. Philip Macdonald, Rope to Spare, 1932.

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Page 10 ak dum

(also spelt ek dum). At once: army: late C.19–earlier 20. (F. &: G.) Ex Hindustani ek dam.—2. A German notice-board: 1916–18. (Ibid.) Ex the caption Achtung!, Beware! ak dum and viggery ! At once!: rare: from 1919. A combination of ak dum, 1, and (corrupted) iggri. I.e. ex two Army phrases, the former from Hindustani, the latter from Arabic! aka . See a.k.a. Akerman’s hotel . Newgate prison. ‘In 1787,’ says Grose, ‘a person of that name was the gaoler, or keeper.’ † by 1850. Akeybo

. As in ‘He beats Akeybo, and Akeybo beats the devil’: proletarian (—1874); ob. H., 5th ed. Cf. Banaghan, Banagher, q.v. Akeybo, however, remains an etymological puzzle. Is there a connexion with Welsh gipsy ake tu!, here thou art! (a toast: cf. here’s to you!). Sampson. akka

. An Egyptian piastre: army: since WW1 and perhaps since late C.19. Ex the slang of Egyptian beggars: piastre corrupted. In the plural akkas, it=money, ‘cash’; in this sense it reached the regulars in the RAF by 1925 at the latest (Jackson).—2. Hence, a Palestinian piastre: Services’: since ca. 1920. Akkas (or Ackers) . A familiar term of address to a unit’s pay-sergeant: army: since ca. 1950, or perhaps earlier. Ex prec. (P.B.) Akky

. ‘[The lorry driver] has been driving for over 20 years, and he’s had this Atkinson truck (he calls it “an Akky”) for 3’ (Ian Walker, in New Society, 21 May 1981).—2. See acky. ala kefak (or kefik ) As in ‘I’m (or he’s) ala kefak’, I’m ‘easy’ (see easy, adj., 2: army, in Near and Middle East: ca. 1940–55. Ex Arabic. P.B.: ‘Major Wilmott was alakefak: so much so, that it was difficult to get him to do any work at all’ (Jocelyn Brooke,

The Military Orchid, 1948, p. 93). alacompain . See allacompain. Alan Whickers

; short form Alans. Feminine knickers (panties): not before 1965, nor very gen. before 1968 or 1969. Ex the BBC broadcaster, known esp. for his series ‘Whicker’s World’. Haden-Guest, 1971.

Alans . See prec. alarm and despondency . War- time depression: 1940+ . Ex speech by Sir Winston Churchill, KG. Esp. (to) spread a. and d . In ref. to early 1942: ‘I was pressed to return urgently to the theatre of my operations and to prepare myself to spread “alarm and despondency” (an expression that was just then coming into fashion)’ (Vladimir Peniakoff, Private Army, 1950): Army, hence Navy and RAF, mostly among officers; since 1945, reminiscent and usu. joc. ‘Popski’ records (p. 128) that on 18 May 1942, ‘a message came on the wireless for me. It said: “SPREAD ALARM AND DESPONDENCY”.’ alarm bird

. Kookaburra: Aus.: C.20. alas , my poor brother! A coll. c.p. of the 1920s. Collinson. Ex a famous advertisement for Bovril, the meat extract. Alb . An Albanian: since ca. 1941. Anthony Quayle, Eight Hours from England, 1945. Albany beef

. North American sturgeon: nautical: mid-C.19–20. (Bowen.) Ex that town. albatross . A hole played in 3 under bogey: golfers’, adopted in 1933 ex US (cf. ‘birdie’, 1 below, and ‘eagle’, 2 below, bogey).

Evening News, 13 Aug. 1937. albert . Abbr. Albert chain: from ca. 1884; coll. till ca. 1901, then S.E. Ex the name of the Prince Consort of Queen Victoria.

Albertine

. ‘An adroit, calculating, business-like mistress’: aristocratic: ca. 1860–80. (Ware.) Ex the character so named in Dumas the Younger’s Le Père Prodigue. Albertopolis . Kensington Gore, London: Londoners’: the 1860s. Yates, 1864; H., 1874, notes it as †. Ex Albert Prince Consort, intimately associated with this district. alberts . ‘Toe-rags as worn by dead-beats and tramps of low degree’ (B., 1942): Aus.: C.20. Worn instead of socks; with pun on albert . Also known as Prince-Alberts (Wilkes). albonised . Whitened: pugilistic, ca. 1855–1900. (‘Ducange Anglicus’, 1857.) Ex L. albus, white. Cf. ebony optic, q.v. alc

. Alcohol: from ca. 1930. (Not very gen.) alcoholic constipation

. ‘Inability to pass a public-house: undergraduates’: 1920– 30’ (R.S.). alderman

. A half-crown: c.: from 1830s; ob. Ex its size. ‘Ducange Anglicus’, 1857: Brandon, 1839.—2. A long pipe (=churchiwarden): ca. 1800–50.—3. A turkey, esp. if roasted and garnished with sausages: late C.18–early 20; var. alderman in chains . George Parker, ca. 1782, says it is c.—4. Late C.19 c., precisely a ‘jemmy’: see citizen. Daily Telegraph, 14 May 1883.—5. A qualified swimmer: Felsted School: ca. 1870–90. Ex the Alders, a deep pool in the Chelmer.—6. A prominent belly: ca. 1890–1940. So many aldermen used to have one.—7. See vote for the alderman; alderman’s nail. alderman in chains

. See prec., 3.

Alderman Lushington . Intoxicants: Aus.: ca. 1850–1900. Ex Alderman Lushington is concerned, (a person) is drunk: c.p.: ca. 1810–50 (Vaux). See also Lushington. aldermanity . The quality of being an alderman; a body of aldermen. From ca. 1625; in C.19–20, S.E. Aldermanship is the regular form, aldermanity a jocular variant, a cultured coll. after humanity . alderman’s eyes . (House) flies: rhyming s.: since ca. 1890; by 1960, ob. (Franklyn 2nd.) alderman’s nail . A tail (esp., a dog’s): rhyming s.: C.19. ‘Reduced to Alderman: “Does he wag his Alderman then?”’ (Franklyn, Rhyming, 2). alderman’s pace

. A slow, dignified gait: coll.: from ca. 1580; ob. Melbancke, 1583; Cotgrave; 1685, S. Wesley the Elder, ‘And struts… as goodly as any alderman’; Grose. Apperson. Aldershot ladies . A double four at darts: darts players’: C.20.—2. A fortyfour (44: two 4s) at tombola—or house (housey-housey), a military version of lotto—or bingo, a social version of house: resp. C.20; C.20; since ca. 1950. A double 4, via the rhyming allusion two whores—Aldershot ladies (of easy virtue). Aldgate

. See pump at Aldgate. ale can

. A habitual heavy drinker of alcohol: latish C.19– earlyish 20; esp. Lancashire. Robert Roberts, The Classic Slum, 1971. ale-draper . An ale-house keeper (implied in 1592): joc. coll. >, by 1750, S.E.; † by 1850. This joc. term actually occurs in the burial-entry of a Lincolnshire parish register of the C.18. ale-head wind, beatin(g) up against an . Drunk: nautical: late C.19–20. I.e. ‘tacking all over the place’, esp. the pavement. ale-knight

. A drunkard; a boon companion (1575): C.16–17: coll. > S.E. ale -spinner

. A brewer; a publican. C.19. ale -stake . A tippler: coll., C.17–18. In S.E. ale-stake=ale-pole, a pole serving as an ale-house sign. Alec

. See Smart Alec.—2. Hence, a dupe, esp. a swindler’s dupe: Aus.: since ca. 1925. (B., 1942.) Ironically derived from sense 1. Also Alex (Margaret Trist, 1946). alecie

, alecy. Lunacy; intoxication: Lyly, 1598. Cited as an example of pedantic noncewords, it may be considered s. because of its derivation, after lunacy, from ale +cy . (N.B.: despite a subconscious belief to the contrary, culture and/or pedantry do not prevent a word from being s. or coll.; indeed, culture and pedantry have their own unconventionalisms.) Alemnoch . Milk: Shelta: C.18–20. B. & L. alert

! ‘Officer or N.C.O. approaching’ (H. & P.): Services’: WW2. Ex the air-raid warning. ales

. The shares of Messrs S.Allsopp & Sons, the brewers: Stock Exchange: from ca. 1880. Also slops. A.J.Wilson.—2. In in his ales, in his cups, or rather his tankards of ale (ale orig. synon. with beer): coll.: C.16–17. Shakespeare. Alex . See Alec, 2. Alexander . To hang (a person): Anglo-Irish coll.: ca. 1670–1800. Ex the merciless way in which Sir Jerome Alexander, an Irish judge in 1660–74, carried out the duties of his office. F. & H. rev. Alexandra limp

. The limp affected, as a compliment to the Princess of Wales, by Society ca. 1865–80. Coll. Chamber’s Journal, 1876. Cf. Grecian bend, q.v.

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Page 11 Alf (or ocker, q.v.

). Of ocker, Barry Prentice, July 1976, remarks that ‘The word was probably coined by a journalist to replace “Alf”, which was an exact synonym… “Alf” has fallen out of favour because of the English TV character, Alf Garnett, who has some, but not all, of the characteristics of the Australian “Alf” or “ocker”. I have never encountered “Alf” as “a heterosexual male “as defined by the late Mr Baker in The Australian Language .” See esp. Wilkes.

’alf a mo’. A cigarette. See ‘arf a mo’, below.—2. A tooth-brush moustache: Aus. military: 1916–45. ’alf a mo’ , Kaiser! A c.p. of 1915–18. (F. & G.) Ex a recruiting pooter thus headed. See DCpp. Alfred David ; Affidavy. Affidavit: sol. resp. 1865, Dickens (and again, ca. 1880, Harry Adams in a music-hall song), and C.19– 20. Occ. mid-C.19–20, after Davy. Cf. David and davy, qq.v. Alf’s peed again . An occ. Hobson-Jobson of aufwiedersehen, “be seeing you’: Brit. Forces in Germany: since (?)ca. 1945. (P.B.) Algerine

. (Theatrical) one who, when salaries are not paid, reproaches the manager. Also, an impecunious borrower of small sums. Ca. 1850–1900. Perhaps ex the US sense: a pirate (1844). Algie, -y . Generic for a young male aristocrat (esp. if English): coll.: from ca. 1895. See my Name This Child, 1936.—2. Seaweed, sludge or refuse in Swan River, Perth: West Aus.: C.20. B., 1942. The pun is on algae. Ali . Inevitable nickname of men surnamed Barber: C.20. (L.J.Cunliffe, Having it Away, 1865.) Ex ‘Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves’. Ali Babas , the. Australian troops in N. Africa, 1942–3. Ex the name bestowed by ‘Lord Haw-Haw’ (William Joyce). Martin Page, The Songs and Ballads of World War II, 1973. alias man . ‘A criminal, especially a morally worthless cheat or hypocrite (West Indian term, originally an eighteenth century English expression)’ (Powis, 1977). alibi . Merely an excuse: since ca. 1935. A slovenliness from the US. Alice . An imitation tree (serving as an observation post) in the Fauquissart sector: WW1 military. (F. & G.) Ex ‘Alice, where

art thou?’, because hard to find. (Alexander McQueen.)—2. The Alice: Alice Springs: Aus. coll.: late C.19–20. Archer Russell, A Tramp Royal in Wild Australia, 1934.—3. See up Alice’s. Alice Springs

, via. ‘Where have you been all this time? Did you go via Alice Springs?’=by a devious route: Aus. since ca. 1945. This town—Nevil Shute’s A Town Like Alice, 1950—is, roughly, in the centre of Australia. (B.P.) Alick . Var. (B., 1943) of Alec, 2. alive

. See all alive; look alive. alive and kicking

; all-alive -o; all alivo. Very alert and active: coll.: resp., since early C.19; since ca. 1840;—1851 (Mayhew, I). W.N.Glascock, Sailors and Saints, 1829, at II, 22, ‘And there she [a ship] is, all alive and kicking’ (Moe). See also all serene; aliveo.

alive and well and living in … See God is alive… alive or dead . Head: rhyming s.:? late C.19–20. Franklyn, Rhyming. aliveo

. Lively; sprightly: (low) coll.: late C.19–20. Ex all alivo. J.Storer Clouston, 1932, ‘Mrs. Morgan considered herself quite as aliveo and beanful as these young chits with no figures.’ See alive and kicking. alkie , -y. An alcoholic: adopted, ca. 1943, ex US. (B.P.) Cf. lush. all

. See and all. all a-cock

. ‘Overthrown, vanquished’ (Ware): proletarian:—1909. Ware thinks .that it derives either ex knocked into a cocked hat or ex cock-fighting. all a treat . ‘Perfection of enjoyment, sometimes used satirically to depict mild catastrophe’ (Ware): London street coll.:— 1909. all about

. Alert; very efficient: mostly RN: C.20. (John Irving, Royal Navalese, 1946.) Contrast:-all about-like shit in a field

. ‘The rider [to prec.] brings a corrective bathos which may be closer to the truth’ (L.A.): RN: C.20. Cf. all over the place… all abroad . See abroad, 1. all afloat

. A coat: rhyming s.:—1859 (H., 1st ed.).—2. A boat: id.: C.20. (Haden-Guest, 1971.) Both var. of I’m afloat. all alive

. Ill -fitting: tailors’: ca. 1850–1910. See alive and kicking. all alive and kissing

. See still alive… all alivo

. See alive and kicking.

all-Aloney

, the. The Cunard liner Alaunia: nautical: earlier C.20. Bowen.

all anyhow

, adj. and adv. Disordered; chaotic: late (?mid-) C.19–20. ‘Taffrail’, Carry On!, 1916 (Moe).

all arms and legs

. See arms and legs.

all around my hat

! See all round my hat.

all ashore as is (or that’s) going ashore

! Used, outside its context, as a hastener, to make people ‘get a move on’: prob. orig. Cockney: C.20. See also

DCpp. Ex departing liners, troopships, etc.

all at sea

. At a loss; confused: C.19–20; coll. from ca. 1890. Cf. abroad, q.v.

all balls and bang-me-arse

balls. (R.S., 1969.)

. A post-WW2 intensive of all balls, q.v. at

all ballsed-up

. Bungled; confused; wrong: Services’; also Aus.: adopted, ca. 1944, ex US servicemen. Cf. balls-up.

all behind

, like a fat woman, or like Barney’s bull . See Barney’s bull and fat woman. But also, in brief, all behind,

applied esp. to fat-bottomed charwomen all behind with their work: C.20. See DCpp.

all behind in Melbourne

. ‘Broad in the beam’: West Australian: C.20. B., 1942.

all betty

! (or it’s all betty!) It’s all up; we’ve failed completely: an underworld c.p. of 1870–1920. (B. & L.) See DCpp.

all brandy

. (Of things) excellent, commendable: non-aristocratic: ca. 1870–1910.

all bum

. A street c.p. applied, ca. 1860–1900, to a woman wearing a large bustle. B. & L.

all callao (or -io)

. Quite happy: nautical: late C.19–20; ob. (Bowen.) Prob. ex Callao, the Peruvian sea-port, to reach which must be a

comfort and a relief. Or, perhaps, ex alcohol.

all can do

no can do, q.v. (P.B.)

. All right: RN: late C.19–20. (Bowen.) From China Stations’ pidgin: the opposite of

all chiefs and no Indians

; occ. elab. to…like the University Regiment . All officers and no Other Ranks: Aus. c.p.; the longer, mostly

Sydneyites’: since ca. 1940. (B.P.) Prob. ex US, it has since passed into much wider usage, e.g., in the British Armed

Forces since, at the latest, mid-1950s. (P.B.) See DCpp.

all clear

. An all-clear signal: coll.: from 1918. Often fig.; orig. in respect of hostile aircraft.—2. A c.p. indicating that officers

and NCOs have gone: Services’: since 1939. (H. & P.) Cf. alert, q.v.

all contributions gratefully received

. Used allusively or out of proper context has, since ca. 1925, been a c.p. See DCpp.

all coppers are

. A truncated version of the c.p. all coppers all bastards, current since, at latest, 1945. The complete phrase should

prob. have been dated C.20. See DCpp.

all cut

. Confused; upset; excited: army: C.20. F. & G.

all day

, or yes, all day. A c.p. reply to a query about the date: C.20. ‘Is today the 10th?’—‘(Yes,) all day’.

all dick(e)y with

. See dickey with.

all dolled up like a baxber’s cat

. Dressed resplendently: Can.: C.20. (Leechman.)

all done by kindness

! Nonchalant and sometimes ironic c.p. of dismissal of thanks for an action that is done to someone else’s

advantage: C.19–20. See DCpp.

all done by —or with—mirrors

, often prec. by it’s. A c.p. uttered when something clever has been done: since ca. 1920. It presumably originated

among stage magicians. See DCpp.

all down the line

. In every way and thoroughly, as in

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Page 12 ‘They’d been seen off [outwitted] all down the line’ (J. Wingate, Oil Strike, 1976): coll.: later C.20. all dressed up and nowhere

(US no place) to go .) Orig., ca. 1915, in ‘a song by Raymond Hitchcock, an American comedian’ (Collinson); by 1937 it was ob.—as it still is, yet, like all day! above, very far from †. all ends up . Easily: coll.: from ca. 1920. (OED Sup.) With a play on anyhow. all fine ladies are witches

. C.p. from C.18: it occurs in Swift’s Polite Conversation, dialogue II. An allusion to women’s intuition? all-fired

. Infernal; cursèd. Orig. (1835) US; anglicised ca. 1860. Thornton. Euphemises hell-fired.—2. Hence the adv. allfiredly: US (1860), anglicised ca. 1870; ob. by 1930. all for it , be. To be entirely in favour of it; hence, over-keen: RN coll.: C.20; by 1925, at latest, gen. coll. all fours

, be or go on. To proceed evenly: C.19–20: coll. all g. y

. All awry or askew: since ca. 1942. all gas and gaiters

is the shortened—the c.p. form—of ‘All is gas and gaiters’ in Dickens’s Nicholas Nickleby, 1838–9. Often applied to bishops and other church dignitaries; the phrase was given new life by the BBC TV comedy series thus named, broadcast in the early 1970s. See also attitude is the art of gunnery and all gas…in DCpp., and gas and gaiters below. all gay ! The coast is clear: C.19 c. Cf. bob, adj., 2. all gong and no dinner . All talk and no action: coll.: C.20. BBC Radio 4, ‘The Archers’ serial, 13 Oct. 1981. All Hallows

. The ‘tolling place’ (?scene of robbery), in Prigging Law (lay): c. of ca. 1580–1630). Greene, 1592. all hands

. ‘All the members of a party, esp. when collectively engaged in work’ (OED): coll.: from ca. 1700. (Farquhar, Dickens.) Ex all hands, the complete (ship’s) crew. Cf.: all hands and the cook . Everybody on the ship: nautical coil.: mid-C.19–20. (Bowen.) The cook being called on only in emergency. allhands ship

. A ship on which all hands are employed continuously: nautical coll.: mid-C.19–20. Bowen. all hands to the pump

. A concentration of effort: C.18–19; ob. by 1890. Coll. rather than s. P.B.: the phrase survived well into C.20. all harbour light

. All right: orig. (1897) and mostly cabbies’ rhyming s.; ob. See also harbour light. all his buttons on

, have. To be shrewd, alert, and/or active: London proletariat: ca. 1880–1915. Ware. all holiday at Peckham

. A mid-C.18–19 proverbial saying=no work and no food (pun on peck); doomed, ruined. Grose, 3rd ed. all honey or all tuxd with them

, usu. prec. by it is. They are either close friends or bitter enemies—they fly from one extreme to the other: midC.18–mid-C.19. Grose, 3rd ed., 1796. all-hot . A hot potato: low (—1857); † by 1900. ‘Ducange Anglicus’, 1st ed. all hot and bothered

. Very agitated, excited, or nervous: coll.: from ca. 1920. The Times, 15 Feb. 1937, in leader on this dictionary. Ex the physical and emotional manifestations of haste. all I know is what I read in the papers . An American c.p. originated by the cowboy philosopher humorist Will Rogers in 1926, it implied: ‘I am just am ordinary citizen, but I’m entitled to my opinions as well.’ The phrase had some currency in Britain too. For a long discussion on it, please see DCpp. all-in

, n. An all-in assurance policy: insurance-world coll.: from ca. 1927. all in

, adj. (Stock Exchange) depressed (of the market): coll.: mid -C.19–20; opp. all out. These are also terms shouted by dealers when prices are, esp., falling or rising.—2. Hence, in C.20, all in (of persons, occ. of animals)=exhausted.— 3. ‘Without limit or restriction’ (C.J.Dennis): Aus. coll.: C.20. Cf. S.E. nuance, ‘inclusive of all’.

all in a bust

. See bust, n., 4. all in a pucker

. See pucker. all in fits

. (Of clothes) ill-made: mid-C.19–earlier 20: tailors’. all in the eye

. All nonsense; humbug: ca. 1820–80. Cf. all my eye, q.v. Bill Truck, 1821, has all in my eye. all in the seven

. See seven. all is bob

! See bob, adj., 2. all is fish that comes to net

. All serves the purpose: proverbial coll.: mid-C.17–20. In late C.19–20, rarely without my, his, etc., before net. all jam and Jerusalem

. A slightly derogatory c.p. directed at the Women’s Institutes: since ca. 1925. Ex Blake’s hymn, used as a ‘signature

tune’, propounding a social programme on the one hand, and their jam-making contests on the other. (R. S.) A very English phrase concerning a very English institution. all jaw (like a sheep’s head) . Excessively talkative; eloquent: later C.19–early 20. Var. all mouth, q.v. all jelly

. See jelly. all K.F.S.

All correct and complete: RNAS: WW1. (S/Ldr R. Raymond, 1945.) I.e. standard regulation issue knife, fork, and spoon. all kiff . All right, all correct: army,—1914 >, by 1920, fairly gen.; ob. by 1940. (F. & G.; Manchon.) Prob. ex Fr. s. kif-kif, or perhaps even a truncated version of prec. all laized (or mockered) up . Flashily dressed: Aus.: late C.19–20. (Cf. lair and mockered.) Also…lared… all languages

. Bad language: coll.: ca. 1800–40. Sessions, Dec. 1809. all legs and wings

. (Of a sailing vessel) over-masted: nautical: late C.19–20; ob. Bowen. all Lombard Street to a Brummagem sixpence

is a c.p., a joc. var. of all Lombard Street to a china orange. Meaning ‘heavy odds’, the orig. and originating… china orange (a piece of chinaware) has the further variants… to ninepence and… to an egg-shell; all three variants arose in C.19, and all, except…china orange, are ob. The ref. is to the wealth of the famous London street of banks. all manner . All kinds of things, ‘things’ usu. being made specific to suit the context: lower classes’ coll.: from ca. 1870. Nevinson, 1895, ‘Through its bein’ a boy, there didn’t seem nothink necessary to call it. So we called it all manner, and out of all its names’, etc. all marked

. ‘Jocular for Hall-marked, generally for inferior articles which would hardly be of the hallmarked class’ (Petch): since late 1940s. all mouth and trousers . An extension of all mouth, which dates from prob. late C.19, concerning a loud-talking, blustering man: since midC.20. L.A. records hearing it on TV, 1 July 1964. Prob. influenced by synon. all prick and breeches: since ca. 1920. all my eye (and Betty Martin)

. Nonsense! ‘All my eye is perhaps the earliest form (Goldsmith has it in 1768), although it is clear that Grose’s version’—that’s my eye, Betty Martin—‘was already familiar in 1785…Cf. the Fr. mon œil!,’ Grose, P. The Betty

Martin part, despite ingenious, too ingenious, hypotheses (esp. that sponsored by Bee and silently borrowed by H.: ‘a corruption…of…Oh, mihi, beate Martine ’), remains a mystery. It is, however, interesting to note that Moore the poet has, in 1819, all my eye, Betty, and Poole, in Hamlet Travestied, 1811, has that’s all my eye and Tommy; this problematic tommy recurs in like Hell and Tommy (W.). In The Phœnician Origin of Britons, Scots, and Anglo-Saxons, 1914, Dr L.A.Waddell derives the phrase from o mihi, Brito Martis, ‘Oh (bring help) to me, Brito Martis’. She was the tutelary goddess of Crete, and her cult was that of, or associated with, the sun-cult of the Phoenicians, who so early traded with the Britons for Cornish tin. (I owe the reference to Mr Albert B.Petch.) Cf. the next two entries, and see DCpp. for a much longer discussion, all my eye and (my) elbow

. A London elab. of prec.: 1882; † by 1920. Ware, ‘One can wink with the eye and nudge with

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Page 13 the elbow at once’; he also points to the possibility of mere alliteration. Cf.: all my eye and my grandmother

. A London var. (—1887) of the prec.; ob. (Baumann.) Cf. so’s your grandmother!, which, in late C.19–20, expresses incredulity: gen. throughout England. all my whiskers . See whiskers, 2. all nations

. A mixture of drinks from all the unfinished bottles: late C.18–early 19. Grose, 1st ed.—2. A coat many-coloured or much-patched: C.19.—3. See Bell and Horns. all-night man . A body-snatcher: ca. 1800–50. See esp. Ramsay, Beminiscences, 1861. all-nighter

. ‘Prostitutes still classify their clients as “short-timers” and “all-nighters”’ (John Gosling & Douglas Warner, The Shame of a City, 1960): late C.19–20. all of a dither . Trembling, shivering, esp. with fear. A phrase app. first recorded, as ‘unconventional’, in 1917, but existing in Lancashire dial. at least as early as 1817.

all of a doodah . Nervous: C.20. See doodah.—2. Hence, esp. ‘of an aeroplane pilot getting nervous in mid-air’: RFC/ RAF: from 1915. F. & G. all of a heap . Astounded; nonplussed: C.18–20; coll. by 1800. In Shakespeare, all on a heap.—2. Hence, in strike (from ca. 1895, often knock) all of a heap, to cause to collapse: coll.: —1818 (Scott: ‘Strike, to use the vulgar phrase, all of a heap.’) In C.18, the form was strike all on a heap, recorded for 1711, but Richardson adumbrated the mod. form with ‘He seem’d quite struck of a heap,’ 1741. OED. all of a hough , or huh. Clumsy; unworkmanlike: tailors’, ca. 1870–1914. —2. Lopsided: as all of a hoo, it occurs in W.N. Glascock, The Naval Sketch- Book, II, 1829, and as all ahoo in The Night Watch (II, 85), 1828. (Moe.) Hotten records it, as huh, in his 1st ed.: ex Somerset dial. all of a piece

. ‘Awkward, without proper distribution or relation of parts’: low coll. (—1909); slightly ob. Ware. all of a sweat

. (Of a street, pavement, etc.) like a bog; slushy: coll., esp. London:—1887 (Baumann). all of a tiswas (or tizwas)

. Very much excited; utterly confused: perhaps orig. RAF, from early 1940s; soon > gen. Occ. as in, e.g., ‘She was in

a bit of a tiswas’, i.e. not quite so agitated as all of a… Perhaps an elab. of tizzy, n., 2, q.v., or a blend of it is, it was; cf. the later Shell Petrol advertising slogan ‘That’s Shell—that was!’ All Old Crocks

; or Angels of Christ . Army Ordnance Corps: army: WW1. Puns on the official initials. The Corps was designated ‘Royal’ for its services in WW1. all on (one’s) lonesome . See lonesome. all on the go

. Intensified on the go, q.v. all on top

! That’s untrue!: underworld c.p.: since ca. 1920. The evidence is all—but only—on top; in short, superficial. all out

. Completely: since C.14; coll. > S.E. by ca. 1750. OED.—2.Of a big drink, ex drink all out, to empty a glass: coll.: C.17–19.—3. In error: C.19–20.—4. Unsuccessful: turf: ca. 1870–1900.—5. Improving: Stock Exchange. See all in. —6. Exhausted: athletics, later C.19; then gen. In later C.20, gen. all in. Contrast:—7. In post -WW1 athletics coll. it also means exerting every effort, as indeed it has done in gen. use since the early 1890s; by 1930, S.E. OED .

all over

. Feeling ill or sore all over the body: coll.: 1851, Mayhew, who affords also the earliest Eng. instance of all-overish. — 2. In be all over, to be dead: lower -class coll.: 1898 (E.Pugh, Tony Drum).—3. In be all over, to make a great fuss of, esp. with caresses: C.20. (Of a monkey) ‘He’ll be all over you as soon as he gets to know you,’ which indicates the semantics: The Humorist, 28 July 1934 (Lyell).—4. Hence, to be infatuated with: from ca. 1925. all over-bar

(occ. but) the shouting, often preceded by it’s. Only the formalities remain before the affair is concluded: since1842, sometimes a genuine proverbial saying but in C.20 almost entirely a c.p. See DCpp . all over grumble . Inferior; very unsatisfactory: London proletarian: 1886, The Referee, 28 Mar. ‘It has been a case of all over grumble, but Thursday’s show was all over approval’; ob. Ware. all-over pattern . A pattern that is either very intricate or non-recurrent or formed of units unseparated by the ‘ground’: coll. from ca. 1880. all over red . Dangerous: ca. 1860–1920. (Ware.) Ex the railway signal. all over (one) self

. Very much pleased; over-confident: earlier C.20, esp. army. Lyell. all over the auction

. ‘All over the place’: Cockney and Aus.: since ca. 1910. (K.S.Prichard, Haxby’s Circus, 1930.) Var. of all over the shop . all over the place like a mad woman’s shit . A state of complete untidiness and disarray or utter confusion: Aus.: since ca. 1950. (Mrs Camilla Raab, 1978.) Wilkes quotes the euph. variants…mad woman’s knitting (1953);…custard (1957);…lunch box (1973). all over the shop . Much scattered, spread out, dispersed; erratic in course: 1874 (=1873), H., 5th ed., ‘In pugilistic slang, to punish a

man severely is “to knock him all over the shop”, i.e. the ring, the place in which the work is done’; 1886, Pall Mall Gazette, 29 July, ‘Formerly, the authorities associated with our fisheries were “all over the shop”, if a vulgarism of the day be permissible’ (OED): coll. >, ca. 1910, S.E. Ex shop, n., 4. all over with

, it is. (Of persons) ruined; disgraced; fatally ill or mortally wounded: from ca. 1860; coll. soon S.E. Cf. the L. actum est de. SOD. all-overish . Having an indefinite feeling of general indisposition or unease: from ca. 1840: coll. Perhaps ex US, where it is recorded as early as 1833 (Thornton). Cf. all over, 1. all-overishness . The state of feeling ‘all-overish’ (q.v.): from ca. 1840; coll. Early examples in Harrison Ainsworth (1854) and John Mills (1841). all (one’s) own . One’s own master: London apprentices’: ca. 1850–1905. Ware. all part of the service , it’s. See just part of… all parts bearing an equal strain

. A RN c.p.=All’s well; no complaints: since ca. 1930. Granville.—2. Lying down (comfortably): joc.: since ca. 1945. (Peter Sanders.) all pills ! See pills!, all. all pissed-up and nothing to show . A working-class c.p. directed at one who has spent all his wages, or winnings, on drink: since ca. 1910. all plopa

. Quite right; correct: pidgin: mid-C.19–20. B. & L. all present and correct

. All correct: coll.: from ca. 1918. R.Knox, Still Dead, 1934, ‘“Is that all present and correct?” “Couldn’t be better.”’ Ex the military phrase (applied by a sergeant-major to a parade). all poshed up . See all spruced up. all profit

! C.20 barbers’ c.p., spoken usu. to the customer himself, when no ‘dressing’ is required on the hair. all quiet on the Western Front

. Orig. a phrase used in War Office communiqués during WW1; during the latter half of that war it roused the derision and ribaldry of the men fighting it instead of writing about it, and it was they who originated the c.p.

which is still in use to describe a situation in which nothing much is happening. For much fuller treatment see DCpp., which includes the synon. var. all quiet in the Shipka Pass. all revved- up

. See revved-up. all right

. Virtuous: coll.: late C. 19–20. (W.B Maxwell, Hill Rise, 1908.) Cf. a bit of all right, excellent; most attractive, delightful: coll.: from ca. 1870. Often applied by a fellow to a girl, with the connotation that she is very pretty or very charming or, in the sexual act, ardent or expert (or both). Slightly ob. Cf. the mock-French translation: un petit morceau de tout droit. This sense ex:—2. (Adj. and adv.) As expected; safe(ly); satisfactor(il)y: coll.: 1844, Edward FitzGerald, ‘I got your letter all right’ (OED). In C.20, S.E. Orig. c.: ca. 1810–40: ‘All’s safe or in good order or as desired’ (Lex.

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Page 14 Bal.).—3. Hence also, all right!: Yes!, agreed!; you needn’t worry!; certainly!; gladly!: 1837 (Dickens): coll. till C.20, then S.E. Cf. synon. right -(h)o, rightio (righty-o) !, right you are! and that’s right ! The earlier C.20 duplication, as in D.L.Sayers, Murder Must Advertise, 1933, ‘She’s a smart jane all right, all right’, is emphatic coll. See E.P.’s Usage and Abusage for his contention that the var. form alright is both illogical and erroneous. all right—don’t pipe it ! ‘Addressed to a man who speaks too loud, in the manner of a Tannoy [public address system], for all to hear when all should not hear’ (Granville, 1970): RN lowerdeck: since ca. 1930. all right for some ! (, it’s). ‘Some people have all the luck. A c.p. of disgruntlement and envy by one of the luckless’ (Granville, 1969): C.20. Cf:all right for you (, it’s). Ironical to these worse off than oneself: Services’: since ca. 1940. (H. & P.) This was an adoptation of the older nuance, which deprecated another’s ‘sitting pretty’; a coll. shortening of it’s all right for you to laugh. all right on the night (, it’ll be). I.e. the first night, the opening night: actors’ c.p. applied to a bad rehearsal: since ca. 1890 (Granville). Since ca.

1920, adopted in the larger world to small things going wrong, but optimistically hoped to go right. See

DCpp . all right up to now

. Serene, smiling: a c.p., mainly women’s: 1878-ca. 1915. ‘Used by Herbert Campbell…in Covent Garden Theatre Pantomime, 1878’, Ware, who adds that it is derived ex ‘enceinte women making the remark as to their condition’. all round

. Versatile; adaptable, whether at sport or in life (James Payn, 1881); of things, or rents, average (1869: OED). S.E. bordering on coll. all round (earlier around) my hat. In feel all round (one’s) hat, to feel indisposed: Cockneys’: mid-C.19–early 20. Manchon. —2. As exclam., nonsense!: id.: ca. 1834–90. Hence spicy as all round my hat, sensational: 1882 (Punch) .—3. All over; completely: ca. 1880–1925. (Milliken.) Perhaps ex the broadside ballad, ‘All round my hat I wears a green willow.’ all round St Paul’s-not forgetting the trunkmaker’s daughter . A book-world c.p. applied to unsaleable books: late C.18– early 19. ‘By the trunkmaker was understood-…the depository for unsalable books’ (Globe, 1 July 1890, quoted in OED). At that period, and, indeed, until ‘the London blitz’

of 1940–1, the district around St Paul’s was famous for its bookshops and its book-publishers. all round the option

. All over the place: coll.: since ca. 1950, perhaps earlier. Alan Hunter, Gently Down the Stream, 1957, ‘the Old Man was still phoning all round the option…’ Var. of all over the auction, itself prob. a var. of all over the shop. (P.B.) allrounder

. A versatile or adaptable person, esp. at sport (—1887); coll. >, by 1910, S.E.—2. A collar of equal height all round and meeting in front. (Trollope, 1857; and also in 1857, J.B., Scenes from the Lives of Robson and Redpath.) Unfashionable by ca. 1885, rarely worn after 1890. all Saints

. See mother of all saints. all same

. All the same; like; equal: pidgin: mid-C.19–20. (B. & L.) In Hong Kong, among Servicemen, 1960s, often all same like… Ware records the elab., from—1883, allee samee. all serene . Correct; safe; favourable: c.p., now ob. Dickens, 1853: ‘An audience will sit in a theatre and listen to a string of brilliant witticisms, with perfect immobility; but let some fellow…roar out “It’s all serene”, or “Catch ‘em all alive, oh!” (this last is sure to take), pit, boxes, and gallery roar

with laughter.’ In 1901, Fergus Hume used the rare var. all sereno (OED) . Earlier in Sessions, 8 Apr. 1852: policeman log., ‘He said, “It is all serene”—that means calm, square, beautiful’. ‘In Spanish towns, a night-watchman was employed in each street to prevent thieving and to call the hours and the state of the weather, in that climate for much of the year “sereno”—from which familiar call he got his name. His modern counterpart has the house- door keys for his street, so that he can admit residents returning home after the concierge has gone to bed, and who call for his services by clapping their hands… Could Gibraltar (captured by us in 1704, thanks to the foresight of S.Pepys) be the channel through which “all serene” reached Eng., especially as Eng. night-watchmen of the period were used to calling e.g. “One o’ the clock, and all’s well”?’ (R.S., 1967.) all set

. (Of a rogue, a desperate character) ‘ready to start upon any kind of robbery, or other mischief’ (Bee, 1823): low, or perhaps c.—2. Ready; arranged in order; comfortable: coll.: from ca. 1870. Often, in later C.20, all set up. all(-)shapes

. ‘Lacking regularity of form. The lino-layer says the room is all-shapes, hence he must cut a lot to waste; the electrician fitting numerous short lengths of conduit at odd angles says the wall is all-shapes’ (Julian Franklyn): coll.: late C.19–20. all shot

(or hyphenated). Rendered useless or inoperative: RN, and later, occ. army: late C.19–mid-20. (W.G.Carr, Brass-Hats…, 1939: Moe.) In short, ‘all shot up’ or ‘shot to pieces’. all-singing all-dancing . Describes anything, esp. a piece of equipment, that is particularly spectacular and/or versatile: Services’: since ca. 1970. ‘The new tank…is expected to be the last word in tank design: an all- singing, all -dancing model which will make [its rivals] look like museum pieces by comparison’ (Listener, 22 Feb. 1979). Ex musical extravaganza. (P.B.) all Sir Garnet

. See Sir Garnet and DCpp. all smart

. Everything’s all right: army: early C.20. all smoke

, gammon and pickles or spinach. All nothing, i.e. all nonsense: ca. 1870–1900. all sorts

. Tap- droppings (Bee, 1823); Cf. alls, all nations.—2. Coll. >, in late C.19, idiomatic S.E. is the phrase as used in these two examples from the OED: 1794, Mrs Radcliffe, ‘There they were, all drinking Tuscany wine and all sorts’; 1839, Hood, ‘There’s a shop of all sorts, that sells everything.’ all souls . See mother of all sorts. All Souls’ Parish Magazine . The Times: University of Oxford: ca. 1920–40. Christopher Hobhouse, Oxford, 1939, says that the Editor and his associates, who were Fellows of the College, often met there in order to discuss policy. all spice , all-spice. A grocer: mid- C.19–20; ob. The S.E. sense, aromatic herb, goes back to the early C.17. all spruced up—poshed up—togged up

. Smartened up, esp. to meet someone: C.20: resp. coll., s. (not before 1915), and s. (late C.19–20); the second was orig. army (F. & G.). In later C.20, all dolled or tarted up. all standing . In brought up a.s., unable to deal with a situation: RN coll.: C.19–20. Granville.—2. In sleep or turn a.s., ‘To turn in with one’s one’s clothes on’: nautical coll.: sleep is recorded in Alfred Burton, 1818, and turn in in John Davis, 1806. The orig. is explained in this quot’n from Basil Hall, Fragments of Voyages and Travels, 1st series, 1831: ‘I was

fain to lie down “all standing”, as we call it at sea, “like a trooper’s horse”…’ A horse can sleep standing up. all systems go

. ‘A c.p. for preparedness for any endeavour; often used humorously’ (Vernon Noble, 1974): adopted, ex US, ca. 1970. Ex the US space exploration programme’s j. of the 1960s. See DCpp. all t.h . Good; correct: tailors’ A1, all right: ca. 1860–1910. P.B.: t.h.=?top-hole. all taut

. Prepared for anything: RN: C.20. (Granville.) Ex:—2. Everything ready: RN coll.: late C.19–20. all that

. Short for all that sort of thing, it has in C.20, esp. since ca. 1920, become narrowed to ‘sex’ in general and to ‘sexual caresses’, and esp. to copulation: partly euph. and partly coll. Petch cites Margaret Powell, The Treasure Upstairs, 1970, ‘She was…a virgin when she married and she knew nothing about “all that”, so the honeymoon was a revolting experience, ruined by “all that”, and since then she has never

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Page 15 been able to do with “all that”’—which must surely form the locus classicus for this phrase.—2. In not all that, mostly with ‘bad’ or ‘good’, as in ‘Seen a lot of people lately, and my memory isn’t all that [good]’ (E.C.R.Lorac, Death Came Softly, 1943): working-class, esp. Cockney, coll.: since ca. 1910.—3. See and all that; give it all that. all that jazz

. See and all that jazz, at JAZZ. all that sort of thing

. Has long been S.E., but was regarded by ‘Jon Bee’, 1823 (see at warblers), as coll. all the

... In the game of House, ‘double numbers such as “fiftyfive”, are called thus: “all the fives”,’ Michael Harrison, Reported Safe Arrival, 1943: late C.19–20: coll., almost j. See TOMBOLA, in the Appendix. all the best . Elliptical for ‘I wish you all the best of everything’. ‘A form of leave-taking, meant to be informal,… casual but sincere’ (L.A.): C.20: coll. Philip Callow, Going to the Moon, 1968, ‘He was rocklike, sunny, he stood for something in my eyes… Outside we said all the best and went off in different directions. I never saw him again.’

all the better for seeing you

! A c.p. reply to ‘how are you?’: late C.19–20. all the go

. Genuine; thoroughly satisfactory; esp. in demand, fashionable (see go): since ca. 1780. Charles Dibdin in The Britannic Magazine (I, No. 3, p. 34), 1793, ‘Thus be we sailors all the go’ (Moe). all the same in a hundred years . See It’ll all be the same… all the shoot

. Occ. var., earlier C.20, of (the) whole shoot. all the traffic will bear

(, that’s). A c.p. relating orig. to fares: Can., adopted ca. 1948 ex US; by 1955, also Brit. ‘Said to derive from a US magnate’s cynicism’ (Leechman). Hence take it for all the traffic will bear, squeeze as much money, prestige, etc., as you can out of the situation. all the way down

. Completely suitable or suited: coll., ca. 1850–1910. Lit., from top to toe.—2. Hence, as adv.: excellently. A coll. of late C.19–20. (Manchon.) Cf. all down the line, which may also be used in this sense, as ‘That suits me all…’ (P.B.). all the way there

. A var., ca. 1860–90, of all there. H., 3rd ed. all the world and his dog

. A (?mostly Aus.) var. of:-all the world and his wife

. Everybody: joc. coll.: since early C.18. (Swift.) Cf. the Fr. tout le monde et son père (W.). all the year round

. A twelve-months’ prison sentence: Aus. c.: since ca. 1925. B., 1943. all there

, Honest, reliable (—1860: H., 2nd ed.); readywitted (1880); sane (late C.19–20: Lyell).—2. Applied to ‘one with his whole thought directed to the occasion, totus in illis, as Horace says, and so at his best’ (Notes & Queries, 24 Apr. 1937): coll.: from ca. 1885. all there and a ha’porth over

. An intensification of prec.: ca. 1870–1914. all there but the most of you ! A low, raffish c.p. applied to copulation: mid-C.19–mid20. all things (or everything) to all men and nothing (or not anything) to one man

. A c.p. aimed at prostitutes or at promiscuous women: since ca. 1940. all tickettyboo

. See tickettyboo. all tits and teeth

. (Of a woman) having protrusive breasts and large teeth: a low c.p.: C.20–2. (Of a woman) having an artificial smile and considerable skill in mammary display: a low, mostly Cockney, c.p.: since ca. 1910. ‘I have sometimes heard this amplified: “…like a third -row chorus girl”, i.e. one who can neither sing nor dance, and who depends upon the display of her exceptional physique to keep her on the stage’ (R.S., 1967). all to buggery

. See buggery, 1. all to cock

. Awry; (of a statement) inaccurate; (of work) bungled; utterty confused, all mixed-up: coll: C.20. Cf. all to buggery, and cock, n., 14. all to pieces . Gen. with be or go. Exhausted; collapsed; ruined: from ca. 1665: coll. till C.19, then S.E. Pepys, 29 Aug. 1667, ‘The Court is at this day all to pieces’; Ray, of a bankrupt.—2. Out of form or condition: C.19–early 20.—3. (Of a woman) confined: id. Senses 2 and 3 esp. with go. all to smash

. Utterly:—1861 (Cuthbert Bede); ob. by 1930.—2. Ruined, bankrupt: mid-C.19–20. (H., 1st ed.) A var. of prec., 1. all to sticks

. See sticks, 12. all together like Brown(e)’s cows

(often prec. by we’re). (We’re) alone: Anglo-Irish c.p.: late C.19–20. The Brown of the anecdote possessed only one cow. all togged up . See all spruced up. all u.p . See u.p. all unnecessary

. In (make one) come over (or go) all unnecessary, to excite, to become excited, esp. sexually, by a member of the opposite sex: since ca. 1930. ‘Ooh, the beast! He made me come over all unnecessary.’ Cf. synon. do things to or for. The implications are functional. all- up , n. An ‘easy’; a rest: Public Schools’: early C.20. Desmond Coke, The School across the Road, 1910. all up the country with (one), be

. To be ruin, or death, for: coll.:—1887 (Baumann); † by 1935. Prob. an elab. of:-all up with

. Of things, projects: fruitless, ruined: late C.18–20. Of persons: bankrupt, utterly foiled, doomed to die. The nuance ‘utterly exhausted, virtually defeated’—e.g. in boxing—occurs in Boxiana, I, 1818. It’s all up occurs in vol. III, 1821. An early example of all up with as ‘doomed to die’ was found by Moe in the London Magazine, Aug. 1822, an article ‘English Smugglers’, of a skiff and a woman,’ “It’s all up with her now,”…and the next morning the corse [corpse] of Nancy Woodriff was found on the sands.’ Rarely up alone. all upon

. See upon, 2. all-upper . ‘A punter who bets “all-up” on a number of races’ (B., 1943): Aus.: C.20.

All Very Cushy

. Pun on the initials of the Army Veterinary Corps, formed 1903, made ‘Royal’ in 1918: army: WW1, ?earlier. (F. & G.) See cushy. all very large and fine . A c.p. indicative of ironic approval: coll.: 1886; ob. by 1936. Ex ‘the refrain of a song sung by Mr Herbert Campbell’ (Ware). Cf. all right up to now. all wet . ‘Silly, foolish’ (B., 1959): this form perhaps mostly Aus.: since ca. 1920. See wet, n., 3, and adj., 7–9. all white and spiteful

. Orig. domestic cliché, applied to a woman at the time of her menstruation, or to a child still up long past its bedtime, it has > gen. coll. when applied to the same symptoms in other contexts: C.20. See DCpp. at white. all wind and piss . A contemptuous c.p. for a boastful and ineffective ‘loudmouth’: (prob. C.19–) C.20. Ex the semiproverbial C.18–20 like the barber’s cat—all… Powis notes that, in later C.20, water is sometimes substituted as euph. for piss. all wool and a yard wide . Utterly good and honest (of a person): late C.19–earlier 20. Ex drapery. all ye in

. ‘Schoolboys’ call when school is going in from play or when players in game must gather’ (L.A.): C.20. allacompain

. Rain: rhyming s.:—1859 (H., 1st ed.); ob. by 1960. Franklyn proposes a mishearing of all complain, rather than the accepted ‘alternative spelling of elecampane, the wild plant “horse-heel”’ ( Rhyming, p. 31). allee samee . See all same. alleluia

! ‘A call to shut the tap when boiler washing’ (Railway, 2nd): railwaymen’s: earlier C.20.—2. See hallelujah. alleluia lass

. A Salvation Army girl: London proletarian: from 1886. (Ware.) Cf. Sally Army. alleviator

. A drink: coined by Mark Lemon in the 1840s, and still extant in Aus., 1940s. B., 1943. alley

. A marble of medium size: schoolboys’ coll.: since C.18; in C.20 S.E. (Defoe.) Perhaps ex alabaster. P.B.: a blood alley was a large, milky-white glass marble with red streaks in it: Sussex, early C.20.—2. A go -between: proletarian: —1909 (Ware, who derives it ex Fr. aller, to go); † by 1935.—3. A two-up school: Aus.: C.20. B., 1943.—4. In (right) up

(one’s) alley, one’s concern, applied to what one knows or can do

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Page 16 very well: coll.: since ca. 1905. Deliberate var. of… street. Hence, since ca. 1910, applied to something delightful.—5. In up your alley !, a rude retort (Jonathan Thomas, 1976). Cf. up your gonga or pipe, up yours!, etc.—6. As the Alley, coll. abbr. of Change Alley, London, the scene of the gambling in South Sea stocks in early C.18.—7. In toss in the alley, to die: Aus.:—1916 (C.J.Dennis). Ex sense 1 or 3. —8. See ally! alley cat . A girl, a woman, of loose, or no, morals: adopted, ca. 1960, ex US. DCCU, 1971. alley-marble

. In, e.g. ‘that’s just my alley-marble’, it is entirely welcome and exactly suitable: coll.: since ca. 1920. Prob. a blend of alley, 1 and 4, qq.v. (P.B.) alley up . To pay one’s share: Aus.: C.20. (B., 1942.) Ex the game of marbles. alleyed . Gone away; dead: army: WW1. See ally! Alleyman

. A German: military: late 1914–15. (B. & P.) Ex Fr. Allemand. See Fritz and Jerry. allez oop

! Up with you: C.20. (Pamela Branch, The Wooden Overcoat, 1951.) ‘Also used by acrobats when one of them has to be thrown high. First heard in childhood, ca. 1895’ (Leechman). allicholy . Melancholy: joc. coll. or deliberate s. in Shakespeare’s Two Gentlemen of Verona: punning ale+ melancholy. alligator

. A herring: eating- and coffee-houses’: mid-C.19–20. Often with an intrusive h, as halligator.—2. One who, singing, opens his mouth wide: ca. 1820–50. Bee.—3. Later: rhyming s.: C.20. Franklyn, Rhyming.—4. A horse: Aus.: since ca. 1925. B., 1943. alligator boots

. Boots with ‘uppers parted from sides, due to soaking up diesel oil’ (McKenna, Glossary): railwaymen’s: since midC.20. Ex appearance. alligator bull . ‘Nonsense, senseless chatter’ (B., 1942): Aus.: since ca. 1920. There are no alligators in N. Australia. See bullshit. alligator pear

. An avocado pear: S. African coll.:—1892 (Pettman). By corruprion. allo

. All; every: pidgin Eng.: mid- C.19–20. ‘ O is added to many words in pidgin in an arbitrary manner’ (B. & L.). P.B.: not so arbitrary! The Chinese language contains no L as a final consonant; therefore a native Chinese-speaker must add another open syllable to cope with the difficulty. allow

. Weekly pocket-money: Harrow School: C.19–early 20. Shortened allowance. allow me

! Allow me to congratulate you: Rugby School-boys’: from ca. 1880. alls

. Short for all nations (tap-droppings), q.v.; ca. 1840–1914. —2. Also, ca. 1850–1900, a workman’s term—the American equivalent is, or used to be, bens—for his tools. all’s quiet on the Western Front . See all quiet … all’s rug (or all rug or it’s all rug) . ‘It’s all Rug, c. The Game is Secured’ (B.E., Gent, 1698)— all is safe: late C.17–19. Cf. both the proverbial snug as a bug in a rug and: all’s snug ! All is safe: an underworld c.p. of C.18–mid-19. Var. of prec. Allslops

. Allsopp & Sons’ ale: not upper-classes’: from ca. 1900. It had a slump in quality at one time; the name has unjustly stuck. By mid-C.20, abbr. slops. ally or alley ! Go away!; clear off!; military: from 1915. Fr. allez(-vous en). Often ally at the toot, be off quickly. (F. & G.) ‘I remember a cartoon in which a sentry over an ammunition dump sees some kids prowling about. “Alley, tout suite, and the tooter the sweeter”!’ (Leechman, 1968). ally -beg . Comfort of a bed; a comfortable bed: c.: C.18–20; ob. (B. & L.) Prob.=‘pleasant little bed’. Ally Pally

. Alexandra Palace, London (was HQ of television): 1937+. Earlier is the sense ‘Alexandra Park racecourse’. ally slope , do an. To make off: C.20. (Eustace Jarvis, Twenty-Five Years in Six Prisons, 1925.) A fusion of ally and:Ally Slopers’ Cavalry

. The Army Service Corps: army: WW1. Ex Ally Sloper, that buffoon who named a pre-War comic paper. Also. occ., Army Safety Corps, also ex the initials: 1915–18. (F. & G.; B. & P.) The name Ally Sloper prob. contains a pun on Fr. allez!, go, and E. slope, to make off, to go away. Alma Gray

. A threepenny piece: Aus.: C.20. (B., 1942.) Rhyming on tray, 2. almanach

. The female pudend: low: late C.19–early 20. almighty

. Great(ly), might(il)y. A US coll. never properly acclimatised in Great Britain and (1935) now ob. De Quincey, 1824: ‘Such rubbish, such almighty nonsense (to speak transatlanticé )…’—2. Grand; impressive: proletarian coll. verging on sol.: mid-C.19–20. Nevinson, 1895, makes a Shadwellite describe a picture having ‘somethink almighty about it’. almighty dollar

, the. Wealth: coll. (—1859), ex US (1836). Probably coined by Washington Irving, after Ben Jonson’s almighty gold, though the first printed record does not occur in Irving’s work. In England the phrase is always satirical, nor is it yet

S.E.: and frequently it connotes the (supposed) American devotion to and absorption in money-making. almond

. Penis: mostly Cockneys’: from ca. 1890. An abbr. of almond rock, rhyming s. for the same since ca. 1880: on cock. almond rocks . Socks: rhyming s.: late C.19–20. Since 1914 among soldiers: Army rocks. (B. & P.) Also C.20 Aus. (McNeil). almonds

. Abbr. of almond rocks. P.P., Rhyming Slang, 1932. aloft

. Dead: C.18–20; ob. Also coll. is go aloft, to die: Dibdin’s Tom Bowling, 1790, contains the verses, ‘Faithful below, Tom did his duty,/And now he’s gone aloft.’ At aloft, F. & H. has a fascinating synonymy for ‘to die’; see too the essay on euphemisms in Words! Cf. alow and aloft, q.v. alone

, go. To be experienced, wary, and alert: ca. 1800–25. alone I did (or done) it

. ‘Yes, I did it, and I’m rather proud of it’ is the implication of this Anglo-American c.p.: late C.19–20; by 1973 almost ob. alone on a raft

is one poached egg on toast, Adam and Eve on a raft is two: C.20. along

, get. An imperative=go away!: coll.: C.19–20. But get (or go) along with you! is an expression of (usu. playful) incredulity. Ordinarily, get along is S.E. and=get on, move along. along of . Owing to. In C.19–20, except in dial., it is sol., but in C.16–17 it was indubitably S.E. along-shore boys

. Landsmen: nautical coll. (—1823); † by 1910. Egan’s Grose. along with

. A coll. weakening of with: late C.19–20. C. Williams, The Greater Trumps, 1932, ‘Her engagement to—her understanding with—whatever…she had along with this young Henry Lee fellow—had hardened her.’ aloofer

. One aloof and ‘superior’ in attitude: coll.: since ca. 1950. aloud

, used fig., is coll.: mid-C.19–20. The OED record: 1872. alow and aloft

. ‘Below decks and aloft’; nautical coll.: mid-C.19–20. Bowen.—2. Hence, ‘dead and alive’, i.e. lethargic, dull: nautical: late C.19–20; ob. Ibid. alp bash . A hill climb contest: motorcyclists’: since ca. 1950. (Dunford.) Cf. bash, n., 2, and mud plug. Alphabetical . Nickname for anyone with more than two initials to his surname: Services’: since ca. 1930. P-G-R. Alphonse . A ‘ponce’: rhyming s.: C.20. Jim Phelan, Letters from the Big House, 1943. Alps

, the. The ‘Carlisle to Stranraer line’ (Railway, 2nd): railwaymen’s: since late 1940s. It has some steep gradients.— 2. See over the Alps. alright . See all right. Alsatia (the Higher)

. Whitefriars. Alsatia the Lower, the Mint in Southwark, London. C. of ca. 1680–1800; after-wards, historical. From early in C.17 until 1697, when both liberties or asylums or sanctuaries were suppressed, these were the haunts of

bankrupts, fleeing debtors, gamesters and sharks. In Shadwell’s comedy, The Squire of Alsatia—the

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Page 17 first record of the term—occurs the illuminating: ‘Who are these? Some inhabitants of White- fryers; some bullies of Alsatia.’ Alsatia=Alsace, a ‘debatable ground’ province. In C.18–19 Alsatia meant any asylum for criminals, any low quarter, while squire of Alsatia synonymised a sharper or a ‘shady’ spendthrift. Besides Shadwell’s play, consult Scott’s Fortunes of Nigel, Macaulay’s History at I, iii, E. Beresford Chancellor’s Annals of Fleet Street, and M.Melville Balfour’s historical novel, The Long Robe. Alsatia phrase . A term in s. or, esp., in c.: Swift, 1704; † by 1750. Coll. very soon S.E. Alsatian . Pertaining to ‘Alsatia’; criminal; debauched: c. of late C.17–18; then historical. Whence the n.—2. Abbr. Alsatian wolf-dog: from 1925; coll. almost imm. S.E. (A. wolf-dog itself—see the SOD—dates only from 1924.) also ran , an. A nonentity: mostly Aus. (—1916) >, by 1918, gen. C.J.Dennis; Collinson. Ex horse-racing. alt

, in. Haughty: coll.: 1748, Richardson; † by 1820. (Apperson). Ex altitude. alta (or e or u )ma(or e)l(l)

. All together; altogether(adv.): late C.17–18. N., the total of a bill, an account: C.18. Adj., nautical, esp. of s. and j.: C.18. Since the adv. and the n. are always, so far as I can discover, spelt alta(or e)me(or a )l(l) and F. & H. derives them from Dutch altemal (modern Dutch allemaal )— Hexham, 1658, ‘Al -te - mael, Wholly, or All at once’,—and since the OED derives the adj., always spelt altumal, from altum (mare)+al, the two forms and derivations suggest, indeed they almost necessitate, two distinct origins. altar

. ‘Master’s desk in old Lower Senior Room’: Bootham School: late C.19–20. (Bootham, 1925.) Ex the shape. alter

. Unpleasant; e.g. ‘We had an alter parade this morning’: military (not officers’): from ca. 1930. Perhaps ex (—1898) Hampshire dial. alteration and (—1898) Berkshire dial. altery, (of weather that is) uncertain, tending to rain. (EDD.) alter the jeff’s click

. To make a garment regardless of the cutter’s chalkings or instructions: tailors’:—1903 (F. & H., rev.). alter the property

. To disguise oneself: late C.17–early 19: coll. >, by 1750, S.E. (Implied in) B.E.; A New Canting Dict., 1725. altham

, C.16 c., a wife; a mistress. Whence(?) the c. adj. autem, q.v. although I say(s) it as shouldn’t

. The orig. illiterate, but soon deliberately joc., var. of (al)though I say it who (occ. that) shouldn’t: a disclaimer that is a hackneyed quotation, going back at least as far as Beaumont and Fletcher’s Wit at Several Weapons, Act II, sc. ii. altifrontal

, adj. High-brow: 1932; somewhat pej., ‘Is he intelligent?— Oh, very altifrontal, I’d say.’ London authors’, reviewers’, and publishers’. altitude . In grabbing for a., striving for height: RAF: since ca. 1925. In WW2 it was used with the connotation ‘in order to gain an advantage in aerial combat’ (Partridge, 1945).—2. Hence, becoming very angry: aircraft engineers’: from ca. 1932. Daily Herald, 1 Aug. 1936. altitudes, in the (or his, my, etc) . In elevated mood (coll.: Jonson, 1630); drunk (ca. 1700). Both were † by 1840. Cf. elevated. Altmark

, the. ‘A ship or a Shore Establishment in which discipline is exceptionally severe’: RN: 1942+. Granville, ‘From the German Prison Ship of that name’.

altocad . An oldish paid member that in the choir takes alto: Winchester College, from ca. 1850. altogether

, the. The nude: coll.: 1894, Du Maurier (Ware). I.e. the altogether (wholly) naked. altogethery

. Drunk: Society: 1816, Byron; † by 1930. (Ware.) Ex altogether drunk. always in trouble like a Drury Lane whore

. A late C.19–20 c.p. ‘stigmatising either self-pity or successive misfortunes to an individual’. (L.A.) am and is used jocularly

. ‘There are some jocular and ungrammatical uses of these, as “There you is”, “There you am” and “That am so”’ (Petch, 1966): since ca. 1930. Cf. used to was. ’Am and Tripe , the. HMS Amphritite: RN: C.20. Bowen. amachoor

. A coll. written form of amateur, which, after all, is thus pronounced by the majority. (D.L.Sayers, Murder Must Advertise, 1933.) Cf. hammer-chewer. Amami night . ‘Any more or less regular time for searching prisoners, cells, or workshops’ (Tempest): prisons’ s.: mid-C.20. Ex a

popular shampoo of the period, advertised by the slogan ‘Friday night is Amami night’. (P.B.) amateur , or enthusiastic amateur. A girl that frequently, promiscuously copulates ‘for love’: coll.: since ca. 1916. amazingly

. Very: coll.; from ca. 1790. Maria Edgeworth, ‘She speaks English amazingly well for a Frenchwoman.’ OED. ambassador

. A sailors’ trick upon new hands: mid-C.18–19. (Grose, 1st ed.) In a King-Neptune form, King Arthur.—2. See: ambassador of commerce . A commercial traveller: coll.: late C.19–20; ob. Baumann. In C.20, often ambassador. Ambassador of Morocco

. A shoemaker: ca. 1810–30. (Lex. Bal.) Punning morocco (leather). amber

. See shoot the amber. ambi

, ambitious. ‘Zealous, with a view to personal advantage; also foolishly zealous, asking for more work, etc., etc.’ (John Masefield, Conway, 1933): Conway Training Ship s., from ca. 1880. ambi (or o)dexter . A double-dealing witness, lawyer or juror: C.16–19; coll.; S.E. after 1800.—2. Any double-dealer: from ca. 1550, coll.; by 1880 S.E. ambidextrous . Both hetero- and homosexual: since ca. 1935. Cf. AC-DC above. ambish

. Ambition: from ca. 1925. E.g. Garnett Radcliffe in Passing Show, 27 Jan. 1934. ambrol

. A naval corruption of admiral: late C.17–18. B.E. ambsace

, ames ace. Bad luck: M.E.-C.19.—2. Next to nothing: C.17–18. Lit. the double ace; and soon coll.—3. Within ambs-ace, almost: late C.17–early 19, coll. in C.18–19. ambulance chasers . A disreputable firm of solicitors specialising in accident claims: adopted, ca. 1940, ex US. ameche

. A telephone: Can. teenagers’: adopted ex US, where current since early 1945. Ex a film in which the actor Don Ameche (pron. am- ee-chee) appeared in 1944–5. The film portrayed the life of Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone. See CANADIAN ADOLESCENTS in Appendix. amen-chapel

. ‘The service used in Winchester School [sic] upon Founder’s Commemorations, and certain other occasions, in which the responses and Amens are accompanied on the organ’ (EDD, 1896). amen -curler . A parish clerk: late C.18–19. (Grose, 1st ed.) A C.18 var.: amen-clerk. A mid-C. 19–20 var., amen-bawler (Mayhew, 1851). Cf. amen -snorter and amen-wallah . amen-snorter . A parson. Rare in England, frequent in Aus. (ca. 1880– 1900). amen Theatre Royal

. A church: low:—1909 (Ware); ob. by 1930. Why? Perhaps it was orig. theatrical: touring players perform frequently at Theatres Royal. ‘amen’ to everything , say ‘yes’ and. To agree to everything: coll.: late C.18– mid-19. Grose, 3rd ed. Cf. amener, q.v. amen wallah

. A chaplain’s clerk: C.19–20. In WW1 occ. the chaplain himself. Cf. amen-curler, q.v. amener

. An assiduous assenter: C.19–early 20. (Amen, the concluding word.) amercy

for God have mercy was orig. coll. and is still far from ‘literary’. american . An American petrol can: Army: 1942–5. Punning American and formed after jerrican. P-G-R. American devil

. A piercing steam-whistle employed as a summons: workmen’s: later C.19–early 20. Manchester Guardian, 24 Sep. 1872. American shoulders . A coat cut square to give the appear-

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Page 18 ance of broadness. From ca. 1870; at first, tailors’ j., but s. by 1890. American tweezers . A burglar’s instrument for opening doors: from ca. 1870; orig. c. H., 5th ed. American Workhouse

, the. The Park Lane Hotel, London: taxi-drivers’: since 1917. (Herbert Hodge, Cab, Sir?, 1939.) Ironic: palatial, it caravanserai’s many rich Americans. Americans . American stocks and shares: Stock Exchange coll. (mid1880s) >, by 1910, j. (OED.) amidships . On the solar plexus; in or on the belly: nautical: C.18–20. Aminidab

, Aminadab. A Quaker: C.18–early 19; derisive. Ned Ward, 1709; Grose. ammedown

. Hand me down (v.), or hand-me-down (adj.): poorest London low coll.:—1909 (Ware). ammiral

. See admiral. ammo

. Ammunition (n. and adj.): military: C.20.—2. Hence, ammos, ammunition boots, the ordinary Army boots: from 1915. F. & G. ammunition . Toilet paper: C. 19–20; ob. Cf. bum -fodder, q.v.—2. A sanitary tampon or towel; such tampons or towels collectively: feminine: since ca. 1940. Cf. the 1939–45 c.p., adopted from the song, ‘Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition’. ammunition leg

. A wooden leg: military: C.19. Ammunition=munition. ammunition wife

. (Gen. pl.) A harlot: nautical: ca. 1820–70. Egan’s Grose; Bowen. Cf. gunpowder and hot stuf. amorosa

. A wanton: ca. 1630–1720: Society, mainly. It. word, never acclimatised. amoroso . A (male) lover: ca. 1615–1770; chiefly Society. An It. word never properly anglicised. Amorous Military Gentlemen on Tour . The personnel of AMGOT (Allied M ilitary Government of Occupied Territory): military and political: 1945–7. Amos and Andy

. Brandy: rhyming s.: Amos and Andy were coloured American radio comedians, popular during WW2. (Hillman, 1974.) From ca. 1944. amourette . A trifling love affair or, esp., amour: ca. 1860–1914: Society coll. Directly ex Fr.; cf. C.17 S.E. amorets, dalliance. amours

, in. In love: gen. followed by with (some person): ca. 1725–1800: Society s. > coll. > S.E. amp

. An amputation: medical students’:—1933: ( Slang, p. 190).—2. An ‘amputee’: Can. (med. and hospital): since ca. 1946.—3. An ampère: electricians’ coll.: since ca. 1910; by 1950 > S.E.—4. An ampoule of drug: mostly addicts’: since early 1950s. Janssen, 1968; W. & F., 1975 ed. ampersand

. The buttocks. ‘&’ used to come at the end of nurserybook alphabets; hence the hinder parts: ca. 1885–1914. The lit. sense is about a century old. Ex and per se—and, i.e. ‘& by itself=and’. ’Ampsteads or Ampstids , i.e. Hampsteads. Teeth. See Hampstead Heath. ‘Ampstids’ is the ‘deep Cockney’ form. (Michael Harrison, 1947.) ampster or amster or Amsterdam

. A confidence trickster’s confederate: Aus.: since ca. 1925. (B., 1942.) It rhymes on ram, 3, as Franklyn, Rhyming, has noted. amput . See PRISONER-OF -WAR SLANG, 12, in Appendix. amputate (one’s) mahogany or timber

. To ‘cut one’s stick’, to depart, esp. depart quickly: from the 1850s; ob. ‘Ducange Anglicus’, 1857. There is a rich synonymy for rapid departure; see F. & H., also my Slang. amscray . To depart, make off: Aus.: adopted, ca. 1944, ex US Servicemen. (Ruth Park, A Power of Roses, 1953.) American centre s. on scram . ‘Like igaretsay, it is Pig Latin’ (Claiborne)—which owes something to back-s. Cf. ixnay, ‘nix’=nothing. amuse

, in late C.17–18 c., is to throw dust, pepper, snuff, etc., in the eyes of the person to be robbed; an amuser is one who does this. B.E. amuse yourself-don’t mind me ! A rather bitter or conde scending ‘Have your fun!’ Adopted, ex US, ca. 1924; by 1960 virtually †. amy

. ‘A friendly alien serving in a man-of-war’: naval: ca. 1800–60. Bowen notes that in the old days there were

many foreigners serving in the British Navy.? a mutilated blend of enemy man or simply an adoption of Fr. ami, a friend. anabaptist

. A pickpocket that, caught in the act, is ducked in pond or at pump: late C.18–early 19. Grose, 1st ed. analken

. To wash: Shelta: C.18–20. B. & L. analt

. To sweep (with broom): id.: id. Ibid. anan

. ‘What do you say, Sir?’ in reply to an order or remark not understood: naval: C.18. Bowen. Perhaps anon

corrupted. anarchists

. ‘Matches, especially wax vestas’ (B., 1942); Aus.: C.20. Apt to ‘blow up’.—2. As the anarchists, battalion or brigade or divisional bombers (mortar-throwers): army: 1915–18. Ian Hay, Carrying On, 1917. anarf =an’alf=a half, i.e. ten shillings (50 p), the half of £1: London’s East End: since ca. 1945. Likewise, arfundred =£50. Richard Herd in Evening News, 12 Nov. 1957.—2. ‘Also a halfpenny. I was told of it in London while at home on leave in 1917. Somebody was told the bus fare was “one anarf”—that is, three ha’pence’ (Leechman). anatoxnical

. Bawdy: sexual: artists’: from ca. 1920. E.g. ‘anatomical stories, jokes, humour, wit’. anatomy

. An extremely emaciated—or skinny—person: late C.16– 20. (Low) coll. Cf. atomy, q.v. anca

. A man; a husband or sweetheart: low: C.19. (Price Warung, Tales, 1897, p. 58.) Ex Greek anēr. ancestral home

. Merely home: joc. coll.: C.20: university and Society. anchor

. ‘A parachutist who waits overlong before jumping’ (Jackson): RAF: ca. 1930–50.—2 Also old anchor, a pick: RN: 1868 (Tom Taylor, The Ticket of Leave Man). Ex shape. —3. A brake: motorists’: since ca. 1930. See anchors; and HAULIERS’, in Appendix. The Regional wireless programme, 23 Nov. 1936, had drop the anchor, a busmen’s phrase for ‘to brake’.—4. In bring (one’s) arse to an anchor, to sit down: nautical: late C.18–mid-19. (Grose, 2nd ed.) A C.20 RN synon. is anchor (one’s) stern (Granville). Cf.—5. In come to an anchor or anchor (one)self, to halt; sit down, rest; sojourn: coll.: C.18–20. Hence anchor, an abode or a place of residence: coll.: C.19–20. At first nautical, both v. and n. soon > gen.—6. See swallow the anchor. anchor -faced . Derogatory of a sailor loving the Navy and, without questioning, religiously obeying all rules and regulations: RN, WRNS, FAA: since ca. 1950, at latest. (Margaret Wood, ex- WRNS, 1978.) Peppitt adds, ‘behaving in a Naval manner in non- Naval surroundings.’ Cf. pusserised, and the Army’s khaki-brained. anchor to the windward of the law

, let go an. To keep within the letter of the law: nautical: late C.18–mid-19. Grose, 3rd ed. anchors

. Brakes: busmen’s: from ca. 1930. (Daily Herald, 5 Aug. 1936.) P.B.: by mid-C.20, gen. among motorists, as in, e.g., ‘so I slammed the anchors on real hard’=I brought the vehicle to an abrupt halt. Cf. anchor, 3.—2. As exclam.,

soon commoner than the orig. Whoa, anchors !, a request to the driver of a vehicle to stop; hence to a speaker to stop, so that a point may be dealt with: RAF: since late 1940s.—3. In keep and put the anchors on, so to control oneself or one’s partner in intercourse as to delay the final gallop or orgasm: since ca. 1950. Bill Naughton, Alfie Darling, 1970, has both keep…and final gallop. ancient and modern . A hymn-book, as in ‘Lend me your ancient and modern’: coll.: C.20. Ex Hymns, Ancient and Modern. Ancient and Tattered Airmen or Aviators

. The A ir Transport Auxiliary pilots’ name for themselves: 1939–45. The ATA, the ferry-pilots whose task was to fly aircraft from the factories to the RAF, were a gallant band drawn from the

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Page 19 ranks of fliers barred from fighting in WW2 by their sex, age, or medical condition. (P.B.) ancient mariner

. A sea-gull: nautical: C.19–20. Sea-gulls are ‘supposed to possess the souls of dead sailormen’ (Bowen). Cf. Coleridge’s Ancient Mariner. ancient mariners . At Oxford, an occasionally-rowing group or crew of dons; at Cambridge, any graduates that, still associated with the university, continue to row. From ca. 1880; ob. Ware quotes the Daily News, 7 Nov. 1884. Ancient Military Gentlemen on Tour . Var. of Amorous Military…, q.v. and

omitted. A post-WW2 coll. Dr D.Leechman comments, 1967: ‘An Americanism that has spread deep into Canada. “Go feather your nest.” “Come see Jimmy swim.” “Go tell him hello.” “Come have a drink.”’ -and . In coll. names of drinks, of which cider-and, 1742, is the earliest. - and-

. Between adj., and either is intensive, as in hot and hot (very hot), in the † pure and—, and in rare and some other adj. (very—); or it gives a familiar tang, as in nice and hot (nicely hot, hence pleasantly hot): both usages are coll., the former of C.19–20, the latter of C.18–20.—2. The familiar note occurs also in adv. phrases, as (I hit him) good and hard: coll.: mid-C.18–20.—3. Of its coll. presence between two vv., there are two examples: try and (e.g. do something ); go and (do something): see these two phrases. and a merry Christmas to you too

! A trenchantly ironic reply to a disparagement or an insult, equivalent to ‘The same to you, with knobs on!’: since ca. 1920. (Petch, 1976.) and all that (=and all such things); all that. These phrases used to be ‘perfectly good English’, but since late 1929, when Robert Graves’s notable War- book appeared, or mid-1930, when Albert Perceval Graves’s To Return to All That somewhat modified that picture, they have been so coll. as to verge on s. Cf. things, 6. and and and

. Coll. var. of ‘and so on’, as in ‘Oh, there are a million and one reasons why we can’t go: the car’s on the blink, and we can’t find a baby- sitter, and, and, and’: from ca. 1978. (P.B.) and Bob’s your uncle

! And all will be well; all will be perfect: since ca. 1890. ‘You go and ask for a job—and he remembers your name— and Bob’s your uncle!’ Aus. as well as Brit., and still, 1983, going strong. The orig. remains a mystery; just possibly it was prompted by the c. (then low-slang) phrase all is bob, ‘all is safe’. See DCpp . and call it ‘it’

. See call it ‘it’. and Co

. And the rest; et cetera: RN lowerdeck: from ca. 1912. Hamish Maclaren, The Private Opinions of a British BlueJacket, 1929, ‘Sor some nise eye-lands and come after spisse knut mags [spice, nutmegs] and co—some times purls’. See also co, 2. and did he marry poor blind Nell

? ‘A rhetorical question asked about anything improbable. Also as a euphemism for like fucking hell. Ex the saga of Poor Blind Nell; as in ‘and did he marry…?’—‘He did!— (softly) Like fuckin(g) hell!’ Poor Blind Nell itself is used to describe any simple girl who is over-trusting where men are concerned’ (B.P.): since ca. 1910, or a little earlier. (and) don’t you forget it

! A c.p. orig. US (—1888) adopted in England ca. 1890. An almost pointless intensive. See DCpp. and he didn’t

! A tailors’ c.p. implying a discreditable action: ca. 1870– 1920. and how

! ‘Rather!’: an American c.p. anglicised by 1933. The Western People (Balling), 11 Nov. 1933. By ellipsis, thus: ‘“Fred Perry is a great player.” “And how [very great a player he is]!”’ and I don’t know who all . And various other persons unnamed: coll.: from ca. 1840. Cf. and I don’t know what all, and other things unknown or unmentioned: id. Dickens, 1859, ‘There’s…and…and I dunno what all’ (OED). The who all may be owing to the influence of some such phrase as and I don’t know who else at all or…what others at all, or to a confusion of both these phrases. P.B.: more prob. (pace E.P.) an attempt to pluralise who and what; cf. the Southern US you -all, compensating for the present gap in English caused by the decline of thou. and like it

! ‘A naval expression anticipating a grouse and added to any instruction for an awkward and unwanted job’ (H. & P.): since ca. 1930. Cf. the proverbial mother to grizzling child at the seaside: ‘I’ve brought you here to enjoy yourself—and enjoy yourself you bloody well will!’ (P.B.) and no error

. See and no mistake, and:-and no flies

. And no doubt about it: low c.p. tag: ca. 1840–60. Mayhew, I, 1851. and no messing about

. A low intensive: since ca. 1930. ‘You can lose half a streatch remishion and no messing about’ (Norman). Cf.:and no mistake

. Undoubtedly; for certain: coll.: 1818, Lady Morgan, ‘He is the real thing, and no mistake’; Thackeray: OED. It generated the later, rather less used and no error (Baumann, 1887); both phrases popular until ca. 1920, and not yet (1975) ob.; both adopted ex US. See DCpp. and no mogue

? A tailors’ c.p. implying slight incredulity, ‘That’s true?’: since ca. 1880. Prob. mogue represents the Fr. moquerie: cf. the synon. Fr. moque (C.15–16). More prob., as Mr H.R.Spencer of Camberley, Surrey, has proposed, ex the German underworld and gipsies’ mogeln (long o, which would phonetically explain the—ve ), to mock, coming into E. via Yiddish.

and no whistle

. Another tailors’ implication: that the speaker is actually, though ostensibly not, speaking of himself: ca. 1860–1900. and not a bone in the truck

imputes time-wasting during working- hours, as in ‘Ten o’clock—and not a bone in the truck’ (loading hasn’t even been started): mostly in factories and mostly Aus.: C.20. and so forth- and so fifth . And so on: c.p.: C.20. A feeble pun on fourth; cf. the schoolchildren’s ‘And the Lord said unto Moses, “Come forth!”—but he came fifth, and won a wooden spoon.’ (E.P.; P.B.) and so he died ; and then she died. These Restoration-drama tags verge on c.pp.: see Dryden, ed. Summers, I, 419. and so she prayed me to tell ye

. An almost meaningless c.p. (with slight variations) rounding off a sentence: ca. 1670–90. E.g. in Duffett’s burlesque, ‘The Mock-Tempest,’ 1675. and that . And that sort of thing: coll.: mid(?) C.19–20. Claiborne, 1977, remarks, ‘Interestingly, American siang now includes and like that with the same meaning. I think a parallel development, since and that was never in use here.’ This sort of phrase tends to be the most tardily recognised by the dictionaries. (My note: 21 June 1977!). Cf. and all that, q.v.

and that’s flat occurs as early as Shakespeare, ‘used to emphasise or conclude a preceding remark.’ See DCpp. and that’s no lie

. A c.p. of emphasis, implying (sometimes) that the speaker is not too sure that he will be believed: since ca. 1920. that’s that

!,—and occ. omitted; emphatic var., and that is that; also well, that’s that (then)! The first two are expressions of definite finality; the third of rueful resignation: since, prob., WW1. See DCpp . and that’s your lot ! That is all you are going to receive, so don’t expect any more: since ca. 1920. Often used by wives to their husbands, or by women to their lovers. and the band played on . See then the band... and the best of British (luck) ! See best of British... and the rest

? or ! A c.p. retort on incompleteness or reticence, or of sheer disbelief: since ca. 1860. and then some

. And many, or much, in addition: adopted, ex US, ca. 1919. (OED Sup.) Prob. a mere elab. of the Scots and some, and much more so, as in Ross’s pastoral poem, Helenore, 1768, and as in the ‘She’s as bonny as you, and some’ of lexicographer Jamieson (EDD). J.W.Mackail, in his Æneid, 1930, finds a parallel in viii, 487, tormenti genus.

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Page 20 and then the band played

. See then the band… and things

. See things, 6. and to prove it

, I’m here. A frequent tag of comedians playing the halls; it added a finishing touch to the preceding ‘spiel’. Naturally it became an almost meaningless c.p. of late C.19–mid-20; not much used after 1950. (Cyril Whelan, 1975.) and very nice too

! C.p. indicative of warm approval, e.g. of feminine charms: late C.19–20. and welcome

(, I’m sure)! And you’re welcome to it; I’m glad (to let you have it, etc.): non-U coll.: late C.19–20. Manchon. and whose little girl are you

? And who may you be?: a male c.p.: from ca. 1905. See DCpp. and you too

! A.C.20 c.p. addressed to a person suspected of silent recrimination, insult unexpressed. In the Forces it has, since ca. 1915, presupposed an unvoiced fuck you! In later C.20, often shortened to and you! Andrew . A gentleman’s servant: coll. > S.E.: 1698, Congreve; † by 1800. Because a very common name; in the orig. Greek, it signifies simply ‘man’.—2. In full, Andrew Millar (or - er ). A ship, esp. of war:—1864; ob.—3. Hence, a revenue cutter; Aus. smugglers’: ca. 1870–1900. But this, like sense 2, may abbr. Andrew Miller’s lugger, ‘a king’s ship and vessel’, 1813 (sea cant), a phrase † by 1880.—4. Abbr. Andrew Millar , 2; usu., but not always, the Andrew: ‘Taffrail’ has ‘Terms…heard every day in “Andrew”, as the bluejacket calls the Navy.’ Andrew Mack . The frigate Andromache: RN, 1834, W.N. Glascock, Sketch-Book, 2nd series, II, 62. (Moe.) A good example of Hobson-Jobson. Andrew Makins , (stop your). (Stop your) goings-on or fooling: AngloIrish: C.20. Is there an allusion to merry Andrews?: cf. the Essex and Sussex Andrew, a clown. Andrew Millar (-er) , (the). See Andrew, senses 2 and 3.—2. The Royal Navy; hence, any Government department: RN: mid -C.19– early 20. (Bowen.) The original was ‘a notorious press -gang

“tough” who shanghaied so many victims into the Navy that the sailors of the period thought it belonged to him’ (Granville). In C.20, and certainly later C.20, usu. Simply the Andrew; but cf. Andrew, 4. Andy Cain . Rain: rhyming s.: late C.19–20. P.P., Rhyming Slang, 1932. Cf. France and Spain. Andy McNish

. Fish: C.20. Franklyn, Rhyming, ‘Either raw or fried’. anfo

. ‘Ammonium Nitrate/Fuel Oil (illegal explosive)’ (Hawke); Brig. Pat Hayward, 1978, however supplies the alternative translation, ‘Any nuisance of foreign origin’: army in N. Ireland: 1970s. angel . A harlot plying near the Angel public house at Islington: low Cockney:—1909 (Ware). Cf. Sluker.—2. A sandwich-man: c.: earlier C.20. Ex wings, the boards. Jennings, 1932.—3. Any outsider that finances a play: the -atrical s. > coll.: C.20.—4. The ‘boy who fetches Reeve’s meat at breakfast’: Bootham School: early C.20. Bootham, 1925.—5.

(Also flying angel.) A ride astride a person’s shoulder: mostly children’s: since later C.19. James Greenwood, 1880.— 6. (Also angie.) Cocaine: Aus.: since ca. 1925. B., 1942,—7. See angels; be an angel. angel altogether

. A confirmed drunkard: mainly West Indian: ca. 1876– 1914. angel-face

. A boyish(-looking) probationary flight-officer: RFC: WW1. F. & G. angel-maker

. A baby -farmer: proletarian: late C.19–early 20. Ware, ‘Because so many of the farmed babies die.’ Prob. ex the Fr. faiseuse des anges. angel suit . Var. of angel’s suit. angelic

; Angelica. An unmarried girl; the former ca. 1810–50, the latter ca. 1845–1900, Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, 1821, has ‘the angelics at Almack’s’, while Angelica appears in Sinks, 1848. angel’s food . Strong ale: ca. 1575–1620. Harrison’s England, II, viii. angel’s foot-stool

. A sail carried over the moon-sail by American clippers: nautical coll: mid-C.19–20; ob. Bowen. angel’s gear

. Women’s clothes: nautical: mid-C.19–early 20. Baumann. angel’s oil

. Money employed in bribery. Var., oil of angels: C.17. Punning angel, the small gold coin struck in 1465. angel’s suit

. Coat and waistcoat made in one, with trousers buttoned thereto: tailors’: ca. 1870–85. ‘Neither garment nor name was extensively adopted’ (F. & H.). angel’s whisper , the. The call to defaulters’ drill or extra fatigue duty: military: from 1890s. Wyndham, The Queen’s Service, 1899. —2. Loosely, reveille: from ca. 1910. F. & G. angels . A wireless rating: RN: WW1+. (‘Taffrail’, 1916.) Ex wings on badge (Bowen).—2. ‘All unidentified dots [on the

radar-screen] were originally dubbed “angels” by the radar men… Dots in circles that move outwards like ripples on a pond are known as “ring-angels”’ (Jeffrey Boswall, ed., Private Lives, 1970).—3. As used by the RAF in ref. to height, WW2, it was j. Angels of Chrlst

. See All Old Crocks. anger

. In in anger, in earnest, properly, as in ‘Once the hassle of the [police driving-]course is over…comes the first day actually driving the car in anger’ (Harry Cole, Policeman’s Progress, 1980, p. 184): coll.: since later 1970s. Ex S.E. shots fired in anger . (P.B.) angie . See angel, 6. Angle-irons

, the. The Royal Anglian Regiment, formed in 1964 by the amalgamation of the old R. Norfolk Regt, R. Lincolnshire Regt., Suffolk Regt., R. Leicestershire Regt., and the Northamptonshire Regt.: army. Also known as the Royal Anglicans. (P.B.) angler

. A pilferer that, with a hooked stick, steals from open windows and doors: mid-C.16–early 19. (Harman, B.E.,

Grose.) Cf. area sneak, hooker, starrer.—2. A hook: c. of ca. 1580–1620. Greene.—3. See lens louse. Anglican inch . The short square whisker…so much affected by the Broad Church party’: ritualistic clergy’s: 1870; very ob. Ware. angling cove

. A receiver of stolen goods: C.19 c. In C.18– early 19 c., angling for farthings is begging, with cap and string, from a prison window. Grose. Anglo-Banglo , n. (mostly) and adj. Any Anglo-Indian (i.e., of mixed parentage): army: since ca. 1950; by 1975, ob. (P.B.) Anglo- Indian back , have an. (Of a girl) to have dead leaves adhering to the back of her dress as she returns from a stroll: Canadian: since ca. 1908. Anglos . The shares of the Anglo-American United, with which ‘the dogs’ (q.v.) were amalgamated: from ca. 1890; Stock Exchange. A.J.Wilson, Stock Exchange Glossary, 1895, defines it, however, as ‘Anglo-American Telegraph Company [shares]’. angora

. See act the angora. angry boy

. A blood: late C.16–17. Greene; Beaumont & Fletcher. Angry Cat

, the. The French battleship Henri IV at the Dardanelles in: 1915: naval. Bowen. angry man

; up with the angry men or where the angry men are, see an angry bullet. A serviceman, esp. a soldier, in a battle area; in the battle area; to do service in one: among Aus. servicemen in New Guinea: 1942–5. (B., 1953.) This could form the source of the angry young men of whom, since ca. 1957, one has heard far too much. Anguagela

. Language: central s.:—1909 (Ware); ob. by 1930, as all central s. is. anguish

, be. To be objectionable or deplorable or extremely boring: smart set and BBC ‘types’: ca. 1946–57. Prompted by ‘a pain in the neck’? angular party . A gathering or social group odd in number: coll., from ca. 1870; ob. Angus or Agnes . See I don’t know whether… Animal

; a-. The Elephant and Castle Station: London Railway passengers’: ca. 1860–1910. Ware.—2. The Animal. ‘A

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Page 21 disguised, or flippant, reference amongst boon companions to the tavern, used in common when the sign is zoological…but more esp. referring to the Elephant and Castle…; until (1882) this place was exceptionally dubbed “Jumbo”’ (Ware).—3. A policeman: low: from ca. 1919.—4. ‘A term of [strong] contempt, esp. since WW2’ (Wilkes): Aus. P.B.: also Brit., same period. Cf.:—5. In mere animal, ‘A very silly fellow’ (B.E.): coll.: late C.17–18. Wycherley. — 6. In go the whole animal, a US phrase adapted by Dickens as go the extreme animal, by Sala as…entire…; C.19 var. on US go the whole hog . animal spirits

. Liveliness of character, (gen. considerable) vivacity of manner and action, a healthy animalism: coll.: from ca. 1810. Jane Austen. ankle . In to have sprained (one’s) ankle, to have been seduced: late C.18–early 20. (Grose, 1st ed.) Cf. break a leg, q.v., and Fr. avoir mal aux genoux. ankle-biters . Trousers hussar-fashion: lower classes’:—1923 (Manchon). ankle-bone

. A crawfish: nautical: late C.19–early 20. Bowen. anldebeater

. A boy specialising (ca. 1820–80) in driving, to the slaughter -yard, the animals purchased by the butcher. To avoid the damaging of flesh, only the beasts’ ankles were touched. Also known as a penny-boy. ankle-spring warehouse . The stocks: Anglo-Irish c.: ca. 1780–1830. Anna Maria . A fire: rhyming s.: 1892, ‘Pomes’ Marshall, Sporting Times, 29 Oct. Anna May Wong

. Stink: rhyming s. on pong: e.g., ‘Cor, it dun ‘arf Anna May in ‘ere, dunnit!’ Anna May Wong was an Oriental, silentfilm actress. so dating is prob. since 1920s. (Hillman, 1974.) annas . See at least two annas… Anne’s fan , properly Queen Anne’s fan. Thumb to nose and fingers outspread; intensified by twiddled fingers or by addition of other hand similarly outspread: late C.18–19. Now cock a snook at a person. Cf. long bacon. Annie

. See Asiatic Annie.—2. An Anson aircraft, ‘now used as a Trainer’ (H. & P., 1943). Sgt-Pilot Rhodes, 1942, ‘The Anson is “limping Annie” from the uneven engine note, or just “Annie” for short’ Jackson, 1943, ‘Annie, Old Annie, the A.V.Roe “Anson” Bomber and Trainer, now obsolescent. Sometimes called “Old Faithful”.’ (The name Anson constitutes a pun on the latter part of ‘A.V.Roe and Son’.)— 3. HMS Anson: RN: since ca. 1940. Granville. Annie Laurie . A 3-ton lorry: rhyming s. (of an unusual kind): military: ca. 1914–20. (B. & P.; Franklyn, Rhyming.)—2. A busconductress: WW2. See whistler, 8. Annie’s Bar . ‘A place of comfort and refreshment leading off the Members’ Lobby’ (in the House of Commons): Parliamentary coll.: C.20. Time and Tide, 1 June 1935. Annie’s room : See up in Annie’s room. annihilate

. To direct a withering glance at; reprimand severely: coll.: C.20. anniversary of the seige of Gibraltar

, the. ‘Since the great seige lasted from 1779 to 1783, this could be unofficially celebrated whenever desired’ (R/Adml P.W.Brock, 1969): RN toast: late (?mid- ) C.19–20. anno domini

. Late middle, or old, age (1885); old (‘extremely old’ is B.C.); the passage of the years (however young one is after early adulthood): from ca. 1910: coll. Ware, 1909, ‘“He must be very anno domini, mustn’t he?” “A.D.? my dear fellow, say B.C.”’; B.C. is virtually †. Cf. anno domini ship, an old -fashioned whaler: whaling: from ca. 1880; ob. by 1930. annual . A holiday taken once a year: coll.:—1903 (F. & H., rev.).— 2. A bath (the immersion): Aus.: C.20. (B., 1942.) Ironic. anodyne necklace

. A halter: mid- C.18–early 19. Goldsmith, 1766; Grose, 2nd ed. (In C.17 simply necklace). One of numerous synonymns. In C.18 also a supposedly medicinal amulet. anoint . To beat well, to thrash: C.17–early 20. Adumbrated in M.E. anoint a (or the ) palm

. To bribe: C.16–18. Cf. grease the palm. anointed

. Depraved, worthless, pejoratively ulter: late C.18–19;? mainly Anglo-Irish. (H., 3rd ed.) Prob. ex anoint, q.v. anonski

; esp. in ‘I’ll see you anonski’: Aus. c.p. of ca. 1930–60. After cheerioski. (B.P.) anonyma

. A demi-mondaine, esp. if a high-flyer. Ca. 1860–79, then less common; rare in C.20. Sala, 1864, ‘Bah! There are so many anonymas nowadays.’ another clean shirt oughta (or ought to) see ya (or you) out. You look as if you might die at any time: NZ c.p.: since ca. 1930. Gordon Slatter, A Gun in My Hand, 1959. another county heard from ! ‘A c.p. used when one of a company breaks wind or interjects something’: Can.: since ca. 1930. ‘Ex the receiving of election results from various counties’ (Leechman).

another day—another dollar

. ‘Said thankfully at the end of a hardworking day’ (Mrs Shirley M.Pearce, 1975): since the late 1940s and presumably adopted from the US, where it has been current since ca. 1910. See DCpp . another fellow’s

. A c.p. applied to anything new, not by the possessor but by some wag: ca. 1880–1910. B. & L. another good man gone

! A c.p. referring to a male engaged to be married: late C.19–20. another(-)guess

; another(-)guess sort of man. A ‘fly’ man: early C.19: it occurs in the London Magazine, Aug. 1822, article on ‘English smugglers’. (Moe.) Perhaps ex another gates, but prob. direct from US. another little drink won’t do us any harm . Since ca. 1920, a c.p. Ex a popular song. another nail in my coffin

. Cigarette- smokers’ pre-emptive remark to forestall criticism on lighting up: Aus. and Brit.: since early C.20. (Noble, 1974.) See DCpp. another one for the van

! Someone else has gone mad: Cockney c.p.: since ca. 1920. The van being the ambulance. another pair of sleeves

, that’s. That’s another matter: Aus.: since ca. 1925. B., 1943. another point

(, steward)! Make that drink stronger!: nautical: from ca. 1860. (Glasgow Herald, 9 Nov. 1864.) Cf. the north drinking-terms. another push and you’d have been a Chink (or Nigger) . A c.p. used by workmen in a slanging match or by youths bullying boys in a factory: C.20. Imputing a colour-noobjection promiscuity in the addressee’s mother. another thousand (or ten thousand) a year ! A drinking pledge: mid -C.19–early 20. answer the bugle

. To fall in with the defaulters: RN coll.: late C.19–20. John Irving, Royal Navalese, 1946. answer to a maiden’s prayer

. An eligible young bachelor: joc. coil.: C.20. answer’s a lemon

, the. A derisive-reply c.p.: adopted, ex US, ca. 1920; by 1983 slightly ob. Perhaps ex the bitterness of the lemon as an eaten fruit, but more prob. the orig. lies in an improper story. See DCpp. for fuller treatment. answer’s in the infirmary , (my or the ). The answer is ‘Yes’: late C.19–earlier 20. A pun on in the affirmative. Hence, ‘My answer’s unfavourable’ or ‘The news is bad’; since ca. 1910 and, immediately after, much more gen. than the earlier sense, but itself ob. by 1950. antagonise

, v.i. To compete; strive to win: sporting coll.:—1887 (Baumann): † by 1920. ante up . To hand over, surrender (a thing): Services’: from not later than 1915. (F. & G.) Ex US poker j. Anthony

. (Also St Anthony’s pig; antony pig; tantony.) The smallest pig in a litter, the runt: late C.16–early 20; coll. by 1750. St Anthony the hermit was the patron saint of swineherds. Apperson.—2. In cuff or knock Anthony, to knock one’s knees together in walking: late C.18–19. (Grose, 1st ed.) Var., cuf Jonas . Hence, Anthony Cuffin, a knock-kneed man: C.19.

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Page 22 Anthony Eden

. A black felt hat in the upper Civil Service style: coll.: since ca. 1936. Of the kind favoured by the Rt Hon. Anthony Eden. anti , n. A person opposed to a given opinion or party; one by nature a rebel, an objector: coll. (1889) >, by 1920, S.E. Ex the adj. OED. anti-guggler . ‘A straw or tube…for sucking liquor out of casks or bottles’ (Bowen): nautical coll.: C.20. Anti-Hope , the. The clipper Antiope, ‘a very unlucky ship’ (Bowen): nautical: late C.19–early 20. anti-nuke

. See nuke, n. anti- wank

, adj. Anti-tank: army rhyming s.: WW2. P-G-R. antics

. Tactical exercises: RN coll.: C.20. (Bowen.) Also steam antics. antidote

. ‘A very homely woman’ (B.E.): joc.: late C.17– mid-18. Against lust. antimony

. Type: printers’:—1890. F. & H., ‘Antimony is a constituent part’ of the metal. antipodean

. With everything topsy-turvy: from ca. 1850. Orig. joc. pedantic S.E., then joc. coll. antipodes . Backside: since ca. 1840; but ob. by 1920, very rare by 1960. Francis Francis, Newton Dogvane, 1859. Antipodes

, the or her. The female pudend: late C.19–20. antiquarianise

. To play at being an antiquary: C.20: coll. antiquated rogue

. An ex -thief; an out-of-date thief: ca. 1660–1730. At the angle formed by three linguistic regions: c., j., and S.E. Only in B.E. Antonio . A Portuguese soldier: army: WW1. Also Tony. B. & P. Antony . See Anthony.

ants in (one’s: male or female) pants

, have. To be excited, restless: an Americanism adopted in England in 1938, but not gen. until 1942. Cf.: antsy

. Restless; nervous: adopted, ca. 1975, ex US; even in 1977, limited use. Ex prec. anty

. Sugar: army: C.20. (F. & G.) Possibly ex the sweetness of gifts from Anty or Auntie. P.B.: or perhaps simply because, in hot climates, it has an inevitable attraction for ants, and the old Army of the Empire would be only too aware of this. anxious (or inquirers’) meeting

. A meeting, after a revivalist address, of those who are anxious for salvation. Such a person occupies the ‘anxious seat’: ca. 1880–1910. Of US orig’. B. & L. any . All all: s. (and dial.): late C.19–20. Kipling, 1890, ‘You don’t want bein’ made more drunk any’ (EDD).—2. Not any, nothing; none: RN: C. 20. Ex the abbreviation N.E., not eligible for pay. (Capt. R.J.B.Kenderdine, RN.)—3. In I’m not taking (—1903) or having (from ca. 1895) any, not for me!; ‘not for Joe!’: c.p. Hence in ordinary constructions. The earlier form occurs in J.Milne, Epistles of Atkins, 1902. any amount

. Much; a large amount: coll.: C.20. ‘Have you any sugar?’ ‘Any amount.’ any B.F. (or b.f. or bloody fool) can be uncomfortable

. ‘Alleged to be a Guards’ maxim…’ (R/Adml P.W.Brock, 1969): whether maxim or not, certainly a c.p. and, in the years after WW2, enjoying a much wider currency. See DCpp. Any Bloody (occ. Blooming) How, the. HMS Howe, ‘which always steered like a dray’: RN: C.20. Bowen. any day you ‘ave the money

, I ‘ave the time. A prostitutes’ or, derivatively, an enthusiastic amateurs’ c.p.: mostly Londoners: since ca. 1910. See DCpp. any God’s quantity . Many; very many; coll.: late C.19–20. ‘Any God’s quantity of cocked hats and boleros and trunkhose’ (James Joyce,

Ulysses, 1922). Cf. any amount. any how

, anyhow, Indifferently; badly: coll.:—1859. Cf. any old how.—2. See all anyhow. any joy

? Elliptical for ‘Did you have/get any joy (from it/out of them, etc.)?’; ‘did you have any luck?’: adopted, ex US (?) WW2.

any more for any more ? Anyone want more food?: Ser vices’, esp. Army, c.p. (indeed, a consecrated and deeply revered phrase): late C.19–20. (P-G-R.) See DCpp . any more for the Skylark ? A joc. c.p.: C.20. Ex the invitation of pleasure-boat owners at the seaside. any of these men here

? A military c.p. (from ca. 1910) by a wag that, imitating a sergeant-major at a kit-inspection, continues, ‘Knife, fork, spoon…?’ B. & P., ‘Sometimes the reply would be given: “Yes, he is,”’ whereupon the wag or a third party would ask,

‘Who is?’ to which the retort was ‘Arseholes’. any old how

. Haphazardly; unsystematically: coll.: prob. since midC.19; certainly C.20.—2. ‘You must admit’—a modifier, a palliative, as in Knock, 1932, applying it to a punishment adjudged too severe. any old (e.g. thing) . Any…whatsoever: US (ca. 1910) anglicised ca. 1914. W.J.Locke, 1918, ‘Mate, Bill, Joe—any old name.’ OED. any plum

? See plum pied. any racket

. A penny faggot: rhyming s., ca. 1855–1910. H., 1st ed. any road

. See road, 3. any Wee Georgie

? Any good?: Aus. rhyming s.: since ca. 1920. (B., 1942.) On ‘Wee Georgie Wood’, the popular comedian. anyone for tennis

? See tennis, anyone? anyone here seen Kelly

?—with K-E-double L-Y often added, and with var. anyone here seen Kelly, Kelly from the Isle of Man? — which, indeed, forms the orig. and comes straight from

the popular song composed by C.W.Murphy and W.Letters. anything

, as or like. Very; much; esp., vigorously. The as form, C.16–early 20. The phrase like anything has prob. existed since mid-C.18: it occurs in, e.g., Sessions, July 1766 (trial of Joseph Turner).—2. In so help me anything!: non-U euph. coll.:—1923 (Manchon). anything else but

. See nothing but. anything for a laugh

, often prec. by he’ll do. Anything to gain a laugh, or, among the solemn, raise a smile: c.p.: since late 1940s, if not earlier. (Petch.)—2. Without the he’ll do, but perhaps prec. by Oh, well: ironic exclam. when, e.g., the last resort is about to be tried, ‘“Hit the bloody thing with a hammer,” you say? Oh, well…!’: since ca. 1950. (P.B.) anything for a quiet wife

. A c.p. var.—less vaguely, ‘a jocular perversion’ (Petch)— of anything for a quiet life: since ca. 1968. See DCpp. anything goes

! Anything is permissible; ‘do exactly as you please’: since ca. 1960. Adopted ex US, where current since the mid1930s. Evening Echo (Bournemouth), 26 Jan. 1967 (Petch). anything on two legs

. In he’ll or he’d fuck or shag anything …, an admiring tribute to a reputedly spectacular potency: mostly a Services’ c.p.: late C.19–20. P.B.: in later C.20, usu. contemptuously, of the man’s want of discrimination or control. anything that can go wrong will go wrong

. with can and will emphasised. The c.p. definition of Murphy’s or Sod’s Law, q.v. anythingarian

. A person of no fixed or decided views: from ca. 1707, when coined by Swift; whence anythingarianism, defined by Kingsley in 1851 as ‘modern Neo- Platonism’. Coll., soon S.E.; ob. by 1930. anyway -it’s winning the war . See it’s winning the war. anyways

. In any case: dial. and sol.: 1865, Dickens (OED). Ex anyway. anywhere down there ! A tailors’ c.p. when something is dropped on the floor: ca. 1860–1910. Anzac

. A member of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps on Gallipoli: military coll. (26 April 1915—the day after the landing) >, by 1919, S.E.—2. Loosely, any Aus. or NZ soldier serving in- WW1: coll.: from late 1918. Anzac picket

, be on (the). To be ‘dodging the column’ at the

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Page 23 Anzac Hostel, El Kantara, Egypt. Aus. soldiers’: 1940–2. B., 1942. Anzac poker . See kangaroo poker. Anzac shandy . Beer and champagne: NZ soldiers’: 1915–18. Anzac tilc

. An Army biscuit: military: 1915–18.—2. Hence, any very hard biscuit: since 1919; by 1967, ob. ( TV Times, 27 May 1967.) Cf.: Anzac wafer . A large (hard) army biscuit: Aus. and NZ soldiers’: 1915– 18. B., 1942. apartments to let

. (With have) brainless; silly: from early 1860s. H., 3rd ed.; ob.—2. In C.18, descriptive of a widow. ape

. In C.20, low coll. if applied pej. to a person. Cf. baboon .— 2. £50; also £500: Aus.: C.20. (B., 1942.) Suggested by monkey, 2.—3. In go ape, to be reduced to basic animal instincts by the force of sexual attraction: a girl says ‘He’s the one I go ape for’ of her boyfriend: since late 1950s.

(P.B.)—4. Also go ape, (of persons) to go wrong, emotionally or mentally; of things, to go wrong, to fail dismally: adopted, early 1970s, ex US. Observer, Dec. 1974, of business or events. (Partly R. S.)—5. In make (someone) (one’s) ape, to befool him: coll.: C.17–19. Var. put an ape into (one’s) hood or cap.—6. See apes. ape hangers

(or one word). Highly raised, curved handle -bars on a motorcycle: motorcyclists’: adopted, with the fashion, ex US, late 1960s. Barnhart cites a US ref. in print, 1965; an early Brit. one occurs in Alex Stuart, The Bikers, 1971. (P.B.)

’apenny bumper . ‘A two-farthing omnibus ride’ (Ware): London proletarian: ca. 1870–1900. ’apenny dip . A ship: rhyming s.: since ca. 1860. ‘Obsolescent, but heard occasionally in Dockland’ (Franklyn 2nd). ’apenny -lot day . ‘A bad time for business’ (Ware): costers’: –1909; ob. by 1930. Presumably because then the costers were forced to sell their goods in little “apenny lots’. apes . First mortgage bonds of the Atlantic and North-Western Railway: Stock Exchange: ca. 1870–1914.—2. See lead apes in hell; say an ape’s paternoster . apeshit

. Esp. go apeshit, to become very angry: ‘Two weeks ago I called him an ugly little f… And Steven went apeshit’ (film actor Harrison Ford, quoted in Time Out, 10 Sep. 1982, p. 21). apiece . For each person: coll.: C.19–20. S.E. when applied to things. apoplectic

. Choleric; violent-tempered: coll.: C.20. apostles

. The knight- heads, bollards and bitts of a sailing-ship’ (Bowen): nautical: mid-C.19–early 20. P.B.:? ex some fancied resemblance to statues in a church.—2. See manoeuvre the apostles; twelve apostles. Apostle’s Grove , the. St John’s Wood district, north London: 1864 (H., 3rd ed.). Variant, the Grove of the Evangelist (H., 5th ed., 1874). Ex the numerous demi- mondaines living there ca. 1860–1910; ob. by 1930. P.B.: or simply straight punning. apostle’s pinch . A pinch of a very indelicate nature: low: C.20. Apothecaries’ Hall . A late C.18–mid-19 midshipmen’s name for part of the steerage. Basil Hall, Voyages, 2nd series, 1832. apothecaries’ Latin

. Law Latin, dog Latin: late C.18–early 19 coll. Grose, 1st ed. apothecary

. As the a- , the ship’s surgeon: RN, esp. lowerdeck: ca. 1890–1930. Knock.—2. In talk like an apothecary, to talk nonsense: coll.: mid-C.19–early 19. Grose, 1st ed. apothecary’s bill . A long bill: mid-C.18–early 19. Grose, 1st ed. app

. Apparatus: chemists’ (not druggists’) and chemical students’: from ca. 1860.—2. An application to, e.g., Governor, chaplain, welfare, etc.: Borstals’ and detention centres’: current in 1970s. Home Office. appalling . Objectionable; ugly; noticeable, marked: Society and middle-class coll.: C.20. Cf.: appallingly . Very: coll.: C.20. Ex last nuance of prec. Appii

, the. The Three Tuns, a noted Durham inn: Durham University:—1903 (F.. & H., rev.). By a misreading of Acts 28, 15. apple and pears . An early form of apples and pears, q.v. ‘Ducange Anglicus’, 1857. apple and pip

. To urinate: rhyming s., on sip, itself back-s. for piss: late C.19–20. Franklyn 2nd.—2. To sip: rhyming s.: C.20. (Haden-Guest, 1971.) Cf. apple -pips, q.v. apple-cart . The human body. Grose, 2nd ed., 1788, has ‘down with his apple-cart; knock or throw him down’: cf. H., 1st ed., 1859, ‘“down with his apple-cart,” i.e. upset him. North [ern].’ In upset the apple-cart there seems to be a merging of two senses: body and, in dialect, plan; originating app. ca. 1800, this phrase > coll. ca. 1850. In 1931, thanks largely to G.B.Shaw’s play, The Apple Cart, it was admitted into S.E. though not into literary English. Later C.19 variants, recorded by F. & H.: upset the old woman’s apple-cart; upset the apple-cart and spill the gooseberries or

peaches. For fuller information, see F. & H., OED, W., and Apperson. apple core . £20: rhyming s., on score: since (?) ca. 1950. (Hillman, 1974.) Apple Corps

, the. ‘Footplatemen from Yeovil, Somerset’ (McKenna, Glossary): railwaymen’s: mid-C.20. A pun on ‘the cider country’. apple daddy . ‘Merchant Navy s. for dried apple rings soaked and cooked in a pastry case, and issued as a pudding on Tuesday and Thursdays to the apprentices, bosun, etc. Considered a great delicacy, they were liable to be stolen from the galley by ordinary seamen, if they were left unattended while soaking’: nautical: C.20. (R.S.) apple -dumpling shop

. A woman’s bosom: late C.18–19. Grose, 2nd ed. apple fritter

. A bitter (ale): rhyming s.: late C.19–20. apple-monger

, apple- squire; apron-squire. A harlot’s bully: coll; respectively C.18, C.16–early 19, late C.16–19. Perhaps ex apple, a woman’s breast. apple pie

. Sky: since ca. 1940; rare since 1946. Franklyn, Rhyming. apple -pie bed

. A bed short-sheeted: late C.18–20; coll. by 1830; S.E. by 1880. Grose, 2nd ed., defines it as ‘A bed made apple-pye fashion, like what is termed a turnover apple-pye’. Apple-Pie Day . That day on which, at Winchester College, six-and-six was, C.19, played. On this day, the Thursday after the first Tuesday in December, apple-pies were served on ‘gomers’, in College, for dinner. F. & H. apple-pie order . Perfect order, impeccable precision (Scott, 1813): coll. >, by 1900, S.E. apple-pips

. Lips: rhyming s., mostly theatrical: C.20. (Franklyn, Rhyming.) Cf. apple and pip, q.v. apple -polishing

. Toadying: Can.: C.20. Before giving the apple to teacher, a pupil—sometimes ostentatiously—polishes it. applesauce

. Impudence: mostly lower middle class: late C.19–20. An elab. of sauce, n., 1. apple-squire

. A male bawd: orig. (—1591), c. (Greene.) See also applemonger. apple to an oyster

. See oyster, 6. apples

. ‘In good order, under control’ (Wilkes): Aus.: since midC.20. As in, e.g., ‘How’s it going? Everything apples?’ Usu. she’ll be apples, q.v.—2. Testicles: low: C.19–20. Cf. nutmegs.—3. A shortening of apples and pears. It does not predominate over the full term, yet is fairly common: witness Lester.—4. See how we apples swim! apples a pound pears

. A c.p., derisive of barrow boys, who often use strange cries, thought by some customers to be misleading: since ca. 1930. ‘Since late 1940s, no more than a Cockneys’ jocular, a joyous, street cry’ (L.A., 1976). apples and pears . Stairs (—1859). ‘Ducange Anglicus,’ 1st ed., and H., 1st ed., have apple and pears. Ware records, for 1882, the abbr. apples, which has never > gen. apples and rice . ‘Oh ve -ry nice, oh ve-ry apples and rice,’ Michael Harrison, Reported Safe Arrival, 1943: rhyming s.: late C.19–20. appointment

. See keep (one’s) appointment. appro

, on. Coll.: abbr. on approbation or approval (things),

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Page 24 from ca. 1870 (H., 5th ed.); on approbation (persons): from ca. 1900. ’Appy Day

. A pessimistic and inveterate ‘grouser’: RN: C.20. (Granville.) Ironic. See happy. apree la gare , appray la guerre. Sometime, or never: military c.p.: 1916–18. Ex Fr. après la guerre, after the war. See also DCpp. apricock(-)water

. Apricock, i.e. apricot, ale: 1728, anon., The Quaker’s Opera. April fools

. Tools: rhyming s.: late C.19–20.—2. Stools: mostly publichouse rhyming s.: since ca. 1910.—3. (Football) pools: rhyming s.: since ca. 1930. (All: Franklyn, Rhyming.) April gentleman . A man newly married: coll.; C.16–17. (Greene.) Ex the popularity of marriages in April. April Showers . Flowers: rhyming 2.: C.20. Franklyn, Rhyming. apron

. The tarmac surround of a hangar: RAF: since ca. 1930. Jackson.—2. The neck fold of a merino ram’ (B., 1959): Aus. sheepfarmers’: C.20. apron and gaiters . A bishop; a dean: coll.:—1913 (Arthur H. Dawson’s Dict. of Slang). apron-rogue

. A labourer, an artisan: C.17 coll. (In C.17 S.E., apronman.) apron-squire

. See apple-monger. apron-string hold or tenure

. An estate held only during a wife’s life: late C.17–19 coll. Ray, 1678, To hold by the apron-strings, i.e. in right of his wife’ (Apperson). apron-strings, tied to (or always at) (or a woman’s) . Dangling after a woman, C.18; under petticoat government, C.18–20. apron-up

. Pregnant: lower and lower-middle class coll.: C.19–20; ob. Because modest women tend, in pregnancy, to use their aprons as ‘disguise’. apron-washings . Porter: proletarian:—1903; ob. (F. & H., rev.) Ex brewers’ porters’ aprons. aproneer

. A shopkeeper: ca. 1650–1720; coll. During the Civil War, a Roundhead. On the other hand, aproner (ca. 1600– 40)=a barman, a waiter. Aq , the (pron. Ack). The Westminster Aquarium, a wellknown music-hall of the 1870s–80s. Ronald Pearsall, Victorian Popular Music, 1973. aqua fluminis filtrata (lit, ‘filtered river-water’): an Aus. pharmaceutical chemists’ var. of next. (B.P.) aqua pompaginis (or pump-)

. Apothecaries’ Latin for water from the well: C.18–early 19. Harrison Ainsworth, drawing heavily on Egan’s Grose, uses the term several times. aquarius . ‘Controller of evening bath “set”’: Bootham School s. (late C.19–20) verging on j. Bootham, 1925. aquatics . A game of cricket played by the oarsmen; the playingfield used by them: Eton; mid C.19–20. Aqui

, the. The Aquitania: seamen’s coll.: 1914–50, then reminiscent. ar ! Ah!: low coll.: C.19–20. Manchon. I.e. ah with ‘r’ rasped. Arab

, city Arab, street Arab. A young vagrant; a poor boy playing much in the streets. Coll. >, by 1910, S.E.: respectively—1872, 1848, ca. 1855. Arabs , Arab merchants. ‘The Indian merchants and shopkeepers in Natal are locally, but erroneously known by these designations. They are chiefly Mohammedans and are also known as “Bombay merchants”’ (Pettman): from early 1890s. Arba Rifles

, the. ‘A force of Pioneers, pressed into service as front -line troops, at the time of the German break-through near Kasserine (in Tunisia)’: Army in N. Africa: WW2. Ex the Souk el Arba. P-G- R. arbor vitae . Lit., the tree of life, i.e. the penis: late C.18–20; ob. (Grose, 3rd ed.) Pedantic. ’arbour . See our ‘arbour! Arbroath

! A Scottish sporting c.p. (from 6 Sep. 1885) to anyone boasting. Because on 5 Sep. 1885, Dundee Harp defeated Aberdeen Rovers by 35–0 and sent a telegram to their great rivals Arbroath, ‘You can’t beat this’, to which

Arbroath, having the same day defeated Bon Accord, in a Scottish Cup Tie, by 36–0, replied, ‘Can’t we?’ Athletic News Football Annual, 1935–6. arch . A var. of ark (boat).—2. Archbishop: clerical: late C.19– 20.—3. As for 2, always the a. Headmaster: Tonbridge School: late C.19–mid-20. arch-cove or rogue . As c., the leader of a gang of thieves: from ca. 1600 to 1800. The latter as s., a confirmed rogue, from ca. 1650;

playfully, C.18–19. In c., arch=principal; confirmed; extremely adept. Arch-doll or doxy, however, is the wife of an

arch-cove: Grose, 2nd ed.

Arch Tiffy

, the. The Warrant Engineer: RN: since ca. 1920. (Granville.) See tiffy, 1.

archbeak or archbeako

. Headmaster: some English preparatory schools: C.20. See, e.g., the novels of Anthony Buckeridge.

Archbishop Laud

, often shortened to Archbishop. Fraud: rhyming: since ca. 1945—by 1965, also low s. Robin Cook, The Crust on Its

Uppers, 1962.

Archbishop of Cant

, the. Any Anglican archbishop; not necessarily Canterbury: since the late 1930s.

archdeacon

The Archdeacon, HMS Venerable: RN: C.20.

. Merton ale, stronger brew: Oxford University, C.19–20; ob. —2.

(Bowen.) Ex that dignitary’s ‘style’.

archduke

. A comical or an eccentric man: late C.17–18. (Grose, 3rd ed.) Perhaps suggested by the Duke in Measure for

Measure.

Archer up

! (He, etc., is) safe; or, bound to win: London c.p.: 1881–6. Ex the famous jockey, Fred Archer, who (d. 1886)

sprang into fame in 1881.

Archibald

. The air-bump over the corner of the Brooklands aerodrome next to the sewage-farm: aviation: ca. 1910– 14. Ex

youth’s fondness for bestowing proper names on inanimate objects. (W.) Whence perhaps Archie, v. P.B.: perhaps

ex:

Archibald

, certainly not! No!: c.p. of ca. 1913–20. Ex a music-hall song having this refrain. (F. & G.) See DCpp.

Archie

, n. An anti-aircraft gun: occ., such a gunner: military: from 1915. Perhaps ex Archibald, but cf. the v., below.—2. A

young station hand, learning his job: Aus. rural: C.20. (B., 1942.) Cf. Archibald.

Archie

; gen. archie, v.t., gen. in passive. To shell (an aviator and his plane when they are) in the air: military aviation:

from 1915. Prob. ex Archibald, q.v. W.

ard

. Hot, both of objects and of persons or passions: C.17– early 19 c. Ex Fr. ardent.

ardelio(n)

. A busybody: C.17; coll. Never properly acclimatised. (Florio; Burton.) Ex L. ardelio ex ardere, to be zealous.

ardent

. Spirituous liquor: Society: 1870; † by 1920. (Ware.) Abbr. ardent spirits.

are there any more at home like you

? A c.p., addressed to a pretty girl: since ca. 1910. Ex a musical comedy: the song is ‘Tell me, pretty maiden, are

there…?’—from Floradora, 1900.

are there no doors in your house

? A c.p. to one who fails to close the door: C.20.

are we down-hearted

? A military c.p. of WW1, (for var. and elab., see B. & P., p. 194); orig. (ca. 1906) political but soon gen.

are yew werkin’

? A Liverpool c.p. of ‘the hungry Twenties’ and in frequent use until ca. 1940; occ. use for some 10 years longer.

(Frank Shaw, 1968.)

are you a man or a mouse

? Orig. and predominantly US, Berrey glossing it thus: ‘disparaging of a timorous person’. Adopted in Britain ca. 1945

and there used joc., esp. by female to male. If the jibe seems fitting, or there is unwillingness to accept the

challenge, the retort is often simply ‘Squeak!’

are you fit

? Are you ready?: orig. RAF, since ca. 1915; by ca. 1950, at very latest, also army: coll. Perhaps elliptical for ‘are

you ready and fit for action?’ Partridge, 1945; P.B.

(are) you getting too proud to speak to anyone now

? Addressed to one who has failed to notice the speaker in passing: C.20.

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Page 25 are you going to walk about-or pay for a room

? ‘An impatient whore’s question after a client has dithered too long.’ (A correspondent, 1969): C.20. are you happy in the Service

? and are you happy in your work ? Ironic queries to someone engaged in dirty or dangerous work: the Services’; the latter mostly RAF at first (1939 or 40), the former orig., since ca. 1935, RN. Both forms were adopted, and persist, in the Army. The latter has been in civilian use, extensively, since 1945. are you in my way

? ‘A c.p. reminder of egotistical obliviousness’ (L.A.): since ca. 1925.—2. Joc. phrase used as ‘Excuse me, may I come past?’, or to forestall another’s having to ask one to make room: since ca. 1960. (P.B.) are you keeping it for the worms ? A c.p. addressed to a female rejecting sexual advances: Can.: since ca. 1945. Here, ‘it’ is the hymen. are you kidding

? Are you joking?—or derisively and ironically exclamatory; Surely you’re not serious?: c.p.: since ca. 1945. Suggested by the American c.p., no kidding? Probably the origin of you must be joking, I find it difficult to believe you: since ca. 1960. P.B.: a perhaps mainly Services’ riposte of the 1960s–70s was: ‘No—it’s just the way me (my) coat hangs’ (=‘I am not pregnant’). are you pulling the right string ? Are you going the right way about it? or, occ., are you correct?: a cabinet-makers’ c.p. dating from 1863. (Ware.) Ob. by 1940. are you there with your bears ? There you are again!—esp. with a connotation of ‘so soon’: ca. 1570–1840. In the works of various writers from Lyly, 1592, to Scott, 1820. (Apperson.) From the itinerant bear-leaders’ regular visits to certain districts. are you winning ? A rhetorical greeting: since ca. 1960. (P.B.) area-sneak

. A sneak haunting areas in order to thieve (Vaux, 1812; Dickens, 1838). Coll.; S.E. by 1880 at latest. For a lengthy list of English and Continental synonyms for a thief see F. & H. arena rat . A ‘fan’ or an habitué or an idler hanging about ice-hockey arenas: Can. sporting circles’: since 1957. (Leechman.) aren’t we all (? or !)

, often prec. by but. But surely we’re all alike in that?: c.p. since ca. 1918 at latest. The Daily Mirror’s famous stripcartoon character of the late 1930s–early 1950s, Capt. Reilly-Ffoul, lived at ‘Arntwee Hall’. aren’t you the one ! A c.p. expressing admiration whether complete, or quizzical, or rueful: the US equivalent, occ. used in Britain, of the British you are a one!: since mid- 1940s. arer . A Cockney term of ca. 1900–15, as in Ware’s quotation, ‘We are, and what’s more, we can’t be any arer’, i.e. more so. ’arf-a-mo . A cigarette, esp. one slow-burning and difficult to keep alight: 1914–15, esp in the Army. Cf. ‘alf a mo, Kaiser in DCpp. ’afr-and (or ’n’)-’arf

. Ale and porter mixed equally: Cockney: from ca. 1830, Cf.: arfarfanarf

. Drunk: Cockney:—1909 (Ware); ob. by 1930. Lit., half, half, and half; applied orig. to one who has had too many of prec. arfundred . See anarf. arg

. To argue: low:—1903 (F. & H., rev.). argal

; argol-bargol. In Shakespeare, argal=therefore: obviously corrupted from ergo. Argol-bargol, unsound reasoning, cavilling,—as v., to bandy words,—is of the C.19–20 (ob.) and seems to be echoically rhyming after willy- nilly, hocus-pocus, etc. Moreover, The Times, in 1863, used argal as=quibble, and Galt, forty years earlier, employed the adj. argol-bargolous, quarrelsome; argybargy (—1887) is mostly Scottish. Note, however, that argle, to dispute about, dates from ca. 1589. Argate

. Joke placename, used in response to the question ‘Where did you go for your holidays?’: NW England, perhaps wider afield: C.20. I.e. ‘Our gate’. (Mrs Gwynneth Reed, 1980.) arge . ‘Silver (from argent)’ (Tempest): c.: mid-C.20. Argies , the. (Usu. pl.) Argentinians: orig. Falkland Islanders’ coll., given wide publicity in the crisis of 1982. Daily Telegraph, 6 Apr. 1982. Also Argie,-y, adj. argot . ‘A term used amongst London thieves for their secret-… language’, H.: c. (—1859); † by 1920. The Fr. argot, properly cant, loosely slang.—2. For its misuse as=‘slang’,

see introductory chapter of Slang: 1843, Quarterly Review, ‘Some modern argot or vulgarism’. argue the leg off an iron pot

. To be, on one occasion or many, extremely argumentative: coll.: from ca. 1880. Also argue a dog’s tail of: coll.:— 1903. (F. & H., rev.) argue the toss . ‘To dispute loudly and long’: low: since ca. 1910. B.&P. L.A. adds, 1976: ‘Assertion and counter-assertion, with varying circumstantial details, on any topic; from “who called heads and who tails” at toss of coin, or “which way it fell”.’ argufy

. To signify: early C.18–20: low coll. and dial.: The trial of Hester Jennings, 1726, in Select Trials, from 1724 to

1732, pub. in 1735. In Hodgson’s National Songster, 1832, is an old song entitled ‘What Argufies Pride and Ambition?’ Ex argue on speechify.—2. Hence, to pester with argument: Smollett, 1771; ob.—3. Hence, v.i., to argue, wrangle: mid- C.18–20. (Maria Edgeworth, 1800.) The commonest sense. argy-bargy

, n. and v. Argument, to argue, ‘over a point of fact or opinion, esp. of group, even leading to pushing and shoving, to enforce contention’; cf. barge, v., 1 and 3, and barge in. (L.A.). See also under argal above. Ari . Short for Aristotle; also spelt ‘Arry, as in Franklyn, Rhyming. Aris

. Short for Aristotle, a bottle: C.20. Lester.—2. See ’Arris, 2. arisings

. Left-overs (as of food): RN: C.20. (‘Bartimeus’.) Ex official arisings, residues proving proper use of expendable stores. Aristippus . Ganary wine: C.17: Middleton, ‘rich Aristippus, sparkling sherry’. Ex the hedonistic Greek philosopher. aristo

. An aristocrat: dated by OED Sup. at 1864, but perhaps rather from ca. 1790 and perhaps influenced by Fr. s. aristocrat

. A ‘swell’, a ‘toff’: C.19–20; coll., but at no time at all gen. aristocratic vein . (Gen. pl.) A blue vein: theatrical coll.:—1909 (Ware); ob. by 1930. Cf. S.E. blue blood. Aristotle

. A bottle: rhyming s.; late C.19–earlier 20. The Sydney Bulletin, 7 Aug. 1897; the London Evening News, 19 Aug. 1931.—2. Hence, usu, in shortened form arris (q.v. at ’Arris, 2) courage, nerve. This is a double rhyme: Aristotle =bottle; bottle short for bottle and glass=arse, s. for ‘guts’: later C.20, when this Aristotle is as likely to be thought of as Aristotle Onassis, the Greek shipping tycoon, rather than the famous philosopher. arith . Arithmetic: schoolchildren’s: mid-C.19–20. Arithmetician

. See TAVERN TERMS, §3d, in Appendix. ark

. A barrack-room chest: army coll.:—1903 (F. & H., rev.); ob. by 1930. A survival ex S.E.—2. In be, or have come, out of the ark, to be very old or very stale: coll.: C.20.

Lyell, ‘Good Heavens! This cheese must have come out of the Ark!’—3. See arkman. ark and win(n)s . A sculler; a row-boat: c.: late C.18–mid-19. (Grose, 1st ed.) See arkman. ’ark at ‘er

! See hark at her! ark-floater . An aged actor: C.19. Ex Noah’s ark+floats, the footlights. ’ark -pirate

. A thief ‘working’ navigable rivers: nautical c. (—1823); † by 1900. Egan’s Grose. arkman

. A Thames waterman: C.18–19; c. or low. Ark, a boat, is not c. except perhaps ca. 1750–1850. Thence arkruf(ian), a fresh-water thief: c.; C.18–mid -19. A New Canting Dict., 1725. Arleens . Orleans plums: Cockney coll.:—1887 (Baumann). arm

. Influence, power, ‘hold’: advertising circles’: since ca. 1960. ‘What sort of arm haye you got over them?’ (BBC Radio 4, ‘You and Yours’, 22 May 1975: P.B.).—2. See chance your

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Page 26 arm!; having a good arm; long as (one’s) arm; not off; under the arm; make a long arm. Arm-in-Tears

; Arminteers. Armentières: military: from late 1914. Immortalised in that lengthy, scabrous, humorous song, ‘Mademoiselle from Arminteers’ (for which, see esp. B. & P.). arm-pits . See under the arm-pits. arm- props

. Crutches: coll.: from ca. 1820; † by 1910. Moncrieff. arm the lead

. ‘To fill a small cavity with tallow to bring up a sample of the bottom’ when sounding the depth: nautical: mid-C.19– 20; col. >, by 1900, j. Bowen. armadillo scout . An aeroplane introduced by Armstrong-Whitworth in 1918: Air Force s. verging on j.; † by 1925. F. & G. armed begging . ‘Demanding money at the pistol point. A hold up’ (Tempest), ironic c.: mid-C.20.

Armies . ‘Name given generically to Armament ratings’ (Granville): RN: since ca. 1920. Arminteers . See Arm-in-Tears. armour . In be in armour, to be pot-valiant: late C.17–18. (B.E.) Cf. Dutch couragc and perhaps the C.17 proverbial armour is light at table (Apperson).—2. In fight in armour, to use a condom: ca. 1780–1840. Grose, 1st ed. arms and legs (, all). Weak beer: without body. C.19–20.—2. Hence, weak tea: military: C.20. F. & G. arm’s length

, work at. To work at a disadvantage; clumsily: coll. > S.E.; C.19–20; ob. arms of Murphy , in the. Asleep: low:—1903 (F. & H., rev.). I.e. Morpheus. Armstrong’s patent

. Drill that was ‘sheer hard labour, needing patience and stamina’ and unnecessary: lowerdeck: ?ca. 1850–1920. Knock. Armstrong, because it required one: not a merely arbitrary surname. army

. As the Army, the Salvation Army: coll.: C.20.—2. See thank God…; for you and whose army? see you—and who else? anny and navy . Gravy: rhyming s.: C.20 Franklyn, Rhyming. army-barmy

. Very keen on, dedicated to, the military life in all its aspects: army s.: since ca. 1955. Cf. khaki-brained and anchor-faced. (P.B.) Army Fonh blank . Toilet paper: army (mostly officers’): WW2. P-G-R. Army left (or right) ! Drill- instructors’ c.p. to one who turned the wrong way: army: since ca. 1925. P-G-R. army rocks . See almond rocks. Army Safety Corps . See Ally Sloper’s Cavalry. Army Service Cunts . The Army Service Corps: infantry-men’s pej.: WW1. Army tank (usu. in pl). An American serviceman: Aus. prisoners-of-war in the Far East: 1942–5. (Sydney Sun, 22 Sep. 1945; B., 1953.) Rhyming on Yank; cf. Sherman tank, q.v. aromatic bomb

. Atomic bomb: army, officers’ ephemeral pun: late 1945– 6. People, 2 Sep. 1945. aroo

! See hooroo ! around my hat

. See all around… around the world

, often prec. by go. A comprehensive kissing of the other’s body: both among prostitutes and among men frequenting them: US (since ca. 1940), then also (since ca. 1945) Brit. W. & F., 1960; Eugene Landy, Underground Dictionary, 1971. arp

. See zol. arrah

! An Anglo-Irish expletive of emotion, excitement: coll.: late C.17–20. array

. To thrash, flog; afflict; disfigure, befoul: ironically or jocularly coll.: late C.14–16. Cf. dress down, dressing down. arrested by the bailiff of Marshland . Stricken with ague: coll: from ca. 1660: in C.19–20, dial. ‘Proverbial’ Fuller, Grose (Provinicial Glossary), Smiles. (Apperson.)

’Arris, ’a-arse

. Esp. in lose (one’s) ’arris, to lose one’s nerve, to ‘chicken out’: rhyming s.: since ca. 1950, or perhaps much earlier. Also spelt aris, it is a shortening of Aristotle, q.v., rhyming s. for ‘bottle’, itself a shortening of bottle and glass=, n., 2=courage, impudence. There may also be a straight pun on aris/arse.

arrival . An enemy shell arriving—and bursting—in the Brit. lines: army coll.: WW1. (B. & P.) Cf. theirs.—2. A landing of the completest mediocrity: RAF: from ca. 1932. H. & P., 1943, gloss it as ‘The safe landing of an aircraft’; more accurately it should be ‘a poor landing, likely to have been troublesome. Thus “Bill’s made an arrival”’ (Jackson, rather later in 1943). arrow . A dart: darts-players’ s. > coll.: since ca. 1880. (Peter Chamberlain.) A pun. Hence, in good arrow, in good dartplaying form. ’Arry . A familiar form of Aristotle, q.v.: C.20. (Franklyn, Rhyming.) Cf. Ari. ’Arry and ’Arriet . A typical costermonger and his, or any, coster lass; hence, any low-bred and lively (esp. if not old) man and woman. Popularised by Milliken. From ca. 1870; coll. Whence ’Arryish, ‘costermongerish’, vulgarly jovial: coll.; from ca. 1880. Also, ’Arry’s worrier, a concertina: Cockney: 1885; ob. Ware. ’Arry’s gators

. Thank you: Aus.: since ca. 1943. A Hobson-Jobson of Japanese arrigato. (Edwin Morrisby, 1958.) ars musica

. The ‘musical arse’, i.e. the podex: late C.18–19. (Grose, 1st ed.) Punning the L. for musical art. arse

, n. Posterior; buttocks. Until ca. 1660, S.E.; then a vulg. Ca. 1700–1930, rarely printed in full: even B.E. (1690) on one occasion prints as ‘ar—’, and Grose often omits the r, while Frederic Manning (d. Feb. 1935) was in Jan. 1930 considered extremely daring to give its four letters in his magnificent warnovel, Her Privates We .—2. Impudence:

Aus.: since ca. 1940. Nino Culotta, Cop This Lot, 1960, ‘He laughs and says…a man would need plenty of arse to pinch another man’s book.’ I think so too. P.B.: since ca. 1950, and prob. earlier, also Brit. low. See ’Arris, and cf. balls in this sense, of ‘nerve, courage’.—3. Any person or place the speaker rates as objectionable: see AUSTRALIAN UNDERWORLD, in Appendix.—4. In give (someone or thing) the arse, to get rid of that person or thing, as in ‘She was a pain in the bum, so we gave her the arse’: Aus.: since (?) ca. 1950. Cf. the v. (P.B.)—5. In hang an, or the, arse, to hold or hang back; to hesitate timorously: coll.: C.17–early 20.—6. See anchor, 4; arsehole; ask my arse!; grease a fat sow…; my arse; pain in the arse; tear the arse…; hamdudgeon; sport an arse; the arse entries at KNOW, in Appendix; lose his arse… arse

, v.t. To kick (C.19–20); to dismiss, esp. from a job (WW1): s. Cf. arse, n., 4.—2. ‘One of the blokes said, “Arse her [a lorry] up here,” I backed her up against one of the Railway arches’ (John Gosling, The Ghost Squad, 1959): low: C.20.

arse about

, v.i. To fool about, waste time: C.20 s. In late C.18–19, (v.i.) to turn round: a vulgarism. Cf.: arse about face

, Often it’s or you’ve got it…, back to front; all wrong: low coll.: since late C.19. Cf. the early C.20 Services’ arse apeak, topsy-turvy. arse bandit . A notorious sodomite: low: C.20. Also arse brigand; arse king: earlier C.20. Cf. synon. turd burglar.—2. Hence, ‘Among boarding-school boys, one who makes play with homosexual inclinations’ (L.A., 1976): since ca. 1910. arse bit

. See put on the arse bit. arse brigand

. See arse bandit. arse-cooler

. A bustle (on a woman’s dress): C.19. arse-crawl

. V.i., to toady: low coll.: late C.19–20. (Gerald Kersh, The Nine Lives of Bill Nelson, 1942.) Ex: arse- crawler or -creeper

. A sycophant: a shortening of arsehole crawler, q.v. arse-end Charlie

‘is the man who weaves backwards and forwards above and behind the Squadron to protect them from attack from the rear’ (Richard Hillary, The Last Enemy, 1942): RAF: 1939+. Synon. with tail-end Charlie, 2. arse-foot . A penguin: (nautical) coll. (—1598); Florio, Gold-

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Page 27 smith: † by 1880. Because its feet are placed so far back. arse for dust

, unable to see (someone’s). A low c.p., applied to a swift departure: late C.19–20. arse-hole

. See arsehole. arse in a sling

. See eye in a sling. arse king . See arse bandit, 1. arse man-leg man-tit man

(or hyphenated). Such a male as esteems and enjoys a female’s bottom, or legs, or breasts, as her most attractive physical characteristic: coll.: somewhat raffish: the second and third since the late 1940s, although doubtless employed, occ., a decade or two earlier. Of the three, the first term is the least used; also, it arose the latest—not, I think, before ca. 1955.—2. Arse(-)man. An active male homosexual: low: C.20. arse of the ship , the. The stern: RN: mid-C.19–20. Granville. arse off

, v.i. To depart: low: C.19–20. arse off or out

. See tear (one’s) arse off; tear the arse out of it. arse over

… Head over heels; in combinations…over ballocks: Cockney > gen. low: C.20;...over kettle: Can.: C.20; …over tip: low coll.: C.20;…over tit: Aus. and Brit.: since ca. 1910; …over tits; tock; tuck: since ca. 1920, perhaps earlier;… over turkey: late C.19–earlier 20. In army, esp. officers’, s., it > A over T and, in WW1, ack over toc(k). All the arse over t- perhaps orig. ex…over top . Cf. arse upwards. arse-party , the. Those who, in any ship, are known to be homosexuals: RN: since ca. 1920. arse-perisher

. See bum-freezer, 2. arse-polishing

. An office job: RAF: 1939+. P-G-R. arse (something) up

. To bungle: low: C.20. To get it the wrong way up. Cf.:-arse up with care . Applied, as adj. or as adv., to a thorough mess, a real bungle, chaos: low: C.20. Arse-ups

, the. The 4th Battalion, NZ Rifle Brigade: NZ army: WW1. Ex the shape of the battalion shoulder-flash. arse upwards

. In good luck; luckily; coll.: C.17–20. Esp. rise with one’s… (Ray.) Cockneys pronounce it arsuppards, whence the punning Mr R.Suppards, a very lucky fellow: C.19–20 pronunciation; C.20 pun.—2. The wrong way round; upside down: Cockneys’: C.20. (L.A.) arse-wiper

. A workman that toadies to the boss; a servant to the mistress: low coll.: C.20. arse-wise

, adj. or adv. Inept; preposterous; awry: low coll.: C.20. arse- worm . ‘A little diminutive Fellow’ (B.E.): late C.17–18. - arsed

. Having a—arse: C.16–20; see arse, n., for status. Heywood, 1562 (bare-arst); Cotgrave. OED. arsehole

, n. Anus: a coll. vulgarism: C.19 (?18)—20.—2. In I (he, etc.) doesn’t (or don’t) give an (or a cat’s) arsehole, a RN c.p. assertion, either of bravado or of imperturbability: C.20. arsehole

, v. To dismiss (someone) peremptorily: Aus. low: since mid -C.20. Wilkes.—2. To go, as in ‘Where are you arse-holing off to?’ (Tailgunner’ Parkinson, New Society, 19 Aug. 1982, p. 313): Services’: mid-C.20. arsehole bandit . Var. of arse-bandit: low: C.20. arsehole crawler or creeper

; often simply crawler . A sycophant: low: late C.19–20. Hence, adj. and vbl n., arsehole-crawling or -creeping, toadying, and derivative adj., arseholey. arsehole going sixpence—half-a-crown . ‘Palpitating with fear: RN lowerdeck: 1950s’ (Peppitt). Dating, I’d say, ca. 1940–70. Ex the smallest and largest ‘silver’ coins in circulation during the period. P.B.: an army var. was, e.g. my arse’ole went like that!, with finger-tips opening and closing in illustration. arsehole is bored or punched

. In he doesn’t know if his arsehole …, he’s a complete fool; in I don’t know…, or, e.g. I’m beginning to wonder whether my …, I am flummoxed, at a loss, too busy even to think straight: c.p.: since early C.20. Prob. orig. ex engineering workshops. T.E.Lawrence in The Mint, his journal of RAF life in the 1920s, has punched, bored, drilled or countersunk, while among Can. Army officers’, WW2, it ran, ‘That guy don’t know if his ass-hole was drilled, dug, seamed, bored or just naturally evaginated.’ Now, 1960s, usu.…punched or bored. arsehole lucky

. Extremely lucky: low: since ca. 1950. Even lower is the mainly Suffolk c.p. it has evoked: yeah, bending over again. (F.Leech, 1972.) Cf. arsy. arsehole of the world . Applied with loathing to any particularly unpleasant place, the orig. arsehole…was prob. the Persian Gulf and Lower Iraq; hence Baghdad was said to be up the…By implication in the c.p. if the world had to have an enema, that’s where they’d start.

arsehole set fire ! A low c.p. exclam.: ca. 1920–40. Arsehole Square

. Boyish and youthful ‘wit’ in parroted reply to ‘Where?’: mostly London: late C.19–20. arsehole street

. In be in or up…, to be in serious trouble; synon. with in the shit: low: since ca. 1950. (L.A.) arsehole to breakfast time

, from. All the way; all the time: low: late C.19–20. E.g., ‘As National Servicemen we were chivvied all over, from arsehole…’ Contrast arseholes to… P.B.: breakfast- time here perhaps refers to a baby’s suckling. arseholed or arseholes . Extremely drunk: since ca. 1940. Ex the earlier, low, pissed as arseholes: from late C.19. arseholes! or…to you

! A low contemptuous interjection or imprecation: since late C.19. arseholes to breakfast time

. Upside down: utterly confused: most unsatisfactory: Cockney: late C.19–20. Thus ‘Them ahses built all…’ or Take no notice of him—he’s always …’ Contrast arsehole to… This form is perhaps a var. of arse over tit.

arseholey . See arsehole crawler. arser

. A fall on one’s behind: mostly hunting and turf: C.20. Evelyn Waugh, A Handful of Dust, 1934, ‘You just opened your bloody legs and took an arser.’ arsey . See arsy. arso

. Armament Supply Officer: RN: WW2. P-G-R. arsty

. Slowly!; slow down!: army and RAF: late C.19–earlier 20. (B. & P.; Jackson.) Ex Hindustani ahisti. Opp. jildi. Also spelt asty . arsy . (Very) lucky: Aus.: since ca. 1935. (B., 1953.) Ex tinarsed, q.v. at tinny, adj., 2; cf. also arsehole lucky. arsyvarsy

, adv. Head over heels, esp. with fall, C.18–20; adj., preposterous, topsy-turvy, mid-C.17–19. Ex varsy, a rhyming addition, properly versy, L. versus (turned), and coll. Cf.: arsy-versy . A ‘mocking term for a male homosexual’s [tendencies]; jocularly contemptuous of [a] thwarting [of] nature’: adj.

and adv.: (?) since late 1950s. L. A. cites, from the Sunday Times, 22 Aug. 1976, a letter in which gay is preferred to arsy-versy. Cf. prec. art of memory

. See TAVERN TERMS, §3d, in Appendix. art thou there

? or! Ah, so you understand at last—you’ve tumbled to it: ca. 1660–1730. See DCpp. arterial

. Abbr. arterial road: 1931: coll. E.P.’s orig. comment was ‘Soon, prob., to be S.E.’, but in the latter half of C.20 the idea is expressed as motorway. (P.B.) artesian . Beer made in Australia: Aus.: ca. 1880–1914. artful dodger . A lodger: rhyming s. (—1857). ‘Ducange Anglicus.’—2. An expert thief: ca. 1864–1900, perhaps ex the character in Oliver Twist. artful fox

. A theatrical box: music-hall rhyming s.: 1882; † by 1916. Ware. Arthur

. Arsine gas. H. & P.—2. A simpleton, a dupe: mock-auction promoters’: since ca. 1946. Perhaps ex Arthur regarded, by the ignorant, as a ‘sissy’ name.—3. A (money) bank: rhyming s. (Powis, 1977): on (J.) Arthur Rank (1888–1972), the film and

flour millionaire.—4. Arthritis: trawlermen’s: C.20. Steven Piper, The North Ships, 1974.—5. For King Arthur, see ambassador; for not know whether (one) is Arthur or Martha, see KNOW, in Appendix.

artic

, as sol. for Arctic, goes right back to C.14. Yet perhaps it isn’t an error at all, but a true var. pron., common in Old and Medieval French and even in Late and Medieval

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Page 28 Latin.—2. An artic ulated lorry: since 1938, when the RAF used it of their Queen Mary lorries, q.v.; but much more widespread since ca. 1960, with the greatly increased use of this form of transport. arttchoke . See hearty choke.—2. A dissolute, debauched old woman: Aus. low: C.20. B., 1942. artichoke ripe

. To smoke a pipe; rhyming s.: ca. 1855–80. H., 1st ed. article

. A girl, a woman: ca. 1810–70. Lex. Bal.—2. ‘Used by Wellington to Creevey in Brussels a few weeks before Waterloo: “It all depends on that article there” (pointing to an off -duty, sight -seeing private of one of the line regiments’ (R.S.). Later in C.19, and still (late 1970s), used contemptuously of any person: coll. Ex ‘its common use in trade for an item of commodity, as in the phr[ase] “What’s the next article?” of the mod. shopkeeper’ (EDD). Examples heard by me during the 1950s: nosey article, inquisitive; sloppy article; tofee-nosed article.—3. A woman exported to the Argentine to become a prostitute: white-slavers’ c.: C.20. Londres.—4. A chamber -pot: domestic coll.: mid -C.19–20. It probably arose, as a euph., from ‘article of furniture’. Note the story of that bishop, who, to another, complained that his house contained forty

bedrooms, to which his guest replied, ‘Very awkward, for you have only Thirty-Nine Articles’.—5. In the (very) article, the precise thing; the thing (or person) most needed: coll.: from ca. 1850. Trollope. article of virtue

. A virgin: ca. 1850–1914. Punning virtue, (objets de) vertu. article one

, paragraph one. In the Royal Navy, ‘a reply to any complaint’ (John Laffin, Jack Tar, 1969): late C.19–20. The article is mythical; the c.p., positive. articles . Breeches, trousers; C.18–19. Grose, 2nd ed.—2. In c. of 1780–1830, a suit of clothes. artificial

, n. Usu. in pl, artificial manures: gardening coll.: C.20. artillery

. (One’s) artillery, one’s revolver: army officers’ joc.: WW2.? Ex US. P- G-R.—2. A full equipment of necessaries for drug injections: addicts’: adopted, ca. 1965, ex US. ( DCCU, 1971.) Cf. synon. the works.—3. As the (heavy) artillery, ‘Big wigs’; convincing or very important persons: coll: from late 1916; ob. by 1930. In later C.20, sometimes used fig., as in ‘Then the Liberals brought their heavy artillery into play, in the shape of Cyril Smith’ (P.B.).

artilleryman

. A drunkard: low:—1903 (F. & H., rev.); † by 1919. Ex noisiness. artist

. A person; ‘chap’, ‘fellow’: from ca. 1905. Cf. merchant, customer. Hence, by specialisation: an expert, a specialist: since ca. 1918.—2. Hence, ‘One who indulges in excesses, e.g., “bilge artist”, “booze artist”, “bull artist”’ (B., 1942): orig. Aus.; since ca. 1920. But by 1950, at latest, widespread in the Brit. Services, particularly in piss artist, a habitual drinker. Artists , the. The Artists’ Rifles: army coll.: C.20. arty

, n. Artillery: Aus. army: WW2. (Rats.) Ex the standard Services’ abbr. (P.B.). arty

. Artistic; esp. spuriously or affectedly artistic in practice, theory, or manners: coll.: C.20. Cf.: arty-and-crafty ; arty-crafty. Artistic but not notably useful or comfortable: coll.: resp. 1902 and ca. 1920. OED. Arty Bishops

, the. See Bishops, the. arty roller

. A collar: Aus. rhyming s.: since ca. 1910. B., 1945. arvo

. Afternoon: Aus.: C.20. (B., 1942.) Cf. afto. Usu. as this arvo, contracted to ’sarvo. Aryan

; non-Aryran. Non-Jewish; Jewish: catachreses (of Hitlerite origin) dating, in England, from 1936. This is a particularly crass and barbarous misusage of a useful pair of complementaries. as . Relative pronoun=that; who, which. In C.18–20, sol.; previously, M.E. onwards, S.E. (It survives also in dial.)—2. As conjunction=that. (Variant as how.) See how, as. -as. Very—; e.g. drunk as drunk, very drunk: coll.: mid-C.19– 20. Perhaps ex— as can be. as—as a—

. Similes thus constructed may be found at the appropriate adj., e.g. easy as…, since, in conversation, the initial as is so often dropped. See also (as) many and (as) much… as-as they make ’em . Utterly; very; esp. with bad, drunk, fast, mad: coll.: since mid-C.19. as ever is

. A (mainly lower classes’) coll. cliché tag, emphasising the preceding statement: mid-C.19–20. Edward Lear (d. 1888) once wrote, ca. 1873, ‘I shall go either to Sardinia, or India,

or Jumsibobjigglequack this next winter as ever is’ (EDD). Ex dial. as how

. See how. as I

… The following, orig. solemn, asseverations, dating mostly from C.16 and 17, are treated at length and with a wealth of quotation in DCpp. They all emphasise the stark cry, ‘Believe me!’ The list could not hope to be inclusive: as I am a gentleman and a scholar: ca. 1570–1640: adumbrates the C.19–20 stock phrase an officer and a gentleman, and the (in later C.20) joc. thanks, Sir, you are a gentleman and a scholar; as I am a person: ca. 1660– 1750;…honest: late C.16–17;… have breath: C.19;…hope to be saved: ca. 1650–1850;…hope to live: ca. 1650–1820;

…live and breathe (often shortened to as I have): ca. 1645 —C.20;…live by bread: ca. 1650–1750. as if I’m ever likely to forget the bloody place

!—the place being Belgium. The WW1 fighting soldiers’ bitter and ironic response to the quot’n from the famous recruiting poster: Remember Belgium! B. & P. as-is . Feminine knickers: ca. 1920–40. Joan Lowell, Child of the Deep, 1929. as long as I can buy milk I shall not keep a cow

. ‘Why go to the expense of a wife so long as I can visit a whore?’: male c.p.: C.17–early 20. A C.20 version is why buy a book when you can go to a library? as Moss caught his mare—napping . A c.p. that referred to catching someone asleep, hence by surprise: ca. 1500–1870; in mid-C.18–early 20, often Morse; in C.19, mainly dial. See DCpp. as per usual . As usual: coll.: 1874 (W.S.Gilbert). Occ., later, per usual (OED); another occ. var. is as per use (pron. yews): non-U: from ca. 1902 (W.L.George, The Making of an Englishman, 1914). Ex, and perhaps orig. joc. on, the commercial use of per, perhaps influenced by Fr. comme par ordinaire (W.). as rotten

. (The score) as written: Aus. musicians’: C.20. B., 1942. as such

. See such. as that

. See that, and cf. as how, at how. as the actress said to the bishop

(and vice versa). An innuendo scabrously added to an entirely innocent remark, as in ‘It’s too stiff for me to manage it—as the actress said to the bishop’ or, conversely, ‘I can’t see what I’m doing—as the bishop said to the actress’. Certainly in RAF use ca. 1944–7, but prob. going back to Edwardian days; only very slightly obsolescent by 1975—by which time the allusion ‘as the A said to the B’ was quite well understood—it is likely to outlive most of us. See DCpp. and cf.: as the girl (or the soldier) said

: esp., as the girl said to the sailor. An end-c.p., to soften a double (esp. if sexual) meaning: since ca. 1919. Cf. the C.20 as the monkey said, ending a smoke-room story. Based upon a prototypical story about someone coming into money. See prec. as the man in the play says

. Occurs frequently in the comedies and farces of ca. 1780–1840; it lends humorous authority to a perhaps frivolous statement. as the man said . A tag lending authority—occ. a humorous warning—to what has been said: adopted ca. 1965 ex US, where current since ca. 1950. as the monkey said . ‘In English vulgar speech the monkey is often made to figure as a witty, pragmatically wise, ribald simulacrum of unrestrained mankind. Of the numerous

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Page 29 instances, “You must draw a line somewhere, as the monkey said when peeing across the carpet” is typical’ (L.A., 1969): since ca. 1870. Cf. as the actress…and as the girl…. There is a var. of the genre, where the saying becomes a pun for its own sake, as in, e.g. ‘“They’re off!” shrieked the monkey, as he slid down the razor-blade’. ‘They’re of’, said the monkey, > a c.p., applicable esp. to a race: lower classes’: C.20. (E.P.; P.B.) as we say in France . A mainly London c.p.: ca. 1820–1900. (R.S.Surtees, Handley Cross, vol. II, 1854.) See DCpp., and cf. pardon my French. as wears a head . A tag current ca. 1660–1730 and meaning ‘as a human being can be’: the phrase often in Shadwell and other— and later—writers of comedies. as you are stout—be merciful ! A middle- and upper -class c.p.: C.18. (Swift, Polite Didogues, 1738.) Here stout does not mean ‘obese, corpulent’ but ‘strong’ or ‘brave’. See DCpp. as you were ! ‘Used…to one who is going too fast in his assertions’:— 1864; post-WW1, ‘Sorry! my mistake’: coll. Ex the military command.

ash beans and long oats . A thrashing: London streets’: C.19. Augustus Mayhew, Paved with Gold, 1857, ‘Give him with all my might a good feed of “long oats” and “ash beans”.’ ashcat . See ashcat. ash cookie

. A ne’er-do-well: S. African coll.:—1913. Ex ash cookie, a dough cake ‘roasted in the ashes of a wood fire’ (Pettman), itself ex Dutch koek, a cake. ash-plant . A light cane carried by subalterns: military coll.: 1870; ob. (Ware.) Ex its material. Ash Wednesday . The day GHQ Cairo was filled with burning documents on the approach of Rommel. ashboxing

. ‘his wife used to go “ashboxing”…which involved foraging for food and firewood in the dustbins outside the big houses’ (Jeremy Seabrook, The Unprivileged, 1967, a study of late C.19–20 poverty in Northampton). ashcan . That’s no good, that shot: cinema: since ca. 1925. (London Evening News, 7 Nov. 1939.) I.e., put it in the dustbin! —2. Hence (?), wasted time: Services’: WW2. H. & P.—3. A depth charge; orig. its container (ex its appearance): RN: 1939+. Granville.—4. See put a jelly… ashcat

(or hyphenated). A fireman in the MN: nautical, esp. RN: late C.19–20. Bowen.—2. (Usu. in pl.) An engineer, mostly on destroyers: RN: since ca. 1935. Less gen. than synon. plumber. ashed . Drunk; may be intensified ashed as a rat—very drunk: Army Signals Regiments’: 1960s. Echoic, from the slurred splutterings of a drunkard, ‘ash…ash…ash…’ (P.B.) Ashes , the. ‘The symbolical remains of English cricket taken back to Australia’ (SOD): 1882. Also win, regain or recover, or lose the Ashes, to win or lose a series of test matches (from the English point of view): 1883 (W.J.Lewis). Coll.; in C.20 S.E. In Mr Basil de Sélincourt’s review of the 1st ed. of this work, in Manchester Guardian, 19 Feb. 1937, he wrote: ‘I hoped to find that the victorious Australian team had burned their stumps after the last game of the rubber, and kept the proceeds in an urn in their committee-room’ Ashmogger , the. The Ashmolean Museum: Oxford undergraduates’:— 1920; little used after 1940. Marples, 2. Ashtip , Mrs. See Greenfields. Asia Minor . Kensington and Bayswater (London, W.8. and W.2), ex the large number of retired Indian Civil servants there resident ca. 1860–1910: London: ca. 1880–1915.

(Asiatic) Annie . ‘A Turkish heavy gun at the Dardanelles’: military: 1915. (F. & G.) Punch, 1 Dec. 1915, in a verse titled ‘Twitting the Turk’: ‘even Asiastic Anne/Disgorged a bolt of monstrous plan/Which fell into the sea.’ asiaego , occ. assinego. A little ass: C.17.—2. A fool: C.17–18. Shakespeare has ‘An Asinico may tutor thee; ‘Thou… Asse.’ Ex Sp. OED. ask . ‘A jockey is said to “ask”…a horse when rousing him to greater exertion’: turf: from ca. 1860. B. & L. ask a silly question and you’ll get a silly answer

; also pluralised, ask silly questions…, both forms often thus shortened. This is, in late (?mid-)C.19–20, the c.p. evolved from an old proverb, ask no questions and you’ll be told no lies. ask another !; later, more commonly, ask me another! Don’t be silly!: mostly Cockney c.p. addressed to one or who asks a stale riddle; or a question that both asker and respondent know to be unanswerable: late C.19–20. See DCpp. ask bogy

. An evasive reply: nautical mid-C.18–19. Sea-wit, says Grose, for ‘ask mine a-se’. Cf. Bogy, q.v. ask cheeks near Cunnyborough

! A low London—female only—c.p. of mid -C.18-mid -C.19. Lit., ‘Ask my arse!’ (Grose, 1785). Cunnyborough=the borough, hence area, of cunny=cunt. Cf. the male ask mine, or my, arse. ask for a rub of . To seek, to apply for, a loan of something: RN lowerdeck: since ca. 1860. R/Adml P.W.Brock cites the notes by Capt. George S.Macllwaine, RN, sub- lieutenant in 1865, commander in 1879; published in the Naval Review, 1930. Perhaps orig. a rubbing, i.e. a paring or scraping from a twist or roll of tobacco.

ask for (one’s) cards . To leave a job: non-managerial coll.: since ca. 1940, or earlier, to 1974–5: ‘I’d just about had enough, so I asked for my cards.’ On being paid off, a workman received his insurance cards. ask for it . To incur foolishly; be fooled unnecessarily, ludicrously: coll: C.20; the OED Sup. dates it at 1909, but it is at least four years older. Cf. buy it. ask me another ! See ask another. ask me behind

! A mid-C.19–20 var. of ask mine arse! ask me foot

(occ. elbow)! An Anglo-Irish euph., C.20, for:-ask mine

, (in C.19–20) my, arse! A low coll. evasive reply: midC.18–20; orig. nautical. (Grose, 2nd ed.) Cf. the C.20, ‘God knows, (for) I don’t.’ ask out . To invite to (an) entertainment: coll.: from late 1880s. OED Sup. ask silly questions

… See ask a silly question… ask yourself

! Be reasonable: Aus. c.p.: since ca. 1925. (B., 1942.) P.B.: also some Brit. use, since mid-C.20. asker

. A beggar: euph.: 1858 (Reade: EDD); ob. by 1930. askew

. A cup: c.: ca. 1550–1650. (Harman.) Perhaps ex OldMedieval-Early Modern Fr. escuelle, a cup. asking

. In that’s asking, i.e. when you shouldn’t, or when I shouldn’t reply: coll. c.p.: late C. 19–20.—2. See not you by your asking. asparagus bed . A kind of anti-tank obstacle: army: 1939+. H. & P. aspect

. (A look of) ardour; hence, impudence: Hatton Garden District of London:—1909 (Ware). Ex It. aspetto! aspi or aspy

. An aspidistra: non-U; non-cultured: C.20. A modern wit has summarised his life of toil, ending in straitened circumstances, in the epigram: Per ardua ad aspidistra. Aspinall . Enamel: coll.:—1909 (Ware). Ex the inventor of an oxidised enamel paint. The v. is S.E. Aspro

. A vocalising of SPRO, Services’ Public Relations Officer: army: 1941+. P-G-R.—2. A professional male homosexual: low: since ca. 1940.? Ex arse ‘pro’.—3. See take the aspro. Asquith . A French match: army: WW1. Ex Asquith’s too-famous ‘Wait and see’: such matches often failed to light. ass

. A compositor: journalists’, ca. 1850–1900. Var., donkey.— 2. A very stupid or ignorant person: formerly S.E.; in C.20, coll. (N. B., make an ass of is going the same way.)—3. Arse: dial. and late coll.: C.19–20. This is the gen. US pron., as in Tess Slesinger’s The Unpossessed, 1934 (London, 1935). Hence also Can.—4. Female pudend: low Can.: late C.19–20. By 1945, partly—by 1960, fairly well, but even by 1977, not fully—adopted in Britain. ass abont

. To fool about: schoolboys’ (—1899) >, by 1910, gen. (OED.) Cf. ass, 2.—2. A post-1918 var. of arse about. American influence. ass in a sling . ‘“I’ve got my ass in a sling” or “It’s my ass that will be in the sling”: means that I’m the one that will be

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Page 30 the fall guy [q.v.], my responsibility’ (Leech, 1981): Can.: later C.20. Cf. eye in a sling, q.v. assap

. A vocalising of ASAP, as soon as possible: Services’: since ca. 1950. Cf. wef. (P.B.) assassin . An ornamental bow worn on the female breast: ca. 1900– 14. Very ‘killing’. Assayes

, the. The 74th Foot Regiment; from ca. 1881, the 2nd Battalion of the Highland Light Infantry: military coll.: from 1803 (Battle of Assaye), for them a notable year. asshole , ass -hole. Arsehole, q.v.; usu. in sense ‘a foolish, or objectionable, fellow’: adopted, late 1970s, ex US. Philip Howard, in The Times, passim. assig . An assignation, an appointment: ca. 1680–1830. B.E. assinego . See asinego. Assistance

, the. National Assistance: poorer classes’ coll.: since ca. 1945. assy

. Asphalt: schoolboys’: C.20. astard-ba

. Bastard: low: earlier C.20. (Gilt Kid.) By transposition. aste

. Rare c. for money: early C.17. (Nares.) Perhaps ex It. asta, auction. astern of station

. ‘Behindhand with a programme or ignorant of the latest intelligence’ (Granville): RN coll.: since ca. 1920. astonish me

! An educated, cultured c.p. used to encapsulate the idea ‘Go on, then: surprise me’, with the implication ‘though I doubt very much that what you say will be a surprise’: since early 1960s. (Derek Robinson, Rotten with Honour, 1973.) Cf. and contrast;—2. In you astonish me!, an ironic c.p. meaning ‘Well, that’s pretty obvious, isn’t it!’: since ca. 1920. astonisher . An exclamation mark: book-world’s: from ca. 1925. Cf. synon. Christer. astrologer

. See conjuror. astronomer

. A horse that carries its head high: C.19. In C.18 called a star-gazer.—2. See TAVERN TERMS, §3, d. astronomical

. (Esp. in statistics and in sums of money) huge, immense: cultured coll.: since ca. 1938. In ref. to stellar distances and times, and owing much to the vogue of the popular works on astronomy by Eddington and Jeans. asty ! See arsty. At . A member of the ATS, the [Women’s] A uxiliary Territorial S ervice; as a vocalised acronym it sounded like a natural pl, and so a single member would just as naturally be an at: orig. (1939) military. (H. & P.) The ATS became the Women’s Royal Army Corps on 1 Feb. 1949. (P.B.) Cf. Wren; Waaf. at it

. ‘Operating something illegal’ (G.F.Newman, Sir, You Bastard, 1970, Glossary): police s.: since ca. 1950.—2. (Usu. with again.) Indulging once more in sexual intercourse: coll.: late C.19–20. (L.A.) ‘“Three minutes pleasure and nine months pain;/another three months and we’re at it again./It’s a helluva life!” Says the Queen of Spain…’ (anon.)

at least she won’t die wondering . See she will die wondering.

at least two annas of dark blood , have. To be of mixed parentage, Eurasian: Anglo-Indian coll.:—1886 (Y. & B.); ob. by 1947. Cf. coffee-colour; touch of the tar-brush. at that . (Estimated) at that rate or standard; even so; even so acting; in that respect; also; unexpectedly, or annoyingly, or indubitably; in addition; and, what’s more; yet, however; in any case, anyway: US s. (from 1840s), anglicised ca. 1885; by 1900, coll. Keighley Goodchild, 1888, ‘So we’ll drain the flowing bowl,/‘Twill not jeopardise the soul,/For it’s only tea, and weak at that.’ Perhaps ex ‘cheap, or dear, at that price’ (OED). But this phrase is so confusing to a foreigner and so little used in the Dominions, that other instances of its chameleonic use are required:—Charles Williams, The Greater Trumps, 1932, ‘“Try me and let me go if I fail. At that,” she added with a sudden smile, “I think I won’t fail”’; Ibid., The nearest village to his grandfather’s, Henry told them, and at that a couple of miles away.’ at the high port

. At once; vigorously; unhesitatingly; very much: military: from ca. 1925. The name of the position in which a rifle is carried by a soldier who is ‘doubling’—running; hence the idea of speed and dash. at the Inn of the Morning Star . (Sleeping) in the open air: coll., rather literary, verging on S.E.: from ca. 1880; ob. Suggested by Fr. à la belle étoile.

atch . To arrest; tramps’ c.:—1923 (Manchon). Ex Romany (?): but it may abbr. atchker, q.v. atcha

! All right!: army: mid-C.19–mid-20. Ex Hindustani accha, good. atchker

. To arrest: central s. (—1923) on catch. Manchon. atfler

. A ‘flat’ (person): centre s.: from ca. 1860; †. Also as hatfler.

Ath , the. The Athenaeum Club: the world of learning, and that of clubs: C.20. Athanasian wench

. ‘A forward girl, ready to oblige every man that shall ask her’ (Grose): ca. 1700–1830. Var., quicunque vult (whosoever desires)—the opening words of the Athanasian Creed. atheist . ‘One who doesn’t believe in COD [Concise Oxford Dictionary]’, by an obvious pun on God: since ca. 1960, and never very gen. (Petch, 1968.) Athenæum ; gen. the A. The penis: cultured:—1903; very ob. (F. & H., rev.) Perhaps ex Athenæum, an association of persons meeting for mutual improvement. Athie . The Athenæum; printers’:—1887; † by 1920. Baumann. - ation , as used in humorous neologisms, verges on the coll. E.g. hissation, a hissing. atkins . See tommy, 4. Atlantic ranger

. A herring: coll.: from ca. 1880; ob. Var., sea-rover. atmospherics

. A coll. abbr. of atmospheric disturbances (‘wireless’): 1928+; by 1935, almost S.E. Hence, fig., an irritable or quarrelsome or highly strung atmosphere: 1932+. atom-bombo . Cheap but very potent wine: Aus.: since 1945. (B., 1953.) A pun on S.E. atom bomb and s. bombo, 2. atomaniac

; usually atomaniacs. People that would like to use the atom bomb on those they dislike: 1945+. atomy

. A very small, a small thin, a small deformed person: late C.16–19. Coll. by 1700; from mid-C.19, S.E.; ob. Ex anatomy, q.v. (var. ot(t)omy)—confused prob. by atom (W.) Shakespeare: ‘Thou atomy, thou!…you thin thing.’ Sala: ‘A miserable little atomy, more deformed, more diminutive, more mutilated than any beggar in a bowl.’ Variants: natomy, nat(t)ermy. atramentarius . See STONYHURST in Appendix. Lit. the ‘Latin’ word=filler of ink-stands. atrocious

. Very bad; execrable; very noticeable: coll.; from ca. 1830. —2. Adv. in -ly: 1831, Alford, The letter had an atrociously long sentence in it’ (F. & H., rev.).

atrocity . A bad blunder; an offence against good taste, manners, or morals. 1878. OED. Ats , the. See At. Atsie

, -y. An affectionate var. of At (P-G-R.): Army: 1939–49, then nostalgic. attaboy

! Go it!: US (—1917); anglicised in 1918. (F. & G.) The OED and Collinson derive it from that’s the boy!, but possibly it represents at her, boy!, where her is sexless; prob., however, it is a corruption of the exclamatory US staboy recorded by Thornton. Dr Douglas Leechman, that eminent anthropologist and notable contributor to the Dict. of Can. English, wrote to me in 1969: ‘Everybody, except the pundits, knows that this is “That’s the boy”—‘“at’s a boy”—“atta boy”.’—2. Hence, an approbatory exclam. from ca. 1931, as in D.L. Sayers, Murder Must Advertise, 1933, ‘“Picture of nice girl bending down to put the cushion in the corner of the [railway] carriage. And the headline [of the advertisement]? ‘Don’t let them pinch your seat.’” “Attaboy!” said Mr Bredon [Lord Peter Wimsey].’—3. (As Attaboy) an Air Transport Auxiliary ‘plane or member: WW2, then nostalgic. (Jackson.) Suggested by the initials and punning on senses 1 and 2. See Ancient and Tattered…

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Page 31 attack

. To address oneself to; commence. From ca. 1820, coll.; after ca. 1860, S.E. due to Gallic influence. attack of the week’s (or month’s) end

, an. Lack of funds, according as one is paid one’s wages or salary every week or every month: joc. coll.: ca. 1890– 1915. F. & H. attend to . To thrash: coll.: from ca. 1880. Cf. L. animadvertere. attention

. In jump, or spring to…, ‘(Of men) drill and parade terms used for erection: WW2’ (L.A.): Services’ joc. atterise or ize

. To staff with ATS or a proportion of ATS; ‘to man static gun sites with mixed batteries’ (H. & P., 1943): military (orig. joc.). Cf. waaferise and: Attery . Living quarters occupied by Ats: 1941–8. (H. & P.) See At. attic

. The head: pugilistit:—1823 (Bee; H., 1st ed.). From ca. 1850, attic-storey. By 1870 (Dean Alford) attic had > gen. Cf. upper storey, q.v.—2. Esp. (be) queer in the attic, weak-minded; rarely, mad: from ca. 1870. H., 5th ed. In C.20, occ. (have) rats in the attic (Lyell). Ex.—3. Orig. (— 1859), queer in the attic =intoxicated: pugilistic; † by 1890. H., 1st ed.—4. The female pudend (attic only): low:— 1903 (F. & H., rev.); ob. by 1930.—5. Top deck of a bus: busmen’s: from ca. 1920. Daily Herald, 5 Aug. 1936. attitude is the art of gunnery and whiskers make the man

. C.p. applied to gunnery officers—also said to be ‘all gas and gaiters'—by the rest of the RN: since ca. 1885. (R/Adml P.W. Brock.) Granville records h’attitude is the h’art…as the lowerdeck version. See DCpp. for fuller treatment. attorney

. A goose or turkey drumstick, grilled and devilled: punning devil, a lawyer working for another: 1829, Griffin, ‘I love a plain beef steak before a grilled attorney’; ob. (Attorney as a legal title was abolished in England in 1873.)—2. In c., a legal adviser to criminals: late C.19–20, ob. Attorney General . See TAVERN TERMS, §4. Attorney-General’s devil

. A barrister doing a KC’s heavy work: ca. 1860–1920. Ware. au reservoir

! Au revoir. Orig. US, adopted ca. 1880 In C.20 often au rev. au revoir but not goodbye

. In ‘So it’s…’ or ‘Let’s say…’: we are not parting for ever— we’ll see each other again: coll.: since ca. 1910. auction

. See all over the auction. auctioneer

, deliver or give or tip (one) the. To knock a person down: ca. 1860–1930. Sala, 1863 (deliver); H., 5th ed. (tip). ‘Tom Sayers’s right hand was known to pugilistic fame as the auctioneer’ (Sayers, d. 1865, fought from 1849 to 1860, in which latter year he drew, miraculously, with Heenan); Manchon. audies

. An ephemeral early name for motion-pictures with sound added: journalistic: 1928. (Miss Patricia Hughes, on BBC Radio 3, 26 Aug. 1980.) Cf. phonie, talkies. audit . Abbr. audit ale, a brew peculiar to Trinity College, Cambridge, and several other Cambridge and Oxford colleges; made orig. for drinking on audit days: mid- C.19– 20; coll. verging on S.E. Ouida, 1872.

audit (one’s) accounts . See cash up (one’s) accounts, 1. aufwiederchooce

. ‘A fairly recent BAOR corruption, a blending of “cheers” with aufwiedersehen, for “farewell!”’ (Peter Jones, Kettering, 1978). Cf. Alf’s peed again. Aug . Coll. abbr. of August. See Feb. Auguste . Orig. (later C.19), a ‘feed’ or stooge to the white-faced (chief) clown, ‘Joey’; later C.20, the principal clown, ‘fed’ by the ring-master: circus. The name was brought, from the Continent, later C.19, by the clown Thomas Belling, who encouraged the audience to call out ‘Auguste idiot’ when he fell over. Auguste is Fr. for a type of clown (Dict. Robert). (With thanks to Mr R.Barltrop; Mrs C.Raab.) auld case or gib . An elderly man: Glasgow coll.:—1934. Ex gib, a tom-cat. Auld Hornie . The Devil: mainly Scot.: C.18–early 20. Ex his horn.—2. The penis: Scot. low:—1903. A pun on horn, a priapism. Auld Reekie

. Orig., the old- town part of Edinburgh: late C.18—ca. 1860; then the whole city: from ca. 1890, coll. Lit., ‘Old Smoky’; cf. the (Great) Smoke, London.

auly-auly . (Winchester College) a game played ca. 1700–1840 in Grass Court after Saturday afternoon chapel. A collective game with an india-rubber ball. Supposedly ex haul ye, call ye, but, in view of Winchester’s fame in Classics, prob. ex Gk. αύλή, a court or a quadrangle. aunt

. A procuress, a concubine, a prostitute: C.17–ca. 1830. Mine (or my) aunt, as in Grose, 1st ed. Shakespeare, ‘Summer songs for me and my aunts,/While we lie tumbling in the hay.’—2. Also, at Oxford and Cambridge Universities, a students’ name for ‘the sister university’: C.17–18. Fuller, 1755.—3. A children’s coll. for a non-related woman (cf. uncle): C.19–20. Cf. the US usage (an aged negress as addressed by a child) and see auntie.—4. As the aunt, the women’s lavatory upper-class feminine: since ca. 1920. Ex:—5. In go to see (one’s) aunt or auntie, to visit

the w.c.: euph., mostly women’s: from ca. 1850. Cf. Mrs Jones, which is occ. Aunt Jones (H., 5th ed.).—6. See if my aunt…; my aunt! Aunt Fanny

, (e.g. my or his). Indicates either disbelief or negation: since ca. 1930. Monica Dickens, Thursday Afternoons, 1945, ‘She’s got no more idea how to run this house than my Aunt Fanny.’ Also as exclam. of disbelief, etc. A euph. elab. of fanny, the backside.—2. In you’re like Aunt Fanny, a disparaging c.p. addressed to someone either clumsy or inexperienced with tools: workmen’s: earlier C.20. Aunt Maria

. The female pudend: low:—1903 (F. & H., rev.).—2. A fire: rhyming s.: late C.19–20. Var. of Anna Maria. Franklyn 2nd. Aunt Mary Anne . An occ. var. of san fairy ann: Services’: WW1+. Aunt Sally . A wicket-keeper: cricketers’ joc. coll.: 1898 (W.J. Lewis). Aunt Voss

. The Vossische Zeitung (famous Ger. newspaper): 1915, Daily Mail, 22 Dec. (Van Wely.) auntie

, aunty. Coll. form of aunt: from ca. 1790. Also, like uncle, used by children for a friend of the house: C.19–20.—2. A 12-inch gun: military: 1915; ob.—3. See aunt, 5. Auntie or Aunty . The British Broadcasting Corporation: since ca. 1945; by 1965, slightly ob. Short for Auntie BBC. In later C.20, also the Australian Broadcasting Commission (Wilkes). Ex respectability.—2. A mature man kindly—but from suspect tendencies—disposed towards younger men and boys: since ca. 1950 (?much earlier). In e.g., Laurence Little, The Dear Boys, a novel, 1958.—2. In don’t be Auntie !’, Don’t be silly: Aus.: since ca. 1920. Prompted by ‘Don’t be Uncle Willie!’ (B., 1959.) Cf. Uncle Willie, 1. Auntie Adas

. High rubber overboots, equipment now replaced by leather or plastic riding boots: motorcyclists’. (Dunford.) Mid-C.20: rhyming s. on waders. Auntie Beef . See Auntie, 1, and Beeb, the. Auntie (or auntie) Ella . An umbrella: rhyming s., ‘used almost exclusively by women, at the suburban Cockney level’ (Franklyn 2nd): since ca. 1946. Auntie Flo . The Foreign Office: Civil Service, esp. the Diplomatic: C.20. Shane Martin, Twelve Girls in the Garden, 1957.

Auntie (or -y) May’s . ‘Long woollen stockings knitted for the Red Cross, etc., to be issued as “Comforts” to seamen on Russian convoys in WW2’—as in M.Brown, Scapa Flow, 1968. (Peppitt.) Auntie (or auntie) Nellie . Belly: rhyming s.: C.20. Franklyn 2nd. auntie’s (or -y’s) ruin

. A disreputable mess of a man, scheming and seedy: C.20; by 1975, virtually †. (Margery Allingham, More Work for the Undertaker, 1948.) Claiborne suggests, perhaps influenced by mother’s ruin, q.v. aunt’s sisters . Ancestors: London middle-class:—1909; virtually †. (Ware.) By pun. aurev ! Au revoir: from ca. 1920. Galsworthy, The White Monkey, 1924. Cf. au reservoir. Aussie

, occ. Aussey. Australia: from ca. 1895. An Austra-

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Page 32 lian: from ca. 1905. Both coll. and orig. Aus.; popularised by WW1. From 1914, also adj. Cf. digger, dinkum. Aussie rules . Australian football: Aus. coll.: late C.19–20. (B., 1942.) Played under Australian rules. Anssieland . An occ. var., C.20, of Aussie, sense 1. Rare among Australians. Austin Reed

. In just a part of the Austin Reed service, I suppose?, included in the service, I presume?; all free?: a c.p. of 1936 based on a slogan (1935—) of the well-known men’s clothiers. Austin Seven . A ‘class B Midland freight locomotive’ (Railway, 2nd): (?) ca. 1950. Ex its appearance, resembling that of one of the smallest and most famous of the popular saloon cars of the mid-C.20. Australasian , n. and adj. (An inhabitant) belonging to Australasia: no longer—since ca. 1925—used of either an Australian or a New Zealander. Cf. the fate of Anglo-Indian.

Australian adjective , the (often the great…). ‘Bloody’: since late C.19. Wilkes. Australian cigs . In UK, during the cigarette shortage of WW2, cigarettes kept under the counter: ca. 1940–5, then historical. By a pun on down under. Australian days . Night-work: railwaymen’s: C.20. McKenna, Glossary, p. 31. Australian flag . A shirt-tail rucked up between trousers and waistcoat: Aus.: ca. 1870–1910. Australian grip

. A hearty hand- shake: Aus.: ca. 1885–1914: coll. [This entry appeared in the Dict, 1st ed.; in the Supp. E.P. added:] This may, as B., 1953 (p. 250), suggests, be a ghost- word: he has seen no record, outside dictionaries, not heard it used; come to that, neither have I. (Perhaps from an early piece of Ocker journalism? P.B.) Australian mystery

; occ. mystery of Australia. ‘In my 1918 diary,…the only war service one I was able to keep with any regularity…, I use these terms for the quince jam we were issued with from time to time. It must have come from Australia…a

novelty to the majority of us [Tommies] and was a welcome change from plum[-]and[-]apple’ (Petch, Feb. 1969): (1917–)1918. Australian salute , the. ‘The movement of the hand in brushing away flies’ (Wilkes): Aus.: later C.20. Australian surfing and Australian later C.20 underworld terms. See Appendix. Australorp

. The Australian ‘utility type of Black Orpington fowl’ (B., 1959): Aus. coll.: since ca. 1930. A blend of Australian Orpington’. autem , a church, mid-C.16–18 c., is the parent of many other c. terms, e.g. autem bawler, a parson; autem cackler, a Dissenter or a married woman; autem-cackle tub, a Dissenters’ meeting-house or a pulpit; autem dipper or diver, a Baptist or a pickpocket specialising in churches; autem gog(g)ler, a pretended prophet, or a conjuror; autem jet, a parson; autem prickear, see autem cackler; autem quaver, a Quaker; and autem-quaver tub, a Quakers’ meeting - house or a desk there -in. Perhaps essentially ‘altar’: cf. Old. Fr.-MF.-modern Fr. autel: with -em substituted for -el. In c. of C.16–18, -am and -em and -om and -um are common suffixes. (Developed from a suggestion made by Alexander McQueen.) autem

, adj. Married, esp. in the two c. terms, autem cove, a married man, and autem mort, a married woman: C.17–18. Perhaps ex altham (q.v.), a wife. author- baiting . Summoning an unsuccessful dramatist before the curtain: theatrical, ca. 1870–1900. auto . Abbr. automobile: 1899; coll.; S.E. by 1910 but never gen. Ex Fr. SOD.—2. An automatic revolver: since ca. 1915. Pawnshop Murder. More usu. automatic, q.v. autom

, autam. Var. of autem. automatic

. Abbr. automatic revolver C.20; coll. > S.E. Esp. in WW1. autumn

. (The season or time of) an execution by hanging: low: mid-C.19–20; ob. H., 2nd ed. avast

! Hold on! Be quiet! Stop!: nautical: C.17–20; coll. >, by late C.19, S.E. Prob. ex Dutch hou’vast, hold fast. avast heaving there

! ‘Stop pulling my leg!’: RN lowerdeck: late C.19–mid 20. (W.G.Carr.) avaunt , give the. To dismiss (a person): late C.16–early 17. (Shakespeare.) Ex avaunt!, be off! (C.15+).

’ave a bit o’ gatto

! Lit., a piece of cake (Fr. gâteau), it became a mostly Cockney c.p. ‘A take-off by Londoners who don’t have the status’ of French-speaking gentility. ’ave a Jew boy’s . Weight: joc. Cockney: from ca. 1910. Punning aυoirdupois and often directed at a fat man. Ave Maria

. A fire: rhyming s.: late C.19–20. More usu. Anna Maria. avec

. Spirits: Western Front military: 1917–18. (F. & G.) Ex Fr. café avec (coffee with—gen., rum). avenue

. Possibility, as in explore every avenue, to try all possible means: C.20; mainly political, journalistic, and commercial: soon > coll.; perhaps soon to > S.E. average man

, the. The ordinary person: C.19–20; coll. > S.E. Cf. the man in the street (s.v. street). avering

. A boy’s begging naked to arouse compassion: c.: late C.17–early 18. (Kennett, 1695, has also go a-avering.)? ex aver, to declare (it) true. aviate . To fly, esp. to fly showily, ostentatiously: RAF: since 1938 or 1939 in the latter nuance, since ca. 1936 in the former; joc. and resp. mildly or intensely contemptuous. (Jackson.) Ex aviutor. avit . See PRISONER-OF-WAR SLANG, 12, in Appendix. avoirdupois

. Obesity: joc. coll.; late C.19–20. avoirdupois lay

. The thieving of brass weights from shop counters: late C.18–mid-19 c. Grose, 2nd ed. avuncular relation or relative . A pawnbroker: facetiously coll., ca. 1860–1900. Sala, in 1859, speaks of pawnbroking as avuncular life.

‘aw

, shit lootenant!’—an’ the lootenant shat. Borrowed by the British Army from the US Army, a scornful c.p. used by ‘the other ranks’ to describe ineffective and easily browbeaten subalterns; it is usually enough simply to quote the first half of the phrase: US. prob. since ca. 1942, perhaps earlier; British since latish 1950s. (P.B.) aw shucks

! ‘The conventional U.S. and American expression of yokel embarrassment. “Aw shucks! I couldn’t say that to a lady!”’: since ca. 1910—and, as used by others than yokels, often joc. and always a c.p. (Leechman.) awake . To inform, let know: from mid-1850s; ob. ‘Ducange Anglicus’, 1st ed. awaste

. A c. form of avast as in bing avast, q.v. away

. Erroneous for way: C.17–18. Hakluyt, Smollett. OED.—2. In imperatives, e.g. say away, it gives to the phrase a coll. tinge: C.17 (?earlier)—20. Galsworthy, 1924, ‘Baise [kiss] away!’ P.B.: Galsworthy was prob. punning the title of the march ‘Blaze Away!’—3. To depart: theatrical: ca. 1905–14. (Ware.) Ex melodramatic away! P.B.: since mid-C.20 at latest > gen. (usu. joc.) coll., as in ‘Well, I must away!’—4.

In prison: low London:—1909 (Ware). By euph.—5. See have it away and the entries following that one. away all lefts

. ‘Deprived of badges’ (Knock): RN lowerdeck: late C.19– mid 20. Rank, skill and good conduct badges are worn on the left sleeve; perhaps orig. by a pun on the order ‘Away all boats!’ away for slates or away like a mad dog . (Adj. and adv.) Departing hastily: Liverpool: C.20. Cf. of like a longdog, the Sussex version. away racing

. Absent at a race-course: coll., in London’s East End: since ca. 1945. Richard Herd, 1957. away with the mixer

! Let’s go ahead; now we’re going ahead: c.p.: since ca. 1946. A concrete-mixer? away the trip

. Pregnant: Scottish working-classes’: C.20. away you golaughing

! ‘Mockery of one who suffers misfortune, duty, like a burden. I noted it post WW2, but I think it went back perhaps to WW1’ (L.A.). aweer . Aware: London sol. or, rather, Cockney low coll.:—1887 (Baumann).

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Page 33 awful

, esp. a penny awful. A ‘penny dreadful’, a blood-andthunder tale. Ca. 1860–1900. awful

, adj. A catch -intensive. Apparently C.18 Scottish, then US (see Bartlett), and ca. 1840 adopted in England. Lamb, 1834: ‘She is indeed, as the Americans would express it, something awful.’ Coll., as is the adv. awful(ly)=very: midC.19–20. In 1859 occurs awfully clever; Punch satirised it in 1877 in the phrase, ‘it’s too awfully nice’; P.G.Wodehouse, 1907 (see frightfully); Lyell, 1931, ‘We had awful fun at my brother’s party.’ Cf. Society’s postWW1 use of grim for ‘unpleasant’. F. & H.: OED. awful people

, the; Mr Cochran’s young ladies in blue. The police, as in ‘Then the awful people arrived’: cultured: since ca. 1945, by 1960, the latter slightly ob. awfal place , the. Dartmoor Prison: c. dating from the late 1890s. awfully . See awful, adj. ’Awkins

. A severe man; one not to be trifled with: Cockney: ca. 1880–1900. (Ware.) Ex Judge Sir Henry Hawkins, reputed to be a ‘hanging’ judge. awkward . Pregnant: euph.: late C.19–early 20. (F. & H., rev.) Cf. bumpy. awkward as a Chow on a bike

. ‘Extremely awkward in behaviour. Chow denotes Chinaman’ (B., 1959): Aus.: since ca. 1925. awkward squad

. Recruits, esp. a segregated group of recruits, commencing to learn to drill or having their drill improved: Services’, from ca. 1870; coll. by 1890; j. by WW1. awls . See pack up (one’s) awls… awry

. See tread the shoe awry. axe

, n. As the axe, reduction of expenses, mainly in personnel, in the public services: since 1922; later extended to cuts also in the private sector.—2. Hence, the axe, a body of officials (quis custodiet ipsos custodes) effecting these reductions: coll., from 1922; 1 and 2 S.E. by 1925, and both ex the Ceddes axe, that reduction of public- service expenses which was recommended in 1922 by Sir Eric Geddes, who aimed at the size of the various staffs: recorded in 1923: coll.; by 1925, S.E. and historical. Prob. ex:—3. In get or give the axe, to be dismissed,

or to dismiss, from employment: coll. until ca. 1945, then S.E. Cf. get the chop .—4. In put the axe in the helve, to solve a doubt: coll.; proverbial: C.16-early 20. Cf. send the axe…, q.v. at send the helve…—5. See where the chicken …

axe

, v. To reduce expenses by means of ‘the axe’: coll. from 1923, > by 1925, S.E. SOD. axe my arse

(, you can). A verbal snook-cocking: low: mid-C.18–midC.20. Here axe=ask. axe-my-eye

, n. A very alert fellow: cheapjacks’: ca. 1850–1910. Hindley. axe (or axes) to grind

. Ulterior motive(s), gen. selfish: coll.: adopted, ca. 1840, ex US. At first of politics, it soon widened in applicability; by 1850, moreover, it had > S.E. axle-grease . Butter: See grease, n., 5.—2. Money: Aus.: since ca. 1925. B., 1943.—3. Thick hair-oil; Brilliantine: mostly Aus. schoolchildren’s and teenagers’: since late 1930. (B.P.) And British too: id. (P.B.) ’ay is for ’orses . See hay is for horses. ay thang yew ! I thank you!: the comedian Arthur Askey’s c.p. from the radio programme ‘Band Wagon’ in the late 1930s. See

DCpp. aye

, aye, that’s yer lot. And that’s all—that’s the end of the music-hall turn; a comedian’s tag, converted by the public into a c.p. with a much wider application. Jimmy Wheeler was the last to use it as part of his ‘patter’. See DCpp.

Ayrab . See genoowine Bedoowine… Ayrshires . Glasgow and South-Western Railway shares: Stock Exchange from ca. 1880. Aztec two-step

, the. ‘The condition known as “travellers’ diarrhoea”’ (Dr Tony Duggan, 1979): gen. among those who suffer the ailment: 1970s. A later var. of Montezuma’s revenge.

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Page 34 Bb

. A bug: coll.: from ca. 1860. Also b flat: 1836 (F. & H., rev.). Ex the insect’s initial letter and appearance.—2. In c., abbr. blue , n., 4, q.v., a policeman.—3. A euph. for bastard, n. and adj., and also for bloody, adj.: Aus.: since ca. 1920. ‘You’d think the b. lion’d sleep sometimes’ (H.Drake Brockman, ‘Life Saver’, 1939, in Sydney, or the Bush, 1948). P.B.: also some Brit. usage, as in, e.g. ‘What a b. nuisance the man is!’: perhaps all C.20.—4. See A1, 2; bee; b. and s.

B.A

. Buenos Aires: nautical coll.: late C.19–20. W.McFee, The Beachcomber, 1935. Since mid-C.20, more gen. and widespread.—2. See Sweet B.A. where B.A.=bugger all=nothing. b. and m . A mixture of brown ale and mild bitter: spivs’: since late 1940s. (Picture Post, 2 Jan. 1954, article on young spivs.) Cf: b. and s

., B. and S. Brandy and soda: Whyte-Melville, 1868: s. >, ca. 1890, coll. The b is occ. separable, as in ‘Give me some B in my S’ (Baumann, 1887). B.B . Gen. pl B.B.s. A bluejacket: RN: C.20. (F. & G.) Ex ‘British Blue’, with a non-drawing-room pun.—2. Bloody bastard: C.20.—3. A ‘bum boy’, q.v.: low: C.20.—4. A bust bodice: feminine coll.: since ca. 1920.—5. a bitter and Burton: public houses’: late C.19–20. Fortnightly Review, Aug. 1937. b.b.a . Born before arrival: medical students’: C.20. Slang, p.189. B.B.C

. The British Broadcasting Corporation (founded ca. 1924): coll.: by 1933, S.E.—2. Any broadcasting corporation: 1933 (Daily Telegraph, early Aug.): coll.—3. As the B.B.C., the 2.10 a.m. freight express train from London to Wolverhampton: railwaymen’s joc.: from ca. 1929. (Daily Telegraph, 15 Aug. 1936.) It passes through Basingstoke, Birmingham, and Crewe. Cf. the Bacca.—4. See talk BBC. b.c . A person bringing a wholly inadequate action for libel: from ca. 1870. Ex the bloody cat of an actual lawsuit. †. B.C . See anno domini.

B.C. play

. A Classical drama: theatrical: 1885; very ob. (Ware.) I.e. before Christ. b.d.v. or B.D.V

. A picked-up stump of a cigarette: tramps’ c.: from ca. 1920. Lit., a bend-down Virginia; punning B.D.V., a brand of tobacco. Also called a stooper. B.E.F. will all go home—in one boat, the . A (mainly) officers’ c.p.: ca. 1916–18. The BEF=British Expeditionary Force, the British Army that fought in France and Flanders, WW1. See DCpp. B.E.M.s . ‘Bug-e yed monsters’, a derogatory epithet for a certain genre of ‘pulp’ science-fiction: since ca. 1955, the full phrase; the use of initials, soon afterwards. Cf. little green men . (E.W.Bishop, 1977.) Patrick Moore, the astronomer, in Survey of the Moon, 1965, writes the Bems. Claiborne, 1976, notes that, as Bems, ‘it was current among US science-fiction “fen” (i.e. “fans”) as early as 1940s.’ b.f. or B.F . Bloody fool: coll. euph.: C.20; rare before WW1. Lyell. B.F.N

. ‘Bye for now!: since ca. 1940. (Petch). Cf. T.T.F.N., Ta-ta for now, ‘Mrs Mopp’s’ famous farewell—c.p. in the Tommy

Handley radio-comedy show ‘Itma’, dating from the same time. b flat . See b, 1. B-flat homey B-flat polone (or palone) ; . A fat man, a fat woman, esp. in a side-show: partly Parlyaree, wholly fair-ground: late C.19–20. Lester. B from a battledore or a broomstick or a bull’s foot . See KNOW, in Appendix. b.h

. A bank holiday: non-U coll.: ca. 1880–1930.—2. Bloody hell: 1928 (OED Sup.). Also bee aitch.—3. ‘Bung-hole’, i.e. c heese: army: from ca. 1918; † by 1950 at latest. b.i.d . Brought in dead (to the hospital): medical students’: C.20. Cf. b.b.a. b.k.s

. ‘Military officers in mufti, when out on the spree, and not wishing their profession to be known, speak of their barracks as the B.K.s’ (H., 3rd ed., 1864); ob. by 1930. B.M . Abbr. B.M.W. (Bayerische Motoren Werke) motorcycle, in production since 1923: motorcyclists’. (Dunford.) Also Bee Em.

b.n . Bloody nuisance: coll. euph.: earlier C.20. Cf. b.f.; b.p.n. B.N.C . Brasenose College, Oxford: from ca. 1840: coll. >, by 1900, j. Cf. Brazen Nose College, q.v. B.O

. Body odour: advertisers’, and hence gen.: since ca. 1950. (P.B.)—2. (As an imperative.) Run away (and stop bothering me)!: since ca. 1955: abbr. of bugger of! b.o.f . Boring old fart: adolescents’ term of abuse and contempt for most people older than themselves: from later 1970s;

the full term, more widespread. D.Hebdige, Subcultures, 1979. (P.B.) B.O.L.T.O.P . See LOVERS’ ACRONYMS, in Appendix. B.P . The British Public: theatrical (1867) >, by 1910, gen. coll. (Ware.) P.B.: in C.20 usu. G.B.P., the Great…; often ironic. b.p.n . A bloody public nuisance: earlier C.20. Cf. b.f. B.Q . Before queues: 1944 (Fred Bason’s Second Diary, pub. 1952); soon ob. b.r. or B.R

. A bedroom steward, in the First Class of a passenger liner: nautical: C.20. Bowen. b.s . A euph. for bullshit, q.v.: ‘goes back at least to 1908 in British Columbia’ (Leechman). B.S.H.s

. British Standard Handfuls—a woman’s breasts: raffish joc.: later C.20. (Powis.) A pun on BSIs, the coll. ref. to the standards laid down by the British Standards Institution. B-squared . A brassiere: schoolgirls’: since late 1930s. Mallory Wober, English Girls’ Boarding Schools, 1971. b.t.m

. A coll. domestic euph. for bottom (buttocks): since late C.19. b.y.t

. ‘Bright young things’ or the younger set: ca. 1946–51. ba-ha

. Bronchitis: tailors’: from the 1890s; ob. by 1935. By deliberate slurring. baa-baa

. A sheep: nursery coll.: C.19–20. Ex the sheep’s bleat. Cf. bow-wow, cock-a-doodle(-doo), moo-cow, quack-quack. — 2. In go baa -baa (black sheep), to bar the favourite: turf s.:—1932. (Slang, pp. 242, 246.) There is, further, an allusion to the nursery rhyme. Baa-Baas, the

. The Barbarian Rugby Football team: sporting: from ca. 1924. baa cheat

. A sheep: c.: C.18. Anon., Street-Robberies Consider’d (ba cheat), 1728. Lit., ‘baa’-thing. baa-lamb

. A lamb (cf. baa-baa, q.v.): nursery coll.: C.19–20.—2. (with capitals) HMS Barham: RN: C.20.—3. A tram: C.20. Rhyming.—4. A euph. for bastard: since ca. 1918. baal

! See bale. baas

. A master, a manager, a head man of any sort: S. African coll.: 1785, Sparrman, A Voyage to the Cape of Good

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Page 35 Hope …from 1772 to 1776 . Ex Dutch baas, master, foreman. Pettman.—2. The term of address to the skipper of a Dutch ship: nautical coll.: C.19–20. Bowen. Bab , the. The Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb: nautical: C.17–18. W. —2. See: baba

. A coll., gen. a child’s, var. of papa: C.19–20. In late C.16– 17, bab.—2. In Anglo-Indian coll., a child. Ex Turki baba influenced by our baby . Y. & B. babbie , babby, vocative. Baby: coll.: late C.19–20. Ex C.16–20 dial. babbler

. Aus. and Brit. var. of babbling brook, 1: WW1 military > gen. babbling

, vbl n. Cooking: Aus.: later C.20. Ex prec. and next. Wilkes. babbling brook

, n. A cook: rhyming s.: C.20. Aus. and Brit. (B. & P.; Wilkes). Cf. prec.—2. A criminal: id., on crook: later C.20.

Aus. and Brit. (E.P.; Rhyming Cockney Slang, ed. Jack Jones, 1971). babbling brook , adj. Unwell: Aus. rhyming s., on synon. crook: since ca. 1920. Cf. n., 2. babe

. The latest-elected member of the House of Commons: opp. father of the house. Parliamentary coll.: from ca. 1870. —2. See kiss the babe; babes. babe in the wood . A criminal in the stocks or the pillory: late C.18–early 19. Grose, 1st ed.—2. In C.20, the pl=dice. babe of grace

. Bee defines the pl as ‘sanctified-looking persons, not so’: fast society: ca. 1820–40. babes

. A gang of disreputables that, at an auction, forbear to bid against the bigger dealers; their reward drinks and/or cash. From ca. 1860 ob. (H., 2nd ed.) Cf. knock- outs, q.v.— 2. As the Babes, Charlton Athletic Association Football Club: sporting: from ca. 1925. It is the youngest London club. Babies

; Baby Wee-Wees. Buenos Aires Water Works shares: Stock Exchange: from ca. 1870. The shorter ex the longer,

which combines an acrostic with a pun on Water Works and wee-wee (urination). babies’ cries . A var. of baby’s cries, q.v. babies’ heads

. See baby’s head. baboon . Fig. for a person: like ape, this is in C.20 considered low coll. Babsky . A wind-swept part of Liverpool: Liverpool: 1886. (Ware.) I.e. Bay o’ Biscay. Babus

, The. The Royal Army Pay Corps: a nickname sometimes bestowed upon them by soldiers who had served in India. (Carew): (?) late C.19–mid- 20. Ex Hindustani. Y. & B., ‘the word has come often to signify “a native clerk who writes English”.’ baby

. A twopenny bottle of soda-water: public house: ca. 1875– 1900. (Ware.) Since that period, the term has been applied to various other small bottles, notably, in the later C.20, to the popular ‘Babycham’.—2. A girl; sweetheart: not unknown in English fast, sporting circles of ca. 1895–1910 (witness Binstead’s More Gals Gossip, 1901). Later usage, since ca. 1930, perhaps boosted by American films.—3.

‘The R.N.A.S. small Sopwith aeroplane in the early days of the war’: RN: 1914–16. Bowen.—4. As the baby, a diamond -mining sifting machine: Vaal River coll.—1886; ob. by 1930. Ex Babe, its American inventor. Pettman, who notes baby, v., to sift ground with this machine: from mid -1880s. —5. See burying the baby; hand over the baby: have kittens; holding the baby; send a baby on an errand. Baby Act

. See plead the Baby Act. baby and nurse

. ‘A small bottle of soda-water and two-pennyworth of spirit in it’ (Ware): public-house: ca. 1876–1900. Cf, baby, 1. baby blues

. The postnatal depression unhappily suffered by some new mothers: coll.: since mid-1970s. An article on the subject appeared thus titled in New Society, 5 Apr. 1979 (P.B.). baby bonus . A maternity allowance: Aus. coll.: since ca. 1945. (B.P.) ‘Common in Canada also; Family Allowance Act passed in 1944’ (Leechman). baby bunting . An old coll. endearment. See bunting. baby could’t help it

. Minced meat and brown sauce: Marlborough College: from ca. 1920. baby crying

, the. The bugle- call to defaulters: army: late C.19–early 20. (F. &. G.) Cf. angel’s whisper, 1. baby- fazmer or -stealer

. A male or a female courter or lover of one much younger, very young: C.20. Cf. baby-snatcher, now, later C.20, the more usual term. baby-maker . The penis: euph. joc.: late C.19–early 20. baby - or baby’s pap

. A cap: (mostly underworld) rhyming slang: ca. 1855– 1900. ‘Ducange Anglicus’, 1857. baby on an errand

A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English - PDFCOFFEE.COM (2025)