492 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2»d S. VIII. Dec. 17. '59. 



breed notable bog- trotters." Cad should include 

 " a vulgar " as well as " a mean " fellow. Chaun- 

 TEES should include horse-chaunters, i. e. those 

 who sell unsound horses for sound ones. Chkek 

 should include cheek by jowl : 



" To say the truth, a modern versifier 

 Clap'd cheek by jov.-l 

 With Pope, with Dry'den, and with Prior." 



(G. Colman the Younger.) 



Cock should include the " cock of a school," " to 

 cock over a person," " to cock his back," 

 " Enough to cock the Lickey's back," 

 says (alluding to the neighbouring hill) the author 

 (John Crane *) of a very curious book of Poems 

 printed at Bromsgrove early in the present cen- 

 tury, wherein the writer rhymes in Hudibrastic 

 verse with considerable ease and ability, and in- 

 dulges in colloquialisms and slang, from which 

 many specimens might be selected for the Dic- 

 tionary, The term " a Gent " occurs in this 

 book ; and in the poem " Jest for Jest " are these 

 lines : — 



" Gosh dockett ! this is never it ; 



Odds bobs and sides ; this little bit? " 

 " All loyal men will ' knab the rust.' " 

 " Unfiunish'd in the upper loft." 

 " All our strutting bucks 

 Join hands, like ' heek, heek, all my bucks." 

 ." Swell'd till his M'aistcoat lost a button, 

 Like Bromsgrove men at 'sugar'd mutton.' " 



To return to Mr. Hotten's Dictionary. Collar 

 should include coUor'd-upy i. e., when a person is 

 kept close to his business (see "Out of Collar"). 

 Don should include the College Don ; for whom 

 the extinct word scull is made to do duty. Fat 

 should include the sense in which a person is said 

 to Cut up fat, i, e. to leave a large fortune at his 

 death, I believe also that it is a theatrical term : 

 a "part" with plenty of fat in it being one that 

 aflfords the actor an opportunity for efiective dis- 

 play. _ Hand is also used as thus — a cool hand, 

 explained by Sir Thomas Overbury to be " one 

 who accounts bashfulness the wickedest thing in 

 the world, and therefore studies impudence." 

 Half should include half-haked and half - cracked, 

 as well as half-foolish. Ivories is a name also 

 for dice as well as teeth. Dice, too, are called 

 hones, and also St. Hugh's bones. (Query, why ?) 

 Muck should include mucher, " he went a fearful 

 mucker, &c." When a person makes a bad dash 

 at anything, and fails, — whether he is thrown from 

 his _ horse when taking a leap, or makes "con- 

 fusion worse confounded " of his college examina- 

 tions. Peck should be followed by pecker, pluck, 

 or courage, — " keep up your pecker ; " " never 

 say die ! " Pin should include such meanings as 

 are attached to the phrases, " don't care a pin," 



_ * Not mentioned in Chambers' Biographical Illustra- 

 tions of Worcestershire. 



" not worth a pin." Ploughed has also the same 

 University meaning as plucked; also called gulphed. 

 Pot should include the meaning contained in the 

 phrase " make the pot boil." "Alas : in classical 

 times, the corpse was reduced to ashes, which 

 were placed in an urn or pot, so that when a 

 man died, it could be said of him ' he is gone to 

 pot ! ' " Shot should include " pay your shot^'' 

 and " (o make a shot," when a man gives a guess. 

 " A bad shot " is one of the worst exposures of 

 his ignorance that an University man, when up 

 for examination, can make. Shy should include 

 the sense used in " fighting shy of any person." 

 Snip might alto be followed by Snyder. Sport, 

 The Gradus ad Cantabrigiam (or Gradus ad Cant, 

 as it might very properly be termed) says, this is 

 " a word sacred to men of fashion. Whatever 

 they do is nothing but sporting. ' One man sports 

 a paradoxiciil walking-stick.' {Grose's Olio.} 

 Another spoiis his beaver at noon-day — spo7'ts 

 his dog and his gun — sports his shooting-jacket." 

 " With regard to the knowing word Sport, they 

 (the Cantabrigians) sported knowing, and they 

 sported ignorant — they sported an Egrotat, and 

 they sported a new coat — they sported an Exeat : 

 they sported a Dormiat, &c." — (Gent. Mag. Dec. 

 1794.) 



It would fill a not very small volume (though 

 not a particularly interesting one) to give the 

 examples of University slang, both ancient and 

 modern, but 1 will content myself by a reference 

 to the various uses to which the word Crd is put. 

 (Vide Gradus ad Cant., and Gent. Mag. Dec. 

 1794.) 



Tick, in the sense of on ticket, or on trust, — 

 says the compiler of Mr. Hotten's Dictionary, — 

 was "in use 1668." The Grad. ad Cant, assigns 

 an earlier date : " No matter upon landing whether 

 you have money or no — you may swim in twentie 

 of their boats over the river upon ticket," 

 (Decker's GuV s Hornbook, 1609.) Tied-tjp should 

 include the meaning of " married"; some jocose 

 connection, perhaps, with the halter (altar). 

 Twig should include " hop the twig," which may 

 be elegantly translated by " cut your stick." 

 Wide-awake : the explanation might be added, 

 that it was so called from never having a nap. 

 WooDEN-SFooN should include the archery term, 

 which also suggests the addition of Petticoat. (In 

 this page of the Dictiona?-y, p. 117., there is an 

 error of the press, — " pens" for " Fens ; " and 

 liestieus, p. 84., should be rusticus.) 



The English Spy would afford a rich mine for 

 the working of a Slang Dictionary. Here is a 

 specimen nugget: — 



"Most noble cracks, and worthy cousin trumps, — per- 

 mit jne to introduce a brother of the togati, fresh as a new- 

 blown rose, and innocent as the lilies of St. Clements. 

 Be unto him ever ready to promote his wishes, whether 

 for spree or sport, in term and out of term, — against the 

 Inquisition and their bull-dogs — the town-raff and the 



