Part 40

Monsieur à tubard, _a well-dressed man_, _one who sports a silk hat_; ---- bambou, _a stick_, a gentleman whose services are sometimes put in requisition by drunken workmen as an irresistible argument to meet the remonstrances of an unfortunate better half, as in the case of Martine and Sganarelle in Molière’s _Le Médecin malgré lui_; ---- Lebon, _a good sort of man, that is, one who readily treats others to drink_; ---- de Pètesec, _stuck-up man, with dry, sharp manner_; ---- hardi, _the wind_; ---- Raidillon, or Pointu, _proud, stuck-up man_; (thieves’) ---- de l’Affure, _one who wins money at a game honestly or not_; ---- de la Paume, _he who loses_; (theatrical) ---- Dufour est dans la salle, _expression used by an actor to warn another that he is not acting up to the mark and that he will get himself hissed_, or “get the big bird.” (Familiar and popular) Un ---- à rouflaquettes, _prostitutes bully_, or “pensioner.” For list of synonyms see POISSON. Monsieur de Paris, _the executioner_. Formerly each large town had its own executioner: Monsieur de Rouen, Monsieur de Lyon, &c. Concerning the office Balzac says:--

Les Sanson, bourreaux à Rouen pendant deux siècles, avant d’être revêtus de la première charge du royaume, exécutaient de père en fils les arrêts de la justice depuis le treizième siècle. Il est peu de familles qui puissent offrir l’exemple d’un office ou d’une noblesse conservée de père en fils pendant six siècles.

Monsieur personne, _a nobody_. (Brothels’) Monsieur, _husband of the mistress of a brothel_.

Monsieur, avec son épaisse barbiche aux poils tors et gris.--=E. DE GONCOURT=, _La Fille Elisa_.

(Cads’) Monsieur le carreau dans l’œil, _derisive epithet applied to a man with an eye-glass_; ---- bas-du-cul, _man with short legs_.

MONSTRE, _m._, _any words which a musician temporarily adapts to a musical production composed by him_.

MONSTRICO, _m._ (familiar), _ugly person_, _one with a_ “knocker face.”

MONTAGE DE COUP, _m._ (popular), _the act of seeking to deceive by misleading statements_.

Mon vieux, entre nous, Te n’coup’ pas du tout Dans c’montage de coup; Faut pas m’monter l’coup.

=AUG. HARDY.=

MONTAGNARD, _m._ (popular), _additional horse put on to an omnibus going up hill_.

MONTAGNE DU GÉANT, _f._ (obsolete), _gallows_, “scrag, nobbing cheat, or government signpost.”

MONTANT, _m. and adj._ (thieves’), _breeches_, “trucks, hams, sit-upons, or kicks.” (Military) Grand ---- tropical, _riding breeches_; petit ----, _drawers_. (Familiar) Montant, _term which is used to denote anything which excites lust_.

MONTANTE, _f._ (thieves’), _ladder_. Literally _a thing to climb up_.

MONTE-À-REGRET (thieves’), abbaye de ----, _the guillotine_. Formerly _the gallows_. This name was given the scaffold because criminals were attended there by one or more priests, and on account of the natural repugnance of a man for this mode of being put out of his misery. Michel records the fact, that at Sens, one of the streets leading to the market-place, where executions took place, still bore, a few years ago, the name of Monte-à-regret. Chanoine de ----, _one sentenced to death_. Termed also “grognon,” or _grumbler_. Monter à l’abbaye de ----, _to be guillotined_, meant formerly _to be hanged_, to suffer the extreme penalty of the law on “wry-neck day,” when the criminal before being compelled to put on the “hempen cravat,” would perhaps utter for the edification of the crowd his “tops, or croaks,” that is, his last dying speech. It is curious to note how people of all nations have always striven to disguise the idea of death by the rope by means of some picturesque or grimly comical circumlocution. The popular language is rich in metaphors to describe the act. In the thirteenth century people would express hanging by the term “mettre à la bise;” in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries an executed criminal was spoken of as “vendangeant à l’eschelle, avoir collet rouge, croître d’un demi-pied, faire la longue lettre, tomber du haut mal,” and later on: “Servir de bouchon, faire le saut, faire un saut sur rien, donner un soufflet à une potence, donner le moine par le cou, approcher du ciel à reculons, danser un branle en l’air, avoir la chanterelle au cou, faire le guet à Montfaucon, faire le guet au clair de la lune à la cour des monnoyes.” Also, “monter à la jambe en l’air.” Then a hanged man was “un évêque des champs” (on account of executions taking place in the open country) “qui bénit des pieds,” and hanging itself, “une danse où il n’y a pas de plancher,” which corresponds to the expression, “to dance upon nothing.” The poor wretch was also said to be “branché,” a summary proceeding performed on the nearest tree, and he was made to “tirer la langue d’un demi-pied.” The poet François Villon being in the prison of the Châtelet in 1457, under sentence of death for a robbery supposed to have been committed at Rueil by himself and some companions, several of whom were hanged, but whose fate he luckily did not share, thus alludes with grim humour to his probable execution:--

Je suis François, dont ce me poise, Né de Paris emprès Ponthoise, Or, d’une corde d’une toise, Saura mon col que mon cul poise.

When Jonathan Wild the Great is about to expiate his numerous crimes, and his career is soon to be terminated at Tyburn, Fielding makes him say: “D--n me, it is only a dance without music; ... a man can die but once.... Zounds! Who’s afraid?” Master Charley Bates, in common with his “pals,” called hanging “scragging”:--

“He’ll come to be scragged, won’t he?” “I don’t know what that means,” replied Oliver. “Something in this way, old feller,” said Charley. As he said it, Master Bates caught up an end of his neckerchief, and holding it erect in the air, dropped his head on his shoulder, and jerked a curious sound through his teeth; thereby intimating, by a lively pantomimic representation, that “scragging” and hanging were one and the same thing.--=DICKENS=, _Oliver Twist_.

The expression is also to be met with in Lord Lytton’s _Paul Clifford_:--

“Blow me tight, but that cove is a queer one! and if he does not come to be scragged,” says I, “it will only be because he’ll turn a rusty, and scrag one of his pals!”

Again, the same author puts in the mouth of his hero, Paul Clifford, the accomplished robber, the “Captain Crank,” or chief of a gang of highwaymen, a poetical simile, “to leap from a leafless tree”:--

Oh! there never was life like the Robber’s--so Jolly, and bold, and free; And its end--why, a cheer from the crowd below And a leap from a leafless tree!

Penny-a-liners nowadays describe the executed felon as “taking a leap into eternity;” facetious people say that he dies in a “horse’s nightcap,” _i.e._, a halter, and the vulgar simply declare that he is “stretched.” The dangerous classes, to express that one is being operated upon by Jack Ketch, use the term “to be scragged,” already mentioned, or “to be topped;” and “may I be topped!” is an ejaculation often heard from the mouths of London roughs. Formerly, when the place for execution was at Tyburn, near the N. E. corner of Hyde Park, at the angle formed by the Edgware Road and the top of Oxford Street, the criminal brought here was said to put on the “Tyburn tippet,” _i.e._, Jack Ketch’s rope. The Latins used to describe one hanged as making the letter I with his body, or the long letter. In Plautus old Staphyla says: “The best thing for me to do, is with the help of a halter, to make with my body the long letter.” Modern Italians say of a man about to be executed, that he is sent to Picardy, “mandato in Picardia.” They also use other circumlocutions, “andare a Longone,” “andare a Fuligno,” “dar de’ calci al vento,” “ballar in campo azurro.” Again, the Italian “truccante” (_thief_), in his “lingue furbesche” (_cant of thieves_), says of a criminal who ascends the scaffold, the “sperlunga, or faticosa” (_gallows_), with the “margherita, or signora” (_rope_) adjusted on his “guindo” (_neck_) by the “cataron” (_executioner_), that he may be considered as “aver la fune al guindo.” The Spanish “azor” (_thief_, in _Germania_, or Spanish cant), under sentence of a “tristeza” (_sentence of death_), when about to be executed left the “angustia” (_prison_) to go to the gallows, or “balanza,” which is now a thing of the past, having been superseded by the hideous “garote.” The German “broschem-blatter” (_thief_, in “rothwelsch,” or German cant), when sentenced to death was doomed to the “dolm,” or “nelle,” on which he was ushered out of this world by the “caffler” (_German Jack Ketch_).

MONTER (popular), d’un cran, _to obtain an appointment superior to that one possesses already_; _to be promoted_; ---- à l’arbre, or à l’échelle, _to be fooled_. Alluding to a bear at the Zoological Gardens being induced to climb the pole by the prospect of some dainty bit which is not thrown to him after all. Also _to get angry_, “to get one’s monkey up;” ---- en graine, _to grow old_. Literally _to run to seed_; ---- des couleurs, le Job, or un schtosse, _to deceive one by false representations_, “to bamboozle;” ---- une gamme, _to scold_, “to bully-rag;” ---- un coup, _to find a pretext_; _to lay a trap for one_.

C’est des daims huppés qui veulent monter un coup à un ennemi.--=E. SUE.=

Monter le coup, or un battage, _to deceive one by misleading statements_. Ça ne prend pas, tu ne me monteras pas le coup, “No go,” _I am aware of your practices and_ “twig” _your manœuvre_, or “don’t come the old soldier over me.” Faire ---- à l’échelle, _to make one angry_, “to make one lose his shirt.” Se ---- le bourrichon, or le baluchon, _to fly into a passion about some alleged injustice_. Also _to be too sanguine, to form illusions about one’s abilities, or about the success of some project_.

Oh! je ne me monte pas le bourrichon, je sais que je ne ferai pas de vieux os.--=ZOLA=, _L’Assommoir_.

Se ---- le coup, se ---- le verre en fleurs, _to form illusions_. Essayer de ---- un bateau à quelqu’un, _to seek to deceive one_, “to come the old soldier” _over one_. (Thieves’) Monter un arcat, _to swindle_, “to bite;” ---- un gandin, _to deceive_, “to stick, or to best;” ---- un chopin, _to make all necessary preparations for a robbery_, “to lay a plant;” ---- à la butte, _to be guillotined_.

Un jour, j’ai pris mon surin pour le refroidir. Après tout, mon rêve c’est de monter à la butte.--_Mémoires de Monsieur Claude._

Monter sur la table, _to make a clean breast of it_; _to inform against one_, “to blow the gaff.” It also means _to tell a secret_, “to split.”

While his man being caught in some fact (The particular crime I’ve forgotten), When he came to be hanged for the act, Split, and told the whole story to Cotton.

_Ingoldsby Legends._

(Theatrical) Monter une partie, _to get together a small number of actors to give out of Paris one or two performances_; (military) ---- en ballon, _practical joke at the expense of a new-comer_. During the night, to both ends of the bed of the victim are fixed two running nooses, the ropes being attached high up on a partition by the side of the bed. At a given signal the ropes being pulled, the occupant of the bed finds himself lifted in the air, with his couch upside down occasionally.

MONTEUR, _m._ (theatrical), de partie, _an actor whose spécialité is to get together a few brother actors for the purpose of performing out of town_; (popular) ---- de coups, or de godans, _swindler_; _one who is fond of hoaxing people_; _one who imposes on others_, “humbug.” Concerning the latter term the _Slang Dictionary_ says: “A very expressive but slang word, synonymous at one time with hum and haw. Lexicographers for a long time objected to the adoption of this term. Richardson uses it frequently to express the meaning of other words, but, strange to say, omits it in the alphabetical arrangement as unworthy of recognition! In the first edition of this work, 1785 was given as the earliest date at which the word could be found in a printed book. Since then ‘humbug’ has been traced half a century further back, on the title-page of a singular old jest-book, ‘_The Universal Jester_, or a pocket companion for the Wits: being a choice collection of merry conceits, facetious drolleries, &c., clenchers, closers, closures, bon-mots, and humbugs, by Ferdinando Killigrew.’ London, about 1735-40. The notorious orator Henley was known to the mob as Orator Humbug. The fact may be learned from an illustration in that exceedingly curious little collection of caricatures published in 1757, many of which were sketched by Lord Bolingbroke, Horace Walpole filling in the names and explanations. Haliwell describes humbug as ‘a person who hums,’ and cites Dean Milles’s MS., which was written about 1760. In the last century the game now known as double-dummy was termed humbug. Lookup, a notorious gambler, was struck down by apoplexy when playing at this game. On the circumstance being reported to Foote, the wit said, ‘Ah, I always thought he would be humbugged out of the world at last!’ It has been stated that the word is a corruption of Hamburg, from which town so many false bulletins and reports came during the war in the last century. ‘Oh, that is Hamburg (or Humbug),’ was the answer to any fresh piece of news which smacked of improbability. Grose mentions it in his _Dictionary_, 1785; and in a little printed squib, published in 1808, entitled _Bath Characters_, by T. Goosequill, humbug is thus mentioned in a comical couplet on the title-page:--

Wee Thre Bath Deities bee Humbug, Follie, and Varietee.

Gradually from this time the word began to assume a place in periodical literature, and in novels written by not over-precise authors. In the preface to a flat, and most likely unprofitable poem, entitled _The Reign of Humbug, a Satire_, 8vo, 1836, the author thus apologizes for the use of the word: ‘I have used the term _humbug_ to designate this principle (wretched sophistry of life generally), considering that it is now adopted into our language as much as the words dunce, jockey, cheat, swindler, &c., which were formerly only colloquial terms.’ A correspondent, who in a number of _Adversaria_ ingeniously traced bombast to the inflated Doctor Paracelsus Bombast, considers that humbug may, in like manner, be derived from Homberg, the distinguished chemist of the Court of the Duke of Orleans, who, according to the following passage from Bishop Berkeley’s _Siris_, was an ardent and successful seeker after the philosopher’s stone:--

Of this there cannot be a better proof than the experiment of Monsieur Homberg, who made gold of mercury by introducing light into its pores, but at such trouble and expense that, I suppose, nobody will try the experiment for profit. By this injunction of light and mercury, both bodies became finer, and produced a third different to either, to wit, real gold. For the truth of which fact I refer to the memoirs of the French Academy of Sciences.--=BERKELEY=, _Works_.”

_The Supplementary English Glossary_ gives the word “humbugs” as the North-country term for certain lumps of toffy, well flavoured with peppermint. (Roughs’) Monter à cheval, _to be suffering from a tumour in the groin, a consequence of venereal disease, and termed_ poulain, _foal_, hence the jeu de mots; (wine retailers’) ---- sur le tonneau, _to add water to a cask of wine_, “to christen” _it_. Adding too much water to an alcoholic liquor is termed by lovers of the “tipple” in its pure state, “to drown the miller.”

MONTEUR DE COUPS, _m._ (popular), _story-teller_; _cheat_.

MONTEUSE DE COUPS, _f._ (popular), _deceitful woman_; _one who_ “bamboozles” _her lover or lovers_.

MONTPARNO (thieves’), _Montparnasse_. See MÉNILMONTE.

J’ai flasqué du poivre à la rousse. Elle ira de turne en garno, De Ménilmuche à Montparno, Sans pouvoir remoucher mon gniasse.

=RICHEPIN.=

MONTRER (theatrical), la couture de ses bas, _to break off a stage engagement by the simple process of leaving the theatre_; (familiar and popular) ---- toute sa boutique, _to expose one’s person_.

Ah! non ... remettez votre camisole. Vous savez, je n’aime pas les indécences. Pendant que vous y êtes, montrez toute votre boutique.--=ZOLA.=

MONTRE-TOUT, _m._ (popular), _short jacket_. Termed also “ne te gêne pas dans le parc.” (Prostitutes’) Aller à ----, _to go to the medical examination, a periodical and compulsory one, for registered prostitutes, those who shirk it being sent to the prison of Saint-Lazare_.

MONU, _m._ (cads’), _one-sou cigar_.

MONUMENT, _m._ (popular), _tall hat_, or “stove-pipe.”

MONZU, or MOUZU, _m._ (old cant), _woman’s breasts_. Termed, in other varieties of jargon, “avant-postes, avant-scènes, œufs sur le plat, oranges sur l’étagère,” and in the English slang, “dairies, bubbies, or Charlies.”

MORASSE, _f._ (printers’), _proof taken before the forme is finally arranged_; ---- _final proof of a newspaper article_. Also _workman who remains to correct such a proof, or the time employed in the work_. (Thieves’) Morasse, _uneasiness_; _remorse_. Battre ----, _to make a hue and cry_, “to romboyle,” in old cant, or “to whiddle beef.”

MORASSIER, _m._ (printers’), _one who prints off the last proof of a newspaper article_.

MORBAQUE, _m._ (popular), _disagreeable child_. See MORBEC.

MORBEC, _m._ (popular), _a variety of vermin which clings tenaciously to certain parts of the human body_.

MORCEAU, _m._ (freemasons’), d’architecture, _speech_; (popular) ---- de gruyère, _pockmarked face_, “cribbage-face;” ---- de salé, _fat woman_. Un ----, _a slatternly girl_. (Thieves’) Manger le ----, _to peach_, “to blow the gaff.”

Le morceau tu ne mangeras De crainte de tomber au plan.

=VIDOCQ.=

(Literary) Morceau de pâte ferme, _heavy, dull production_. (Artists’) Faire le ----, _to paint details skilfully_. (Military) Le beau temps tombe par morceaux, _it rains_.

MORD (familiar and popular), ça ne ---- pas, _it’s no use_; _no go_.

MORDANTE, _f._ (thieves’), _file_; _saw_. The allusion is obvious.

MORDRE (popular), se faire ----, _to be reprimanded_, “to get a wigging;” _to get thrashed_, or “wolloped.”

MORESQUE, _f._ (thieves’), _danger_.

MORFE, _f._ (thieves’), _meal_; _victuals_, or “toke.”

Veux-tu venir prendre de la morfe et piausser avec mézière en une des pioles que tu m’as rouscaillée?--_Le Jargon de l’Argot._

MORFIANTE, _f._ (thieves’), _plate_.

MORFIGNER, MORFILER (thieves’), _to do_; _to eat_. From the old word morfier. Rabelais uses the word morfialler with the signification of _to eat_, _to gorge oneself_.

La, la, la, c’est morfiallé cela.--=RABELAIS=, _Gargantua_.

MORFILER, or MORFILLER (thieves’), _to eat_, “to yam.”

Un vieux fagot qui s’était fait raille pour morfiller.--=VIDOCQ.= (_An old convict who had turned spy to get a living._)

Termed also morfier. Compare with morfire, or morfizzare, _to eat_, in the lingue furbesche, or Italian cant. Se ---- le dardant, _to fret_. Dardant, _heart_.

MORGANE, _f._ (old cant), _salt_.

C’est des oranges, si tu demandais du sel ... de la morgane! mon fils, ça coûte pas cher.--=VIDOCQ.= (_Here are some potatoes; just you ask for salt, my boy; it’s cheap enough._)

MORGANER (roughs’ and thieves’), _to bite_. Morgane le gonse et chair dure! _Bite the cove! pitch into him!_

MORICAUD, _m._ (thieves’), _coal_; _wine-dealer’s wooden pitcher_.

MORI-LARVE, _f._ (thieves’), _sunburnt face_.

MORLINGUE, _m._ (thieves’), _money_; _purse_, “skin.” Faire le ----, _to steal a purse_, “to fake a skin.”

MORNANTE, _f._ (thieves’), _sheepfold_. From morne, _sheep_.

MORNE, _f. and adj._ (thieves’), _sheep_, or “wool-bird.” Termed “bleating cheat” by English vagabonds. Courbe de ----, _shoulder of mutton_. Morne, _stupid_; _stupid man_, “go along.”

MORNÉE, _f._ (thieves’), _mouthful_.

MORNIER, MORNEUX, or MARMIER, _m._ (thieves’), _shepherd_.

MORNIFFER (popular), _to slap one’s face_, “to fetch a bang,” or “to give a biff,” as the Americans have it. Termed _to give a_ “clo,” at Winchester School.

MORNIFLE, _f._ (thieves’), _money_, or “blunt.”

When the slow coach paused, and the gemmen storm’d, I bore the brunt-- And the only sound which my grave lips form’d Was “blunt”--still “blunt!”

=LORD LYTTON=, _Paul Clifford_.

Mornifle tarte, _spurious coin_, or “queer bit.” Refiler de la ---- tarte, _to pass off bad coin_; _to be a_ “snide pitcher, or smasher.” Properly mornifle has the signification of _cuff on the face_.

MORNIFLEUR TARTE, _m._ (thieves’), _coiner_, or “queer-bit faker.”

MORNINGUE, or MORLINGUE, _m._ (thieves’), _money_, or “pieces;” _purse_. Faire le ----, _to pick a pocket_. In the old English cant “to fang” _a pocket_.

O shame o’ justice! Wild is hang’d, For thatten he a pocket fang’d, While safe old Hubert, and his gang, Doth pocket of the nation fang.

=FIELDING=, _J. Wild._

Termed in modern English cant “to fake a cly,” a pickpocket being called, according to Lord Lytton, a “buzz gloak”:--

The “eminent hand” ended with--“He who surreptitiously accumulates bustle, is, in fact, nothing better than a buzz gloak.--_Paul Clifford_.

Porte ----, _purse_, “skin, or poge.”

MORNOS, _m._ (thieves’), _mouth_, “bone-box, or muns.” Probably from morne, _mutton_, the mouth’s most important function being to receive food.

MORPION, _m._ (popular), _strong expression of contempt_; _despicable man_, or “snot.” Literally _crab-louse_. Also a _bore_, one who clings to you as the vermin alluded to.

MORPIONNER (popular), _is said of a bore that you cannot get rid of_.

MORSE (Breton cant), _barley bread_.

MORT, _f. and adj._ (popular), marchand de ---- subite, _physician_, “pill.”

C’est bien sûr le médecin en chef ... tous les marchands de mort subite vous ont de ces regards-là.--=ZOLA.=

Lampe à ----, _confirmed drunkard whose thirst cannot be slaked_. (Familiar and popular) Un corps ----, _an empty bottle_. The English say, when a bottle has been emptied, “Take away this bottle; it has ‘Moll Thompson’s’ mark on it,” that is, it is M. T. An empty bottle is also termed a “marine, or marine recruit.” “This expression having once been used in the presence of an officer of Marines,” says the _Slang Dictionary_, “he was at first inclined to take it as an insult, until someone adroitly appeased his wrath by remarking that no offence could be meant, as all that it could possibly imply was: one who had done his duty, and was ready to do it again.” (Popular) Eau de ----, _brandy_. See TORD-BOYAUX. (Thieves’) Etre ----, _to be sentenced_, “booked.” Hirondelle de la ----, _gendarme on duty at executions_. (Military school of Saint-Cyr) Se faire porter élève-mort _is to get placed on the sick list_. (Gamesters’) Mort, _stakes which have been increased by a cheat, who slily lays additional money the moment the game is in his favour_.

MORTE PAYE SUR MER, _f._ (thieves’), _the hulks_ (obsolete).

MORUE, _f._ (popular), _dirty, disgusting woman_.

Vous voyez, Françoise, ce panier de fraises qu’on vous fait trois francs; j’en offre un franc, moi, et la marchande m’appelle ... Oui, madame, elle vous appelle ... morue!--=GAVARNI.=

Also _prostitute_. See GADOUE. Grande ---- dessalée, _expression of the utmost contempt applied to a woman_. Pedlars formerly termed “morue,” _manuscripts_, for the printing of which they formed an association, “clubbed” together.

MORVIAU, _m._ (popular), _nose_. Termed also “pif, bourbon, piton, pivase, bouteille, caillou, trompe, truffe, tubercule, trompette, nazareth;” and, in English slang, “conk, boko, nob, snorter, handle, post-horn, and smeller.” Lécher le ----, _to kiss_. The expression is old.