Category: Language & Communication
Minor errors, attributable to the printer, have been corrected. Please see the transcriber’s note at the end of this text for details regarding the handling of any textual issues encountered during its preparation.
=Gave him a Roland for an Oliver.= Exactly what he gave me himself; a tit for tat. Roland and Oliver were two knights in the train of Charlemagne. Both were equally accomplished...
13. Part 13=Invention of the Cross.= The name of this Church festival, 3rd May, commemorative of the finding of the True Cross by those sent in quest of it by St Helena, sounds peculiar, b...
15. Part 15=La Belle Sauvage Yard.= The yard of the famous coaching inn of the same name. The history of this sign was curious. Kept by Isabelle Savage, it bore the name of “The Bel Savage...
11. Part 11=Hazing.= An Americanism for a mad sport or frolic. Specifically it expresses the tricks played upon, and the ignominious treatment meted out to, an unpopular comrade in the arm...
24. Part 24=Rosary.= A string of beads, and also the prayers said in connection therewith, so called because the Virgin appeared in a vision to St Dominic, who instituted this Catholic dev...
17. Part 17=Magic City of the South.= Birmingham in the state of Alabama. Since its foundation by the Elyton Land Company in 1871 it has bidden fair to rival Pittsburg as the Birmingham of...
16. Part 16=Lion Sermon.= This is delivered once a year at the Church of St Katherine Cree in commemoration of Sir John Gayer’s miraculous escape from death by a lion when he found himself...
21. Part 21=Parsees.= The modern designation of the Zoroastrians or Fire Worshippers in Persia and India. The Parsees were the original inhabitants of Persia, a wild Ayrian family called t...
19. Part 19=Nest Egg.= The nucleus of a banking account, so called because if a china egg be placed in a hen’s nest it is an inducement for her to lay eggs of her own there. When a person...
6. Part 6=Coup de Grace.= The merciful finishing stroke of the executioner after a criminal had been tortured by having all his bones broken on a wheel. One blow on the head then put him...
27. Part 27=Suffragette.= If this latter-day term possesses any etymological significance whatever, it expresses the diminutive of one who claims the suffrage or the right, from the Latin...
3. Part 3=Bartholomew Fair.= The famous fair which for centuries survived the mediæval mart that had given rise to it in the neighbouring street, still known as Cloth Fair. It was held o...
12. Part 12=Horse Marines.= There can be no Horse Marines; but the 17th Lancers were at one time made to bear this opprobrious nickname from the circumstance that two men of this regiment...
23. Part 23=Queen’s Tobacco Pipe.= The name given to the furnace at the London Docks where contraband tobacco was formerly consumed. This custom obtained down to within the last few years...
22. Part 22=Pius X.= The Vatican Journal _Voce Della Verita_ recently gave an authorised explanation as to why the present Pope chose to be styled “Pius the Tenth.” It said: “The Holy Fath...
28. Part 28=Treacle Bible.= A rare version of the Scriptures, so called on account of the rendering of the passage (Jeremiah viii. 22): “Is there no balm in Gilead?” as “There is no more t...
10. Part 10=Greenbacks.= The paper currency of the United States, printed in green and with a device of the same colour on the back. Mr Chase, Secretary of the Treasury in 1862, claimed th...
8. Part 8=Feast of Lanterns.= A Chinese festival which occurs on the fifteenth day of the first moon of the year. Walking by the side of a beautiful lake one night the daughter of a mand...
26. Part 26=Sky Sign.= A structure on the roof of a house of business for the purposes of a bold advertisement. This Transatlantic innovation has within the last few years been interdicted...
7. Part 7=Dressed up to the Knocker.= To the extreme height of his resources. Before the establishment of the modern police system door knockers were placed as high as possible to preven...
2. Part 2=Americanism.= A coined word or phrase in the United States which, freely repeated, tickles the popular ear and soon becomes engrafted upon the national vocabulary. Many America...
5. Part 5=Canterbury Music Hall.= This, the first of the London music halls, opened in 1848, grew out of the old-time popular “free-and-easy,” or “sing-song,” held in an upper room of wh...
18. Part 18=Mile End Gate.= From a toll gate which at this point of the highroad marked the eastern limits of London town and the parish of Whitechapel, distant one mile from the city boun...
4. Part 4=Bogus.= In reporting a trial at law _The Boston Courier_ in 1857 gave the following authoritative origin:--“The word Bogus is a corruption of the name of one Borghese, a very c...
25. Part 25=Saturday.= This, the seventh day of the week, was dedicated by the Romans to Saturn. As, however, all the other week-days were named by the people of Northern Europe in accorda...
14. Part 14=Justice is Blind.= An expression derived from the allegorical representation of Justice, who, holding the scales, is blindfolded. See “Scales of Justice.” This really had its o...
20. Part 20=Old Hat.= A country tavern sign which must have been the original when the same premises was devoted to some other business, in days characterised by the display of signs by tr...
1. Part 1Minor errors, attributable to the printer, have been corrected. Please see the transcriber’s note at the end of this text for details regarding the handling of any textual issue...
29. Part 29=Wayzgoose.= A printers’ summer outing, so called from the wayz or stubble goose which, when the outing took place later in the season, was the invariable dinner dish. The term...