Part 6

=Cottonopolis.= Manchester, the city identified with English cotton manufacture.

=Cotton Plantation State.= Alabama, from its staple industry.

=Cotton to.= An Americanism meaning to cling to a man as cotton would cling to his garments.

=Counter-jumper.= The derisive nickname of a draper’s assistant, on account of his agility in leaping over the counter as a short cut from one department to another.

=Country Dance.= A corruption of the French _contre danse_, from the opposite positions of the dancers.

=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 out of his misery.

=Court Cards.= Properly Coat Cards, on account of their heraldic devices.

=Court of Arches.= The ecclesiastical Court of Appeal for the Archbishopric of Canterbury which in ancient times was held in the crypt of St Mary-le-Bow, or St Mary of the Arches at Cheapside. See “Bow Church.”

=Court Plaster.= The plaster out of which ladies of the Court fashioned their decorative (?) face patches.

=Covenanters.= Those who entered into a Solemn League or Covenant to resist the religious and political measures of Charles I. in 1638.

=Covent Garden.= A corruption of Convent Garden, the site of which was converted into a market, _temp._ Charles II. The convent and garden belonged to the Abbey at Westminster.

=Coventry.= A corruption of Conventry--_i.e._ Convent town. Before the Reformation it was far famed for the number of its conventual establishments. The suffix _try_ is Celtic for “dwelling.”

=Coventry Street.= From the residence of Henry Coventry, Secretary of State, _temp._ Charles II.

=Cowcross Street.= Where the cattle crossed the brook in days when this now congested neighbourhood was pleasant pasture land watered by the “River of Wells.”

=Coxcomb.= A vain, empty-pated individual. So called from the cock’s comb worn on the cap by the licensed jesters, because they were allowed to crow over their betters.

=Cracker.= Although the origin of this term when applied to a juvenile firework would appear to be self-evident, it is really a corruption of _Cracque_, the Norman description of “Greek Fire.”

=Crackers.= The people of Georgia, owing, it is said, to the unintelligibility of their speech.

=Cranbourn Street.= From the long, narrow stream of this name, when the whole district hereabouts was open fields.

=Crank.= One whose notions of things are angular, eccentric, or crooked. His ideas do not run in a straight line.

=Cravat.= Introduced into Western Europe by the Cravates or Croatians in the seventeenth century.

=Craven Street.= From the residence of Lord Craven prior to his removal to Drury House in Drury Lane.

=Cream City.= Milwaukee, from the cream-coloured bricks of which its houses are built.

=Credit Draper.= The modern designation of a “Tallyman.”

=Cree Church.= See “St Katherine Cree.”

=Creed Lane.= Where the monks recited the Credo in procession to St Paul’s. See “Ave Maria Lane.”

=Cremorne Gardens.= Laid out on the site of the mansion and grounds of Thomas Dawson, Lord Cremorne.

=Creole State.= Louisiana. In New Orleans particularly a Creole is a native of French extraction.

=Crescent City.= New Orleans, built in the form of a crescent.

=Crimea.= From the _Kimri_ or _Cymri_ who settled in the peninsula.

=Cripplegate.= From the city gate around which gathered cripples begging for alms, the neighbouring church being dedicated to St Giles, their patron.

=Crokers.= Potatoes, because first raised in Croker’s Field at Youghal, Ireland.

=Cromwell Road.= From the mansion and grounds of Richard Cromwell, son of the Lord Protector.

=Crop Clubs.= Clubs formed to evade Mr Pitt’s tax on hair powder. _The Times_ thus noticed one of the earliest in its issue of 14th April 1795: “A numerous Club has been formed in Lambeth called the ‘Crop Club,’ every member of which is obliged to have his hair docked as close as the Duke of Bridgewater’s old bay horses. This assemblage is instituted for the purpose of opposing, or rather evading, the tax on powdered heads.”

=Cross Keys.= A common inn sign throughout Yorkshire, from the arms of the Archbishop of York.

=Crowd.= Theatrical slang for members of a company collectively.

=Crow over him.= A cock always crows over a vanquished opponent in a fight.

=Crutched Friars.= Friars of the Holy Trinity, so called from the embroidered cross on their habits (Latin, _cruciati_, crossed). Their London house was located in the thoroughfare named after them.

=Cuba.= The native name of the island when Columbus discovered it.

=Cully.= A slang term applied to a man, mate, or companion. Its origin is the Romany _cuddy_, from the Persian _gudda_, an ass.

=Cumberland.= The land of the Cymri.

=Cupboard.= See “Dresser.”

=Curaçoa.= A liqueur first prepared at the West Indian island of the same name.

=Currants.= First brought from Corinth.

=Cursitor Street.= From the Cursitors’ Office that stood here. The Cursitors were clerks of Chancery, but anciently _choristers_, just as the Lord Chancellor himself was an ecclesiastic.

=Curtain Road.= From the “Curtain Theatre,” where Ben Jonson’s “Every Man in his Humour” was put on the stage.

=Curzon Street.= From George Augustus Curzon, created Viscount Howe, the ground landlord.

=Cuspidor.= The American term for a spittoon, derived from the Spanish _escupidor_, a spitter.

=Cut me to the Quick.= The quick of one’s fingers when cut into is most alive or sensitive to pain. See “Quicksilver.”

=Cutpurse.= A thief who, in days before pockets came into vogue, had no difficulty in cutting the strings with which a purse was suspended from the girdle.

=Cut the Line.= A printer’s expression for knocking off work. Formerly compositors finished the line they were composing; nowadays Trades Unionism has made them so particular that they leave off in the middle of a line on the first stroke of the bell.

=Cypress.= A tree introduced to Western Europe from the island of Cyprus.

=Cyprus.= From _kupras_, the Greek name for a herb which grew on the island in profusion.

D

=Dachshund.= German for “badger-dog.”

=Daffodil.= An English corruption of the French _d’Asphodel_.

=Dagonet.= The pseudonym of Mr George R. Sims in _The Referee_, after the jester at the Court of King Arthur.

=Daguerreotype.= An early process of photography discovered by L. J. M. Daguerre.

=Dahlgreen Gun.= After its inventor, an officer in the United States Navy.

=Dahlia.= Introduced to Europe from Mexico in 1784 by Andrew Dahl, the Swedish botanist.

=Daisy.= From the Anglo-Saxon _dæges eye_, or “day’s eye,” on account of its sunlike appearance.

=Dakota.= From the Dacoits, a tribe of Indians found there.

=Dale Road.= From the residence of Canon Dale, poet, and Vicar of St Pancras.

=Dalmatian.= A species of dog bred in Dalmatia.

=Dalston.= The town in the dale when the north of London was more or less wooded.

=Damage.= See “What’s the Damage?”

=Damascenes.= From Damascus, famous for its plums.

=Damascus.= From the Arabic name of the city, _Dimiskesh-Shâm_.

=Damascus Blade.= From Damascus, a city world famous for the temper of its sword blades.

=Damask.= First made at Damascus in Syria.

=Damask Rose.= Introduced to Europe from Damascus.

=Damassin.= A Damask cloth interwoven with flowers of gold or silver.

=Dame School.= The old name for a girls’ school taught by a spinster or dame.

=Damsons.= Properly _Damascenes_, from Damascus.

=Dancing Chancellor.= Sir Christopher Hatton so pleased Queen Elizabeth by his dancing at a Court masque that she made him a Knight of the Garter; subsequently he became Lord Chancellor of England.

=Dandelion.= A corruption of the French _dent de lion_, from its fancied resemblance to a lion’s tooth.

=Dandy.= From the French _dandin_, silly fellow, ninny.

=Dantzic.= Expresses the town settled by the Danes.

=Danvers Street.= From Danvers House, in which resided Sir John Danvers, to whom the introduction of the Italian style of horticulture in England was due.

=Darbies.= A pair of handcuffs, in allusion to Darby and Joan, who were inseparable.

=Dardanelles.= After the city on the Asiatic side founded by Dardanus, the ancestor of Priam, the last king of Troy.

=Dark and Bloody Ground.= Kentucky, the great battle-ground of the Indians and white settlers, as also that of the savage tribes amongst themselves.

=Darmstadt.= The _stadt_, or town, on the Darm.

=Dartford.= From the Saxon _Darentford_, the fort on the Darent.

=Dartmoor.= The moor in which the River Dart takes its rise.

=Dartmouth.= On the estuary of the River Dart.

=Dauphin.= The title borne by the eldest son of the King of France until 1830, from the armorial device of a _delphinus_, or dolphin.

=Davenport.= After the original maker.

=Davies Street.= After Mary Davies, heiress of the manor of Ebury, Pimlico.

=Davis Strait.= After the navigator who discovered it.

=Davy Jones’s Locker.= Properly “Duffy Jonah’s Locker.” _Duffy_ is the ghost of the West Indian Negroes; Jonah, the prophet cast into the sea; and “locker,” the ordinary seaman’s chest.

=D. D. Cellars.= See “Dirty Dick’s.”

=Dead as a Door Nail.= The reflection that, if a man were to be knocked on the head as often as is the “nail” on which a door knocker rests, he would have very little life left in him, easily accounts for this saying.

=Dead Beat.= Prostrate from fatigue, incapable of further exertion. Also the name of an American drink of whisky and ginger-soda after a hard night’s carousal.

=Deadheads.= In America persons who enjoy the right of travelling on a railway system at the public expense; in this country actors and pseudo “professionals,” who pass into places of amusement without paying. The origin of the term is as follows:--More than sixty years ago all the principal avenues of the city of Delaware converged to a toll gate at the entrance to the Elmwood Cemetery Road. The cemetery having been laid out long prior to the construction of the plank road beyond the toll gate, funerals were allowed to pass through the latter toll free. One day as Dr Price, a well-known physician, stopped to pay his toll he observed to the gatekeeper: “Considering the benevolent character of the profession to which I have the honour to belong, I think you ought to let me pass toll free.” “No, no, doctor,” the man replied; “we can’t afford that. You send too many deadheads through here as it is!” The story travelled, and the term “Deadheads” became fixed.

=Dead Reckoning.= Calculating a ship’s whereabouts at sea from the log-book without aid from the celestial bodies.

=Dead Sea.= Traditionally on the site of the city of Sodom. Its waters are highly saline, and no fish are found in them.

=Dean Street.= After Bishop Compton, who, before he became Dean of the Savoy Chapel, held the living of St Anne’s, Soho.

=Dean’s Yard.= Affords access to the residence of the Dean of Westminster, which, with the cloisters, belonged to the abbots prior to the Reformation.

=Death or Glory Men.= The 17th Lancers, from their badge, a Death’s head superposed on the words “Or Glory.”

=De Beauvoir Town.= From the manorial residence of the De Beauvoirs.

=Deccan.= From the Sanskrit _Dakshina_, the south, being that portion of Hindustan south of the Vindhya Mountains.

=December.= The tenth month of the Roman Calendar when the year was reckoned from March.

=Decemvir.= One of the ten legislators of Rome appointed to draw up a code of laws.

=Decoration Day.= 30th May, observed in the United States for decorating the graves of the soldiers who fell in the struggle between the North and South.

=Deemster.= See “Doomster.”

=Dehaley Street.= From the residence of the Dehaleys.

=Delaware.= After the Governor of Virginia, Thomas West, Lord Delaware, who died on board his vessel while visiting the bay in 1610.

=Del Salviati.= The assumed name of the famous Italian painter Francesco Rossi, in compliment to his patron, Cardinal Salviati, who was born in the same year as himself.

=Demijohn.= A corruption of _Damaghan_, in Persia, a town anciently famous for its glass-ware.

=Democracy.= From the Greek _demos_, people, and _kratein_, to rule. Government by the people.

=Denbigh.= From _Dinbach_, the Celtic for “a little fort.”

=Denmark.= Properly _Danmark_, the mark or boundary of the land of the Danes.

=Depot.= The American term for a railway station.

=Deptford.= The deep ford over the Ravensbourne.

=Derby.= Saxon for “deer village.” The Derby stakes at Epsom were founded by Edward Smith Stanley, Earl of Derby, in 1780.

=Derrick.= The old name for a gibbet and now for a high crane. So called after a seventeenth-century hangman at Tyburn.

=Derry Down.= The opening words of the Druidical chorus as they proceeded to the sacred grove to gather mistletoe at the winter solstice. _Derry_ is Celtic for “grove.”

=Dessborough Place.= From Dessbrowe House, in which resided the brother-in-law of Oliver Cromwell.

=Detroit.= French for “strait.”

=Deuteronomy.= A Greek word signifying the second giving of the Law by Moses.

=Devereaux Court.= See “Essex Street.”

=Devil’s Sonata.= One of Tartini’s most celebrated compositions. He dreamt that the Evil One appeared to him playing a sonata on the violin. At its conclusion his visitor asked: “Tartini, canst thou play this?” Awaking with his mind still full of the grotesque music, Tartini played it over, and then recorded it permanently on paper.

=Devil to Pay.= When money was lost by unsuccessful litigation it passed into the hands of lawyers, who were thought to spend it where they spent much of their time--viz. at the Devil Tavern in Fleet Street. The money, therefore, went to the Devil.

=Devizes.= From the Latin _Devisæ_, denoting the point where the old Roman road passed into the district of the Celts.

=Devon.= After a Celtic tribe, the _Damnonii_.

=Devonshire House.= The town house of the Duke of Devonshire.

=Devonshire Square.= From the mansion of William Cavendish, Earl of Devonshire, who died here in 1628.

=Diamond King.= The late Mr Alfred Beit, the South African financier, whose wealth rivalled that of the Rothschilds.

=Dickey.= A shirt front, which often has to do duty for a clean shirt. So called from the German _decken_, to hide.

=Diddler.= A schemer, an artful dodger. After Jeremy Diddler, the chief character in the old farce, “Raising the Wind.”

=Die Hards.= The 57th Foot. When the regiment was surrounded at Albuera, their Colonel cried: “Die hard, my lads; die hard!” And fighting, they died.

=Digger Indians.= Tribes of the lowest class who live principally upon roots. They have never been known to hunt.

=Diggings.= A Bohemian term for “lodgings.” Not from the Californian gold diggings, as generally supposed, but from the Galena lead miners of Wisconsin, who called both their mines and their underground winter habitations “diggings.”

=Dime.= A ten-cent piece, from the French _dixme_, or _dîme_, tenth--_i.e._ of a dollar.

=Dimity.= First brought from Damietta, Egypt.

=Dine with Duke Humphrey.= An old saying of those who were fated to go dinnerless. When the “Good Duke Humphrey,” son of Henry IV., was buried at St Albans, a monument to his memory was to be erected in St Paul’s Cathedral. At that time, as for long afterwards, the nave of our national fane was a fashionable promenade. When the promenaders left for dinner, others who had no dinners to go to explained that they would stay behind in order to look for the Good Duke’s monument.

=Dining-room Servant.= An Americanism for waiter or male house servant.

=Diorama.= See “Panorama.”

=Dirty Dick’s.= The noted tavern in Bishopgate, said to have been associated with Nathaniel Bentley, the miser, who never washed himself. As a matter of fact, Dirty Dick was an ironmonger in Leadenhall Street. After his death his effects were bought and exhibited at the Bishopgate tavern, together with his portrait as a sign.

=Dirty Shirts.= The 101st Foot, who were hotly engaged at the battle of Delhi in their shirt sleeves.

=Dissenters.= Synonymous with the Nonconformists. Those who dissented from the doctrines of the Church of England and those likewise who, at a later period, separated from the Presbyterian Church of Scotland.

=Distaffs’ Day.= The old name for 7th January, when, Christmas being over with Twelfth Night, women returned to their distaffs or spindles.

=Divan.= A Turkish word signifying a Council of State, from the fact that the Turkish Council Chamber has low couches ranged round its walls, plentifully supplied with cushions. The name has been imported into Western Europe specifically to imply a low-cushioned sofa or couch.

=Dixie’s Land.= The Negroes’ paradise in slavery days. Dixie had a tract of land on Manhattan Island. He treated his slaves well, but as they increased sold many of them off to masters further afield. They always looked back to Dixie’s Land as an ideal locality, associated with heaven, and when one of them died his kith and kin said he had gone to Dixie’s Land.

=Dizzy.= The nickname of Benjamin Disraeli, afterwards Earl of Beaconsfield, the great political opponent of Mr Gladstone.

=Doctor.= There are three kinds of Doctors--of Law, Physic, and Divinity. The first and the last are essentially University degrees, with which the vulgar orders of the people have little or no acquaintance. They know only of one “Doctor,” the medical practitioner, and since he wears a frock coat and a silk hat he is entitled to all the respect that they can pay him.

=Doctors’ Commons.= Anciently a college for Professors of Canon and Civil Law, who dined in common on certain days in each term, similar to students at the Inns of Court before they are called to the Bar.

=Dog and Duck.= A tavern sign indicative of the old sport of duck hunting by spaniels in a pond.

=Dog-cart.= Originally one in which sportsmen drove their pointers and setters to the field.

=Dog his Footsteps.= To follow close to his heels like a dog.

=Dog in the Manger.= From the old story told of the dog who did not require the hay for himself, yet refused to allow the ox to come near it.

=Dog Rose.= From the old idea that the root of this rose-tree was an antidote for the bite of a mad dog.

=Dog Watch.= A corruption of “Dodge Watch,” being a watch of two hours only instead of four, by which _dodging_ seamen gradually shift their watch on successive days.

=Dolgelley.= Celtic for “dale of hazels.”

=Dollar.= From the German Thaler, originally Joachims-Thaler, the silver out of which this coin was struck having been found in the Thal or Valley of St Joachim in Bohemia.

=Dollars and Dimes.= An Americanism for money generally. See “Dime.”

=Dolly Shop.= The old name for a rag shop which had a black doll over the door for a sign. At one time old clothes were shipped to the Negroes in the southern states of America.

=Dolly Varden.= The name of a flowered skirt, answering to the description of that worn by Dolly Varden in Dickens’s “Barnaby Rudge.” This dress material became very popular after the novel was published. It also gave rise to a song, of which the burden was: “Dressed in a Dolly Varden.”

=Dolphin.= A gold coin introduced by Charles V. of France, also Dauphin of Vienne.

=Dominica.= Expresses the Spanish for Sunday, the day on which Columbus discovered this island.

=Dominicans.= Friars of the Order of St Dominic; also called Black Friars, from their habits.

=Dominoes.= A game invented by two French monks, who amused themselves with square, flat stones marked with spots. The winner declared his victory by reciting the first line of the Vesper service: “Dixit Dominus Domino Meo.” When, later, the game became the recreation of the whole convent, the Vesper line was abbreviated into “Domino,” and the stones themselves received the name of “Dominoes.”

=Don.= A corruption of the Celtic _tain_, river.

=Donatists.= A sect of the fourth century, adherents of Donatus, Bishop of Numidia.

=Doncaster St Leger.= The stakes at Doncaster races founded by Colonel Anthony St Leger in 1776.

=Donegal.= Gaelic for the “fortress of the west”--viz. Donegal Castle, held by the O’Donnels of Tyrconnel.

=Donet.= The old name for a Grammar, after Donatus, the grammarian and preceptor of St Jerome.

=Donkey.= An ass, from its _dun_ colour.

=Don’t care a Dam.= When this expression first obtained currency a dam was the smallest Hindoo coin, not worth an English farthing.

=Don’t care a Jot.= See “Iota.”

=Doomster.= The official in the Scottish High Court who pronounced the doom to the prisoner, and also acted as executioner. In Jersey and the Isle of Man a judge is styled a “Deemster.”

=Dope Habit.= An Americanism for the morphia habit. “Dope” is the Chinese word for opium. This in the United States is now applied to all kinds of strong drugs or bromides prepared from opium.

=Dorcas Society.= From the passage in Acts ix. 39: “And all the widows stood by him weeping, and showing the coats and garments which Dorcas made while she was with them.”

=Dorchester.= The Roman camp in the district of the _Dwr-trigs_ or water dwellers. See “Dorset.”

=Dorset.= The Anglo-Saxon _Dwrset_, or water settlement, so called from the British tribe the _Dwr-trigs_, “water dwellers,” who peopled it.

=Dorset Square.= After Viscount Portman, the ground landlord, who, before he was raised to the peerage, was for many years Member for Dorsetshire.

=Dorset Street.= From the mansion and grounds of the Earl of Dorset of the Restoration period. Here stood also the Dorset Gardens Theatre.

=Doss.= Slang for a sleep, a shakedown. From the old word _dossel_, a bundle of hay or straw, whence was derived _Doss_, a straw bed.

=Doss-house.= A common lodging-house. See “Doss.”

=Douay Bible.= The Old Testament translation of the Latin Vulgate printed at the English College at Douay, France, in 1609.

=Doublet.= So called because it was double lined or wadded, originally for purposes of defence.

=Douglas.= From its situation at the juncture of the two streams, the _Dhoo_, black, and _Glass_, grey.

=Douro.= From the Celtic _Dwr_, water.

=Dover House.= The residence of the Hon. George Agar Ellis, afterwards Lord Dover.

=Dover Street.= After Henry Jermyn, Lord Dover, who died at his residence here in 1782.

=Dowager.= The widow of a person of high rank, because she enjoyed a substantial dower or dowry for her maintenance during life.

=Dowgate.= From the Celtic _Dwr_, water. Hence a water gate on the north bank of the Thames.

=Downing Street.= From the mansion of Sir George Downing, M.P., of the Restoration period.

=Down with the Dust.= A gold miner’s expression in the Far West, where money is scarce and necessary commodities are in general bartered for with gold dust.

=Doyley.= From the Brothers Doyley, linen drapers in the Strand, who introduced this species of table napery.

=Do your Level Best.= This expression means that, while striving to the utmost you must also act strictly straightforward.