Dictionary of Phrase and Fable
E. Cobham Brewer From The Edition Of 1894
B
This letter is the outline of a house. It is called in Hebrew beth (a house). In Egyptian hierology this letter is a sheep.
B
stands for 300. Scit B. trecentum sibi cognatum retinère. And, again, Et B. trecentum per se retinere videtur. But with a line above, it denotes 3,000.
For Becarre and Bemol (French for B sharp and B flat), see Becarre.
Marked with a B (French), i.e. a poor thing. In the French language almost all personal defects begin with the letter B; e.g. bigle (squint—eyed), borgne (one—eyed), bossu (humpty), boiteux (lame), etc.
Not to know B from a battledoor. To be quite illiterate, not to know even his letters. Miege tells us that hornbooks used to be called battledoors. The phrase might therefore originally mean not to know the B of, from, or out of, your hornbook. But its more general meaning is “not able to distinguish one letter from another.”
“He knoweth not a B from a battledoore.” — Howell; English Proverbs.
“Distinguish a B from a battledore.” — Dekker: Guls Hornebook.
I know B from a Bull's foot. Similar to the proverb, “I know a hawk from a hernshaw.” (See Hawk.) The bull's parted hoof somewhat resembles a B.
“There were members who scarcely knew B from a bull's foot.” — Brackenbridge: Modern Chivalry.
B. C.
Marked with B.C. (bad character). When a soldier disgraced himself by insubordination he was formerly marked with “B. C.” before he was drummed out of the regiment.
B. and S
Brandy and soda—water.
B. K. S
The name of “residence” given by officers in mufti, who do not wish to give up their address. The word stands for BarracKS.
B Flats
Bugs. The pun is “B” (the initial letter), and “flat,” from the flatness of the obnoxious insect. Also called Norfolk Howards, from Mr. Bugg, who advertised in the Times that he should in future change his name into “Norfolk Howard.” (See F Sharp.)
B.'s
Four B.'s essential for social success. Blood, brains, brass, brads (money). (American.)
Beware of the B.'s, i.e. the British. A Carlow caution.
B. of B. K
Some mysterious initials applied to himself in his diary by Arthur Orton, “the Tichborne Claimant.” Supposed to denote “Baronet of British Kingdom.”
Baal—Peor
or Belphegor. The Priapus of the Moabites and Midianites.
Baal Samin
The god of celestial places.
Baal Shemesh
The Sun—god.
Baal Zeboub
[Beelzebub], god of corruption or of flies. (See Flies.)
Ba ba
Same as papa (Turkish). Alibaba is “father Ali.”
Babau
The bogie with which nurses in Languedoc terrify unruly children.
Babes in the Wood
(1)Simple trustful folks, never suspicious, and easily gulled.
(2) Insurrectionary hordes that infested the mountains of Wicklow and the woods of Enniscorthy towards the close of the eighteenth century. (See Children.)
(3) Men in the stocks or in the pillory.
Babes
(Deities of), in Rome. VATICAN, or, more correctly, VAGITAN—US (q.v.), the god who caused infants to utter their first cry. FABULIN—US (q.v.), the god to whom Roman parents made an offering when an infant uttered its first word. CUBA (q.v.), the goddess who kept infants quiet in their cots. DOMIDUCA, the goddess who brought young children safe home, and kept guard over them when out of their parents' sight.
Babies in the Eyes That is, love in the expression of the eyes. Love is the little babe Cupid, and hence the conceit, originating from the reflection of the onlooker in the pupil of another's eyes.
“In each of her two crystal eyes
Smileth a naked boy [Cupid].” Lord Surrey.
She clung about his neck, gave him ten kisses,
Toyed with his locks, looked babies in his eyes.”
Heywood: Love's Mistress .
Babel
A perfect Babel. A thorough confusion. “A Babel of sounds.” A confused uproar, in which nothing can be heard but hubbub. The allusion is to the confusion of tongues at Babel. (Genesis xi.)
“God ... comes down to see their city,
... ... and in derision sets
Upon their tongues a various spirit, to raze
Quite out their native language, and instead
To sow a jangling noise of words unknown. Forthwith a hideous gabble rises loud
Among the builders; each to other calls
Not understood. ... Thus was the building left Ridiculous, and the work Confusion named.”
Milton: Paradise Lost , xii, 48——63.
Babouc
(See Bacbuc .)
Babouin
Taisez—vous, petite babouin; laissez parlez votre mère, qui est plus sage que vous. The tale or fable is this: A girl one day went to make an offering to Venus, and prayed the goddess to give her for husband a young man on whom she had fixed her affections. A young fellow happened at the time to be behind the image of Cupid, and hearing the petition, replied, “So fine a gentleman is not for such as you.” The voice seemed to proceed from the image, and the girl replied, “Hold your tongue, you little monkey; let your mother speak, for she is wiser than you.”
Baby Charles
So James I used to call his son Charles, afterwards Charles I.
Babylon
The modern Babylon. So London is sometimes called, on account of its wealth, luxury, and dissipation.
Babylonian Numbers
Ne Babylonios tentaris numeros. Do not pry into futurity by astrological calculations and horoscopes. Do not consult fortunetellers. The Chaldæans were the most noted of astrologers. (Horace: Odes, book i. xi. 2.)
Babylonish Captivity
The seventy years that the Jews were captives in Babylon. They were made captives by Nebuchadnezzar, and released by Cyrus (B.C. 538).
Babylonish Garment
(A) Babylonica vestis, a garment woven with divers colours. (Pliny, viii. 74.)
“I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment.” — Joshua vii. 21.
Baca
The Valley of Baca, also called the Valley of Tears, translated in the New Version “the Valley of Weeping,” apparently a dry sterile valley, the type of this earth spoilt by sorrow and sin. “Blessed is the man
... in whose heart are the ways of them. Who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well ...” (Psalm
lxxxiv. 6). That man is blessed whose trust in God converts adverse circumstances into proofs of divine love. “Whom He loveth He chasteneth.” They “go from strength to strength.”
In the mountains of Lebanon is a valley called Baca, but it is described as fertile and very delicious. The Valley of Lebanon (Joshua xi. 17) is encompassed by mountains, one of which is very barren, and abounds in thorns, rocks, and flints, but another is called a terrestrial paradise. Baca means “mulberry trees,” but Bekah means a “plain.” Perowne says Bacah is from a Hebrew root which means “weeping.”
“Our sources of common pleasure dry up as we journey on through the vale of Bacha.” — Sir Walter Scott: The Antiquary.
Bacbuc The Holy Bottle, and also the priestess of the Holy Bottle, the oracle of Lantern—land consulted by Panurge on the momentous question whether or not he ought to marry. The Holy Bottle answered with a click like the noise made by a glass snapping. Bacbuc told Panurge the noise meant trinc (drink), and that was the response, the most direct and positive ever given by the oracle. Panurge might interpret it as he liked, the obscurity would always save the oracle.
So Pic or Glück (say I) or neither,
Or both, for aught I care, or either;
More undecided than Bacbuc,
Here's heads for Pic, and tails for Glück. E.C.B.
Bacchanalia
Festivals in honour of Bacchus, distinguished for their licentiousness and debauchery. Plato says he has seen the whole population of Athens drunk at these festivals.
Bacchanalian
Drunken, rollicksome, devoted or pertaining to Bacchus (q.v. ).
Bacchant
A person given to habits of drinking; so called from the “bacchants,” or men admitted to the feasts of Bacchus. Bacchants wore fillets of ivy.
Bacchante
(2 syl.) A female winebibber; so called from the “bacchantes,” or female priestesses of Bacchus. They wore fillets of ivy.
Bacchis
A sacred bull which changed its colour every hour of the day. (Egyptian mythology.)
Bacchus
[wine ]. In Roman mythology the god of wine. He is represented as a beautiful youth with black eyes, golden locks, flowing with curls about his shoulders and filleted with ivy. In peace his robe was purple, in war he was covered with a panther's skin. His chariot was drawn by panthers.
The famous statue of Bacchus in the palace of Borghese (3 syl.) is represented with a bunch of grapes in his hand and a panther at his feet. Pliny tells us that, after his conquest of India, Bacchus entered Thebes in a chariot drawn by elephants.
The Etruscan Bacchus was called Esar or Nesar , the Umbrian Desar, the Assyrian Issus; the Greek Dion—ysus; the Galatian Nyssus; the Hebrew Nizziz; a Greek form was Iacchus (from Iache, a shout); the Latin Bacchus; other forms of the word are the Norse Eis; the Indian Ies; the Persian Yez; the Gaulish Hes; the German Hist; and the Chinese Jos.
“As jolly Bacchus, god of pleasure,
Charmed the wide world with drink and dances, And all his thousand airy fancies,
Alas! he quite forgot the while
His favourite vines in Lesbos isle.” Parnell.
Bacchus, in the Lusiad, is the evil demon or antagonist of Jupiter, the lord of destiny. As Mars is the guardian power of Christianity, Bacchus is the guardian power of Mohammedanism.
Bacchus sprang from the thigh of Zeus. The tale is that Semele asked Zeus to appear before her in all his glory, but the foolish request proved her death. Zeus saved the child which was prematurely born by sewing it up in his thigh till it came to maturity. The Arabian tradition is that the infant Bacchus was nourished during infancy in a cave of Mount Meros. As “Meros” is Greek for a thigh, the Greek fable is readily explained.
What has that to do with Bacchus? i.e. what has that to do with the matter in hand? When Thespis introduced recitations in the vintage songs, the innovation was suffered to pass, so long as the subject of recitation bore on the exploits of Bacchus; but when, for variety sake, he wandered to other subjects, the Greeks pulled him up with the exclamation, “What has that to do with Bacchus?” (See Hecuba, Moutons.)
Bacchus a noyé plus d'hommes que Neptune. The ale—house wrecks more men than the ocean.
Priest of Bacchus. A toper.
“The jolly old priests of Bacchus in the parlour make their libations of claret.” — J. S. Le Fanu: The House in the Churchyard, p. 113.
A son of Bacchus. A toper.
Baccoch
The travelling cripple of Ireland. Generally, a talkative, facetious fellow, prompt at repartee, and not unlike the ancient jester.
Bachelor
A man who has not been married. Probably from baccalaris, “a man employed on a grazing—farm” (Low Latin, bacca, for vacca, a cow). French, bachelier, bachelette (a damsel).
A Bachelor of Arts. The student who has passed his examination, but is not yet of standing to be a master. Formerly the bachelor was the candidate for examination. The word used to be spelt bachiller; thus in the Proceedings of the Privy Council , vol. i. p. 72, we read: — “The king ordered that the bachillers should have reasonable pay for their trouble.”
Froissart styles Richard II le jeune damoisel Richart. The Italian is donzella.
Bachelor of Salamanca
(The). Don Cherubim. He is placed in different situations of life, and is made to associate with all classes of society. (Le Sage: The Bachelor of Salamanca (a novel.)
Bachelor's Buttons
Several flowers are so called. Red Bachelor's Buttons, the double red campion; yellow Bachelor's Buttons, the “upright crowfoot”; white Bachelor's Buttons, the white ranunculus and white campion.
“The similitude these flowers have to the jagged cloath buttons anciently worne ... gave occasion ... to call them Bachelour's Buttons.” — Gerard: Herbal.
Or else from a custom still sometimes observed by rustics of carrying the flower in their pockets to know how they stand with their sweethearts. If the flower dies, it is a bad omen; but if it does not fade, they may hope for the best.
To wear bachelor's buttons. To remain a bachelor. (See above.)
Bachelor's Fare
Bread and cheese and kisses.
Bachelor's Porch
The north door used to be so called. The menservants and other poor men used to sit on benches down the north aisle, and the maidservants, with other poor women, on the south side. Even when married the custom was not discontinued. After service the men formed one line and the women another, down which the clergy and gentry passed amidst salutations, and the two lines filed off. In some country churches these arrangements are still observed.
Bachelor's Wife (A). A hypothetical wife. A bachelor has only an imaginary wife.
“Bachelors' wives and old maids' children be well taught.” — Heywood: Proverbs.
Back
(To) To support with money, influence, or encouragement: as to “back a friend.” A commercial term meaning to endorse. When a merchant backs or endorses a bill, he guarantees its value.
Falstaff says to the Prince: —
“You care not who sees your back. Call you that backing of your friends? A plague upon such backing!” — Shakespeare: I Henry IV, ii.4.
“Englishmen will fight now as well as ever they did; and there is ample power to back them.” — W. Robertson: John Bright, Chap. xxxi. p. 293.
Back and Edge
Entirely, heartily, tooth and nail, with might and main. The reference is to a wedge driven home to split wood.
“They were working back and edge for me.” — Boldrewood: Robbery under Arms , ch. ii.
To back and fill. A mode of tacking, when the tide is with the vessel and the wind against it. Metaphorically, to be irresolute.
To back out. To draw back from an engagement, bargain, etc., because it does not seem so plausible as you once thought it. Many horses are unwilling to go out of a stable head foremost, and are backed out.
“Octavius backs out; his caution and reserve come to her rescue.” — C. Clarke: Shakespeare.
To back the field. To bet on all the horses bar one. A sporting term used in betting.
To back the sails. So to arrange them that the ship's way may be checked.
To back up. To uphold, to support. As one who stands at your back to support you.
At the back of. Behind, following close after. Figure from following a leader.
“With half the city at his back.” Byron: Don Juan.
To see his back; to see the back of anything. To get rid of a person or thing; to see it leave
Back the oars or back water is to row backwards, that the boat may move the reverse of its ordinary direction.
On the back of. Immediately after. Figure from soldiers on the march.
To the back, that is, to the backbone, entirely.
To break the back of a thing. To surmount the hardest part.
His back is up. He is angry, he shows that he is annoyed. The allusion is to a cat, which sets its back up when attacked by a dog or other animal.
To get one's back up. To be irritated (See above).
To have his back at the wall. To act on the defensive against odds. One beset with foes tries to get his back against a wall that he may not be attacked by foes behind.
“He planted his back against a wall, in a skilful attitude of fence ready with his bright glancing rapier to do battle with all the heavy fierce unarmed men, some six or seven in number.” — Mrs. Gaskell: The Poor Clare, iii.
To set one's back up. (See above.) “That word set my back up.” Dame Huddle's Letter (1710).
To turn one's back on another. To leave, forsake, or neglect him. To leave one by going away.
“At length we ... turn our backs on the outskirts of civilisation.” — Tristram: Moab, ii. 19.
Behind my back. When I was not present. When my back was turned.
Laid on one's back. Laid up with chronic ill—health; helpless. Figure from persons extremely ill.
Thrown on his back. Completely worsted. A figure taken from wrestlers.
Backbite
(To) To slander behind one's back.
“The only thing in which all parties agreed was to backbite the manager.” — p. 193. W. Irving: Traveller, Buckthorn ,
Backbone
(The) The main stay.
“Sober ...practical men ... constitute the moral backbone of the country.” — W Booth: In Darkest England (Part i. 2, p. 17).
To the backbone. Thoroughly, as true to the backbone.
“A union man, and a nationalist to the backbone.” — T. Roosevelt: T. H. Benton , chap. v. p. 113.
Backgammon
is the Anglo—Saxon bac gamen (back game), so called because the pieces (in certain circumstances) are taken up and obliged to go back to enter at the table again.
Back—hander
A blow on the face with the back of the hand. Also one who takes back the decanter in order to hand himself another glass before the decanter is passed on.
“I'll take a back—hander, as Clive don't seem to drink.” — Thackeray: The Newcomes.
Back—speer
(To) To cross—examine. (Scotch.)
“He has the wit to lay the scene in such a remote ... country that nobody should be able to back—speer him.” — Sir W. Scott: The Betrothed (Introduction).
Back—stair Influence Private or unrecognised influence. It was customary to build royal palaces with a staircase for state visitors, and another for those who sought the sovereign upon private matters. If any one wanted a private interview with royalty, it was highly desirable to conciliate those appointed to guard the back stairs, as they could admit or exclude a visitor.
“Once, we confess, beneath the patriot's cloak,
From the cracked bag the dropping guineas broke, And, jingling down the back stairs, told the crew Old Cato is as great a rogue as you.” Pope: Epistle to Lord Bathurst, 35——8.
Backwardation
(Stockbrokers' term). The sum paid by a speculator on a “bear account” (i.e. a speculation on a fall in the price of certain stock), in order to postpone the completion of the transaction till the next settling day. (See Contango.)
Backward Blessing
(Muttering a). Muttering a curse. To say the Lord's Prayer backwards was to invoke the devil.
Backwater
(1) Water at the lower end of a millrace to check the speed of the wheel. (2) A current of water from the inland, which clears off the deposit of sand and silt left by the action of the sea; as the Backwater of Weymouth.
Bacon
The Bacon of Theology. Bishop Butler, author of the Analogy. (1692——1752.)
Bacon's brazen head. (See Brazen.)
To baste your bacon. To strike or scourge one. The Saxons were called “hogs” by their Norman lords. Henry VIII spoke of the common people as the “swinish multitude”; and Falstaff says to the travellers at Gadshill,
“On, bacons, on!” (1Henry IV, ii. 2). Bacon is the outside portion of the sides of pork, and may be considered generally as the part which would receive a blow.
To save one's bacon. To save oneself from injury.
“But as he rose to save his bacon,
By hat and wig he was forsaken.” Coombe: Dr. Syntax, canto vi. line 240.
There seems to be another sense in which the term is used — viz. to escape loss; and in this sense the allusion is to the care taken by our forefathers to save from the numerous dogs that frequented their houses the bacon which was laid up for winter store, the loss of which would have been a very serious calamity.
A Chaw—bacon. A rustic. Till comparatively modern times the only meat which rustics had to eat was bacon. I myself know several farm labourers who never taste any meat but bacon, except on club and feast days.
He may fetch a flitch of bacon from Dunmow, i.e. he is so amiable and good tempered he will never quarrel with his wife. The allusion is to a custom founded by Juga, a noble lady, in 1111, and restored by Robert de Fitzwalter in 1244; which was, that “any person from any part of England going to Dunmow, in Essex, and humbly kneeling on two stones at the church door, may claim a gammon of bacon, if he can swear that for twelve months and a day he has never had a household brawl or wished himself unmarried.”
Baconian Philosophy
A system of philosophy based on principles laid down by Francis Bacon, Lord Verulam, in the 2nd book of his Novum Organum. It is also called inductive philosophy.
Baconian Theory The theory that Lord Bacon wrote the plays attributed to Shakespeare.
Bactrian Sage
Zoroaster, a native of Bactria (Balkh), about 500 years before the birth of Christ.
Bad
Charles le mauvais.Charles II of Navarre (1332——1387).
He is gone to the bad. Has become a ruined man, or a depraved character. He has gone amongst bad people, in bad ways, or to bad circumstances.
To the bad. On the wrong side of the account; in arrears.
Bad Blood
Vindictiveness, ill—feeling.
“If there is any bad blood in the fellow he will be sure to show it.” — Brother Jonathan.
To make bad blood, to stir up bad blood. To create or renew ill—feeling and a vindictive spirit.
Bad Books
You are in my bad books. Under disgrace. Also In my black books.(See Black Books.)
Bad Debts
Debts not likely to be paid.
Bad Form
not comme il faut. Not in good taste.
Bad Lot
(A). A person of bad moral character, or one commercially unsound. Also a commercial project or stock of worthless value. The allusion is to auctioneering slang, meaning a lot which no one will bid for. So an inefficient soldier is called one of the Queen's bad bargains.
Bad Shot
(A).A wrong guess. A sporting phrase; a bad shot is one which does not bring down the bird shot at, one that misses the mark.
Badaud
A booby. C'est un franc badaud, he is a regular booby. Le badaud de Paris, a French cockney. From the Italian, badare, to gaze in the air, to stare about one.
Badge of Poverty
In former times those who received parish relief had to wear a badge. It was the letter P, with the initial of the parish to which they belonged, in red or blue cloth, on the shoulder of the right sleeve. (See Dyvour.)
Badge—men
Alms—house men; so called because they wear some special dress, or other badge, to indicate that they belong to a particular foundation.
“He quits the gay and rich, the young and free,
Among the badge—men with a badge to be.” Crabbe: Borough.
Badger
(A) A licensed huckster, who was obliged to wear a badge. By 5 Eliz., c. 12, it was enacted that “Badgers were to be licensed annually, under a penalty of #5.”
“Under Dec. 17, 1565, we read of “Certain persons upon Humber side who ... by great quantities of corn two of whom were authorised badgers.”” — State Papers (Domestic Series).
Badger
(To) To tease or annoy by superior numbers. In allusion to the ancient custom of badger—baiting. A badger was kennelled in a tub, where dogs were set upon him to worry him out. When dragged from his tub the poor beast was allowed to retire to it till he recovered from the attack. This process was repeated several times.
Badger. It is a vulgar error that the legs of a badger are shorter on one side than on the other.
“I think that Titus Oates was as uneven as a badger.” — Lord Macaulay.
Drawing a badger is drawing him out of his tub by means of dogs.
Badinage
Playful raillery, banter (French), from the verb badiner, to joke or jest. The noun badine means a switch, and in France they catch wild ducks by covering a boat with switches, in which the ducks seek protection. A person quizzed is like these wild ducks.
Badinguet
A nickname given to Napoleon III. It was the name of the workman whose clothes he wore when he contrived to escape from the fort of Ham, in 1846.
“If Badinguet and Bismarck have a row together let them settle it between them with their fists, instead of troubling hundreds of thousands of men who ... have no wish to fight.” — Zola: The Downfall , chap. ii. (1892).
Badingueux The party of the Emperor Napoleon III. The party of the Empress were called “Montijoyeux” and “Montijocrisses,” from Montijo in Spain. She was the second daughter of the Count of Montijo.
Badminton
is properly a “copus cup,” made of claret spiced and sweetened, a favourite with the Duke of Beaufort of Badminton. As the duke used to be a great patron of the prize ring, Badminton was used as equivalent to claret as the synonym of blood.
Also a game similar to lawn tennis only played with shuttlecocks instead of balls.
Baffle
To erase the cognisance of a recreant knight. To degrade a knight from his rank. To be knocked about by the winds.
“I am disgraced, impeached, and baffled here.” Shakespeare: Richard II, act i. 1.
Bag
Bag and Baggage, as “Get away with you, bag and baggage,” i.e. get away, and carry with you all your belongings. The bag or sack is the pouch in which a soldier packs his few articles when he moves from place to place. Baggage is a contemptuous term for a woman, either because soldiers send their wives in the baggage wagons, or from the Italian bagascia (a harlot), French bagasse, Spanish bagazo, Persian, baga.
Bag and baggage policy. In 1876 Mr. Gladstone, speaking on the Eastern question, said, “Let the Turks now carry away their abuses in the only possible manner, namely, by carrying away themselves. ... One and all, bag and baggage, shall, I hope, clear out from the province they have desolated and profaned.” This was termed by the Conservatives the bag and baggage policy.
A bag of bones. Very emaciated; generally “A mere bag of bones.”
A bag of game. A large battue. From the custom of carrying game home in “bags.”
A bag of tricks or A whole bag of tricks. Numerous expedients. In allusion to the fable of the Fox and the Cat. The fox was commiserating the cat because she had only one shift in the case of danger, while he had a thousand tricks to evade it. Being set upon by a pack of hounds, the fox was soon caught, while puss ran up a tree and was quite secure.
A good bag. A large catch of game, fish, or other animals sought after by sportsmen.
Got the bag. Got his dismissal. (See Sack.)
The bottom of the bag. The last expedient, having emptied every other one out of his bag.
To empty the bag. To tell the whole matter and conceal nothing. (French, vider le sac, to expose all to view.)
To let the cat out of the bag. (See under Cat.)
Bag
(To) To steal, or slip into one's bag, as a poacher or pilferer who slyly slips into his bag what he has contrived to purloin.
Bags
A slang word for trousers, which are the bags of the body. When the pattern was very staring and “loud,” they once were called howling—bags.
Bag—man
(A) A commercial traveller, who carries a bag with specimens to show to those whose custom he solicits. In former times commercial travellers used to ride a horse with saddle—bags sometimes so large as
almost to conceal the rider.
Bag o' Nails
Some hundreds of years ago there stood in the Tyburn Road, Oxford Street, a public—house called The Bacchanals: the sign was Pan and the Satyrs. The jolly god, with his cloven hoof and his horns, was called “The devil;” and the word Bacchanals soon got corrupted into “Bag o' Nails.” The Devil and the Bag o' Nails is a sign not uncommon even now in the midland counties.
Baga de Secretis
Records in the Record Office of trials for high treason and other State offences from the reign of Edward IV. to the close of the reign of George III. These records contain the proceedings in the trials of Anne Boleyn, Sir Walter Raleigh, Guy Fawkes, the regicides, and of the risings of 1715 and 1745. (Baga = Bag.)
Bagatelle
(A). A trifle; a thing of no consideration. “Oh! nothing. A mere bagatelle.” In French, “Il dépense tout son argent en bagatelles” means, he squanders his money on trash. “Il ne s'amuse qu'à des bagatelles,” he finds no pleasure except in frivolities. Bagatelle! as an exclamation, means Nonsense! as “Vous dîtes qu'il me fera un procès. Bagatelle!” (fiddlesticks!)
“He considered his wife a bagatelle, to be shut up at pleasure” [i.e. a toy to be put away at pleasure]. — The Depraved Husband.
Baguette d'Armide
(La) The sorcerer's wand. Armida is a sorceress in Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered. Baguette is a rod or wand.
Bahagnia
Bohemia; Bahaignons, Bohemians. (1330.)
Bahr Geist
(A). A banshee or grey—spectre.
“Know then (said Eveline) it [the Bahr Geist] is a spectre, usually the image of the departed person, who, either for wrong suffered sustained during life, or through treasure hidden, haunts the spot from time to time, becomes familiar to those who dwell there, and takes an interest in their fate.” — Sir W. Scott: The Betrothed, chap. 15.
Bail
(French, bailler). To deliver up.
Common bail or bail below. A bail given to the sheriff, after arresting a person, to guarantee that the defendant will appear in court at any day and time the court demands. Special bail or bail above, consists of persons who undertake to satisfy all claims made on the defendant, and to guarantee his rendering himself up to justice when required.
Bail. (See Leg—bail)
To bail up. To disarm before robbing, to force to throw up the arms. (Australian.)
Bailey
The space enclosed within the external walls of a castle, not including the “Keep.” The entrance was over a drawbridge, and through the embattled gate (Middle—age Latin balium or ballium, a corruption of vallum, a rampart).
When there were two courts to a castle, they were distinguished as the outer and inner bailey (rampart). Subsequently the word included the court and all its buildings; and when the court was abolished, the term was attached to the castle, as the Old Bailey (London) and the Bailey (Oxford).
Bailiff At Constantinople, the person who had charge of the imperial children used to be called the bajulus, from baios, a child. The word was subsequently attached to the Venetian consul at Constantinople, and the Venetian ambassador was called the balio, a word afterwards extended to any superintendent or magistrate. In France the bailli was a superintendent of the royal domains and commander of the troops. In time, any superintendent of even a private estate was so called, whence our farmer's bailiff. The sheriff is the king's bailiff — a title now applied almost exclusively to his deputies or officers. (See Bumbailiff.)
Bailleur
Un bon bâilleur en fait bâiller deux (French). Yawning is catching.
Baillif
(Herry) Mine host in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. When the poet began the second “Fit” of the Rime of Sir Thopas, Herry Baillif interrupts him with unmitigated contempt: —
“"No mor of this, for Goddes dignitie!”
Quod our host, “for thou makest me
So wery ... that
Mine eerës asken for thy nasty speeche.”” Verse 15327.
Bain Marie
A saucepan containing hot water into which a smaller saucepan is plunged, either to keep it hot, or that it may boil without burning. A glue pot is a good example. Mons. Bouillet says, “Ainsi appelé du nom de l'inventeur ” (Balneum Mariæ). But derivations from proper names require authentication.
Bairam
(3 syl.) The name given to two movable Moslem feasts. The first, which begins on the first day of the moon which follows that of Ramadan, and lasts three days, is a kind of Paschal feast. The second, seventy days later, lasts four days, and is not unlike the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles.
As the Mohammedan year is a lunar one, in 33 years these feasts will have occurred at all the four seasons.
Baisser
Il semble qu'il n'y a qu'à se baisser et en prendre (French). One would think he has only to pick and choose. Said of a person who fancies that fortune will fall into his lap, without his stirring. Literally, “to stoop down and pick up what he wants.”
Bait
Food to entice or allure, as bait for fish. Bait for travellers is a “feed” by way of refreshment taken en passant. (Anglo—Saxon, bætan , to bait or feed.)
Bajaderes
Indian dancing girls. A corruption of the Portuguese bailadeira, whence baiadera, bajadere.
Bajulus
A pedagogue. A Grand Bajulus, a “big” pedagogue. In the Greek court, the preceptor of the Emperor was called the Grand Bajulus. Originally “porter.” (Cf. Bailiff.)
Bajura
Mahomet's standard.
Baked
Half—baked. Imbecile, of weak mind. The metaphor from half—baked food.
Baked Meat
means meat—pie “The funeral baked meats did coldly furnish forth the marriage table” (Hamlet);
i.e. the hot meat—pies (venison pasties) served at the funeral and not eaten, were served cold at the marriage banquet.
Baker
(The) Louis XVI was called “the Baker,” the queen was called “the baker's wife” (or La Boulangère), and the dauphin the “shop boy;” because a heavy trade in corn was carried on at Versailles, and consequently very little was brought to Paris.
“The return of the baker, his wife, and the shop—boy to Paris [after the king was brought from Versailles] had not had the expected effect. Flour and bread were still scarce.” — A. Dumas: The Countess de Charny , chap. ix.
Baker's Dozen Thirteen for twelve. When a heavy penalty was inflicted for short weight, bakers used to give a surplus number of loaves, called the inbread, to avoid all risk of incurring the fine. The 13th was the
“vantage loaf.”
Mr. Riley (Liber Albus) tells us that the 13th loaf was “the extent of the profit allowed to retail dealers,” and therefore the vantage loaf means, the loaf allowed for profit.
To give one a baker's dozen , in slang phraseology, is to give him a sound drubbing — i.e. all he deserves and one stroke more.
Baker's Knee
(A) A knop—knee, or knee bent inwards, from carrying the heavy bread—basket on the right arm.
Bakshish
A Persian word for a gratuity. These gifts are insolently demanded by all sorts of officials in Turkey, Egypt, and Asia Minor, more as a claim than a gratuity.
Bal
Donner le bal à quelqu'un (French). To make one dance for it; to abuse one. In several games played with a ball, the person who catches the ball or to whom the ball is given, is put to an immense amount of labour. Thus, in Hurling, the person who holds the ball has one of the labours of Hercules to pass through. His opponent tries to lay hold of him, and the hurler makes his way over hills, dales, hedges, and ditches, through bushes, briars, mire, plashes, and even rivers. Sometimes twenty or thirty persons lie tugging together in the water, scrambling and scratching for the ball. (See Strutt, Sports and Pastimes, section xii.) (See Ball.)
Balaam
The Earl of Huntingdon, one of the rebels in Monmouth's army.
“And, therefore, in the name of dulness, be
The well—hung Balaam.” Dryden: Absalom and Achitophel, 1573——4.
Balaam. A “citizen of sober fame,” who lived hard by the Monument of London; “he was a plain, good man; religious, punctual, and frugal,” his week—day meal being only “one solid dish.” He grew rich; got knighted; seldom went to church; became a courtier; “took a bribe from France;” was hanged for treason, and all his goods were confiscated to the State. (See Diamond Pitt.) It was Thomas Pitt, grandfather of the Earl of Chatham, who suggested to Pope this sketch. (Pope: Moral Essays, Ep. iii.)
Balaam. Matter kept in type for filling up odd spaces in periodicals. These are generally refuse bits — the words of an oaf, who talks like “Balaam's ass.” (Numb. xxii. 30.) (American.)
Balaam Basket
or Box (A) An ass's pannier. In printer's slang of America, it is the place where rejected articles are deposited. (See Balaam.)
Balafré
Le [the gashed ].
Henri, son of François, second Duke of Guise. In the Battle of Dormans he received a sword—cut which left a frightful scar on his face (1550——1588). So Ludovic Lesly, an old archer of the Scottish Guards, is called, in Sir Walter Scott's Quentin Durward.
Balai
Donner trois tours de balai par la cheminée (French). To be a witch. Literally, to run your brush three times up the chimney. According to an ancient superstition, all witches had to pass their brooms on which they rode three times up the chimney between one Sabbath and the following.
Balak in the second part of Absalom and Achitophel, a satire by Dryden and Tate, is meant for Dr. Burnet, author of Burnet's Own Time.
Balâm
the ox, and the fish Nun, are the food of Mahomet's paradise; the mere lobes of the livers of these animals will suffice for 70,000 saints. (Al Koran.)
Balan
Bravest and strongest of the giant race. Vasco de Lobeira, in Amadis of Gaul. Also, Emir of the Saracens, and father of Ferumbras or Fierabras (q.v.).
Balance
(The) “Libra,” the 7th sign of the zodiac, which contains the autumnal equinox. According to fable it is Astræa, who, in the iron age, returned from earth to heaven. Virgil, to praise the equity of Augustus, promises him a future residence in this sign.
According to Persian mythology, at the last day there will be a huge balance big as the vault of heaven. The two scale pans will be called that of light and that of darkness. In the former all good will be placed, in the latter all evil. And each individual will receive an award according to the judgment of the balance.
Balance
He has a good balance at his bankers. His credit side shows a large balance in his favour.
Balance of power. The States of Europe being so balanced that no one nation shall have such a preponderance as to endanger the independence of another.
Balance of trade. The money—value difference between the exports and imports of a nation.
To balance an account. To add up the debit and credit sides, and subtract the less of the two from the greater. The remainder is called the balance.
To strike a balance. To calculate the exact difference, if any, between the debit and credit side of an account.
Balayer
Chacun doit balayer devant sa porte (French), “Let everyone correct his own faults.” The allusion is to a custom, nearly obsolete in large towns, but common still in London and in villages, for each housewife to sweep and keep clean the pavement before her own dwelling.
Balclutha
(The tower of), in Ossian, is Dun—dee, where Dun means a tower. Those circular buildings so common in the Orkney and Shetland Islands, the Hebrides, and all the north of Scotland are duns. Dee is a corruption of Tay, the river on which the city is built; in Latin, Tao—dunum.
Bald
Charles le Chauve. Charles I, son of Louis le Débonnaire. (823, 840——877).
Baldachin
The daïs or canopy under which, in Roman Catholic processions, the Holy Sacrament is carried (Italian, baldacchino, so—called from Baldacco (Italian for Bagdad), where the cloth was made). Also the canopy above an altar.
Baldassare
Chief of the monastery of St. Jacopo di Compostella. (Donizetti's opera La Favorita.)
Balder
the god of peace, second son of Odin and Frigga. He was killed by the blind war—god Höder, at the instigation of Loki, but restored to life at the general request of the gods. (Scandinavian mythology.)
N.B. — Sydney Dobell (born 1824) has a poem entitled Balder, published in 1854.
Balder is the sun or daylight which is killed by the blind—god at the instigation of Loki or darkness, but is restored to life the next day.
Balder's abode was Broadblink (vast splendour).
Balderdash
Ribaldry, jargon. (Danish balder , tattle, clatter.)
Baldwin
The youngest and comeliest of Charlemagne's paladins; and the nephew of Sir Roland.
Baldwin. (in Jerusalem Delivered). The restless and ambitious Duke of Bologna, leader of 1,200 horse in the allied Christian army. He was Godfrey's brother; not so tall, but very like him.
Baldwin, the Ass (in the tale of Reynard the Fox). In the third part of the Beast—epic he is called “Dr. Baldwin.” (Old German, bold friend.)
Bale
When bale is highest, boot is nighest. When things have come to the worst they must needs mend.
Balearica Tormenta
Here tormenta means instruments for throwing stones. Cæsar (Gallic War , iv. 25) says: “Fundis, tormentis, sagittis hostes propellere.” The inhabitants of the Balearic Islands were noted slingers, and indeed owe their name to this skill. (Greek, ballo, to cast or hurl.) Pronounce Bale—e—ari—ca.
Balfour of Burley
Leader of the Covenanters in Scott's Old Mortality, a novel (1816).
Balios
(See Horse .)
Balisarda
or Balisardo. Rogero's sword, made by a sorceress, and capable of cutting through enchanted substances.
“With Balisarda's slightest blow
Nor helm, nor shield, nor cuirass could avail, Nor strongly—tempered plate, nor twisted mail.” Ariosto Orlando Furioso, book xxiii.
Balistraria
Narrow apertures in the form of a cross in the walls of ancient castles, through which cross—bowmen discharged their arrows.
Baliverso
(in Orlando Furioso). The basest knight in the Saracen army.
Balk
means the high ridge between furrows (Anglo—Saxon balca, a beam, a ridge); hence a rising ground.
A balk of timber is a beam running across the ceiling, etc., like a ridge. As the balk is the part not cut by the plough, therefore “to balk” means to leave untouched, or to disappoint.
To make a balk. To miss a part of the field in ploughing. Hence to disappoint, to withhold deceitfully.
To make a balk of good ground To throw away a good chance.
Balker
One who from an eminence balks or directs fishermen where shoals of herrings have gathered together. (Anglo—Saxon, bælc—an to shout.)
Balkis
The Queen of Sheba or Saba, who visited Solomon. (Al Koran, c. ii.)
Ball
To strike the ball under the line. To fail in one's object. The allusion is to the game of tennis, in which a line is stretched in the middle of the court, and the players standing on each side have, with their rackets, to knock it alternately over the line.
“Thou hast stricken the ball under the line.” — John Heywoode's Works (London, 1566).
To take the ball before the bound. To anticipate an opportunity; to be overhasty. A metaphor from cricket, as when a batsman runs up to meet the ball at full pitch, before it bounds. (See Balle.)
Ball of Fortune (A). One tossed, like a ball, from pillar to post; one who has experienced many vicissitudes of fortune.
“Brown had been from infancy a ball for fortune to spurn at.” — Sir Walter Scott: Guy Mannering , chap. xxi.
The ball is with you. It is your turn now.
To have the ball at your feet. To have a thing in one's power. A metaphor from foot—ball.
“We have the ball at our feet; and, if the government will allow it ... we can now crush out the rebellion.” — Lord Auckland.
To keep the ball a—rolling. To continue without intermission. To keep the fun alive; to keep the matter going. A metaphor from the game of bandy, or la jeu de la cross.
“It is Russia that keeps the ball rolling [the Servian and Bulgarian War, 1885, fomented and encouraged by Russian agents].” — Newspaper paragraph, 1885.
To keep the ball up. Not to let conversation or fun flag; to keep the thing going. A metaphor taken from several games played with balls.
“I put in a word now and then to keep the ball up.” — Bentham.
To open the ball. To lead off the first dance at a ball. (Italian, ballaro, to dance.)
Balls
The three golden balls. The emblem of St. Nicholas, who is said to have given three purses of gold to three virgin sisters to enable them to marry.
As the cognisance of the Medici family they probably represent three golden pills — a punning device on the name. Be this, however, as it may, it is from the Lombard family (the first great moneylenders in England) that the sign has been appropriated by pawnbrokers. (See Mugello for another account.)
Ballad
means, strictly, a song to dance—music, or a song sung while dancing. (Italian, ballare, to dance, ballata, our ballad, ballet [q.v.]).
Ballads “Let me make the ballads, and who will may make the laws.” Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun, in Scotland, wrote to the Marquis of Montrose, “I knew a very wise man of Sir Christopher Musgrave's sentiment. He believed, if a man were permitted to make all the ballads, he need not care who should make the laws” (1703).
Ballambangjan
(The Straits of). A sailor's joke for a place where he may lay any wonderful adventure. These straits, he will tell us, are so narrow that a ship cannot pass through without jamming the tails of the monkeys which haunt the trees on each side of the strait; or any other rigmarole which his fancy may conjure up at the moment.
Ballast
A man of no ballast. Not steady not to be depended on. Unsteady as a ship without ballast. A similar phrase is, “The man wants ballast.”
Balle
Prendre la balle au bond (French). Strike while the iron is hot; make hay while the sun shines. The allusion is to certain games at ball, which must be struck at the moment of the rebound.
Renvoyer la balle à quelqu'un (French) To pay one off in his own coin. Literally, to strike back the ball to the sender.
Ballendino
(Don Antonio). Intended for Anthony Munday, the dramatist. (Ben Jonson, The Case Altered, a comedy.)
Ballet
(pronounce bal—lay). A theatrical representation of some adventure or intrigue by pantomime and dancing. Baltazarini, director of music to Catherine de' Medici, was the inventor of modern ballets.
Balliol College
Oxford, founded in 1263, by John de Baliol, Knight (father of Baliol, King of Scotland).
Balloon
(A pilot) Metaphorically, a feeler, sent to ascertain public opinion.
“The pilot balloon sent from ... has shown [the sender] the direction of the wind, and he now trims his sails accordingly.” — Newspaper paragraph, January, 1886.
Balloon Post
During the siege of Paris, in 1871, fifty—four balloon posts were dispatched, carrying two—and—a—half million letters, weighing ten tons.
Balm
(French, baume) Contraction of balsam (q.v.). The Balm of Gilead = the balsam of Gilead.
Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no remedy, no consolation, not even in religion?
Balmawhapple
A stupid, obstinate Scottish laird in Scott's Waverley, a novel (1805).
Balmérino
(Lord) was beheaded, but the executioner at the first stroke cut only half through the neck, and (we are told) his lordship turned round and grinned at the bungler.
Balmung
or Gram The sword of Siegfried, forged by Wieland, the Vulcan of the Scandinavians. Wieland, in a trial of merit, clove Amilias, a brother smith, through steel helmet and armour, down to the waist; but the cut was so fine that Amilias was not even aware that he was wounded till he attempted to move, when he fell into two pieces. (Scandinavian mythology.)
Balmy
“I am going to the balmy ” — i.e. to “Balmy sleep;” one of Dick Swiveller's pet phrases. (Dickens: Old Curiosity Shop.)
Balmy—stick (To put on the). In prison slang means to feign insanity; and the “Balmy Ward” is the prison ward in which the insane, real or feigned, are confined.
Balnibarbi
A land occupied by projectors. (Swift: Gulliver's Travels.)
Balthazar
One of the kings of Cologne — i.e. the three Magi, who came from the East to pay reverence to the infant Jesus. The two other magi were Melchior and Casper.
Baltic
The Mediterranean of the north (Swedish, balt; Danish, balte; Latin, balteus; English, belt), the sea of the “Belts.”
Balwhidder
(The Rev. Micah). A Scotch Presbyterian minister, full of fossilised national prejudices, but both kind—hearted and sincere. (Galt: Annals of the Parish, a novel (1821).)
Bambino
A picture or image of the infant Jesus, swaddled (Italian, bambino, a little boy). The most celebrated is that in the church of Sts. Maria, in the Ara Cœli of Rome.
Bambocciades
(4 syl.). Pictures of grotesque scenes in low life, such as country wakes, penny weddings, and so on. They are so called from the Italian word bamboccio (a cripple), a nickname given to Pieter van Laer, the first Dutch painter of such scenes, distinguished in Rome.
Bamboccio
or Bamboche (See Michael Angelo des Bamboches.)
Bamboozle
To cheat by cunning, or daze with tricks.
“The third refinement observable in the letter I send you, consists of the choice of certain words invented by some pretty fellows, such as banter, bamboozle ... and kidney ... some of which are now struggling for the vogue, and others are in possession of it.” — Swift: The Tatler (Sept. 28, 1710).
To bamboozle into (doing something). To induce by trickery.
To bamboozle one out of something. To get something by trickery.
Bampton Lectures
Founded by the Rev. John Bampton, canon of Salisbury. He left an estate to the university of Oxford, to pay for eight divinity lectures on given subjects, to be preached at Great St. Mary's, and printed afterwards.
Ban
A proclamation of outlawry; a denunciation by the church (Anglo—saxon, ge—ban, a proclamation; verb, ge—bannan ).
Marriage bans. (See Banns.)
To ban is to make a proclamation of outlawry. To banish is to proclaim a man an exile. (See Bandit.)
Lever le ban et l'arrière ban (French). To levy the ban was to call the king's vassals to active service; to levy the arrière ban was to levy the vassals of a suzerian or under—lord.
“Le mot ban, qui signifie bannière, se disait de l'appel fait par le seigneur à ses vassaux pour les convoquer sous son étendard. On distinguait le ban composé des vassaux immédiats, qui etaient convoqués par le roi luimême, et l'arrière ban , composé des vassaux convoqués par leurs suzerains.” — Bouillet: Dictionnaire d'Histoire, etc.
Banagher
(See under Beats .)
Banat A territory under a ban (lord), from the Illyrican word bojan, a lord. The Turks gave this title to the lords of frontier provinces — e.g. the Banat of Croatia, which now forms part of the kingdom of Hungary.
Banbury
A Banbury—man — i.e. a Puritan (Ben Jonson); a bigot. From the reign of Elizabeth to that of Charles II. Banbury was noted for its number of Puritans and its religious “zeal.”
As thin as Banbury cheese. In Jack Drum's Entertainment we read, “You are like a Banbury cheese, nothing but paring;” and Bardolph compares Slender to Banbury cheese (Merry Wives, i, 1). The Banbury cheese is a rich milk cheese about an inch in thickness.
Banco
Sittings in Banco. Sittings of the Superior Court of Common Law in its own bench or court, and not in circuit, as a judge of Nisi Prius (q.v.). (Banc is Italian for “bench” or “seat of justice.”)
So much banco — i.e. so much bank money, as distinguished from current coin. At Hamburg, etc., currency is inferior to “bank money.” (Not money in the bank, but the fictitious value set on cash by bankers.)
Bancus Regius
The king's or queen's bench. Bancus Communis, the bench of common pleas.
Bandana
or Bandanna A pocket—handkerchief. It is an Indian word, properly applied to silk goods, but now restricted to cotton handkerchiefs having a dark ground of Turkey red or blue, with little white or yellow spots. (Hindû, bandhnu, a mode of dyeing.)
Bandbox
He comes out of a bandbox — i.e. he is so neat and precise, so carefully got up in his dress and person, that he looks like some company dress, carefully kept in a bandbox.
Neat as a bandbox. Neat as clothes folded and put by in a bandbox.
Bandbox Plot
(The) Rapin (History of England, iv. 297) tells us that a bandbox was sent to the
lord—treasurer, in Queen Anne's reign, with three pistols charged and cocked, the triggers being tied to a
pack—thread fastened to the lid. When the lid was lifted, the pistols would go off, and shoot the person who opened the lid. He adds that [dean] Swift happened to be by at the time, and seeing the pack—thread, cut it, thereby saving the life of the lord—treasurer.
“Two ink—horn tops your Whigs did fill
With gunpowder and lead;
Which with two serpents made of quill,
You in a bandbox laid;
A tinder—box there was beside,
Which had a trigger to it,
To which the very string was ty'd
That was designed to do it.” Plot upon Plot (about 1713).
Bande Noire
Properly, a black band; metaphorically, the Vandal Society. Those capitalists that bought up the Church property confiscated in the great French revolution were so called, because they recklessly pulled down ancient buildings and destroyed relics of great antiquity.
Bandit
plural banditti or bandits , properly means outlaw (Italian, bandito, banished, men pronounced “banned"). As these outlaws very often became robbers, the term soon came to signify banded highwaymen.
Bands
Clerical bands are a relic of the ancient amice, a square linen tippet tied about the neck of priests during the administration of mass (Discontinued by the parochial clergy the latter part of the 19th century, but
still used by clerics on the Continent.)
Legal bands are a relic of the wide collars which formed a part of the ordinary dress in the reign of Henry VIII, and which were especially conspicuous in the reign of the Stuarts. In the showy days of Charles II the plain bands were changed for lace ends.
“The eighth Henry, as I understand,
Was the first prince
that ever wore a band.” John Taylor, the Water Poet (1580——1654).
Bandy
I am not going to bandy words with you — i.e. to dispute about words. The reference is to a game called Bandy. The players have each a stick with a crook at the end to strike a wooden or other hard ball. The ball is bandied from side to side, each party trying to beat it home to the opposite goal. (Anglo—Saxon, bendan, to bend.)
“The bat was called a bandy from its being bent.” — Brand: Popular Antiquities (article “Golf,” p. 538).
Bane
really means ruin, death, or destruction (Anglo—Saxon, bana, a murderer); and “I will be his bane,” means I will ruin or murder him. Bane is, therefore, a mortal injury.
“My bane and antidote are both before it.
This [sword] in a moment brings me to an end. But this [Plato] assures me I shall never die.” Addison: Cuto.
Bangorian Controversy
A theological paper—war stirred up by a sermon preached March 31st, 1717, before George I, by Dr. Hoadly, Bishop of Bangor, on the text, “My kingdom is not of this world.” The best reply is by Law, in a series of Letters to Hoadly.
Bang—up
or Slap—bang. First—rate, thumping, as a “thumping legacy.” It is a slang punning synonym of thumping or striking. Slap—bang is double bang, or doubly striking.
Banian
or Banyan (A). A loose coat (Anglo—Indian).
“His coat was brownish black perhaps of yore,
In summer time a banyan loose he wore.” Lowell: Fitz Adam's Story (stanza 15).
Banian Days
[Ban—yan ]. Days when no meat is served to a ship's crew. The term is derived from the Banians, a class of Hindu merchants, who carried on a most extensive trade with the interior of Asia, but being a caste of the Vaisya, abstained from the use of meat. (Sanskrit, banij, a merchant.)
Bank
A money—changer's bench or table. (Italian banco or banca.)
Bank of a River
Stand with your back to the source, and face to the sea or outlet: the left bank is on your left, and right bank on your right hand.
Sisters of the Bank, i.e . of the bankside, “the brothel quarter” of London. Now removed to a different quarter, and divided into “North” and “South.”
“On this side of the Banke was sometimes the bordello or stewes.” — Stow: Survey.
Bankrupt Money—lenders in Italy used to display the money they had to lend out on a banco or bench. When one of these money—lenders was unable to continue business, his bench or counter was broken up, and he himself was spoken of as a bancorotto — i.e. a bankrupt.
Bankside
Part of the borough of Southwark, noted in the time of Shakespeare for its theatres and retreats of the demi — monde, called “Sisters of the Bank.”
“Come, I will send for a whole coach or two of Bankside ladies, and we will be jovial.” — Randolph: The Muses' Looking Glass.
Banks's Horse
A learned horse, called Marocco, belonging to one Banks, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. It is said that his shoes were of silver. One of his exploits was “the ascent of St. Paul's steeple.”
Bannatyne Club
A literary club which takes its name from George Bannatyne, to whose industry we owe the preservation of very much of the early Scotch poetry. It was instituted in 1823 by Sir Walter Scott, and had for its object the publication of rare works illustrative of Scotch history, poetry, and general literature. The club was dissolved in 1859.
Banner
means a piece of cloth. (Anglor—Saxon, fana; Latin, pannus; Welsh, baner; Italian, bandiera; French, bannière.)
“An emperor's banner should be sixe foote longe, and the same in breath; a king's banner five foote; a prince's and a duke's banner, four foote; a marquy's, an erle's, a viscount's, a baron's, and a banneret's banner shall be but three foote square.” — Park.
The banner of the Prophet is called Sanjek—sherif, and is kept in the Eyab mosque of Constantinople.
The two black banners borne before the Califs of the house of Abbas were called Night and Shadow.
The sacred banner of France is the Oriflamme (q.v.).
Banners in churches. These are suspended as thank—offerings to God. Those in St. George's Chapel, Windsor, Henry VII's Chapel, Westminster, etc., are to indicate that the knight whose banner is hung up, avows himself devoted to God's service.
Banneret
One who leads his vassals to battle under his own banner. A knight made in the field was called a banneret, because the chief ceremony was cutting or tearing off the pointed ends of his banner.
Bannière
Cent ans bannière, cent ans civière. The ups and downs of life. A grand seigneur who has had his banner carried before him for a century, may come to drive his hand—barrow through the streets as a costermonger.
Bannière
Il faut la croix et la bannière pour l'avoir. If you want to have him, you must make a great fuss over him — you must go to meet him with cross and banner, “aller au devant de lui avec un croix et la bannière.”
Banns of Marriage The publication in the parish church for three successive Sundays of an intended marriage. It is made after the Second Lesson of the Morning Service. To announce the intention is called “Publishing the banns,” from the words “I publish the banns of marriage between ... ” (Anglo—Saxon, ge—bannan, to proclaim, to announce).
To forbid the banns. To object to the proposed marriage.
“And a better fate did poor Maria deserve than to have a banns forbidden by the curate of the parish who published them.” — Sterne: Sentimental Journey.
Banquet
used at one time to mean the dessert. Thus, Taylor, in the Pennyless Pilgrim, says: “Our first and second course being threescore dishes at one boord, and after that, always a banquet.” (French, banquet; banc, a bench or table. We use “table” also for a meal or feast, as “the funeral baked meats did coldly furnish forth the marriage table,” i.e. feast.)
“After supper ... a delicate banquet, with abundance of wine.” — Cogan (1583).
A banquet of brine. A flood of tears.
“My heart was charged to overflowing, and forced into my eyes a banquet of brine.” — O. Thomson: Autobiography, p. 263.
Banquo
A Scotch general of royal extraction, who obtained several victories over the Highlanders and Danes in the reign of Donald VII. He was murdered by the order of Macbeth, and his ghost haunted the guilty usurper. (Shakespeare: Macbeth.)
Banshee
The supposed domestic spirit of certain Irish or Highland Scottish families, supposed to take an interest in its welfare, and to wail at the death of one of the family. The Welsh “Cyhydraeth.” is a sort of Banshee.
The distinction of a Banshee is allowed only to families of pure Milesian stock. (Gaelic, ban—sith, a womanfairy.)
Bantam
A little bantam cock. A little plucky fellow that will not be bullied by a person bigger than himself. The bantam cock will encounter a dunghill cock five times his own weight, and is therefore said to “have a great soul in a little body.” The bantam originally came from Bantam, in Java.
Banting
Doing Banting. Reducing superfluous fat by living on meat diet, and abstaining from beer, farinaceous food, and vegetables, according to the method adopted by William Banting, a London cabinet—maker, once a very fat man (born 1796, died 1878). The word was introduced about 1864.
Bantling
A child. Mahn suggests the German, bänkling, a bastard. (Query, bandling, a little one in swaddling—clothes.)
Banyan
A Hindû shopkeeper. In Bengal it denotes a native who manages the money concerns of a European, and also serves as an interpreter. In Madras such an agent is called Dubash (i.e. one who can speak two languages). (See Banian Days.)
Bap
or Baphomet. An imaginary idol or symbol, which the Templars were said to employ in their mysterious rites. The word is a corruption of Mahomet. (French, Baphomet; Old Spanish, Matomat.)
Baptes
(2 syl.). Priests of the goddess Cotytto, whose midnight orgies were so obscene that they disgusted even Cotytto, the goddess of obscenity. They received their name from the Greek verb bapto, to wash, because they bathed themselves in the most effeminate manner. (Juvenal, ii. 91.)
Baptist
John the Baptist. His symbol is a sword, the instrument by which he was beheaded.
Bar
The whole body of barristers; as bench means the whole body of bishops.
“A dinner was given to the English Bar.” — The Times.
Bar
excepting. In racing phrase a man will bet “Two to one, bar one,” that is, two to one against any horse in the field with one exception. The word means “barring out” one, shutting out, or debarring one.
Bar
At the bar. As the prisoner at the bar, the prisoner in the dock before the judge.
Trial at bar, i.e. by the full court of judges. The bar means the place set apart for the business of the court.
To be called to the bar. To be admitted a barrister. The bar is the partition separating the seats of the benchers from the rest of the hall. Students having attained a certain status used to be called from the body of the hall within the bar, to take part in the proceedings of the court. To disbar is to discard from the bar. Now, “to be called within the bar" means to be appointed king's (or queen's) counsel; and to disbar means to expel a barrister from his profession.
Bar
in heraldry. An honourable ordinary, consisting of two parallel lines drawn across the shield and containing a fifth part of the field.
“A barre ... is drawne overthwart the escochon ... it containeth the fifth part of the Field.” — Gwillim: Heraldry.
A Bar sinister in an heraldic shield means one drawn the reverse way; that is, not from left to right, but from right to left. Popularly but erroneously supposed to indicate bastardy.
Bar
(Trial at) The examination of a difficult cause before the four judges in the superior courts.
Barabas
The hero of Marlow's tragedy, The Jew of Malta.
“A mere monster, brought in with a large painted nose ... He kills in sports, poisons whole nunneries, invents infernal machines. ... “ — C. Lamb.
Barataria
Sancho Panza's island—city, over which he was appointed governor. The table was presided over by Doctor Pedro Rezio de Aguero, who caused every dish set upon the board to be removed without being tasted — some because they heated the blood, and others because they chilled it; some for one ill effect, and some for another; so that Sancho was allowed to eat nothing. The word is from barato (cheap).
“The meat was put on the table, and whisked away, like Sancho's inauguration feast at Barataria.” — Thackeray.
Barathron
A deep ditch behind the Acropolis of Athens into which malefactors were thrown: somewhat in the same way as criminals at Rome were cast from the “Tarpeian Rock.”
Barb
An arrow. The feathers under the beak of a hawk were called barb feathers (beard feathers). The point of an arrow has two iron “feathers,” which stick out so as to hinder the extraction of the arrow. (Latin, barba, a beard.)
N.B. — The barb is not the feather on the upper part of the shaft, but the hooked iron point or head.
Barb
A Barbary steed, noted for docility, speed, endurance, and spirit. (See Barbed Steeds.)
Barbari
Quod non fecerunt Barbari, fecerunt Barberini (What the barbarians left standing, Barberini contrived to destroy). Pope Barberini robbed the roof of the Pantheon to build the Baldacchino, or canopy of St. Peter's. It is made entirely of bronze, and weighs ninety tons.
Barbarians
is certainly not derived from the Latin barba (a beard), as many suppose, because it is a Greek word, and has many analogous ones. The Greeks and Romans called all foreigners barbarians (babblers; men who spoke a language not understood by them); the Jews called them Gentiles (other nations); the Russians Ostiaks (foreigners). The reproachful meaning crept in from the natural egotism of man. It is not very long ago that an Englishman looked with disdainful pity on a foreigner, and the French still retain much of the same national exclusiveness. (See Wunderberg.)
“If then I know not the meaning of the voice [words ], I shall be to him that speaketh a barbarian [a foreigner ], and he that speaketh will be a barbarian unto me.” — l Cor. xiv. ll.
Barbarossa
[Red—beard, similar to Rufus ]. The surname of Frederick I of Germany (1121——1190). Also Khaireddin Barbarossa, a famous corsair of the sixteenth century.
Barbary
St. Barbary, the patron saint of arsenals and powder magazines. Her father delivered her up to Martian, governor of Nicomedia, for being a Christian. After she had been subjected to the most cruel tortures, her unnatural father was about to strike off her head, when a lightning flash laid him dead at her feet. Hence, those who invoke saints select St. Barbary in thunderstorms. (See Barbe.)
Roan Barbary. The favourite horse of Richard II (See Horse.)
ldquo;O, how it yearned my heart when I beheld
In London streets that coronation day.
When Bolingbroke rode on roan Barbary!
That horse that thou [Rich. II.] so often hast bestrid, That horse that I so carefully have dressed.” Shakespeare: Richard II, v. 5.
Barbason
A fiend mentioned by Shakespeare in the Merry Wives of Windsor, ii. 2, and in Henry V, ii. 1.
“Amaimon sounds well, Lucifer well, Barbason well; yet they are ... the names of fiends.” — Merry Wives.
Barbazure
(or Blue—Beard). See “Punch's prize Novelists,” by Thackeray.
Barbe
(Ste.) The powder—room in a French ship; so called from St. Barbara, the patron saint of artillery. (See Barbary.)
A barbe de fou apprend—on à raire (French). An apprentice is taught to shave on the chin of a fool.
Tel a fait sa barbe, qui n'est pas beau fils (French). You may waste half the day on making your toilet, and yet not come forth an Adonis. You cannot make a silk purse of a sow's ear. Not every block will make a Mercury.
“Heap lying curls a million on your head;
On socks, a cubit high, plant your proud tread, You're just what you are — that's all about it.” Goethe: Faust (Dr. Anster), p. 163.
Barbecue
(3 syl.) A West Indian dish, consisting of a hog roasted whole, stuffed with spice, and basted with Madeira wine. Any animal roasted whole is so called.
“Oldfield with more than harpy throat subdued,
Cries, “Send me, ye gods, a whole hog barbecued!””Pope: Satires, ii. 25, 26.
Barbed Steed
(a corruption of barded). A horse in armour. (French, bardé, caparisoned.)
“And now, instead of mounting barbëd steeds
To fright the souls of fearful adversaries,
He capers nimbly in a lady's chamber,
To the lascivious pleasing of a lute.” Shakespeare: Richard III, act i. 1.;
Barbel
Latin, barbellus (the barbed fish); so called from the barbules, or fleshy appendages round the mouth.
Barbeliots
A sect of Gnostics. Their first immortal son they called Barbeloth, omniscient, eternal, and incorruptible. He engendered light by the instrumentality of Christ, author of Wisdom. From Wisdom sprang Autogenês, and from Autogenês, Adam (male and female), and from Adam, matter. The first angel created was the Holy Ghost, from whom sprang the first prince, named Protarchontês, who married Arrogance, whose offspring was Sin.
Barber Every barber knows that
“Omnibus notum tonsoribus.” Horace: 1 Satires, VII. 3.
In Rome the tonstrinæ or barbers' shops were the fashionable resort of loungers and idlers. Here every scandal was known, and all the talk of the town was repeated.
Barber Poet
Jacques Jasmin, last of the Troubadours, who was a barber of Gascony. (1798——1864.)
Barber's Pole
The gilt knob at the end represents a brass basin, which is sometimes actually suspended on the pole. The basin has a notch cut in it to fit the throat, and was used for lathering customers who came to be shaved. The pole represents the staff held by persons in venesection; and the two spiral ribbons painted round it represent the two bandages, one for twisting round the arm previous to blood—letting, and the other for binding. Barbers used to be the surgeons, but have fallen from “their high estate” since science has made its voice “to be heard on high.”
N.B. — The Barbers' Hall stood in Monkwell Street, Cripplegate. The last barber—surgeon in London was Middleditch, of Great Suffolk Street, in the Borough. He died 1821.
“To this year” (1541), says Wornum ... “belongs the Barber—Surgeons' picture of Henry (VIII) granting a charter to the Corporation. The barbers and surgeons of London, originally constituting one company, had been separated, but were again, in the 32 Henry VIII, combined into a single society and it was the ceremony of presenting them with a new charter which is commemorated by Holbein's picture, now in their hall in Monkwell Street.”
Barbican
(The) or Barbacan The outwork intended to defend the drawbridge in a fortified town or castle (French, barbacane ). Also an opening or loophole in the wall of a fortress, through which guns may be fired.
Barbier
Un barbier rase l'autre (French). Caw me and I'll caw thee. One good turn deserves another. One barber shaves another.
Barcarole
(3 syl.) A song sung by Venetian barcaroli, as they row their gondolas. (Italian, barcarolo, a boatman.)
Barcelona
A). A fichu, piece of velvet for the neck, or small neck—tie, made at Barcelona, and common in England in the first quarter of the nineteenth century. Also a neckcloth of some bright colour, as red with yellow spots.
“And on this handkerchief so starch and white
She pinned a Barcelona black and tight.” Peter Pindar: Portfolio (Dinah).
“A double Barcelona protected his neck.” — Scott: Peveril of the Peak (Prefatory Letter.)
Barclayans
(See Bereans .)
Barcochebah
or Barchochebas (Shimeon). A fanatical leader of the Jews who headed a revolt of the Jews against the Romans A.D. 132, took Jerusalem in 132, and was slain by Julius Severus in an assault of Bethel,
A.D. 135. (Didot: Nouvelle Biographie Universelle.)
“Shared the fall of the Antichrist Barcochebah.” — Professor Seeley: Ecce Homo.
Bardesanists Followers of Bardesanes, of Edessa, founder of a Gnostic sect in the second century. They believed that the human body was ethereal till it became imbruted with sin. Milton, in his Comus, refers to this: —
“When Lust
By unchaste looks, loose gestures, and foul talk,
But most by lewd and lavish acts of sin,
Lets in defilement to the inward parts,
The soul grows clotted
by contagion,
Imbodies and imbrutes.”
Bardit
The ancient German chant, which incited to war.
Bardo de Bardi
A wealthy Florentine scholar, father of Romola, in George Eliot's Romola, a novel (1863).
Bardolph
One of Falstaff's inferior officers. Falstaff calls him “the knight of the burning lamp,” because his nose was so red, and his face so “full of meteors.” He is a low—bred, drunken swaggerer, without principle, and poor as a church mouse. (Merry Wives; Henry IV , i., ii.)
“We must have better assurance for Sir John than Bardolf's. We like not the security.” — Lord Macaulay.
Bards
The oldest bardic compositions that have been preserved are of the fifth century; the oldest existing manuscript is the Psalter of Cashel, a collection of bardic legends, compiled in the ninth century by Cormac Mac Culinan, bishop of Cashel and king of Munster.
Bard of Avon. Shakespeare, who was born and buried at Stratford—upon—Avon. Also called “The bard of all times.” (1564——1616.)
Bard of Ayrshire. Robert Burns, a native of Ayrshire. (1759——1796.)
Bard of Hope. Thomas Campbell, author of The Pleasures of Hope. (1777——1844.)
Bard of the Imagination. Mark Akenside, author of Pleasures of the Imagination. (1721——1770.)
Bard of Memory. Rogers, author of The Pleasures of Memory. (1762——1855.)
Bard of Olney. Cowper, who resided at Olney, in Bucks, for many years. (1731——1800.)
The Bard of Prose .
“He of the hundred tales of love.” Childe Harold, iv. 56.
i.e . Boccaccio.
The Bard of Rydal Mount. William Wordsworth; so called because Rydal Mount was his mountain home. Also called the “Poet of the Excursion,” from his principal poem. (1770——1850.)
Bard of Twickenham. Alexander Pope, who resided at Twickenham. (1688——1744.)
Barebone Parliament (The). The Parliament convened by Cromwell in 1653; so called from Praise—God Barebone, a fanatical leader, who was a prominent member.
Barefaced
Audacious, shameless, impudent. This seems to imply that social and good manners require concealment, or, at any rate, to veil the face with “white lies.” In Latin — retecta facie; in French — à visage découvert. Cassius says to his friend Brutus, “If I have veiled my looks ...,” that is, concealed my thoughts from you.
Barefooted
Certain monks and nuns, who use sandals instead of shoes. The Jews and Romans used to put off their shoes in mourning and public calamities, by way of humiliation. The practice is defended by the command of our Lord to His disciples: “Carry neither purse, nor scrip, nor shoes” (Luke x. 4).
Bare Poles
(Under) implies that the weather is rough and the wind so high that the ship displays no sails on the masts. Figuratively applied to a man reduced to the last extremity. Figuratively, a disingenuous person sails under bare poles.
“We were scudding before a heavy gale, under bare poles.” — Cupt. Marryat.
Bargain
Into the bargain. In addition thereto; besides what was bargained for.
To make the best of a bad bargain. To bear bad luck, or a bad bargain, with equanimity.
Bark
Dogs in their wild state never bark; they howl, whine, and growl, but do not bark. Barking is an acquired habit; and as only domesticated dogs bark, this effort of a dog to speak is no indication of a savage temper.
Barking dogs seldom bite. Huffing, bouncing, hectoring fellows rarely possess cool courage.
French: “Tout chien qui aboye ne mord pas.”
Latin: “Canes timidi vehementius latrant quam mordent.”
Italian: “Can che abbaia non morde.”
German: “Ein hellender hund beisst nicht leicht.”
To bark at the moon. To rail at those in high places, as a dog thinks to frighten the moon by baying at it. There is a superstition that it portends death or ill—luck.
“I'd rather be a dog, and bay the moon,
Than such a Roman.” Shakespeare: Julius Cæsar, iv. 3
His bark is worse than his bite. He scolds and abuses roundly, but does not bear malice, or do mischief. The proverb says, “Barking dogs never bite.”
Barker
A pistol, which barks or makes a loud report.
Barktan
The famous black stone in the eastern corner of the Kaaba; it is 4.5 feet in length, and is surrounded with a circle of gold. The legend is that when Abraham wished to build the Kaaba, the stones came to him of their own accord, and the patriarch commanded all the faithful to kiss the Barktan.
Barlaham
A hermit who converted Josaphat, an Indian prince. This German romance, entitled Barlaham and Josaphat , was immensely popular in the Middle Ages. It was written by Rudolf of Ems (13th century).
Barley
To cry barley. To ask for truce (in children's games). Query, a corruption of parley.
“A proper lad o' his quarters, that will not cry barley in a brulzïe.” — Sir W. Scott: Waverley ,
xiii.
Barley—bree
Barley—broth; that is, malt liquor brewed from barley (Scotch).
“The cock may craw, the day may daw,
And aye we'll taste the barley—bree.” Burns: Willie Brew'd a Peck o' Maut.
Barley Cap
To wear the barley cap. To be top—heavy or tipsy with barley—bree. The liquor got into the head.
Barleycorn
John or Sir John Barleycorn. A personification of malt liquor. The term has been made popular by Robert Burns.
“Inspiring bold John Barleycorn,
What dangers thou canst make us scorn!” Burns: Tam o' Shanter, 105, 106.
Barley—mow
A heap of barley housed, or where it is housed. (Anglo—Saxon, mowe, a heap; Italian, mucchio; Spanish, mucho.)
Barley Sugar
Sugar boiled in a decoction of barley. It is not now made so, but with saffron, sugar, and water, flavoured with oil of citron, orange, or lemon.
“Barley sugar was prepared by boiling down ordinary sugar in a decoction of pearl—barley.” — Knowledge (July 6th, 1883).
Barmecide
(3 syl.) The word is used to express the uncertainty of things on which we set our heart. As the beggar looked forward to a feast, but found only empty dishes; so many a joy is found to be mere illusion when we come to partake of it.
“To—morrow! the mysterious unknown guest
Who cries aloud, “Remember Barmecide!
And tremble to be happy with the rest.”” Longfellow.
Barmecide's Feast
A feast where there is nothing to eat; any illusion. Barmecide asked Schacabac, a poor, starving wretch, to dinner, and set before him an empty plate. “How do you like your soup?” asked the merchant. “Excellently well,” replied Schacabac. “Did you ever see whiter bread?” “Never, honourable sir,” was the civil answer. Wine was then brought in, and Schacabac was pressed to drink, but excused himself by saying he was always quarrelsome in his cups. Being over—persuaded, he fell foul of his host, and was provided with food to his heart's content. (Arabian Nights: Barber's Sixth Brother.)
Barnabas
St. Barnabas' Day, June 11. St. Barnabas was a fellow—labourer of St. Paul. His symbol is a rake, because the 11th of June is the time of hay—harvest.
Barnabites
(3 syl.) An Order of monks, so called because the church of St. Barnabas, in Milan, was given to them to preach in. They are also called “Canons of St. Paul,” because the original society made a point of reading St. Paul's Epistles.
Barnaby Lecturers
Four lecturers in the University of Cambridge, elected annually on St. Barnabas' Day (June 11), to lecture on mathematics, philosophy, rhetoric, and logic.
Barnaby Rudge
A half—witted lad whose companion is a raven. (Dickens: Barnaby Rudge.)
Barnacle
The Solan goose. The strange tales of this creature have arisen from a tissue of blunders. The Latin pernacula is a “small limpet,” and bernacula (Portuguese, bernaca; French, barnache) is the Scotch
bren—clake or “Solan goose.” Both words being corrupted into “barnacle,” it was natural to look for an identity of nature in the two creatures, so it was given out that the goose was the offspring of the limpet. Gerard, in 1636, speaks of “broken pieces of old ships on which is found certain spume or froth, which in time breedeth into shells, and the fish which is hatched therefrom is in shape and habit like a bird.”
Barnacles
Placemen who stick to their offices but do little work, like the barnacles which live on the ship but impede its progress.
“The redundants would be “Barnacles” with a vengeance ... and the work be all the worse done for these hangers—on.” — Nineteenth Century (August, 1888, p. 280).
Barnacles
Spectacles, or rather reading—glasses; so called because in shape they resemble the twitchers used by farriers to keep under restraint unruly horses during the process of bleeding, dressing, or shoeing. This instrument, formerly called a barnacle, consisting of two branches joined at one end by a hinge, was fixed on the horse's nose. Dr. Latham considers the word a corruption of binocles (double—eyes), Latin, binus oculus. Another suggestion is “binnacle,” the case on board ship in which the steering compass is placed, illuminated when it is dark by a lamp.
Barnardine
A reckless, dissolute fellow, “fearless of what's past, present, and to come.” (Shakespeare: Measure for Measure.)
Barn—burners
Destructives, who, like the Dutchman of story, would burn down their barns to rid themselves of the rats.
Barnet
An epicure who falls in love with, and marries, a lady on account of her skill in dressing a dish of stewed carp. (Edward, a novel by Dr. John Moore, 1796.)
Barnwell (George) The chief character in a prose tragedy, so called, by George Lillo. He was a London apprentice, who fell in with a wanton in Shoreditch, named Sarah Millwood, whom he visited, and to whom he gave #200 of his master's money, and ran away. He next robbed his uncle, a rich grazier at Ludlow, and beat out his brains. Having spent the money, Sarah turned him out of doors, and each informed against the other. Sarah Millwood and George Barnwell were both hanged. (Lillo, 1693——1739.)
Baro—Devel
The great god of the gipsies. His son is named Alako.
Baron
properly means a man (Old High German, baro). It was a term applied to a serving—soldier, then to a military chief, and ultimately to a lord. The reverse of this is seen in our word slave (a servile menial), which is the Slavonic word slav (noble, illustrious). Barones vel varrones dicuntur servi militum, qui utique stultissimi sunt servi videlicet stultorum. (Scholiast.) (See Idiot.)
Baron Bung
Mine host, master of the beer bung.
Baron Munchausen
(pron. Moohn—kow—zn). Said to be a satire on Bruce, the Abyssinian traveller, to whom the work was dedicated. The author was Raspè, a German fugitive from the officers of justice, living in Cornwall (1785). The chief incidents were compiled from various sources, such as the Mendacia Ridicula of
J. P. Lange; Lucian's True History of Things Discovered in the Moon: Rabelais; and the Folheto de Ambas Lisboa.
Baron of Beef
Two sirloins left uncut at the backbone. The baron is the backpart of the ox, called in Danish, the rug. Jocosely said to be a pun upon baron and sir loin.
Barons' War
(The). An historical poem by Michael Drayton (1603).
“The pictures of Mortimer and the queen, and of Edward's entrance into the castle, are splendid and spirited.” — Campbell.
Barrack Hack
(The). A lady who hangs on the sleeve of a military officer, attends all barrack fêtes of every description, and is always ready to get up a dance, dinner, or picnic, to please the officers on whom she dances attendance.
Barracks
means huts made of the branches of trees (Gaelic, barr, the top of anything; barrach, the top—branches of trees; barrachad, a hut made of branches). Our word is plural, indicative of the whole collection; but the French baraque is singular. (See B. K. S.)
Barratry
or Barretry.
Qui fait barat, barat lui vient (French). With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. Barratry is false faith to one's employers. It is a sea term, and means the commission of a fraud on the owners or insurers of a ship by the captain or the crew. The fraud may consist of many phases, such as deserting the ship, sinking her, falsifying her cargo, etc. The French have other proverbs to the same effect: as, La tricherie revient presque toujours à son maître. “He made a pit and ... is fallen into the ditch which he made. His mischief shall return upon his own head.” (Psalm vii. 14, 15, 16.)
Barrel Fever
Intoxication or illness from intemperance in drink.
Barrell's Blues
The 4th Foot; so called from the colour of their facings, and William Barrell, colonel of the regiment (1734——1739). Now called “The King's Own (Royal Lancaster Regiment).” They were called
“Lions” from their badge, The Lion of England.
Barrette
Parler à la barrette (French). To give one a thump o' the head. The word barrette means the cap worn by the lower orders.
“Et moi, je pourrais bien parler à ta barrette.” Molière: L'Avare.
It is also used to signify the ordinary birretta of ecclesiastics and (probably) of French lawyers. Il à reçu le chapeau or la barrette. He has been made a cardinal.
“Le pape lui envoyait la barrette, mais elle ne servit qu'à le faire mourir cardinal.” — Voltaire: Siècle de Louis XIV, chap. xxxix.
Barricade
(3 syl.) To block up. The term rose in France in 1588, when Henri de Guise returned to Paris in defiance of the king's order. The king sent for his Swiss Guards, and the Parisians tore up the pavement, threw chains across the streets, and piled up barrels filled with earth and stones, behind which they shot down the Swiss as they passed through the streets. The French for barrel is barrique, and to barricade is to stop up the streets with these barrels.
The day of the Barricades:
(1) May 12th, 1588, when the people forced Henri III to flee from Paris.
(2) August 5th, 1648, the beginning of the Fronde War.
(3) July 27th, 1830, the first day of le grand semain which drove Charles X, from the throne.
(4) February 24th, 1848, which drove Louis Philippe to abdicate and flee to England.
(5) June 23rd, 1848, when Affre, Archbishop of Paris, was shot in his attempt to quell the insurrection.
(6) December 2nd, 1851, the day of the coup d'état, when Louis Napoleon made his appeal to the people for reelection to the Presidency for ten years.
Barrier Treaty November 5th, 1715, by which the Dutch reserved the right of holding garrisons in certain fortresses of the Spanish Netherlands.
Barrikin
Jargon, words not understood. (Old French, baracan, from the Breton, bara gwyn, “white bread,” taken as a type of barbarous words; modern French, baragouin, gibberish.)
Barring—out
A practice of barring the master out of the schoolroom in order to dictate terms to him. It was once common, but is now numbered with past customs. Miss Edgeworth has a tale so called.
Barrister
One admitted to plead at the bar; one who has been “called to the bar.” The bar is the rail which divides the counsel from the audience, or the place thus enclosed. Tantamount to the rood—screen of a church, which separates the chancel from the rest of the building. Both these are relics of the ancient notion that the laity are an inferior order to the privileged class.
A silk gown or bencher pleads within the bar, a stuff gown or outer barrister pleads without the bar.
Outer or Utter Barrister. This phrase alludes to an ancient custom observed in courts of law, when certain barristers were allowed to plead; but not being benchers (king's counsel or sergeants—at—law) they took their seats “at the end of the forms called the bar.” The Utter Barrister comes next to a bencher, and all barristers inferior to the Utter Barristers are termed. “Inner Barristers.”
The whole society is divided into three ranks: Benchers, Utter Barristers, and Inner Barristers.
An Inner Barrister. A barrister inferior in grade to a Bencher or Utter Barrister.
A Revising Barrister. One appointed to revise the lists of electors.
A Vacation Barrister: One newly called to the bar, who for three years has to attend in “long vacation.”
Barristers' Bags
In the Common Law bar, barristers' bags are either red or dark blue. Red bags are reserved for Queen's Counsel and sergeants; but a stuff gownsman may carry one “if presented with it by a silk.” Only red bags may be taken into Common Law Courts; blue bags must be carried no farther than the robing room. In the Chancery Courts the etiquette is not so strict.
Barristers' Gowns
“Utter barristers wear a stuff or bombazine gown, and the puckered material between the shoulders of the gown is all that is now left of the purse into which, in early days, the successful litigant ... dropped his ... pecuniary tribute ... for services rendered” (Notes and Queries, 11 March, 1893, p. 124). The fact is that the counsel was supposed to appear merely as a friend of the litigant. Even now he cannot recover his fees.
Barry Cornwall
poet. A nom de plume of Bryan Waller Procter. It is an anagram of his name. (1788——1874.)
Barsanians
Heretics who arose in the sixth century. They made their sacrifices consist in taking wheat flour on the tip of their first finger, and carrying it to their mouth.
Bar—sur—Aube
(Prévot). Je ne voudrais pas être roi, si j'étais prévot de Bar—sur—Aube (French). I should not care to be king, if I were Provost of Bar—sur—Aube [the most lucrative and honourable of all the provostships of France]. Almost the same idea is expressed in the words
“And often to our comfort we shall find,
The sharded beetle in a safer hold
Than is the full—winged eagle.”
Almost to the same effect Pope says:
“And more true joy Marcellus exiled feels,
Than Cæsar with a senate at his heels.”
See Castle of Bungay.
Bartholo
A doctor in the comedies of Le Mariage de Figaro, and Le Barbier de Séville, by Beaumarchais.
Bartholomew
(St.). The symbol of this saint is a knife, in allusion to the knife with which he was flayed alive.
St. Bartholomew's Day, August 24th. Probably Bartholomew is the apostle called “Nathanael" by St. John the Evangelist (i. 45——51).
Massacre of St. Bartholomew. The slaughter of the French Prostestants in the reign of Charles IX, begun on St. Bartholomew's Day, i.e. between the 24th and 25th August, 1572. It is said that 30,000 persons fell in this dreadful persecution.
Bartholomew Fair
Held in West Smithfield (1133——1855) on St. Bartholomew's Day.
A Bartholomew doll. A tawdry, overdressed woman; like a flashy, bespangled doll offered for sale at Bartholomew Fair.
Bartholomew pig. A very fat person. At Bartholomew Fair one of the chief attractions used to be a pig, roasted whole, and sold piping hot. Falstaff calls himself,
“A little tidy Bartholomew boar—pig.” — 2 Henry IV. ii. 4.
Barthram's Dirge
(in Sir Walter Scott's Border Minstrelsy). Sir Noel Paton, in a private letter, says: “The subject of this dirge was communicated to Sir Walter as a genuine fragment of the ancient Border Muse by his friend Mr. Surtees, who is in reality its author. The ballad has no foundation in history; and the fair lady, her lover, and the nine brothers, are but the creation of the poet's fancy.” Sir Noel adds: “I never painted a picture of this subject, though I have often thought of doing so. The engraving which appeared in the Art Journal was executed without my concurrence from the oil sketch, still, I presume, in the collection of Mr. Pender, the late M.P., by whom it was brought to the Exhibition of the Royal Scottish Academy here” (at Edinburgh) November 19th, 1866.
Bartoldo
A rich old miser, who died of fear and penurious self—denial. Fazio rifled his treasures, and, being accused by his own wife Bianca, was put to death. (Dean Milman: Fazio.)
Bartole
(2 syl.).
He knows his “Bartole” as well as a cordelier his “Dormi” (French). Bartole was an Italian lawyer, born in Umbria (1313——1356), whose authority amongst French barristers is equal to that of Blackstone with us. The cordeliers or Franciscans were not great at preaching, and perhaps for this reason used a collection called Dormi, containing the best specimens of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. This compilation was called Dormi from the first word in the book. The compilation is anonymous.
Bartolist
One skilled in law. (See above.)
Barzillai (3 syl.). The Duke of Ormond, a friend and staunch adherent of Charles II. The allusion is to Barzillai, who assisted David when he was expelled by Absalom from his kingdom (2 Sam. xvii. 27——29).
“Barzillai crowned with honours and with years ...
In exile with his godlike prince he mourned,
For him he suffered, and with him returned.” Dryden: Absalom and Achitophel, 1. 817——94.
Bas Bleu
(See Blue Stocking .)
Base
The basis, or that on which an animal walks (Greek, baino, to go, and basis, a footstep). The foot is the
foundation— hence, base of a pillar, etc. It is also the lowest part, and hence the notion of worthless. Bass in music (Italian, basso) is the lowest part, or the part for the lowest compass of voice.
Base Tenure
Holding by copy of court—roll, in opposition to freeholders.
Base of Operation
in war. That is, a fortified or otherwise secure spot, where the magazines of all sorts can be formed, whence the army can derive stores, and upon which (in case of reverse) it can fall back. If a fleet, it is called a movable base; if a fortified or other immovable spot, it is called a fixed base. The line from such a base to the object aimed at is called “the Line of Operation.”
Bashaw
An arrogant, domineering man; so called from the Turkish viceroys and provincial governors, each of whom bears the title of bascha (pacha).
A three—tailed bashaw. A beglerbeg or prince of princes among the Turks, having a standard of three
horse—tails borne before him. The next in rank is the bashaw with two tails, and then the bey, who has only one horse—tail.
Basilian Monks
Monks of the Order of St. Basil, who lived in the fourth century. This Order has produced 14 popes, 1,805 bishops, 3,010 abbots, and 11,085 martyrs.
Basilica
Originally the court of the Athenian archon, called the basileus, who used to give judgment in the stoa basilike. At Rome these courts of justice had their nave, aisles, porticoes, and tribunals; so that when used for Christian worship very little alteration was needed. The church of St. John Lateran at Rome was an ancient basilica.
Basilics
or Basilica. A digest of laws begun by the Byzantine emperor Basilius in 867, and completed by his son Leo, the philosopher, in 880.
Basilidians
A sect of Gnostic heretics, followers of Basilides, an Alexandrian Gnostic, who taught that from the unborn Father “Mind” was begotten; from Mind proceeded “The Word”; from the Word or Logos proceeded “Understanding”; from Understanding “Wisdom” and “Power”; from Wisdom and Power
“Excellencies,” “Princes,” and “Angels,” the agents which created heaven. Next to these high mightinesses come 365 celestial beings, the chief of whom is Abraxas (q.v.), and each of whom has his special heaven. What we call Christ is what the Basilidians term The firstbegotten “Mind.”
Basilisco
A braggart; a character in an old play entitled Solyman and Perseda. Shakespeare makes the Bastard say to his mother, who asks him why he boasted of his ill—birth, “Knight, knight, good mother, Basilisco—like”— i.e. my boasting has made me a knight. (King John, i. 1.)
Basilisk The king of serpents (Greek, basileus, a king), supposed to have the power of “looking any one dead on whom it fixed its eyes.” Hence Dryden makes Clytus say to Alexander, “Nay, frown not so; you cannot look me dead.” This creature is called a king from having on its head a mitre—shaped crest. Also called a cockatrice, and fabulously alleged to be hatched by a serpent from a cock's egg.
“Like a boar
Plunging his tusk in mastiff's gore:
Or basilisk, when roused, whose breath,
Teeth, sting, and eyeballs all are death.”
King: Art of Love.
Basket
To be left in the basket. Neglected or uncared for. Left in the waste—basket.
To give a basket. To refuse to marry. In Germany a basket [korb] is fixed on the roof of one who has been jilted, or one who, after long courtship, cannot persuade the lady courted to become his wife.
Basochians
Clerks of the basilica or palace. When the Kings of France inhabited the “Palace of Justice,” the judges, advocates, proctors, and lawyers went by the common name of the clercs de la basoche; subsequently (in 1303) divided into “Clerks of the Palace,” and “Clerks of the Châtelet.” The chief of the basochians was called Le roi de la basoche, and had his court, coin, and grand officers. He reviewed his “subjects” every year, and administered justice twice a week. Henri III. suppressed the title of the chief, and transferred all his functions and privileges to the Chancellor.
Bass
Matting made of bast, that is the lime or linden tree. Dutch, bast, bark; Swedish, basta, to bind; so called because used for binding. “Ribbons from the linden tree give a wreath no charms to me.” The shepherds of Carniola make a cloth of the outer bark. The inner bark is made into Russian matting, and is serviceable to gardeners for packing, tying up plants, protecting trees, etc. Other materials are now used for the same purposes, and for hassocks, etc., but the generic word bass designates both bast—bark and all its imitations.
Bastard
Any sweetened wine, but more correctly applied to a sweet Spanish wine (white or brown) made of the bastard muscadine grape.
“I will pledge you willingly in a cup of bastard.”— Sir Walter Scott: Kenilworth, chap. iii.
Baste
(1 syl.). I'll baste your jacket for you, i.e. cane you. I'll give you a thorough basting, i.e. beating. (Spanish, baston, a stick; Italian, bastone; French, bâton.)
Bastille
means simply a building (French, bastir, now bâtir, to build). Charles V. built it as a royal château; Philippe—Auguste enclosed it with a high wall; St. Louis administered justice in the park, under the oak—trees; Philippe de Valois demolished the old château and commenced a new one; Louis XI. first used it as a state prison; and it was demolished by the rabble in the French Revolution, July 14th, 1789.
Bastinado
A beating (Italian, bastone; French, baston, now bâton, a stick). The Chinese, Turks, and Persians punish offenders by beating them on the soles of the feet. The Turks call the punishment zarb.
Bastion (A), in fortification, is a work having two faces and two flanks, all the angles of which are salient, that is, pointing outwards towards the country. The line of rampart which joins together the flanks of two bastions is technically called a curtain.
Bastions in fortifications were invented in 1480 by Achmet Pasha; but San Michaeli of Verona, in 1527, is said by Maffei and Vasari to have been the real inventor.
Bat Harlequin's lath wand (French, battle, a wooden sword).
To carry out one's bat (in cricket). Not to be “out” when the time for drawing the stumps has arrived. Off his own bat. By his own exertions; on his own account. A cricketer's phrase, meaning runs won by a single player.
Bat—horses
and Bat—men. Bat—horses are those which carry officers' baggage during a campaign (French, bât, a pack—saddle). Bat—men are those who look after the pack—horses.
Batavia
The Netherlands; so called from the Batavi, a Celtic tribe who dwelt there.
“Flat Batavia's willowy groves.”
Wordsworth.
Bate me an Ace
(See Bolton. )
Bath
Knights of the Bath. This name is derived from the ceremony of bathing, which used to be practised at the inauguration of a knight, as a symbol of purity. The last knights created in this ancient form were at the coronation of Charles II. in 1661. G.C.B. stands for Grand Cross of the Bath (the first—class); K.C.B. Knight Commander of the Bath (the second class); C.B. Companion of the Bath (the third class).
King of Bath. Richard Nash, generally called Beau Nash, a celebrated master of the ceremonies at Bath for fifty—six years. (1674—1761.)
There, go to Bath with you! Don't talk nonsense. Insane persons used to be sent to Bath for the benefit of its mineral waters. The implied reproof is, what you say is so silly, you ought to go to Bath and get your head shaved.
Bath Brick
Alluvial matter made in the form of a brick, and used for cleaning knives and polishing metals. It is not made at Bath, but at Bridgwater, being dredged from the river Parrett, which runs through Bridgwater.
Bath Chair
(A). A chair mounted on wheels and used for invalids. Much used at Bath, frequented by invalids for its hot springs.
Bath Metal
The same as Pinchbeck (q.v.). An alloy consisting of sixteen parts copper and five of zinc.
Bath Post
A letter paper with a highly—glazed surface, used by the highly—fashionable visitors of Bath when that watering—place was at its prime. (See Post. ) Since the introduction of the penny post and envelope system, this paper has gone out of general use.
Bath Shillings
Silver tokens coined at Bath in 1811—1812, and issued for 4s., for 2s., and for 1s., by C. Culverhouse, J. Orchard, and J. Phipps.
Bath Stone
A species of limestone, used for building, and found in the Lower Oolite, in Wiltshire and Somersetshire. It is easily wrought in the quarry, but hardens on exposure to the air. Called “Bath” stone because several of the quarries are near Bath, in Somersetshire.
Bath
(Major). A poor, high—minded officer, who tries to conceal his poverty by bold speech and ostentatious bearing. Colman's Poor Gentleman (Lieutenant Worthington) is a similar character. (Fielding: Amelia (a novel) 1751.)
Bath—kol
(daughter of the voice). A sort of divination common among the ancient Jews after the gift of prophecy had ceased. When an appeal was made to Bath—kol, the first words uttered after the appeal were considered oracular.
Bathos
[Greek, bathos, depth]. A ludicrous descent from grandiloquence to commonplace. A literary mermaid.
“Humano capiti cervicem pictor equinam
Jungere si velit ... ut turpiter atrum
Desinat in piscem mulier formosa superne.”
“Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus.”
Horace: De Arte Poetica, line 139.
A good example is the well—known couplet:
“And thou, Dalhousie, the great god of war,
Lieutenant—general to the earl of Mar.”
Bathsheba
The Duchess of Portsmouth, a favourite court lady of Charles II. The allusion is to the wife of Uriah the Hittite, criminally beloved by David (2 Sam. xi.). The Duke of Monmouth says:
“My father, whom with reverence yet 1 name,
Charmed into ease, is careless of his fame;
And, bribed with petty sums of foreign gold,
Is grown in Bathsheba's embraces old.”
Dryden: Absalom and Achitophel, i. 707—10.
Bathyllus
A beautiful boy of Samos, greatly beloved by Polycrates the tyrant, and by the poet Anacreon. (See Horace: Epistle xiv. 9.)
“To them [i.e. the æsthetic school] the boyhood of Bathyllus is of more moment than the manhood of Napoleon.”— Mallock: The New Republic, book iv. chap. 1.
Batiste
The fabric is so called from Baptiste of Cambrai, who first manufactured it.
Batrachomyomachia (pronounce Ba—trak'o—my'o—makia). A storm in a puddle; much ado about nothing. The word is the name of a mock heroic poem in Greek, supposed to be by Pigres of Caria, and means The Battle of the Frogs and Mice.
Batta
or Batty (Hindustanee). Perquisites; wages. Properly, an allowance to East Indian troops in the field. In garrison they are put on half—batta.
“He would rather live on half—pay in a garrison that could boast of a fives—court, than vegetate on full batta where there was none.”— G.R. Gleig: Thomas Munro, vol. i. chap. iv. p. 227.
Battar
Al [the Trcnchant]. One of Mahomet's swords, confiscated from the Jews when they were exiled from Medina.
Battels
Rations or “commons” allowed to students at the University of Oxford. (To batten, to feast.)
Battel Bills. Buttery bills at the universities. (See above.
Battersea You must go to Battersea to get your simples cut. A reproof to a simpleton, or one who makes a very foolish observation. The market gardeners of Battersea used to grow simples (medicinal herbs), and the London apothecaries went there to select or cut such as they wanted. (See Naviga. )
Battle
Professor Creasy says there are fifteen decisive battles; that is, battles which have decided some political change: B.C. 490, Marathon, 413, Syracuse; 331, Arbela; 207, Metaurus; the defeat of the Romans by Varus, 9; Chalons, A.D. 451; Tours, 732; Hastings, 1066; Joan of Arc's victory at Orléans, 1429; the Armada, 1588; Blenheim, 1704; Pultow'a, 1709, Saratoga, 1777, Valmy, 1792; and Waterloo, 1815. See also Fifteen Decisive Battles.
Battle royal. A certain number of cocks, say sixteen, are pitted together; the eight victors are then pitted, then the four, and last of all the two; and the winner is victor of the battle royal. Metaphorically, the term is applied to chess, etc.
Battle scenes. Le Clerc could arrange on a small piece of paper not larger than one's hand an army of 20,000 men.
The Battle—painter or Delle Battaglie. (See Michael Angelo.)
Battle of the Books. A satire, by Dean Swift, on the contention among literary men whether ancient or modern authors were the better. In the battle the ancient books fight against the modern books in St. James's Library.
Battle of the Giants; i.e. the battle of Marignan (Ma—rin—yan') in 1515, when Francois I. won a complete victory over 12,000 Swiss, allies of the Milanese.
Battle of the Herrings, in 1429. A sortie made by the men of Orléns, during the siege of their city, to intercept a supply of salt herrings sent to the besiegers.
Battle of the Moat. A skirmish or battle between Mahomet and Abu Sofian (chief of the Koreishites) before Medina; so called because the “prophet” had a moat dug before the city to keep off the invaders; and in the moat much of the fighting took place.
Battle of the Standard, in 1138, when the English overthrew the Scotch, at Northallerton, in Yorkshire. The standard was a high crucifix borne by the English on a wagon.
Battle of the Spurs (1302), in which the allied citizens of Ghent and Bruges won a famous victory over the chivalry of France under the walls of Courtray. After the battle more than 700 gilt spurs (worn by French nobles) were gathered from the field.
In English history the Battle of Guinegate (1513) is so called, “because the French spurred their horses to flight, almost as soon as they came in sight of the English troops.”
A close battle. A naval fight at “close quarters,” in which opposing ships engage each other side by side. A line of battle. The position of troops drawn up in battle array. At sea, the arrangement formed by ships in a
naval engagement. A line—of—battle ship is a ship fit to take part in a main attack. Frigates do not join in a general engagement.
A pitched battle. A battle which has been planned, and the ground pitched on or chosen beforehand, by both sides.
Half the battle. Half determines the battle. Thus, “The first stroke is half the battle,” that is, the way in which the battle is begun half determines what the end will be.
Trial by battle. The submission of a legal suit to a combat between the litigants, under the notion that God would defend the right. It was legal in England till the nineteenth century.
Wager of Battle. One of the forms of ordeal or appeal to the judgment of God, in the old Norman courts of the kingdom. It consisted of a personal combat between the plaintiff and the defendant, in the presence of the court itself. Abolished by 59 Geo. III. c. 46.
Battle of the Frogs and Mice
(The). [See Batrachomyomachia. ]
Battle of the Kegs
(The). A mockheroic by Francis Hopkinson (1738—1791). In the War of Independence certain machines, in the form of kegs, charged with gunpowder, were sent down the river to annoy the British at Philadelphia. When the British found out the nature of these machines, they waged relentless war with everything they saw floating about the river.
Battle of the Poets
(The). A satirical poem by John [Sheffield], Duke of Buckingham, in which all the versifiers of the time are brought into the field (1725).
Battle of the Whips
The Scythian slaves once rose in rebellion against their masters, and many a bloody encounter followed. At length, one of the Scythian masters said to his followers: Let us throw away our spears and swords, and fight in future with whips. We get killed by the former weapons and weakened. So in the next encounter they armed themselves with whips, and immediately the slaves saw the whips, remembering former scourgings, they turned tail and were no more trouble.
Battle
(Sarah), who considered whist the business of life and literature one of the relaxat