Page:Dictionary of Slang, Jargon & Cant (1889) by Barrere & Leland.djvu/31

 Abandonees (provincial), houseless tramps, wanderers. (Harlotry), a prostitute who has either deserted her husband or been abandoned by him.

Abandonment, city term for the bankruptcy of a railway company.

Abandons (popular), foundlings, also applied to street prostitutes.

Abbess, lady (obsolete), the mistress of a brothel, also a procuress.


 * The inmates were called the "nuns," and sometimes "Sisters of Charity." The French slang had formerly the corresponding expression "abbesse," the establishment being termed "abbaye des s'offre à tous," the inmates "nonnes," and the male associate of the mistress "le sacristain."

Abbey-lubber (nautical). This is an old term of reproach for idleness, and is applied only to the nautical lubber. In the "Burnynge of Paule's Church, 1563," it is thus explained: "An abbey-lubber, that was idle, well-fed, a long lewed lither loiterer, that might work, and would not."—Smyth: Sailor's Word-Book.

Abbot, the fancy man or husband of an abbess. A crozier'd abbot, or abbot on the cross, a man who keeps a brothel more for the purpose of robbery and extortion than that of prostitution.

Abbreviations. One of the most notable signs of the degradation and deterioration of a language is the popular habit, in many other countries besides England, of abbreviating words and reducing them to their first syllables, as if in a fast age the common multitude had only time to express themselves in monosyllables. It prevails alike in the learned halls of Oxford and Cambridge and the lowest slums of St. Giles's and Whitechapel. Among the most prominent may be cited the following which, though strictly speaking are not slang, touch on it as not being the original terms. When written or printed they are simply technical and conventional, but used verbally they are slang.


 * A.D.C., Aide-de-Camp; Ad.G. adjutant; Ad lib., ad libitum; A.Q.M.G., Assistant Quarter-Master-General; biz, business; C in C., Commander-in-Chief; C.-0., Commanding-Officer; Cri', "Criterion" (restaurant); D.A.Q.M.G., Deputy-Assistant Quarter-Master-General ;