Page:Dictionary of Slang, Jargon & Cant (1889) by Barrere & Leland.djvu/32

, university or competitive examination; Gent., gentleman; the High, High Street, Oxford; I.G., Inspector-General; Jocks., jockeys; J. P., Justice of the Peace; Mem., memorandum or member; Mods., moderations (university); N.C.O., Non-Commissioned Officer; '''Nem. Con., nemine contradicente; O.C., Old Cheltonian (Cheltenham College); Ox., Oxford music-hall; Pav., Pavilion music-hall; Photo, photograph; Pops., popular concerts; P.R., the prize ring; Pub., or public, public-house; Pug., pugilist; Q.C., Queen's Counsel; Q.M.G., Quarter-Master-General; Rad., radical; Rep., representative; Sov., sovereign; Spec., speculation; Specs., spectacles; S.U.O., Senior Under-Officer (R.M. Academy); Tec., detective; Tol or tol lol, tolerable; Tram., tram-car; Typo., typographer or printer; Varsity''', university; Vet., veterinary surgeon; Vice, Vice-Chancellor.


 * Cab and bus, which were originally slang, have by dint of usage succeeded in establishing themselves in the language. In the novels of Charles Dickens they had already acquired a certain archaic flavour.

Abdar (Anglo-Indian), a teetotaller. In Hindostanee abdar signifies a water-carrier.

Abdeli (Anglo-Indian), a hypocrite, a canting preacher, a fastidious or false zealot.

Aberdeen cutlets (popular), cured or dried haddocks, or "haddies," as the Scotch term them.

Abiding (vagrants), "my abiding," generally refers to a temporary resting or hiding place, secure from capture. Abiding-by, hiding within call.

Abigail (society), a lady's maid. More properly one of an ill temper, or tyrannical to her mistress.


 * Old English writers first employed it as a cant word for a termagant woman, and afterwards for a female bigamist. It seems probable that having originally received its present signification from Abigail, who called herself the handmaiden of David, the word became synonymous for a lady's maid, in the same way that Job and Samson came to be applied respectively to a model of patience and to a man of herculean strength. It was used by Beaumont and Fletcher as the name of a handmaiden in their comedy of the "Scornful Lady," and must have been further popularised by the maiden