Page:Farmer - Slang and its analogues past and present - Volume 1.pdf/137

 1888. Daily Inter-Ocean, Feb. 16. Buffalo officers to-day picked out from a batch of Erie convicts Watt N. Jones, the notorious bank-sneak and burglar so widely known professionally in every city of the United States and Canada.

Banner, subs. (American newsboys').—The money paid for board and lodging at the homes frequented by these flying mercuries. The origin of the term is unknown.

Bant, verb (common.)—To follow the dietary prescribed by Mr. Banting.—See Banting.

Banting, subs. (common).—A course of diet by which fat people seek to reduce their bulk. It consists in strictly discarding as food all articles known to favour the development of adipose tissue. It was introduced about the year 1864 by a Mr. W. Banting—hence the name. The dietary recommended was the use of butcher's meat principally, and abstinence from beer, farinaceous food, and vegetables. Also figuratively, to reduce in any way.

1864. Times, 12 Aug., 4. The classics seemed to have undergone a successful course of banting.

1868. Miss Braddon, Only a Clod, p. 114. She was a rigid disciplinarian of the school formed by Mr. Banting. Ibid, p. 113. A parlour where all the furniture seemed to have undergone a prolonged course of banting.

1883. Knowledge, 27 July, p. 49, col. 2. Bantingism excludes beer, butter, and sugar.

Bantling, subs. (old).—A young, or small child. This word, once slang, is now a received dictionary word. It is stated in Bacchus and Venus [1737], and by Grose, to be a cant term. It was formerly synonymous with bastard. Appended are a few examples of its use when knocking for admittance at the doors of the dictionaries.

1593. Drayton, Eclog., vii., 102. Lovely Venus smiling to see her wanton bantlings game.

1635. Quarles, Emblems, II., viii. (1718), 93. See how the dancing bells turn round to please my bantling.

1748. Smollett, Rod. Random, ch. xlvii. 'That he may at once deliver himself from the importunities of the mother and the suspense of her bantling.'

1751. Smollett, Peregrine Pickle, ch. lxxx. 'Let the bantlings,' said she, 'be sent to the hospital and a small collection be made for the present support of the mother.'

1758. Goldsmith, Essays, x. Who follow the camp, and keep up with the line of march, though loaded with bantlings and other baggage.

1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, ch. xxi. 'Sell me to a gipsy, to carry pots, pans, and beggars bantlings.'

Banty, adj. (American thieves').—Saucy; impudent.

Baptised or Christened, ppl. adj. (old).—Mixed with water; spirits and wines are said to be baptised when diluted. The French equivalent is chrétien; also baptisé.

1636. Healey, Theophrastus, 46. He wil give his best friends his baptized wine.

Bar, verb and prep. (colloquial and racing).—1. Used as a verb bar signifies to exclude; to prohibit; also to object to a person or action. Its lineage is of undoubted respectability, but its usage is now but little removed from the vulgar. As a preposition it is synonymous with 'except'—mainly used in racing; e.g., 'Four to one bar one.'

c. 1598. Shakspeare, M. of Venice, ii., 2, 207. Nay, but I bar to-night: