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 Bean Belly, subs. (old).—A nickname for a Leicestershire man; from a real or supposed fondness of the inhabitants of this county for beans.

Bean-feast, subs. (common).—An annual feast given by employers to their work-people. The derivation is uncertain, and, at present, their is little evidence to go upon. Some have suggested its origin in the prominence of the bean goose, or even beans at these spreads; others refer it to the French bien, good, i.e., a good feast (by-the-bye, tailors call all good feeds bean-feasts); whilst others favour its derivation from the modern English bene, a request or solicitation, from the custom of collecting subscriptions to defray the cost. All three suggestions are, at the best, unsatisfactory, and numerous objections crop up at every turn to each of them. An annual outing of this kind is also called a wayzgoose (q.v).

1882. Printing Times, 15 Feb., 26, 2. A bean-feast dinner served up at a country inn. [m.]

1884. Bath. Jour., 26 July, 6, 1. The annual grant of £20 for their bean-feast. [m.]

Bean-Feaster, subs. (common).—One who takes part in a beanfeast (q.v.).

1884. Cornh. Mag., Jan., 621. For the delectation of the bold bean-feasters. [m.]

Beano, subs. (printers').—The same as bean-feast (q.v.).

Bean Traps, subs. (American thieves').—A swell mobsman, or stylish sharper. Beans (q.v.) are five-dollar gold pieces, and the insinuation is obvious. In old English cant a bean meant a guinea, probably from the French biens, property.

Beany, adj. (common).—Full of vigour; fresh, like a bean-fed horse. Or, it may be an allusion to the meaning of venery, which Aristotle says was attached to the word beans.

1852. Kingsley, in Life (1876), 1., 278. The very incongruity keeps one beany and jolly.

1870. Daily News, 27 July, 5. The horses looked fresh and beany. [M.]

Bear, subs. (Stock Exchange).—Applied, in the first instance, to stock sold by jobbers for delivery by a certain date on the chance of prices falling in the meantime, thus allowing the seller to re-purchase at a profit. The phrase was probably at first 'to sell the bear-skin,' the buyers of such bargains being called bear-skin jobbers (see quot.), in allusion to the proverb, 'To sell the bear's skin before one has caught the bear.' So far, the origin of the phrase seems pretty clear; of the date of its introduction, however, nothing is known. It was a common term in Stock Exchange circles, at the time of the bursting of the South Sea Bubble in 1720, but it does not seem to have become colloquial until much later. In these transactions no stock was passed, the 'difference' being settled according to the quotation of the day, as is the practice now in securities dealt with for 'the account.' At present the term for such an arrangement is time-bargain.