Page:Farmer - Slang and its analogues past and present - Volume 1.pdf/389

 1882. Daily Telegraph, Oct. 19, p. 3, col. 1. 'And you should have heard the bully-ragging I got, ma'am, from the mistress and the master as well.'

Bully-Rook or Bully-Rock, subs. (old).—Originally this term seems to have been applied to a pleasant or boon-companion; later, however, to a swaggerer, a bully, a bravo. [Thought by most etymologists to be a combination of bully (q.v.) + rook (q.v.), a sharper.]

1596. Shakspeare, Merry Wives of Windsor, Act i., Sc. 3. Why says my bully-rook?

1633. Shirley, Wittie Faire One, Act iii., Sc. 4. Such in the spirit of sack, till we be delphic, and prophesy, my bully-rook.

1697. Praise of Yorkshire Ale. My bully-rocks, I've been experienced long In most of Liquors. [m.]

1754. B. Martin, Eng. Dict. (2 ed.). Bully, or bully-rock, 1. a boisterous, hectoring fellow.

Bully Ruffian, subs. (old).—A footpad or highwayman, who, to the injury of robbery, added the insult of coarse invective. Cf., Bridle-cull.

Bully Trap, subs. (old).—A man who, though of mild outside demeanour, is a match for any ruffian who may attack him. Quoted by Grose [1785].

Bully Up (Uppingham School), verb.—To hurry up. Mostly used in the imperative.

Bum, subs. (vulgar).—1. The posteriors; or, as Jamieson puts it, 'the part on which we sit.' [Considerable doubt exists as to the origin of this familiar term. Murray thinks the guess that bum is an abbreviation of 'bottom' is at variance with the historical fact that the latter, in this sense, is found only from the eighteenth century; besides which there are phonetic difficulties. The origin is probably onamatopoetic.] Besides the synonyms mentioned under Blind cheeks, the following may be cited:

English Synonyms. Bum-*fiddle; bumpkin.

French Synonyms. Le foiron (popular: from foire = diarrhœa); le tal (popular); le garde-*manger (popular: Michel says this expression is an old one and is to be found in 'Curiositez françoises' in the sense of 'a necessary house'); le naze (equivalent to 'smeller,' or 'smelling cheat'); le soufflet (popular: literally 'a pair of bellows'); le prouas (the same as le prose, of nautical origin); la contre-basse (popular: the 'double bass.' Cf., Ars musica); le schaffouse (popular: a play of words, the town of that name being situated on the Lower Rhine—chute du Rhein, and chute du rein, the lower part of the back); le gingin (popular); la tabatière (popular: literally 'the snuff-box'); la tire-lire (popular: Rigaud says this term is in allusion to the means of subsistence [daily bread] of prostitutes); la giberne (literally 'cartridge-box'); le proye (an old canting term); le cadet (popular); la figure (i.e., 'the face.' Cf., 'cheeks'); la canonnière (literally 'a drain pipe' or 'pop-*gun'); l'oignon (literally 'the onion'); la machine à moulures; le département du bas Rhin ('the department of the Lower Rhine; rein = back—a play upon words); le démoc; le schelingo