Page:Farmer - Slang and its analogues past and present - Volume 1.pdf/390

 phone; le Prussien (from the Gypsy prusiati[)n]i, translated by Borrow as 'pistol'); le panier aux crottes (panier = basket; crottes = dung); le visage de campagne; le fignard (i.e., 'a one-eyed cheek'); le visage sans nez (i.e., 'the face without a nose'); le pétrouskin; le face du grand Turc; le tortillon; le fleurant (popular: also 'a nose-gay'); le pedzouille (familiar: 'a peasant' or 'clod'); le cadran or le cadran lunaise (cadran = dial); le piffe (thieves'); le médaillon (popular: literally 'a medallion' or 'locket'); l'arrière-train (familiar: lit. 'after-carriage'); le trèfle (popular: this also signifies 'tobacco'); messire Luc (familiar: 'Mr. Luke,' sometimes also 'Nancy.' Cf., Mrs. Jones); le moulin à vent (lit. the 'windmill'); le ponant (popular); la lune (popular: lune in slang means a large full face); le bienséant (popular); le pétard (popular and thieves': it also stands for sou; in the Normandy patois pétra is used interchangeably with pétard); le ballon (popular: ballon = balloon; the analogy is obvious); le moutardier (i.e., the mustard-pot); le baril de moutarde (cads': the mustard barrel); l'obusier (lit. the howitzer).

German Synonyms. Tochas; Toges; Doges.

Italian Synonym. Rioppo.

1387. Trevisa, Higden Rolls, 6 S., 357. It semeth that his bom is oute that hath that euel [ficus, i.e., piles]. [m.]

1592. Shakspeare, Mids. Night's Dream, ii., 1, l. 51. The wisest aunt telling the saddest tale, Sometime for three-foot stool mistaketh me; Then slip I from her bum, down topples she, And tailor cries, and falls into a couch; And then the whole quire hold their hips, and loffe.

1600. Dekker, Shoemaker's Holiday, in wks. (1873) I., 39. Art thou acquainted with neuer a fardingale-maker, nor a French-hood maker, I must enlarge my BUMME.

1609. Shakspeare, Timon of Athens, Act i., Sc. 2. What a coil's here! Serving of becks, and jutting out of bums!

1614. Jonson, Bartholomew Fair, iv., 4. Your breeches sit close enough to your bum.

1729. Swift, Intelligencer, No. 8, p. 83 (2 ed.). And first his bum you see him clap Upon the Queen of Sheba's lap.

1742. Shenstone, Schoolmistress, st. 18. All, but the wight of bum y-galled, he Abhors both bench, and stool, and fourm, and chair.

1782. Wolcot, Lyric Odes, No. i., in wks. (1809) I., 12. That lazy bum-delighting thing, Ridly the Chancellor.

2. (old.)—An abbreviated form Of BUM BAILIFF (q.v.).

1663. Butler, Hudibras, I., i., 393. It had appeared with courage bolder, Then Sergeant Bum, invading shoulder.

1698-1700. Ward, London Spy, pt. VII., p. 153. The Vermin of the Law, the Bum, Who gladly kept his distance, Does safely now in Triumph come.

1845. Disraeli, Sybil, bk. III., ch. i. 'Juggings has got his rent to pay, and is afeard of the bums.'

3. (public schools'.)—A birching; 'hiding' or 'tanning.' For synonyms, see Tanning. Cf., also Bash and Baste.

Verb (old).—To arrest. [An obvious allusion to the duty of a BUM or BUM-BAILIFF (q.v.).]

Cherry Bums, subs. (military).—The 11th Hussars. Cherry-bum is a corruption of Cherubim; but the obvious reference is to the scarlet trowsers worn by this branch of the service. A simi