Page:Farmer - Slang and its analogues past and present - Volume 1.pdf/66

 and trimer signifies painful progression, or doing most of a journey on foot); se tirer les flûtes (popular: les flûtes = 'shanks' or 'pegs'); jouer des guibes (guibe is a popular term for the leg, chiefly employed in burlesque); jouer des quilles (this expression is very old. Quilles properly signifies 'crutches,' and is popularly employed for the legs); se carapater (lit. 'to run on one's paws.[**'] Cf., 'to take to one's heels'); se barrer (lit. 'to dash over'); baudrouiller (thieves': this has the signification of 'to whip up'); se cavaler (thieves': cavaler was once synonymous with chevaucher; therefore, se cavaler signifies in reality, 'to go on horseback on oneself,' in which connection it may be compared with 'shanks' mare,' the 'marrow-bone stage' [the Marylebone stage], or the German Schuhster's Rappen, the shoemaker's black horses, i.e., the shoes. Se cavaler likewise has reference to running away with the tail between the legs when fright has seized hold of an animal, and as employed by thieves conveys the idea of cowardice as well as that of locomotion); faire une cavale or se payer une cavale (popular: Cf., se cavaler); jouer des or se tirer les paturons (popular and thieves': this may be translated 'to pad the hoof.' Paturons is properly the 'pasterns.' The frequent use of se tirer in connection with the idea of moving from place to place with a celerity which is oftentimes accentuated by a fear of arrest or unwelcome obstruction is extremely fitting. Se tirer means literally to extricate onself[**oneself]; to get through; to pull oneself forward--extra endeavour resulting in rapid progression); happer le taillis (thieves': lit. 'to catch, lay hold of' or 'gain the copse'; i.e., a place of concealment); flasquer du poivre à quelqu'un or la rousse (thieves': Cf., Amuse; 'to fly from the police'; lit. [**']to shake the pepper box in the eyes of the police[**']; rousse is a cant term for a guardian of the peace); décaniller (thieves': this word, derived from canille, a French provincialism for chenille, a caterpillar, is an allusion to the metamorphosis of the grub into a butterfly when it takes unto itself wings); décarrer (thieves': to leave prison; décarrer de belle, to be released from prison without having been tried); exhiber son prussien (popular: prussien is a common colloquialism for the posteriors, and the phrase literally means 'to show one's behind,' or 'turn tail.' It may be worth while remarking that the term prussien as applied to the breech is no vulgar expression of contempt towards the Prussians. The word is derived, says Michel, from the gypsy prusiatini[**prusiatiñi?], which Borrow translates by pistol. Formerly the French called 'the behind' by the name of a Parisian church, Saint-Jean le Rond); démurger (thieves': to leave a place; to be set at liberty); désarrer (thieves': 'to guy'; to make beef); gagner les gigoteaux (also gagner au trot, au pied, gagner le camp, la colline, le taillis, la guérite, etc.); se faire une paire de mains courantes à la mode (thieves'); fendre l'ergot (lit. 'to split the spur,' an allusion to the toes being pressed to the ground, and thus naturally