Page:Farmer - Slang and its analogues past and present - Volume 1.pdf/73

 eighteenth as Holloway's pills in the latter part of the nineteenth century. This necklace was of beads artificially prepared, small, like barleycorns, and cost five shillings. For foreign synonyms, see Horse's nightcap.

Anoint, verb. (familiar).--To beat soundly; to thrash; humorously derived from the proper meaning of the word, 'to smear' or 'rub over with oil or other unctuous substances.' In the North of England the saying is somewhat more analogous--'to anoint with the sap of a hazel rod.'

1175. Rom. of Partenay (Skeat), 5653.

Then thay put hym hout, the kyng away fly, Which so well was anoynted indede, That no slene ne pane had he hole of brede.

1703. Fuller's Trip to Bridewell, quoted in Ashton's The Fleet, p. 211. The whipper began to noint me with his instrument, that had, I believe, about a dozen strings notted at the end.

1748. Smollett, Rod. Random, ch. v. 'I'll bring him to the gangway, and anoint him with a cat-and-nine-tails.'

1824. W. Irving, Tales of a Trav., II., 287. Seize a trusty staff and anoint the back of the aggressor.

There seems to be some connection, too, between this sense of to anoint, and the depraved use of anointed (q.v.) to signify great rascality. Cf., Strap oil.

Anoint or Grease the Palm, verb. phr. (common).--To bribe. The Scotch say 'to creesh the luif.' The expression is very old.

1584. Knox, Hist, of Reformation, works [1846] I., 102. Yea, the handis of our Lordis so liberallie were anoynted.

See Grease the palm.

Anointed, ppl. adj. (old).--1. Used in a depraved sense to signify eminence in rascality. The most probable derivation appears to be that suggested by Prof. Skeat [N. and Q., 3 S., ix., 422]. In a French MS., Romance of Melusine, is an account of a man who had received a thorough and severe beating, which is thus referred to:--Qui anoit este si bien oignt. The English version [Early English Text Society] translates this, 'which so well was anoynted indeed.' From this it is clear that to anoint a man was to give him a sound drubbing, and that the word was so used in the fifteenth century. Thus, an anointed rogue means either one who has been well thrashed or who has deserved to be. Cf., To anoint.

1769. Robertson, Hist, of Reign of Charles V. Many assumed the clerical character for no other reason than that it might screen them from the punishment which their actions deserved. The German nobles complained loudly that their anointed malefactors, as they called them, seldom suffered capitally even for the most enormous crimes.

1825. Scott, St. Ronan's Well, ch. xxxvii. 'But, not being Lord Etherington, and an anointed scoundrel into the bargain, I will content myself with cudgelling him to death.'

2. Knowing; ripe for mischief.--Duncombe.

Anonyma, subs. (popular).--A lady of the demi-monde; generally, though not invariably, applied to one of the better class. Women of this status were also called by the Times pretty horsebreakers, a notorious anonyma (circa 1868) having been a good horsewoman. Another and earlier name