Page:Farmer - Slang and its analogues past and present - Volume 2.pdf/191

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Coral Branch, subs. phr. (venery).—The penis.

Core, Coreing, verb and verbal subs. (old).—See quot.

1821. D. Haggart, Life, Glossary, p. 171. Coreing: picking up small articles in shops.

Corinth, subs. (old).—A brothel. For synonyms, see Nanny-shop. Cf., Corinthian and Corinthianism.

1609. Shakspeare, Timon of Athens, Act ii., Sc. 2. Would we could see you at Corinth!

1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue, s.v.

1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, or Rogue's Lexicon, s.v.

Corinthian, subs. (old).—1. A rake; a loose liver; sometimes specifically, a fashionable whore. Shakspeare has it, 'a lad of mettle,' but in another place he uses corinth as above. In the slang sense an allusion to the notoriety of Corinth as a centre of prostitution, i.e., the temple-city of Aphrodite. [Greek: Korinthi/a)esthai], = to Corinthianise was Greek slang. Hence the proverb—[Greek: Ou) panto\s a)ndro\s ei)s Ko/rinthon isth' o( plou=s]: and Horace, Epist. lib. 1, xvii., 36—

'Non cuivis homini contingit adire Corinthum.'

Also used as an adjective, a verbal form being to corinthianize. Cf., Shakspeare's use of Ephesians in II. King Henry IV., ii. 2. For synonyms, see Molrower.

1598. Shakspeare, I Henry IV., Act ii., Sc. 4. And tell me flatly I am no proud Jack, like Falstaff; but a Corinthian, a lad of mettle, a good boy.

b. 1608. d. 1674. Milton, Apology for Smect. And raps up, without pity, the sage and rheumatic old prelatess, with all her young Corinthian laity.

1890. Daily Telegraph, 25 Feb., p. 4, col. 7. Is it not curious that hotel proprietors [at Monte Carlo] should countenance, if not encourage, a Tom and Jerry tone and a wild Corinthian element, even in well-conducted restaurants?

1890. Henley and Stevenson, Beau Austin, iii., 1. I assure you, Aunt Evelina, we are Corinthian to the last degree.

2. A dandy; specifically applied in the early part of the present century to a man of fashion; e.g., Corinthian Tom, in Pierce Egan's Life in London. For synonyms, see Dandy.

1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue, s.v.

1819. T. Moore, Tom Crib's Memorial, p. 9. 'Twas diverting to see, as one ogled around, How Corinthians and Commoners mixed on the ground.

1832. Pierce Egan, Book of Sports, p. 210. 'I would be a Corinthian to the end of the chapter if I could—but the truth is, I was not lucky enough to be born a swell.'

1853. Wh. Melville, Digby Grand, ch. iv. Where the hospitable 'Jem' received his more aristocratic visitors, and to which, as Corinthians, or 'swells,' we were immediately admitted.

1854. Thackeray, Leech's Pictures in Quarterly Review, No. 191, Dec. Corinthian, it appears, was the phrase applied to men of fashion and ton they were the brilliant predecessors of the 'swell' of the present period.

Corinthianism, subs. (old and modern).—See Corinthian, in both senses of which, mutatis mutandis, corinthianism is employed.

Cork, subs. (common).—1. A bankrupt. For analogous terms, see Quizby.

2. (Scotch).—The general name in Glasgow and neighbourhood for the head of an establishment, e.g., of a factory, or the like.