Page:Farmer - Slang and its analogues past and present - Volume 3.pdf/146

 Giddy, adj. (colloquial).—Flighty; wanton: e.g., to play the giddy goat = to live a fast life; to be happy-go-lucky.

1892. Ally Sloper, 19 Mar., p. 91, c. 2. Fanny Robinson was flighty; she played the giddy ox—I mean heifer.

Giffle-gaffle, subs. (old).—Nonsense; a variant of gibble-gabble (q.v.).

1787. Grose, Prov. Glossary. Giff-gaff, unpremeditated discourse.

Gif-gaf (or Giff-gaff), subs. (Scots').—A bargain on equal terms. Whence the proverb: Gif-gaf maks guid friens. Fr.: Passe-moi la casse et je t'enverrai la senne.

Gift, subs. (colloquial).—1. Anything, lightly gained or easily won.

2. (common).—A white speck on the finger nails, supposed to portend a gift.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.

3. (printers').—See Gift-house.

As full of gifts as a brazen horse of farts, phr. (old).—Mean; miserly; disinclined to part (q.v.).

1811 Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v

Gift of the Gab.—See Gab.

Gift-house (or Gift), subs. (printers').—A club; a house of call; specifically for the purpose of finding employment, or providing allowances for members.

Gig (Gigg, Gigge), subs. (old).—1. a wanton; a mistress; a flighty girl. Cf., Giglet.

1373. Chaucer, House of Fame, iii. 851. This house was also ful of gygges.

1690. B. E., Dict. of the Cant. Crew. A young gig, a wanton lass.

1780. D'Arbley, Diary, etc., (1876), i., 286. Charlotte L called, and the little gig told of the domestic life she led in her family, and made them all ridiculous, without meaning to make herself so.

1825. Planché, Success in Extravaganzas (1879) I., 26. He! he! What a gig you look in that hat and feather!

1832. Macaulay in Life, by Trevelyan (1884), ch. v., p. 188. Be you Foxes, be you Pitts, You must write to silly chits, Be you Tories, be you Whigs, You must write to sad young gigs.

2. (old).—A jest; a piece of nonsense; anything fanciful or frivolous. Hence, generally, in contempt.

1590. Nashe, Pasquil's Apologie, in wks. Vol. I., p. 234. A right cutte of the worde, withoute gigges or fancies of haereticall and newe opinions.

1793. Butt, Poems Fograms, quizzes, treats, and bores, and gigs, Were held in some account with ancient prigs.

1856. Whyte Melville, Kate Coventry, ch. xiv. Such a set of gigs, my dear, I never saw in my life; large under-*bred horses, and not a good-looking man amongst them.

3. (old).—The nose. For synonyms, see Conk. To snitchell the gig = to pull the nose. Grunter's gig = a hog's snout.

1690. B. E., Dict. of the Cant. Crew, s.v.

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

4. (venery).—The female pudendum. For synonyms, see Monosyllable. [Possibly from Gig = a top, i.e., a toy; possibly, too, from It. giga = a fiddle (q.v.); but see post sense 8.]

1690. B. E., Dict. of the Cant. Crew, s.v.

1785 Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.