Page:Farmer - Slang and its analogues past and present - Volume 3.pdf/7



A · Dictionary · of Slang · and · its · Analogues.

FLABBERGAST, verb. (colloquial). To astound; to stagger, either physically or mentally. [O. E., flab = to frighten + gast = to scare.] Fr. abalober; baba (from ébahi = astounded); épaier (= flatten out). Sp., quedarse de, or hecho, una pieza (= 'knocked all of a heap'). See Floored.

1772. Annual Register, 'On New Words.' Now we are flabbergasted and bored from morning to night.

1823. Bee, Dict. of the Turf, etc., p. 79. His colleagues were flabbergasted when they heard of Castlereagh's sudden death.

1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends ('Brothers of Birchington'). He was quite flabbergasted to see the amount.

1841. Punch, vol. I., p. 261. We rather just imagine they will be not a little puzzled and flabbergasted to discover the meaning or wit of some of those elegant phrases.

1864. Derby Day, p. 67. You're sort of flabbergasted. It's taken all the wind out of you like, and you feel like an old screw a blowing up Highgate Hill.

1889. Licensed Victuallers Gazette, 18 Jan. Poor Clarke was completely flabbergasted.

1891. National Observer, 1 Aug. In no other sport is the laudator temporis acti so completely flabbergasted as here.

Flabberdegaz, subs. (theatrical).Words interpolated to dissemble a lapse of memory; gag (q.v.). Also, imperfect utterance or bad acting.

Flag, subs. (old).—1. A groat, or fourpenny piece. Also Flagg, and Flagge. For synonyms, see Joey.

1567. Harman, Caveat (1814), p. 65. Roge. But a flagge, a wyn, and a make. (But a groat, a penny, and a half-penny.)

1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, p. 38 (H. Club's Rept. 1874) s.v.

1714. Memoirs of John Hall (4th ed.), p. 12, s.v.

1725. Jonathan Wild, Canting Dict., s.v.

1851-61. H. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, vol. I., p. 269. A