Page:Farmer - Slang and its analogues past and present - Volume 6.pdf/195

 *tion, like a donkey's gallop; THE SHORT AND LONG (or THE SHORT AND PLAIN) = (1) the whole truth: now usually the LONG AND THE SHORT: also (2) a couple of persons, one of dwarf and one of giant stature walking together; short and THICK, LIKE A WELSHMAN'S prick = a person very short and broad in the beam; short of puff = winded; short (or short-waisted) = crusty, irritable; SHORT OF A SHEET = crazy; for short = for brevity's sake; 'A short horse is soon curried' = a simple matter is soon disposed of; short commons = not too much to eat; short-limBERED = touchy; A SHORT SHRIFT AND A LONG ROPE = instant despatch; a short memory = forgetfulness.

Int. of Four Elements [Halliwell]. Yf ye will nedys know at short and longe, It is evyn a woman's tounge.

1383. Chaucer, Cant. Tales [Oliphant, New Eng. i. 123. We have, this is THE SHORT AND PLAIN (LONG AND SHORT of it).]

1577. Stanihurst, Desc. Ireland [Oliphant, New Eng. i. 599. A man is said to be in talk, short and sweet].

1592. Shakspeare, Mid. Night's Dream, iv. 2. The short and the long is, onr play is preferred. Ibid. (1596), Merry Wives, ii. 1. He loves your wife; there's the short and the long. Ibid. (1600), As You Like It, iii. 5. I will be bitter with him and passing short.

1602. Middleton, Blurt, Master Constable, i. 2. The rogue's made of pie-crust, he's so short.

1611. Jonson, Cataline, ii. 1. How, pretty sullenness, So harsh and short!

1611. Letter [Nares]. In which service two or three of them came short home.

c. 1617. Howell, Letters, 1. ii. 15. The French and English Ambassadors, interceding for a Peace, had a short Answer of Philip II.

1636. Heywood, Love's Mistress, 63. The short and the long of 't is, she's an ugly creature.

1809. Malkin, Gil Blas [Routledge], 219. Don Alphonso cut him short in his explanation.

1837. Barham, Ingolds. Leg., 'Brothers of Birchington.'—Father Dick, So they called him for short.

1870. Washington Watchman [De Vere]. My little gal's name is Helen, but we call her Heelen for short.

Short-ear, subs. phr. (American University).—A rowdy: see Lamb.

Shorter, subs. (old).—One who dwindles the surface and the edges of coins by clipping, filing, shaking together in a bag, precipitation, or other means; a sweater (q.v.).

Short-hEAD, subs. phr. (racing).—A horse that fails by a short head.

1883. Greenwood, Odd People, 107. Fancy him having that horribly anathematized short head all his own, to revile it, and punch it all the while with a firm grip on the cruel twitch attached to its nose.

Shortheels, subs. (old).—A wanton: see Tart. Hence, short-*heeled = unchaste (Grose).

1596. Chapman, Blind Beggar [Shepheard, Works (1874) 15]. Well, madam short-heels, I'll be even with you. Ibid. (1611), May-day, iv. 4. Take heed you slip not, coz, remember y'are SHORT-HEELED.

Short-length, subs. phr. (Scots').—A small glass of brandy; a 'wee three.'

1864. Glasgow Citizen, 19 Nov. Is not the exhilarating short-length of brandy known beyond our own Queen Street?

Short-one, subs. phr. (old coaching: obsolete).—A passenger whose name was not on the way-*bill; a SHOULDERSTICK (q.v.); a BIT OF FISH (q.v.).