Page:Farmer - Slang and its analogues past and present - Volume 7.pdf/87

 Usagère (R.).

Vache; vache à lait; vadrouille; veau; vendangeuse d'amour; vendeuse de tendresse; véroleuse; verticale (=uprighter); vesse (=bladder); vessie; vésuvienne; vestal; vézon; viagère (R.); viande; [femme de] vie (i.e. vit—R.); vielle garde; villotière (COTGRAVE); voirie; volaille (=pullet); voyagère (R. : also voyageuse).

Wagon; wauve.

Zona.

18[?]. Bird o' Freedom [quoted in S. J. & C.]. Wrong 'uns at the Wateries, Noffgurs at the Troc, Coryphyées by Kettner, Tartlets anywhere.

1896. Marshall, Pomes, 48. His years were in number some threescore and three, And Flossie ye tarte of his bosom was she.

Adj. (B. E. and Grose: now recognised).—'Tart dame [sic], sharp, quick' (B. E.); 'tart, sour, sharp, quick, pert' (Grose).

Tartar, subs. (old).—1. A bad or awkward tempered person: male or female. To catch a tartar=(1) to be caught in one's own trap; and (2) to get more than one bargained for, or the worst of an encounter (B. E. and Grose). [Ency. Dict.: Properly Tatar, 'The r was inserted in mediæval times to suggest that the Asiatic hordes who occasioned such anxiety to Europe came from hell (Tartarus), and were the locusts of Revelation ix.'] Hence (2) an adept: e.g., 'He is quite a Tartar at cricket or billiards' (Grose).

1663. Butler, Hudibras, 1. iii. Now thou hast got me for a Tartar, To make m' against my will take quarter.

1748. Smollett, Rod. Random, xxx. The captain looking at me with a contemptuous sneer, exclaimed, 'Ah! ah! have you caught a tartar?'

1772. Foote, Nabob [Oliphant]. [One man may] catch a tartar [in another],

1772. Bridges, Burlesque Homer, 171. He turn'd him back and stole the cart, And strait despatched it to his quarters For fear of Justice Fielding's TARTARS.

1862. Thackeray, Philip, xiv. A Tartar that fellow was, and no mistake.

1868. Whyte-Melville, White Rose, 11. i. This disconsolate sailor, whose first wife had been what is popularly called a Tartar.

1901. Free Lance, 9 Mar., 558. 1. Occasionally, of course, Barabbas catches a Tartar who threatens legal proceedings and demands to inspect the publisher's books. Needless to say, the books were 'cooked' from the first in view of such an eventuality.

3. See Tartarian.

Tartarian (or Tartar), subs. (Old Cant).—A thief: spec. a strolling vagabond; 'a sharper' (B. E.).

1596. Shakspeare, Merry Wives, i. v. 18. Here's a Bohemian Tartar.

c. 1600. Merry Devil of Edmonton (Temple), i. 1. 10. There's not a Tartarian, Nor a carrier, shall breathe upon your geldings.

1640. Wandering Jew, 3. And if any thieving Tartarian shall break in upon you, I will, with both hands, nimbly lend a cast of my office to him.

Tartuffe, subs. (colloquial).—A hypocrite; a pretender. [From the character in Molière's comedy.] Hence tartuffish=hypocritically precise; and TARTUFFISM=hypocrisy.

d.1768. Sterne [Ency. Dict.]. She has some mother-in-law, or tartufish aunt, or nonsensical old woman, to consult upon the occasion as well as myself.

Tassy, subs. (Australian).—Tasmania,