BREWER’S DICTIONARY OF PHRASE AND FABLE
GIVING THE
Derivation, Source, or Origin of Common Phrases, Allusions, or Words that have a Tale to Tell
Rev Ebenezer Cobham Brewer of Edwinstowe vicarage (1810-1897). First published 1870. By Cassell, suggesting it must have been censored or 'corrected' re Jews. He wrote other books, including a big-selling book on science for education.
My copy was an Czech reprint of the 1894 edition. It's unindexed, unfortunately. Some later similar versions to mine are reset and also indexed with headwords; but the indexed version I saw did not have much detail in its index. These books therefore aren't entirely simple to search. And new editions will have new material inserted, for example on the 'Keystone Cops', naturally not in Brewer. Brewer died in 1897; he may have updated his book within that time, but I can't say for certain.
With Internet, we have some access (usually through archive.org) to many versions. The 1870 first edition is I think online; certainly the or a US edition is up there. Brewer is pure Victorian Oxbridge. He refers to Jesus as 'our saviour'. His entry on Sanhedrin is: San'hedrim The great council of seventy elders among the Jews, which heard appeals from the inferior courts. (Greek, sunedrion, a sitting together.) Sanhedrim, in Dryden's satire of "Absalom and Achitophel," stands for the British Parliament. The Jewish Sanhedrim, before the Captivity, was a sort of senate convened to assist Moses in the government ; after the captivity it seems to have been a permanent constistory court. The president was called "Hannas'icon" or prince, and the vice-president "The Father." The seventy-one sat in a semi-circle, thirty-five on each side of the president; the "father" being on his right hand, the "hacan" on his left.
The Sanhedrim long time as chief he ruled,/ Their reason guided, and their passion cooled.
Brewer seems to have been a steady seller, and when the copyright expired attracted many different editions and variations and imitations, mostly I think after 1945—plenty of scope for post-war Jewish triumphalism. His book is attractively miscellaneous.
Brewer composed at least one poem - see the 'seven sages' entry. I'd guess he was fairly strictly Church of England, and Judaised, but, again, I haven't tried to check. As with comparisons of medical texts, much of interest might be mined from Brewer, but I don't know of any serious work on his work. Or even if his slips of paper survive. He's as distinctive as 'Lewis Carroll' or Ruskin.
His technique, if fairly quoted from The Westminster Budget, was:—
"My method is very simple. I always read with paper and pencil at my side and jot down whatever I think may be useful to me and jottings I keep sorted in different lockers. This has been a lifelong habit with me and compiling them into a volume consists chiefly in the selecting, sorting, explaining, correcting and bringing down [sic] to date. My literary references are all contained in these pigeonholes behind me, each letter having its own bundle of slips in their turn all running in alphabetical order. This system of common placing I have kept up regularly for nearly seventy years, and the fruits of it are embodied in my various books. In fact, the Phrase and Fable Dictionary and the other books of that class may be said to be merely different sections of one gigantic commonplace book. The labour of all this writing out and indexing has been very great, though a labour of love for me. ..."
It's difficult to make useful notes from Brewer, for obvious enough reasons. But I hope these may be of some use, in suggesting images and words, in interpreting old usages, in understanding obsolete customs, and so on.
[1] MULTIPLE ENTRIES - I.E. INTERESTING COLLECTIONS OF THINGS
[2] PRACTICES, FABLES OF VARIOUS RELIGIONS AND GROUPS
[3] ETYMOLOGIES, OR SUPPOSED ETYMOLOGIES
[4] LITERATURE (MOSTLY SOURCES OF STORIES)
[5] PEOPLE, INDIVIDUALS
[6] MISCELLANEOUS
[7] OMISSIONS
[1] MULTIPLE ENTRIES - I.E. INTERESTING COLLECTIONS OF THINGS
- ALPHABET: see separate letters, e.g. C hollow of the hand, D doorway, H hedge or style, L an ox-goad, M wavy appearance of water...
- AMERICAN STATES sobriquets/ U.S. flags/ guess, expect, reckon, calculate
- ANAGRAMS: Rather few of these; but includes some in Latin and other foreign languages
- ANIMALS: bird/ bull/ camel/ cat/ cock/ Dogs; long article in 11 parts/ donkey/ dragon/ elephant/ fish/ flea/ fly/ fox/ geese/ goose/ grey/ hare/ mice, rats, Hamelin, see Hatto/ hawk: at least 60 terms/ hind/ hog Mahomet's one part/ horse: six pages; joint longest entry, with king. Kochlani=arabian horses with 2000 year genealogies/ hyenas/ Ibis/ jackal, one who does dirty work/ lamb/ leopard [myths only]/ lion 4 pages/ magpie/ mare/
- ANIMAL SOUNDS, GROUPS, ETC
- ARMY REGIMENTS
- BATTLES: Creasy's fifteen decisive battles
- BIBLE huge number of versions and statistics. ITALICISED words were supplied to make the sense clearer and weren't in original WW
- CALENDAR 4 versions WW
- CANDLES, in phrases, Candlemas
- CARDS, PLAYING in different countries; see four kings
- CENOTAPHS
- COLLEGE COLOURS, including American
- CHARIOTS. ten mythological ones
- CHEESES: ten points to avoid
- CHILD: 'girl' and 'child' seem to have verbally exchanged places. Cf also 'girl' in ?'Popular Fallacies..'
- CHILDREN, one cruelty story
- COLOURS: blazonry, art, church decoration, clerical vestments, heraldry, national, other symbolism [& colours separately: 5 pages black; 4 blue; 4 red; 3 gold; 3 green. Greengage from Chartreuse]
- COOKS: Cooking
- COUP: number of these including from the ass's foot
- CROSS: surprisingly few references. Apart from 12 heraldic and 5 others
- COURTESY TITLES: e.g. marquis, earl, viscount; and see cousin; differences indicating branches of a family; esquire
- CROWNS; surprising range of types: 9 heraldic, 10 or so roman, 21 heathen
- CUT: 2 pages on this, including 4 types of personal cut on seeing a person
- DANAIDES and irrigation
- DANCES: macabre and death; national; religious
- DEITIES [i.e. Greek, Roman]
- DEATH FROM STRANGE CAUSES; & about 200 Dying Sayings, Real or Traditional
- DELUGE. At least 6 of these. 'Apres moi...' not Louis!
- DEVIL. 4 pages
- DIVINATION at least 17 species, e.g. alectromancy = divination by cock; [resembles Ouija board]
- DOCTOR 3 pages
- DRINKING HEALTHS
- DUST: meant gold; Irish and Arabs.
- DUTCH: rivalry with Britain, Well I'm a Dutchman.. synonymous with all that was hateful' [But cp. Russell on supposed gentlemanliness between British and Dutch, and e.g. finishing St Paul's]; (Guardian Friday 10 Sep 1993 says '.. from the Anglo-Dutch wars of the 17th C., though Brewer doesn't explicitly state this). Dutch Gold=alloy of copper & zinc/ Dutch courage not courage; Dutch concert = great noise and uproar [cp Orwell on Italians]; Dutch auction is not an auction, which means increase of bids. Dutch comfort, Dutch Gleek, Dutch Nightingales (=frogs) other examples. Painting: 'a sort of Pre-Raphaelite exactness without selection.. lower classes.. [List of 27 names, but doesn't mention Vermeer!]; and see Flemish
- DWARFS - under 3 feet in height. About fifty listed/ see hop o my thumb
- EGGS: sure as x is x?
- EIGHT BEST THINGS
- ENSIGN - owl of Athens, stars and stripes, Ancient Corinthian Pegasos etc
- EVIDENCE: 12 types e.g. material = essential to carry proof
- EVOLUTION: seems based on Herbert Spencer; therefore may have influenced US. Three stages are listed as briefly as possible
- EYE including going through eye of needle, sheep's eye, Chinese almond eyes
- FAIRIES 'good and bad' [including spook, wraith, wight, vampire, were wolf, pixie]
- FIRE in assorted phrases, eg in the bedstraw;
- FISH assorted phrases WW
- FIVE MINUTE CLAUSE in deed of separation
- FIVE WITS and SEVEN WITS
- FLOGGED BY DEPUTY; Protestant; David's subjects
- FLOWERS; 3 pages, including flora's dial - where plants go in and out of flower, in turn - symbols, emblems
- FOODS: gastronomic curiosities
- FOOLS: the most celebrated court jesters WW
- FRIDAY = dies veneris, Vendredi, famous Fridays, Fridays and the US, and Great Eastern in 1866
- FRIENDSHIPS: mostly classical
- FROZEN WORDS OF PLATO for young people
- FUNERAL CUSTOMS, see flowers at
- GARDEN: of England, Europe, France, Italy etc
- GEE UP/ haw
- GIANTS: mythological, real life
- GIPSY: various words from various countries
- GLOVES
- GOD. Includes: Gods, God's acre [Churchyard], God save the King, God helps those [NOTE: joke about god help those], god sides with the strongest
- GOLDEN AGE. 14 listed, 6 ancient, 8 modern. Golden bowl, golden mean, golden slipper [negro], golden rose, golden thigh, golden legends of saints, etc etc
- GOOD only about a page of references! WW
- GOOSE some entries on this and geese WW
- ORIGIN OF GLASGOW, Glasgow arms
- GREAT, great men social status of, grand, French, 6;
- GREEK PHRASES; kalends; church; Greek fire; gift; life; trust; in New Testament; Green dogs, like dodo; green ribbon day; greenbacks
- GUN. 9 types/ see howitzer, mortar
- HAIRS: the greatest events are often drawn by hairs. 14 examples
- HALL MARK: gold, silver; London, Birmingham, Chester, Exeter, York, Sheffield, Newcastle-on-Tyne, Edinburgh, Dublin, etc; see also mark
- HAND: about 50; handfasting [marriage], hand of cards, hand of justice
- HANGED, 10; hangmen, 13; hangman's fees etc
- HATS: 8 or so examples.
- HEAD, heart: surprisingly few phrases
- HEAVEN: three, five, and seven heavens
- HERALDRY, heralds, herald's college; details of jurisdictions, things like pursuivants, and escutcheons, beasts etc. Cf 'Difference' WW
- HERBS - fennel, lavender from laundress or washing
- HIP HIP HOORAY anti Jewish?/ Hurrah Hebrew/ Ha rou! Notre dame/ ha rollo!
- HOMER. About 11 entries
- HONEY: madness, soap, vinegar better to be preserved in, honeydew, honeymoon
- HONOUR: crushed by honours, honours of war
- HOODS, academic, longer the higher
- HORSES - Derby, Epsom
- HOUSE: housetop paved, house jack built, Hebrew: kid for two zuzim, house leek or Jupiter's beard ['protects against lightning'; see lightning for 3 other 'preservatives'], house flag
- HUNDREDS, Hundred Days of Napoleon, shire divisions, not a hundred miles off, hundred years' war
- ILIAD: One page of references
- IN: 30: in commendam [temporary retention till suitable person found], in fieri [in the course of bring done], in extenso, in extremis, in caena domini [papal bull], in forma pauperis, in loco parentis, in medias res, in memoriam, in nubibus, in partibus [bishop of a see whose title has fallen away], in terrorem [as warning], in toto, in re [in the mater of], in rem, in statu quo [ante]
- INVENTORS PUNISHED BY THEIR OWN INVENTIONS: 16: Bastille, brazen bull, Catherine wheel, Haman's gallows against Jews, Hopkins witchfinder, iron cages of bishop of Verdun, iron shroud, iron maiden, ostracism, perriere to throw stones, man who abolished sanctuary, first Eddystone lighthouse/ NB: Diana Dors: Judge Deacon Brodie who invented trapdoor and was swung off/ SEE ALSO killed by inches, 5 slow deaths
- INVISIBILITY: 14 myths, inc. Gyges ring
- IRELAND: 8 or so names; three tragedies; Irish stew mostly potatoes; Irish wedding black eye joke
- IRON SYMBOL: half gold, half volatile and corrosive; male sex symbol
- JACK: at least four pages of these including nursery rhymes WW
- JERUSALEM. Prophecies about dying in. Jerusalem Delivered, poem by Tasso.
- JEW: wandering. Jew eye and King John's torture. Jews sabbath. Dryden quote
- JUS CIVILE, jus divinum, jus gentium [international law], jus mariti [husband to wife's property]
- JUS DE RÉGLISSE [liquorice. French slang for negro]
- JUS ET NORMA LOQUENDI [right method of speaking established by each nations custom]
- JUSTE MILIEU = golden mean
- KING: 6 pages. Longest entry, with horse: phrases, inc kings men, king's quhaier = copybook, kings cheese goes half in paring; 2500 kings who have hitherto reigned and 35%'s sticky ends; Kings of england - dates; kings of england - styles; kingly titles of all sorts - Judge Hebrew, Pendragon Celts, Khedive modern egypt, scherif mecca and medina, sophi Shah of persia
- KNIGHT: 3 pages, including many jocular: knights of cleaver, handcuffs, order of golden fleece, pencil, post, rainbow, shears, spigot, of the [composing] stick, whip. Also Knights of the Round Table are listed.
- KNOTS marriage tied with tongue; true lovers; knots of May
- LABYRINTH. 8 of these
- LADYBIRD, ladyfly, ladycow, maybug
- LADY 2 pages. Lady of the lake. Lady of the haystack. Ladies and gentlemen after 1808; previously Gentlemen and ladies. Lady day 25 March. Appears to have meant loaf-ward or food-ward
- LANGUAGES: primeval; Italian, French, English, German, Spanish to women, men, birds, horses, gods; English singsong and sibilant according to French; langue d'oc and langue d'Oil from Provencal Oc [yes] and Walloon Oil [yes]/ see Latin
- LANTERN, Chinese feast of lanterns
- LAST: Goths, Greeks, Knights, Mohicans, Romans, Tribunes, troubadours
- LEARN; 8 examples of elderly starters
- LEARN BY HEART: supposed to learn with your heart in it, unlike 'by rote'
- LEFT, LEFTHANDED, sinister, unlucky, left handed marriage, left handed oath
- LETTERS: frequency; frequency of initials; about 10 'inventors' of letters; expletives - l and t in French; things like umlaut, accents, zweipunct
- LIBERTY: civil, moral national, natural, personal, political, religious
- LIBRARY. 'Liber before invention of paper.' About 7 ancient, 7 modern libraries
- LINEN GOODS & WOOL GODS and statute of 1721 fining wearer and seller of Calico, or chintz (latter being printed cloth); presumably to penalize Indians, and support wool and linen trades. 'The law for burying in woollen was of a similar character.' London news-letter of 1768 on smuggling chintz is quoted.
- LINGUA FRANCA: 'Corrupt Italian spoken on the shores of the Mediterranean. The Franks' language mixed with the Italian.'
- LINNAEUS: Applied his system apparently not just to animal and vegetable, but mineral too
- LINE: Romanticism?: Example from Percy's Reliques of great spendthrift, who however on the point of suicide by hanging found chests of treasure
- LINSEY-WOOLSY MILLION: [Note: contempt:] 'The great unwashed.. artisan class.'
- LIONS: [Many entries: Agnomen: 11 men, and one town/ Emblem of Jerome and of Judah and Lion and the True Prince/ Three then two stories, and later others e.g. Una and lion of the Reformation, all more or less of Androcles type/ emblem of resurrection and of Mark the evangelist/ Heraldry; 16 entries inc Coué means cowardly, leopardé means not rampant/ Arms of England and Scotland, and 'Lord Lion King-at-Arms'/ Classical lions/ About thirteen pub lions/ various proverbs/ Lion and unicorn symbol of Scotland and England since 1603: Note: eight other amrs listed here for Edward III, Henry IV, Henry V, etc]
- LONDON; city of the moon; see Augusta, Babylon, Lud's town. London Bridge, begun 1824; Tower Bridge; London stone, central stone from which roads radiated
- LONG MEG, noted virago of Henry VIII time; name given to several things
- LONG WORDS, inc that Welsh village
- LONGCHAMPS Parisians in passion week
- LOOKING GLASSES, mirrors, breaking, bad luck
- LOOM = Anglo Saxon utensil
- LORD: 'loaf author' or 'bread earner'. Lord Lovel and Skeleton, wanderings; Lord Mayors day, Lord Peter = pope, Lord Thomas, lord of creation, Lord of Misrule, Lord of the [Scottish] Isles
- LORETTO: reputed house of virgin Mary at Nazareth
- LOTHAIR by Disraeli
- LOUVRE: origin, tower etc, the opening, hermitage
- LOVE: in mythologies; Love's Labours Lost, lovers leap; loving cup, wassail,
- LOWNDEAN PROFESSOR astronomy Camb; Lucasian prof math Camb
- MAGIC: rings [about 10], wand, 2 magicians - one is Walter Scott!
- MAN: 2 pages. Man in the moon; man of belial; man of blood; man of brass; man of destiny; man of feeling; man of Ross; man of salt; man of sedan; man of straw; man of the hill; man of the world etc
- MARCHING DAY: re Henry VIII [Possibly related to Walking Day in north?]
- MASS. High, low, special; 8 parts
- MASTER of sentences, author of sentences, compilation pro and con theological arguments of the middle ages
- MAY, month of: means to grow
- MIRACLES: Surprisingly short list: VESPASIAN said to have performed two cures/ MAHOMET 'took a scroll of the Koran from the horn of a bull' and six more examples, inc going to heaven on his horse Al Borak. 'And yet we are told that he laid no pretensions to miracles.'/ ABBÉ PARIS buried at the cemetery of St Médard.. 'numberless cures.. at his tomb .. said by Paley to be the best authenticated of any, except those of the Bible.'/ EDWARD THE CONFESSOR AND SOVEREIGNS UP TO QUEEN ANNE .. said to have cured scorbutic diseases..'
- MIRRORS: Six stories mentioned, interestingly none Biblical
- MISERS: 16 famous ones; mostly 18th century
- MISNOMERS; about 90: Absalom means Father's peace/ Acid .. sour.. by no means universal/ America.. Vespucci certainly did not discover../ Ant .. sluggard/ Antelope absurdity for Greek beautiful eye/ Baffin's Bay is no bay/ Burgundy Pitch is not pitch nor etc.. frankincense.. rosin.. palm-oil/ Canopy .. cloth to keep off gnats/ catgut.. gut.. of sheep/ Celandine should be chelidon.. supposed swallows used it/ China and contradictory expressions (cp wooden milestones, brass shoe-horn, iron pen)/ Custard .. from Welsh for curded milk.. but slap on the hand should be "custid"/ Cuttlebone is no bone but a structure of pure chalk embedded in.. cuttlefish../ .. down for adown utterly perverts the meaning.. Saxon dun is an upland.. and a-dun is its opposite/ Dutch clocks are German/ four elements are not elements at all/ .. Fusiliers carry Enfield rifles, not fusils/ ../ German silver was not.. German.. silver.. in use in China time out of mind/ Gothic architecture is not architecture of the Goths/ .. Guineapig a blunder for Guiana not a pig/ greyhound hunts the gray, or badger/ Indians/ Irish stew unknown in ireland/ .. /Japan lacquer contains no lac but is made from the resin of a kind of nut-tree../ Jerusalem artichoke [as in Peacock; who copied whom?]/ laudanum should be ladanum from the leaves of the lada (Pliny)/ Longitude and latitude .. from Atlantic at west to indefinite east, and from Tropic of Cancer northwards latter being 'breadth' or latitude/ lunatics not affected by moon/ natives are oysters grown in artificial beds/ Pen means a feather/ Philippe VI 'the fortunate'/ Pompey's pillar set up by Diocletian/ Prussian blue not from Prussia../ Rice paper is not made of rice/ Sand-blind corruption of sam (half) blind/ Scuttle .. a ship means really to bolt or bar/ Sealing-wax does not contain wax.. [but] shellac, Venice turpentine, and cinnabar/ Sperm oil means seed oil (sic) spawn or melt.. but in fact from head/ Titmouse is a bird/ Toadflax .. is tod flax, flax with tods or clusters/ Turkish baths are not of Turkish origin .. nor baths.. but hot air rooms or thermae/ Ventriloquism is not voice from the stomach/ Well-beloved Louis XIII .. most detestable and detested of all kings/ whalebone is no bone.. attached to the upper jaw of the whale and serves to strain the water../ Wolf's bane a Greek-Teutonic double mistranslation via white bean/ Wormwood from Anglo-Saxon ver mod, man-inspiriting]
- MONTHS: See below under etymology
- MONUMENTAL: Mostly about Christian effigies from say 1100 to about the 17th Centuries; after this I suppose he didn't bother/ includes 7 types of design, five types of figures one being female, types of armour or with children or brasses, saints holy men and founders, Lettering.
- NAVY
- PIGEON: About fifteen entries
- PILGRIMAGE: Seventeen places listed
- PORT, STARBOARD, LARBOARD, French, Anglo-Saxon etc equivalents, lee, luff leeward, windward
- PRECIOUS STONES; and jewels; heraldry, months, zodiac, planets, m and f. See also Koh-i-Nur diamond
- PRINTERS' MARKS: origins of ? ! paragraph sign * and obelisk
- PUB SIGNS: eg Blue Boar, Chequers, Feathers, Marquis of Granby, Green Man, Nags Head, Cross Keys, Black, Blue, Red, White Lion;
- QUADRUPLE ALLIANCE: Examples given, all from European history
- RHINE: Liebenstein and Sternfels, Leoline, Crusades and Templar etc; Rhine traditions
- SALT about a page of proverbs etc WW
- SAXON: Saxon castles/ Saxon characteristics/ Saxon Duke/ Saxon english/ Saxon relics/ Saxon Shore
- SCENE PAINTERS: about twenty are listed including Inigo Jones and Hogarth
- SCHOOLMEN: Twenty listed under three categories: Platonists, Aristotelians, and nominalists
- SCIENCE PERSECUTED: List of ten: Anaxagoras/ Vigilius/ Galileo/ Gebert (and algebra, thought to be magic)/ Bacon/ Faust/ Dee q.v../ Grosseteste/ Averroes/ Andrew Cross who claimed he'd developed animals out of elements and electricity
- SCOT: Scone/ Scot/ Scot-free/ Scot and Lot/ Scots Greys/ Scots wha hae/ Scotch/ Scotch Breakfast/ Scotch Mist/ Scotch Pint/ Scots Pound/ Scots Shiling/ Scotia was Ireland/ Scotists/ Scotland/ Scotland Yahrd/ Scutch
- SERPENT: sea serpent mostly 19C/ many entries inc Hindu hell
- SEVEN: Holy number/ Seven Bibles/ bodies in alchemy/ Champions of Christendom/ Churches of Asia ['it is strange that all these churches, planted by the apostles themselves, are now Mahometan.' Read what Gamaliel said, Acts v 38, 39 (Ephesos/ Smyrna/ Pergamos/ Thyatira/ Sardis/ Philadelphia/ Laodicea) ocel OMITS these] / 'Seven Sages':
Seven Sages of Greece,
(1) Solon of Athens, whose motto was, "Know thyself"
(2) Chilo of Sparta "Consider the end"
(3) Thales of Mile'tos "Who hateth suretyship is sure."
(4) Bias of Prie'ne "Most men are bad."
(5) Cleobu'los of Lindos "The golden mean," or "Avoid extremes."
(6) Pittacos of Mityle'ne "Seize Time by the forelock."
(7) Periander of Corinth "NOTHING is impossible to industry."
First, Solon, who made the Athenian laws,
While Chilo, in Sparta, was famed for his saws;
In Mile'tos did Thales astronomy teach;
Bias used in Prie'ne his morals to preach;
Cleobulos, of Lindos, was handsome and wise;
Mityle'ne 'gainst thraldom saw Pittacos rise;
Periander is said to have gained through his court
The title that Myson, the Chenian, ought.
E.C.B. /
Deadly Sins/ Seven Dials/ Joys of the Virgin/ Sages of Greece/ Senses/ Sisters/ Sleepers/ Sorrows of the Virgin/ Spirits/ Spirits of God/ Virtues/ Seven Week's War 1866 between Prussia and Austria/ Wise Masters/ Wonders of the World/ Seven Years' Lease/ Seven years' War: 'at the end, Silesia was handed over to Prussia'
- SEXTON corruption of sacristan
- SFORZA 'the Italian for force'
- SHIBBOLETH: password of secret society. Biblical origin: Ephraimites were allowed to pass if they said this word, which they pronounced 'sibolleth'
- SLANG, rhyming see chivy
- SPIDER: Robert the Bruce; Frederick; Mohammed; and various old wives tales
- SPORTING SEASONS: [Some fixed by Parliament] Lists Black Game, Blackcock, Buck, Bustard, Red Deer, Male deer, Fallow deer, Eels, Fox, Fox cubs, grouse, Hares, Hind, Moor Game, Oyster, Partrdige, Pheasant, Ptarmigan, Quail, rabbits, Salmon, Trout, Woodcock. Many start in August.
- STIMULANTS of great men
- STINKOMALEE: University College, London, built on site of refuse; at same time Trincomalee 'question was in agitation'
- STOCK EXCHANGE slang: Backwardation, Bears, Berthas, Berwicks, Brums, Bulls, Caleys, Claras, Cohens, Contango, Dogs, Dover, Floaters, Fourteen Hundred, Kite, Lame duck, Leeds, Morgans, Muttons, Pots, Singapores, Smelts, Stag, Yorks.
- SURNAMES, NICKNAMES, CHRISTIAN NAMES: see Brewer/ Brother/ Charles/ Ferguson/ Fenton/ George/ Giles/ Harry/ Henry/ Hugh/ Hugo/ Humphrey/ Isaac/ Isabel/ Isabelle colour of soiled calico/ Jack 4 pages/ Jacques/ James [patron saint of Spain]/ Jane [ill starred name: long list of unhappy Janes]/ Javan son of Japheth/ Jean Crapaud/ Jemmy/ Jenny/ Joan/ John 4 pages inc Popes and royalty, a 'disastrous list'/ Jonah/ Jonathan/ Joseph/ Judas/ Judith/ Julian/ Lawrence/ Leon/ Leonard/ Liza/ Maria/ Mark/ Marthe/ Martin [saint of drunkards/ Martinmas slaughter time Nov 11th]/ Mary [nickname was Malkin/ now Molly/ 4 Marys of queen/ Magdalene a model penitent]/ Lucy/ Luke/ Lydia/ Mab/ Macalpin/ Macflecknoe/ Macgregor/ Macintyre/ Macpherson/ Mactab/ Macaire/ Macbeth/ Maccabaeus the hammerer/ Macdonald/ Macduff/ Macheath/ Machiavelli/ Macintosh/ Margaret/ Matthew/ Max/ Michael, Michaelmas Sept 29, rents etc/
- TRAFA: [Hebrew or Yiddish for 'shit' known in medieval England]
- TREES: Huge list given of oldest, biggest etc
- TRIPLE ALLIANCE: Examples given, all from European History
- VENUS: Love, coper, 2nd planet/ Statues/ Capitoline/ aCnova/ uranaian/ astrology/ whelp/ Island of Venus/ 'several parallel Edens' are listed/ Anadyomene/ Genetrix/ Victrix/ de Medicis/ of Cnidus/ of Milo/ Venusberg
- WINDS:
- WINES: Includes list of names given by French to wines depending their effects/ potted history of drinking healths
[2] PRACTICES, FABLES OF VARIOUS RELIGIONS AND GROUPS
[See 'Seven Bibles']
- ARABIC: Fables, eg Cid, Kedar's tents;
- ANGLO-SAXONS
- BUDDHIST: e.g. Karma;
- CATHOLIC: meanings of this WW
- CHRISTIAN: expressions, angels, vestments, temperature of hell, compline, councils, apostles, defender of the faith awarded by Pope, Elohim and Jehovah in the Bible mean different authors?, emblems, Encratites a heretic, epiphany, era as determined by 9 sources, evangelists' symbols, fagots, feasts, four letters of God, free spirits, friars, gopher wood - 10 interpretations, graceless Florin, godless Florin, grail and greal, heretic = one who chooses, about 50, host=victim, hypostatic union, impanation Lutheran, index librorum prohibitorum & expurgatorius, infallibility 1870, interdiction like excommunication but of towns etc, Isidorian decretals or false decretals, John Anderson My Jo like Green Sleeves and Maggy Lauder anti-Catholic, Kyrie Eleison, ; mass; monastic - see eg Franciscans for detail;
- HERESIES: WW has a list but doesn't begin to approach the huge total number; they're all from the early church.
- Reason, Goddess of, during French Revolution - WW says 'blasphemous parody' etc
- EGYPTIAN: Isis sister-wife of Osiris, Mamelukes slaves from Caucasus;
- GREEK: three dramatic unities;
- HINDU: e.g. Juggernaut, Krishna, 5 Ms of asceticism, mahatma;
- ISLAM: five duties, Karoon the Croesus of Islam, Mahomet about 40 entries; some separate, eg Kaswa Mohammed's favourite camel, Kederli a St George equivalent, Musulman, Koran means reading, scripture writing, Mohammedan hell see Jehennam; (Paradise - list of his wives and other things WW)
- JEWISH: end of the world, mazikeen or shedeem = beings like genii;
- LATIN: Hercules
- PARSEE: lick the butter from forehead;
- PERSIAN: Darius is Darawesh, Kaianian dynasty, Mani painter and founder of Manichaeans;
- RED INDIAN: eg Kabibonokka;
HELL: Hells of assorted religions are itemised in WW
[3] ETYMOLOGIES OR SUPPOSED ETYMOLOGIES
- BEEFEATERS
- BILBO sword after Bilbao - typical once-importnat place name derivation
- 'BILL' - about a page of bills of this and that
- BY-BLOW (one of many?) word for illegitimate child; also natural child WW
- CARTRIDGE PAPER
- COCKTAIL bogus etymology from South American, says WW
- CUTHBERT newspaper insult to non WW1 combatants WW
- CUTPURSE and PICKPOCKET reflect when purses and pockets were worn
- DICKENS in Shakespeare! WW
- DIRTY SHIRTS
- GLACIS ETC:
- HUMBUG: Suggested etymology from Italian 'lying man'
- KLAUS, SANTA KLAUS, [Santa Claus], Kriss Kringle
- KNAVE: lad, garcon, servant
- KNIGHT means simply a boy
- LEWD simply meant folk in general: [NOTE: many words like this:] Villain, boor, clown, rascal [these four are Anglo-Saxon lower classes, says Christopher Hill] lewd, bondsman, hussy [see earlier], idiot, peasant, libertine, knave, manure, blackguard or black-guard, ?slave from Slav, possibly Celt, ?crook, ?varlet, ?simple, ?churl, ?oaf, ?folk, ?people; 'forgery' seems to come from 'forge'. 'Wider range from poor to wealthy, ignorant to erudite, from the powerless to the shiftless [in larger populations].' Note word 'shiftless'. 'Bigot' apparently may be a Norman expression; I'd like to think it's from the Bigods in East Anglia. Also 'livid' and 'disinterested' and 'complacent' and maybe 'nice'. Meaning of 'pompous' too seems to have (but check!) diverged from its meaning as, presumably, related to ceremonial; significant of change of attitude? 'Squire' and 'Lord' and 'Bishop' and 'Vicar' and other titles don't seem, at least yet, to have succumbed to this process.
- LUCUS A NON LUCENDE: etymological contradiction such as black from bleach, or whiten; beldam, hag; bellum, beautiful thing from war; calid from cold; etc speaker never makes speeches. NOTE: possible basis for 'he can make black into white'
- MAHATMA Sanskrit WW
- METAMORPHIC WORDS: [Note: etymology] obsolete word used again: chestnut for castnut; court cards for coat cards; currants for corinths; frontispiece for frontispicium; isinglass for hausen blase; shame-faced for shamefast as steadfast; sweetheart for sweethard, as drunkard, dullard, dotard, sluggard
- MIDWIFE: 'With wife'
- MINISTER: 'means an inferior person, in opposition to magister, a superior. .. the minister serves the parish or congregation; and the minister of the Crown is the sovereign's servant. ..'
- MONTAGUE: Romeo & Juliet: crest from mountain with peaked crest, mont-agu
- MONTHS: Includes Latin, Dutch, Saxon, French Republican etc words [though Brewer never seems to doubt that twelve is the 'correct' number of months, except perhaps in reference to the 'Alban' calendar pre-Julius and Augustus, which seems to have had ten months] E.g. Jan = frosty-month, Feb = vegetation month or sprout-kele (another note says kele is colewort, the great pot-wort of the ancient Saxons..) or sun month or rain month, March = lengthening-month or rough month or windy month, April = opening, or grass-month, or Easter = orient or Paschal month, May = softening month or blossoming month or three milch, June = soldiers of the state or summer-month [sic] or dry-month or meadow-month, July = fifth month or hay month or harvest month, August = in honour of Augustus Caesar's three triumphs of reducing Egypt and ending civil wars etc = weed month (where weed signifies vegetation in general) = thermidor or hot month, september = seventh or autumn month, barley month, holy month, October = wine month, winter full moon etc, November = slaughter or blood month, wind month, or Brumaire = fog month/ December = midwinter month or anti-yule or frimaire = hoar-frost month
- MOON: Measure, related to Sanskrit matram, Greek metron, says Brewer/ Lot about gender in different languages/ Hecate, Astarte=Ashtaroth, Diana=Cynthia, Selene =Luna, Endymion, Phoebe as sister of sun/ phrases like island of the moon = Madagascar, cry for the moon, cast beyond the moon, level at the moon, elephant in the moon
- NEARSIDE, OFFSIDE - derivation from horse drawn carriages WW
- PIOU PIOU for French soldiers; from stealing chickens?
- PUS: bogus etymoloy from French le pus = hare, says WW
- REDUPLICATED WORDS = RICOCHET WORDS eg click-clack, hoity-toity WW
- SANGREAL pop etymology 'used to' explain as 'real blood' of Christ WW
- SCEPTIC 'one who think for himself' Gk skeptesthai, to examine. ... WW
- SCOTCH, SCOTTISH various disputes
- SCOTLAND A FIEF OF ENGLAND - evidence given WW
- SLUGHORN is a ghost-word
- SPORT OAK: Various phrases in sense of exhibit, from French supporter, to sustain or carry, says Brewer]
- SUN: Elohim=God=sun in Hebrew
- SUPERSTITIONS; London life, cockney, costermongers etc; alchemy; chivalry; Bohemia, Hungary, Turkey, E and W Indies etc; American Indians; European legends, eg Breche de Roland; cries like ça ira; alloys like pinchbeck; calendar; calumet= peace pipe; Beltane; Cunobelin's gold mines; phrases with cap; first catch your hare; status and rank, eg Lord Chancellor; clear out for Guam; conqueror's nose; architecture - column, Doric; Copperheads secret foes; Corea, dancing mania in U.S.; legal - corpus delicti; Coryphaeus of grammarians; delight to make light; Diomedean swop; dine with Mahomet; Dunmow flitch; Elijah's melons on Mount Carmel; Ferrex and Porrex; Fian, schoolmaster in Scotland tortured to death; sword = fiddlestick; toaster; fingers and symbolism; freemason; nolo episcopare; fumare=tax on fires; shittim wood = acacia; Grace Darling & the American Grace Darling; grammar; harness prize for Shakespeare Cambridge every 3 years; jack and 'axle tree' of carriage;
creatures; coat of arms; towns, cities; proper names; vulgar phrases, not worth a dam, cripple; Damien's bed of steel; hawking- coystrel; enter a house right foot foremost;
- TYPOGRAPHICAL SIGNS - obelisk etc etc etc WW
- VENISON = 'anything taken in hunting' from Latin, now restricted to deer
- VENTRE-SAINT-GRIS! = swear word involving corrupt form of Christ; the entry has many similar things, e.g. including e.g. Criss cross; I imagine tucked away here for decency; 'swear' doesn't acknowledge the popular meaning
=====
Bo! Bogie etc Fi! Fiasco go to
Goodbye as god be with you
Gee and Haw supposed to be left, right
Bandy about
Go the whole hog
Curry favour
Pork, Pig
Up the spout [pawnbroking allusion]
===
OMITTED:
POSH as Port outward, starboard home later edition says false ref
Redneck not in there. Said in Websters to be tanned; other explanation is form of skin disease believed characteristic of poor dirty whites
CAMP also not there: 'Known as male Prostitute' says Brigid Brophy
[4] LITERATURE (MOSTLY SOURCES OF STORIES)
CHAUCER
MILTON ['Borrowed from St Avitus his description of Paradise.. Satan.. and many other parts of Paradise Lost. He also borrowed.. from Du Bartas (1544-1591), who wrote an epic poem entitled The Wreck of Creation, which was translated into almost every European language. St Avitus wrote in Latin hexameters The Creation, The Fall, and The Expulsion from Paradise. (460-525).'
SHAKESPEARE
[5] PEOPLE, INDIVIDUALS
- Becky Sharp as exemplar of young woman with cunning WW
- Bellarmine WW
- Bess of Hardwick took care harshly of Mary Queen of Scots WW
- Caudle as in Jerrold
- Cockney ('a cock's egg') among other things, meant someone with no knowledge of the countryside. There's a slurring reference to a Cockney school of writers - insult cp Lake school WW
- Highland Mary of Burns is (it seems) a fantasy WW
- Shakespeare story repeated in its usual absurdity in WW
[6] MISCELLANEOUS
- Beauty and the Beast, origin WW
- Brands: M manslaughter, F felony
- Dudman [dodman?] in Cornwall WW
- ego and non ego: Fichte 1762-1814; see idealism
- El Dorado WW
- Elvira from Don Giovanni/ & Giovanni
- E pluribus unum. Unity composed of many parts
- Fenians with list of 'outrages' WW
- Freemasons specifically stated to be a 17th century secret society (i.e. presuambly pre-French Revolution) WW
- 3 Fs platform of Irish League 1880: free tenure, fixed rent, free sale
- Aesop and fables; there were lots of 'Aesops'
- 'Brute' is the mythological first king of Britons
- Africa: Caesar tripped and fell, then pretended to kiss the soil
- Ebionism: 'Doctrine [i.e. heresy?] that the poor only shall be saved'
- Fehmgericht 12-16 century, Westphalia secret tribunals with spies and executioners. 'For maintenance of catholic religion'
- Femme Covert, Femme couvert: Note: Sex: gives list of things married women wore, presumably to distinguish them from single ones [feme-sole] in Rome, Greece, Hungary, Bible etc; 'as a rule married women have always covered their heads'.
- Fenians formed in New York
- Fieri facias, fi fa
- Fifth Monarchy men
- Fighting the tiger = gambling in US
- Figures from fingers: Roman numerals 1 11 11 1111 and V=hand simplified to a v. Ten is two vs, an X. [Compare Goodstein's idea on formation idea on formation of 'Arabic' numerals]
- Flute. Magic flute
- Forma pauperis
- Forty a superstitious number/ fourteen coincidences/
- Fuchs = fox = German freshman; 2nd year a bursch
- Gabriel the angel of death; see Ithuriel; and Zephon
- Galvanism: vigorous description of its discovery from frogs cut up or dissected for soup
- Garlick and loadstones: 'vulgar error' that Garlic reduces magnetism; note: compare the idea that pyramids sharpen blades
- Gautama 'chief deity of Burma' Buddhist. Paper umbrella
- Madness; St Fillan and other wells supposed to be efficacious - I found another reference but can't relocate it WW
- Mulatto etc. Brewer always assumes white father
- Gessler, Austrian governor, and William Tell
- Ginevra trapped in a trunk with a spring lock
- Girl: origins of this word?
- Globe of glass
- Glorious uncertainty of the law: toast drunk in 1756
- Gluckists and Piccinists; rivalry 1774-1780 in Paris
- Gregory, Gregorian
- Grimm's law
- Gubbings, Anabaptists of Devon who 'lived in holes'; Gymnosophists
- Guendolen
- Habeas corpus passed in reign of Charles II
- Habsburg and origin in Hawks tower, 11 century castle on right bank of the Aar
- Hadith: traditions about Mahomet's sayings, like Jewish Gemara
- Siegfried etc: see Hagan, Drachenfels, Kriemhild, Brunehild
- Hair eels; hair of the dog; red hair; hair brained
- Halifax law: kind of guillotine
- Happy, only 7 entries, including .. as a clam at high tide/ Arabia felix, mistranslation/ Happy the people whose annals are tiresome, Montesquieu
- Hare; phobia
- Hecate: 2 of these, each with three parts [NOTE: Trinity origin?]
- Hexameter and pentameter, see also Leonine verse
- Hiawatha
- hidalgo = spanish lower nobility
- Hieroclean: first joke collector
- Hinc illae lacrymae. The real offence, the true secret of annoyance
- Holland: land of paradoxes
- Holy alliance: Russia, Prussia, Austria
- Honest lawyer
- Hopkins: Essex witchfinder
- Horn: 2 pages on this
- Hospital from 'guest'; Hospitallers and Templars
- John Howard, penal investigator; Elizabeth Fry
- Hugger mugger. poss related to 'mug'
- Hulda, [?German] goddess of marriage & fecundity; snowing = making her bed
- Hunting two hares, proverb for dividing one's own efforts; NOTE: Compare eggs in one basket
- Hurry, the word, 'is similar in Arabic, French, German, Armenian, Mahouts, Ireland.'
- Husband and bondsman from Norwegian bonde, farmer; no connection with bondage
- Hussar = huss is Hungarian for 20. Every 20 families provided horse soldier
- Hussy, housewife; morther, mother; mor, bor in Norfolk from Dutch moer women, boer peasant, whence boor
- Ice brook sword
- Ich dien = behold the man
- Ichneumon resembles a weasel; supposed to eat out ?crocodiles
- Idiot originally a private person, not in public service
- Iduna in Scandinavian myth; Junner; Lidskialfa; Loki; Loki's children; Manheim;
- Ignatius Loyola, IHS monogram, 'had miraculous knowledge of the Trinity', see Jesuit, expulsions, and suppression by Clement XIV, but it revived
- Ignoramus seems to have been a legal term
- Imbecile one who leans on a stick
- Impossibilities: gathering grapes from thistles, and other folk phrases
- Indenture: skin written on was divided, so matching edge
- Insane root: hemlock
- Inter: 13, inc inter Caesa et Porrecta, slaughter of sacrifice, means 'cup and lip'; inter nos = entre nous = between us; inter pocula [during drinking]
- Iron age, dark age, lead age [different from 'Iron Age' in modern usage]
- Iron mask: gives the man in the. Plus another ten or so possibles!
- Iron crown of Lombardy 'made of crucifixion nail.' Charlemagne & Napoleon crowned with it
- Iron maiden of Nuremburg
- Isle of Man, see keys, house of
- Isthmian games, held in Corinth every alternate spring
- Isthmus of Suez and St Johns College Cambridge
- Its [i.e. the word] not used till 17th cent. Chatterton forgery
- Jack Pudding, Hans Wurst, Jean Potage etc- buffoons named after food
- Jacquerie 1358 France
- Jedwood justice, Cupar justice, Abingdon law
- Jeronimo in 'a Spanish Tragedy' by Kyd
- Gargantua, 1 page
- Gone to Jericho = no one knows where
- Jim Crow: 1836 first Nigger Minstrel
- Jingo from Basque word for God. 1877 Russophobes were convinced the Czar intended to take possession of Constantinople, and command the Black Sea, endangering our Indian possessions.
- Job's comforter: says you brought it on yourself, makes it worse
- John Bull: bluff, bull-headed farmer
- Judge's black cap and tradition; judges' robes
- June marriages are happy belief
- Jury mast, temporary [for the day, jour] spar when mast has been carried away
- Ka ma, ka thee one good turn etc. Walter Scott
- Kansas, bloody, and prelude to American Civil War
- Katerfelto a quack. 1782 exhibited a solar microscope and showed infusoria
- Kebla point of adoration eg rising sun, Jerusalem, Mecca, east. [Note: derived from sun worship, then secularise?]. Kebla-noma = Moslem compass
- Myrmidons: rough fellow employed to annoy others. Followed Achilles at Troy
- Keep your powder dry; dragonet ballads, in love and war
- Kensington gardens and Oberon, King of the fairies
- Ketchup from Japanese
- Kettle of fish: set up near a Salmon river on a picnic
- Android is a Greek word
- Keys and superstition of night-mare at stables and cow houses
- Keys and St Peter with 2 keys
- Keystone state, Pennsylvania
- Khorassan = province of Persia
- Kick, or bit, = smallest silver coin
- Get their kicks, of monkeys. Kick and chic.
- Kill with kindness of Draco, smothered under caps and cloaks
- Kilwinning, Ayr, Scotland, 'cradle of Freemasonry'
- Kindhart, dentist's name
- Kiss as mode of salutation; kissing Pope's toe
- Kitcat
- Kists and Kits Coty House
- Kite flying; stock-exchange, legal, = light weight
- Maudlin: ancient painters show M Magdalene with lackadaisical face, weeping
- Know Nothings, secret society 1853, should be 21 years in US
- Korrigans: Breton mythology. 'Nine fays of wonderful powers'
- Kremlin: description
- Ku-klux-klan based on Molly Maguires and Moonlighters of Ireland, Brewer says
- Kursaal = public room at German watering-place
- NOTE: US and British English: see 'regular guy' under 'hats' for meaning very different from modern US
- Lance Corporal, Lance Sergeant etc, temporary, taken from the ranks
- Lang syne, Auld lang syne not by Burns
- Law's Bubble, French South Sea Bubble, 1716-1720
- Lawyer's bags, red, blue, robing rooms etc
- Lazar, Lazarus, Lazarone in Naples
- Lead [the metal] was known as Saturn
- Leander, and Byron's swim
- Leap year marriage proposals
- Legem pone, ready money on 25th, ?pony
- Lemnian deed [cruelty]; Lemnian women [killed husbands]
- Lemon sole from French limonde, dab or flat fish
- Nothing like leather: proverbially about one's own self interest
- Leonidas of Greece, 1823, routed 40000 Turco-Albanians at Kerpenisi
- Leprecaun a fairy shoemaker; see also lubberkin, lubrican
- Lestrigons 'giants who lived in Sicily'.. Ulysses
- Levant and ponent winds. [East wind, west wind. Note: connection with 'exponent'?]
- Levee - custom for Queens of France. Extended to physician, secretary etc
- Lex non scripta. [Unwritten law?] Common law as distinguished from statute or written law
- Lex talionis: tit for tat, law of retaliation
- Lia Fail, fatale marmor or stone of destiny of Ireland, moved to Scone, thence to Westminster
- Libel meant 'little book'
- Liber albus: laws and customs of the city of London, compiled 1419
- Libya the Greek word for Africa
- Lich a dead body - Anglo-Saxon and German word for 'corpse'
- Lick into shape, myth about bear cubs being shapeless until licked
- Lick the dust, Psalm 72.9
- Lieutenant French word for locum-tenens
- Flotsam, jetsam, ligan [Later is: tied to buoy to be found again]
- Light gains make a heavy purse, economics maxim in France, Italy
- Lilith and Talmudists, wife before Eve; Biblical invention to reconcile Genesis 1 with Genesis 2. She left paradise, refusing to submit to Adam
- Lilliburlero, never had so slight a thing etc, Irish papists in their massacres of the Protestants in 1641. Contributed to 1688 Great Revolution
- Limbo: Limbus fatuorum, fool's paradise: fools are not responsible for their works, not punished in purgatory, but cannot be received into heaven
- Limbus patrum, half way house between earth and heaven for prophets etc
- Limbus peurorum, children's paradise
- Linden tree: a number of figures were turned into trees
- Lines, Read between the; simple cipher - every other line
- Lion British, and Unicorn Scottish
- Lion's head, and water outlet association, because Nile flooded when sun in Leo
- Lion's share an Aesop's fable: take it if you can
- Lisbon from Ulysses?
- Lloyd's coffee house, books, list, register, rooms
- Locofocos, US ultra radicals, 1835
- Locus delicti, place where crime was committed
- Locus poenitentiae: licence of drawing back from a bargain
- Log rolling: ab helps cd, then cd will help ab
- Logan stones, rocking stones: many have been damaged
- Lombards, lombardy, longobards, Medici, three gold balls
- Lucrezia Borgia
- Luna another name for Genoa
- Lusiad, story of da Gama's travels
- Lustral waters, for aspersing worshippers; found in churches, Indian pagodas, Egypt etc; lustrum, every five years
- Lutherans; originally contemptuous. Luther's hymns
- Luz, luez; indestructible residue of bone [for re-incarnation]
- Lying for the whetsone, exaggeration contest;
- Lyre; a few notes
- Mac from Gothic Magus a son
- MB waistcoat 'mark of the beast'
- Macaroni from macaroni club; macaronic = dog latin, modern words with Latin endings; macaronic verse
- Maelstrom
- Magazine [the word] comes from Arabic for store
- Magdeburg centuries; Protestant history of church begun 152
- Magenta, coal tar; and a battle 1859
- Maggot a whim, fancy
- Magneuse French; fille de joie = prostitute
- Maid Marian, morris dance
- Main chance in dice game called 'Hazard'
- Maize: blood red ear means maid will have a suitor before year is over
- Malherbe's canons of French poetry. 5 rules
- Man of the hill: tedious hermit in Tom Jones
- Mandamus. Writ = we command..
- Mandarin: not a Chinese word, but by Portuguese in Macao to Khiouping. 9 ranks distinguished by the button in their cap
- Manna. Biblical; and an Italian poison
- Manon Lescaut - woman leading man astray
- Manure meant hand-work, tillage by manual labour
- Mardi Gras
- Marriage knot; marriage plats; marriages - close times in the Catholic church; made in heaven; of men of genius; women take husband's surname a Roman custom
- Marrow a Scots word for companion, friend; part of Newcastle, Geordie, dialect
- Marseilles good bishop who helped in plague
- Mason and Dixon line
- Maté tea, Paraguay
- Matriculate [enrol], Alma Mater, alumni
- Maunds, maundy Thursday
- May meetings: list of religious and charitable societies in England
- Mazzini and secret societies, young Italy, watchwords liberty equality and humanity, banner white, red, green
- Meals: times
- Meat, bread 'both mean food in general'
- Medicinal days: 6,8,10,12 &c. Hippocrates says no crisis occurs on them
- Melons: at St Cyr, newcomers called this
- Meng-tse, Latinised into Mencius
- Mermaid: a dugong?
- Merovingian from 'Merovius, a Latin form of Merwig, great warrior. .. Clovis is Clot-wig, noted warrior' (Brewer doesn't say in which language)
- Merrie England: illustrious?
- Merry Dun of Dover: Note: imagination: mythical giant ship of Scandinavian mythology
- Mess meaning four; several in Shakespeare. 'Company arranged in fours'
- Metalogicus, by John of Salisbury 'object to expose the absurdity and injurious effects of dialectics and metaphysics.'
- Metals, in alchemy, 7
- Metathesis: transposition, of the Spoonerism sort. [Spooner omitted]
- Methodism: 'Word in use many centuries before the birth of Wesley' [cp Eysenck on introvert, extravert] Before Christ, Celsus 'tells us' that 'methodici' followed rules rather than medical experience
- Metropolitan: England, Ireland, R.C.
- Mews: stables, or hawks moulting...
- Mexitli. Tutelary God of the Aztecs in whose honour they named their empire Mexico
- Micah Rood's apples: with spot of red, like blood, at the heart
- Midsummer Night's Dream; like other Shakespeare, treated here as rewritten from other sources; fairly full plot description
- Midwife: with the woman
- Minerva Press: 'c 1800.. trashy, ultra-sentimental novels' [Cp Mills & Boon]
- Mississippi Bubble: French version of South Sea Bubble here dated 1717-1720
- 'Monster': Note: crime: prowled London wounding respectable women.. 1790
- Montagnards: 'extreme democratic politicians.. Fr Revolution'; cp 'the plain'
- Mont St Michel, 'in Normandy, formerly Belem.. arrows to charm away storms'
- Montem: Eton school custom; see notes on leys
- Morganatic marriage: see \notes\aristocracy
- Patron Saint e.g. of Scotland the allegedly first 'Saint' who converted the inhabitants; i.e. combination of nationalism with religion
- Pipeclay = fossilized military dogmas; cp red tape
- Port: see Methuen Treaty: 1703-1836 Portuguese wines less duty than French
- Sarsen Stones
- Sartor resartus
- Sash Window from French chassis, sash or groove
- Satan: entry from Milton Paradise Lost
- Satanic School: Southey called Byron. Brewer adds Shelley, Moore, Lytton and in French Rousseau, Hugo, de Kock, George Sand
- Satire: etymology from 'full of variety', not satyr
- 'Save the mark' or 'God save the mark' an expression from archery
- Scandal-broth: tea. [Cp Kaffeeklatsch/ 'Coffee scandal']
- Scapegoat ceremonies [in effect, from anthropology]
- Scorpion: kind of whip/ Note: hair-of-dog idea: supposed to have oil which is antidote to own venom
- Scullabogue Massacre: 1798 Irish rebellion. Wexford. People burnt alive
- Smugglers: see light horsemen. Stolen goods' nicknames. Fence
- St Cyr: WW says near Paris; was it moved to Brittany?
- Stone monuments: WW lists many eg cheesewring, stonehenge
- Tan: 'stifled sound of wheels on the straw or tan littered in the street' ['To Be Taken with a Grain of Salt', Dickens, Summers I p 203]
- Venomous Preacher Robert Traill (1642-1716)
- Ventriloquism 'speaking from the belly'. The best 'Brabant of Francis I'
[7] OMISSIONS
- Hesse, Hessians WW
- Execution
May 1997 Notes. Some marked WW are from a cheap 'Wordsworth' reprint, which however had been revised; it may be later than Brewer
