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Dictionary of Phrase and Fable

E. Cobham Brewer From The Edition Of 1894

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C

This letter is the outline of the hollow of the hand, and is called in Hebrew caph (the hollow of the hand).

C.

The French, c, when it is to be sounded like s, has a mark under it ; this mark is called a cedilla. (A diminutive of z; called zeta in Greek, ceda in Spanish.)

C

There is more than one poem written of which every word begins with C. For example: (1) One composed by HUEBALD in honour of Charles le Chauve. It is in Latin hexameters and runs to somewhat more than a hundred lines, the last two of which are

“Conveniet claras claustris componere cannas

Completur clarus carmen cantabile CALVIS.”

(2) One by HAMCONIUS, called “Certamen catholicum cum Calvinistis.” (3) One by HENRY HARDER, of 100 lines in Latin, on “Cats,” entitled: “Canum cum Catis certamen carmine compositum currente calamo C. Catulli Caninii.” The first line is—

“Cattorum canimus certamina clara canumque.”

Cats' canine caterwauling contests chant.

See M and P for other examples.

Ca Ira

(it will go). Called emphatically Le Carillon National of the French Revolution (1790). It went to the tune of the Carillon National, which Marie Antoinette was for ever strumming on her harpsichord.

“Ca Ira”

was the rallying cry borrowed by the Federalists from Dr. Franklin of America, who used to say, in reference to the American revolution, “Ah! ah! ca ira, ca ira!” ('twill be sure to do). The refrain of the carillon is—

Ha! ha! It will speed, it will speed, it will speed! Resistance is vain, we are sure to succeed.

Caaba

(3 syl.). The shrine of Mecca, said by the Arabs to be built on the exact spot of the tabernacle let down from heaven at the prayer of repentant Adam. Adam had been a wanderer for 200 years, and here received pardon. The shrine was built, according to Arab tradition, by Ishmael, assisted by his father Abraham, who inserted in the walls a black stone “presented to him by the angel Gabriel.”

Cab

A contraction of cabriolet (a little caperer), a small carriage that scampers along like a kid.

Cabal A junto or council of intriguers. One of the Ministries of Charles II. was called a cabal (1670), because the initial letters of its members formed this acrostic: Clifford, Ashley, B uckingham, Arlington, and

Lauderdale. This accident may have popularised the word, but, without doubt, we borrowed it from the French cabale, “an intriguing faction,” and Hebrew cabala, “secret knowledge.” A junto is merely an assembly; Spanish, junta, a council. (See Notarica; Tammany Ring .)

“In dark cabals and mighty juntos met.” Thomson

“These ministers were emphatically called the Cabal, and they soon made the appellation so infamous that it has never since ... been used except as a term of reproach.”— Macaulay: England, vol. i. chap. ii. p. 165.

Cabala

The oral law of the Jews delivered down from father to son by word of mouth. Some of the rabbins say that the angel Raziel instructed Adam in it, the angel Japhiel instructed Shem, and the angel Zedekiel instructed Abraham; but the more usual belief is that God instructed Moses, and Moses his brother Aaron, and so on from age to age.

N.B.— The promises held out by the cabala are: the abolition of sin and sickness, abundant provision of all things needful for our well—being during life, familiar intercourse with deity and angels, the gift of languages and prophecy, the power of transmuting metals, and also of working miracles.

Cabalist

A Jewish doctor who professed the study of the Cabala, a mysterious science said to have been delivered to the Jews by revelation, and transmitted by oral tradition. This science consisted mainly in understanding the combination of certain letters, words, and numbers, said to be significant.

Cabalistic

Mystic word—juggling. (See Cabalist .)

Caballero

A Spanish dance, grave and stately; so called from the ballad—music to which it was danced. The ballad begins—

“Esta noche le mataron al caballero.”

Cabbage

It is said that no sort of food causes so much thirst as cabbage, especially that called colewort. Pausanias tells us it first sprang from the sweat of Jupiter, some drops of which fell on the earth. Coelius, Rhodiginus, Ovid, Suidas, and others repeat the same fable.

“Some drops of sweat happening to light on the earth produced what mortals call cabbage.”—

R. ibelais: Pantagruel, book iv. (Prologue).

Cabbage

(To). To filch. Sometimes a tailor is called “cabbage,” from his pilfering cloth given him to make up. Thus in Motteux's Rabelais, iv. 52, we read of “Poor Cabbage's hair.” (Old French, cabas, theft, verb cabasser; Dutch, kabassen; Swedish, grabba; Danish, griber, our grab,)

“Your tailor, instead of shreds, cabbages whole yards of cloth.”— Arbuthnot's John Bull.

Cabbage is also a common schoolboy term for a literary crib, or other petty theft.

Cabinet Ministers

The chief officers of state in whom the administrative government is vested. It contains the First Lord of the Treasury (the Premier), the Lord High Chancellor, Lord President of the Council, Lord Privy Seal, Chancellor of the Exchequer, six Secretaries of State, the First Lord of the Admiralty, Lord Lieutenant and Lord Chancellor of Ireland, President of the Board of Trade, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, the President of the Board of Agriculture. The five Secretaries of State are those of the Home

Department, Foreign Affairs, Colonies, War, India, and Chief—Secretary to the Lord—Lieutenant of Ireland. Sometimes other members of the Government are included, and sometimes one or two of the above left out of the Cabinet. These Ministers are privileged to consult the Sovereign in the private cabinet of the palace.

Cabiri

Mystic divinities worshipped in ancient Egypt, Phoenicia, Asia Minor, and Greece. They were inferior to the supreme gods, (Phoenician, kabir, powerful.)

Cable's Length

100 fathoms.

Some think to avoid a difficulty by rendering Matthew xix. 24 “It is easier for a cable to go through the eye of a needle ...”, but the word is , and the whole force of the passage rests on the “impossibility” of the thing, as it is distinctly stated in Mark x. 24, “How hard is it for them that trust in [their] riches, epi toiz crhmasiu... “ It is impossible by the virtue of money or by bribes to enter the kingdom of heaven. (See page 205, col. 1, Camel.)

Cabochon

(En). Uncut, but only polished; applied to emeralds, rubies, and other precious stones. (French, cabochon.)

Cachecope Bell

A bell rung at funerals, when the pall was thrown over the coffin. (French, cache corps, cover over the body.)

Cachet

(pron. cahshay). Lettres de cachet (letters sealed). Under the old French régime, carte—blanche warrants, sealed with the king's seal, might be obtained for a consideration, and the person who held them might fill in any name. Sometimes the warrant was to set a prisoner at large, but it was more frequently for detention in the Bastille. During the administration of Cardinal Fleury 80,000 of these cachets were issued, the larger number being against the Jansenists. In the reigns of Louis XV. and XVI. fifty—nine were obtained against the one family of Mirabeau. This scandal was abolished January 15th, 1790.

Cacodæ'mon

An evil spirit. Astrologers give this name to the Twelfth House of Heaven, from which only evil prognostics proceed. (Greek, kakos daimon.)

“Hie thee to hell for shame, and leave the world,

Thou cacodemon.”

Shakespeare: Richard III., i.3.

Cacoethes

(Greek). A “bad habit.”

Cacoethes loquendi.

A passion for making speeches or for talking.

Cacoethes scribendi.

The love of rushing into print; a mania for authorship.

Cacus

A famous robber, represented as three—headed, and vomiting flames. He lived in Italy, and was strangled by Hercules. Sancho Panza says of the Lord Rinaldô and his friends, “They are greater thieves than Cacus.” (Don Quixote.)

Cad

A low, vulgar fellow; an omnibus conductor. Either from cadet, or a contraction of cadger (a packman). The etymology of cad, a cadendo, is only a pun. N.B.— The Scotch cadie or cawdic (a little servant, or

errand—boy, or carrier of a sedan—chair), without the diminutive, offers a plausible suggestion.

“All Edinburgh men and boys know that when sedan—chairs were discontinued, the old cadies sank into ruinous poverty, and became synonymous with roughs. The word was brought to London by James Hannay, who frequently used it.”— M. Pringle.

Caddice

or Caddis. Worsted galloon, crewel. (Welsh, cadas, brocade; cadach is a kerchief; Irish, cadan.)

“He hath ribands of all the colours i' the rainbow; ... caddisses, cambrics, lawns.”— Shakespeare: Winter's Tale, iv. 3.

Caddice—garter.

A servant, a man of mean rank. When garters were worn in sight, the gentry used very expensive ones, but the baser sort wore worsted galloon ones. Prince Henry calls Poins a “caddice—garter.” (1 Henry IV., ii. 4.)

“Dost hear,

My honest caddis—garter?”

Glapthorne: Wit in a Constable, 1639.

Caddy

A ghost, a bugbear. A caddis is a grub, a bait for anglers.

“Poor Mister Leviathan Addy!

Lo! his grandeur so lately a sun,

Is sinking (sad fall!) to a caddy.”

Peter Pindar: Great Cry and Little Wool, epistle 1.

Cade

Jack Cade legislation. Pressure from without. The allusion is to the insurrection of Jack Cade, an Irishman, who headed about 20,000 armed men, chiefly of Kent, “to procure redress of grievances” (1450).

“You that love the commons, follow me;

Now show yourselves men; 'tis for liberty.

We will not leave one lord, one gentleman:

Spare none but such as go in clouted shoon.”

Shakespeare: 2 Henry VI., iv. 2.

Cader Idris

or Arthur's Seat. If any man passes the night sitting on this “chair,” he will be either a poet or a madman.

Cadessia

(Battle of) gave the Arabs the monarchy of Persia. (A.D. 636.)

Cadet

Younger branches of noble families are called cadets, because their armorial shields are marked with a difference called a cadency.

Cadet

is a student at the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, the Royal Military College at Sandhurst, or in one of her Majesty's training ships, the Excellent and the Britannia. From these places they are sent (after passing certain examinations) into the army as ensigns or second lieutenants, and into the navy as midshipmen. (French, cadet, junior member of a family.)

Cadger

One who carries butter, eggs, and poultry to market; a packman or huckster. From cadge (to carry). Hence the frame on which hawks were carried was called “a cadge,” and the man who carried it, a “cadger.” A man of low degree.

“Every cadger thinks himself as good as an earl.”— McDonald: Malcolm, part ix. chap. xiv. p. 183.

Cadi

among the Turks, Arabs, etc., is a town magistrate or inferior judge. “Cadi Lesker” is a superior cadi. The Spanish Alcaydë is the Moorish al cadi. (Arabic, the judge.)

Cadmean Letters

(The). The simple Greek letters introduced by Cadmus from Phoenicia. (Greek myth.)

Cadmean Victory (Greek, Kadmeia nike; Latin, Cadmea Victoria). A victory purchased with great loss. The allusion is to the armed men who sprang out of the ground from the teeth of the dragon sown by Cadmus. These men fell foul of each other, and only five of them escaped death.

Cadmeans

The people of Carthage are called the Gens Cadmea, and so are the Thebans.

Cadmus

having slain the dragon which guarded the fountain of Dircë, in Boeotia, sowed the teeth of the monster, when a number of armed men sprang up and surrounded Cadmus with intent to kill him. By the counsel of Minerva, he threw a precious stone among the armed men, who, striving for it, killed one another. The foundation of the fable is this: Cadmus having slain a famous freebooter that infested Boeotia, his banditti set upon him to revenge their captain's death; but Cadmus sent a bribe, for which they quarrelled and slew each other.

Cadogan

(Ca—dug'—an). A club of hair worn by young French ladies; so called from the portrait of the first Earl of Cadogan, a print at one time very popular in France. The fashion was introduced at the court of Montbéliard by the Duchesse de Bourbon.

Caduceus

(4 syl.). A white wand carried by Roman officers when they went to treat for peace. The Egyptians adorned the rod with a male and female serpent twisted about it, and kissing each other. From this use of the rod, it became the symbol of eloquence and also of office. In mythology, a caduceus with wings is placed in the hands of Mercury, the herald of the gods; and the poets feign that he could therewith give sleep to whomsoever he chose; wherefore Milton styles it “his opiate rod” in Paradise Lost, xi. 133.

“So with his dread caduceus Hermës led

From the dark regions of the imprisoned dead;

Or drove in silent shoals the lingering train

To Night's dull shore and Pluto's dreary reign.” Darwin: Loves of the Plants, ii. 291.

Cadurci

The people of Aquitania. Cahors is the modern capital.

Cædmon

Cowherd of Whitby, the greatest poet of the Anglo—Saxons. In his wonderful romance we find the bold prototype of Milton's Paradise Lost. The portions relating to the fall of the angels are most striking. The hero encounters, defeats, and finally slays Grendel, an evil being of supernatural powers.

Cærite Franchise

(The). The franchise of a Roman subject in a præfecture. These subjects had the right of

self—government, and were registered by the Roman censor as tax—payers; but they enjoyed none of the privileges of a Roman citizen. Cære was the first community placed in this dependent position, whence the term Cærite franchise.

Caerleon

on the Usk, in Wales. The habitual residence of King Arthur, where he lived in splendid state, surrounded by hundreds of knights, twelve of whom he selected as Knights of the Round Table.

Caesar was made by Hadrian a title, conferred on the heir presumptive to the throne (A.D. 136). Diocletian conferred the title on the two viceroys, calling the two emperors Augustus (sacred majesty). The German Emperor still assumes the title of kaiser (q.v.).

“Thou art an emperor, Cæsar, keisar, and Pheezar.”— Shakespeare: Merry Wives of Windsor, i.3.

“No bending knees shall call thee Caesar now.”

Shakespeare Henry VI., iii. 1.

Caesar, as a title, was pretty nearly equivalent to our Prince of Wales and the French dauphin.

Caesar's wife must be above suspicion. The name of Pompeia having been mixed up with an accusation against P. Clodius, Cæsar divorced her; not because he believed her guilty, but because the wife of Cæsar must not even be suspected of crime. (Suetonius: Julius Cæsar, 74.)

Cæsar.

(See page 76, 2, Aut Cæsar.)

Cæsar's sword.

Crocea Mors (yellow death). (See page 76, 2, Sword.) Julius Caesar won 320 triumphs.

Cæsarian Operation

or Cesarean Operation. The extraction of a child from the womb by cutting the abdomen (Latin, cæso, cut from the womb). Julius Caesar is said to have been thus brought into the world.

Cæ'sarism

The absolute rule of man over man, with the recognition of no law divine or human beyond that of the ruler's will. (See Chauvinism .)

Cæteris paribus

(Latin). Other things being equal; presuming all other conditions to be equal.

Caf

(Mount). In Mohammedan mythology is that huge mountain in the middle of which the earth is sunk, as a night light is placed in a cup. Its foundation is the emerald Sakhrat, the reflection of which gives the azure hue to the sky.

Caftan

A garment worn in Turkey and other Eastern countries. It is a sort of under—tunic or vest tied by a girdle at the waist.

“Picturesque merchants and their customers, no longer in the big trousers of Egypt, but [in] the long caftans and abas of Syria.”— B. Taylor. Lands of the Saracen, chap. ix. p. 122.

Cag Mag

Offal, bad meat; also a tough old goose; food which none can relish. (Gaelic and Welsh, cag magu. )

Cage

To whistle or sing in the cage. The cage is a jail, and to whistle in a cage is to turn Queen's evidence, or peach against a comrade.

Cagliostro

Conte de Cagliostro, or Giuseppe Balsamo of Palermo, a charlatan who offered everlasting youth to all who would pay him for his secret (1743—1795).

Cagots

A sort of gipsy race in Gascony and Bearne, supposed to be descendants of the Visigoths, and shunned as something loathsome. (See Caqueux, Colliberts .)

“Cagoti non fuerunt monachi, anachoritæ, aut leprosi; ... sed genus quoddam hominum cæteris odiosum. Vasconibus Cagots, nonnullis Capoti, Burdegalentibus Gaheti, Vascis et Navarris Agoti, dicuntur.”— Ducange: Glossarium Manuale, vol. ii. pp. 23, 24.

Cahors Usuriers de Cahors. In the thirteenth century there was a colony of Jewish money—lenders settled at Cahors, which was to France what Lombard Street was to London.

Caiaphas

The country—house of Caiaphas, in which Judas concluded his bargain to betray his Master, stood on “The Hill of Evil Counsel.”

Cain—coloured Beard

Yellow, symbolic of treason. In the ancient tapestries Cain and Judas are represented with yellow beards. (See Yellow .)

“He hath but a little wee face, with a little yellow heard, a Cain—coloured beard.”— Shakespeare: Merry Wives of Windsor, i. 4.

Cainites

(2 syl.). Disciples of Cain, a pseudo—Gnostic sect of the second century. They renounced the New Testament, and received instead The Gospel of Judas, which justified the false disciple and the crucifixion of Jesus. This sect maintained that heaven and earth were created by the evil principle, and that Cain with his descendants were the persecuted party.

Cairds

or Jockeys. Gipsy tribes. Halliwell tells us “Caird” in Northumberland = tinker, and gipsies are great menders of pots and pans. (Irish, ceard, a tinker; Welsh, cordd, art or craft.)

“Donald Caird's come again.” Popular Song.

Caius

(Dr. ). A French physician in Shakespeare's Merry Wives of Windsor.

“The clipped English of Dr. Caius.”— Macaulay.

Caius College (Cambridge). Elevated by Dr. John Key (Caius ), of Norwich, into a college, being previously only a hall called Gonville. Called Keys. (1557.)

Cake

A fool, a poor thing. (Cf. HALF—BAKED.)

Cake

To take the cake. To carry off the prize. The reference is to the prize—cake to the person who succeeded best in a given competition. In Notes and Queries (Feb. 27th, 1892, p. 176) a correspondent of New York tells us of a “cake walk” by the Southern negroes. It consists of walking round the prize cake in pairs, and umpires decide which pair walk the most gracefully. In ancient Greece a cake was the award of the toper who held out the longest.

In Ireland the best dancer in a dancing competition was rewarded, at one time, by a cake.

“A churn—dish stuck into the earth supported on its flat end a cake, which was to become the prize of the best dancer. ... At length the competitors yielded their claims to a young man ... who, taking the cake, placed it gallantly in the lap of a pretty girl to whom ... he was about to be married.”— Bartlett and Coyne: Scenery and Antiquities of Ireland, vol. ii. p. 64.

You cannot eat your cake and have it too.

You cannot spend your money and yet keep it. You cannot serve God and Mammon.

Your cake

[or my cake] is dough. All my swans are turned to geese. Occisa est res tua [or mea]. Mon affaire est manquée; my project has failed.

Cake ... Dough

I wish my cake were dough again. I wish I had never married. Bellenden Ker says the proverb is a corruption of Ei w'hissche my keke was d'how en geen, which he says is tantamount to “Something whispers within me— repentance, would that my marriage were set aside.”

Cakes Land of Cakes. Scotland, famous for its oatmeal cakes.

“Land o' cakes and brither Scots.” Burns.

Calabash

A drinking cup or waterholder; so called from the calabash nut of which it is made.

Calamanco Cat

(A ). A tortoise—shell cat. Calamanco is a glossy woollen fabric, sometimes striped or variegated. It is the Spanish word Calamáco.

Calamity

The beating down of standing corn by wind or storm. The word is derived from the Latin calamus (a stalk of corn). Hence, Cicero calls a storm Calamitosa tempestas (a corn—levelling tempest).

“Another ill accident is drought, and the spoiling of the corn; inasmuch as the word `calamity' was first derived from calamus (stalk), when the corn could not get out of the ear.”— Bacon.

Calandrino

A typical simpleton frequently introduced in Boccaccio's Decameron; expressly made to be befooled and played upon.

Calatrava

(Red Cross Knights of). Instituted at Calatrava, in Spain, by Sancho III. of Castile in 1158; their badge is a red cross cut out in the form of lilies, on the left breast of a white mantle.

Calauri'a

Pro Delo Calauria (Ovid: Metamorphoses, vii. 384). Calauria was an island in the Sinus Saronicus which Latona gave to Neptune in exchange for Delos. A quid pro quo.

Calceolaria

Little—shoe flowers; so called from their resemblance to fairy slippers. (Latin, calceolus.)

Calceos mutavit

He has changed his shoes, that is, has become a senator. Roman senators were distinguished by their shoes, which were sandalled across the instep and up the ankles.

Calculate

is from the Latin calculi (pebbles), used by the Romans for counters. In the abacus, the round balls were called calculi, and it was by this instrument the Roman boys were taught to count and calculate. The Greeks voted by pebbles dropped into an urn— a method adopted both in ancient Egypt and Syria; counting these pebbles was “calculating” the number of voters. (See page 2, col. 1, Abacus .)

I calculate.

A peculiarity of expression common in the western states of North America. In the southern states the phrase is “I reckon,” in the middle states “I expect,” and in New England “I guess.” All were imported from the mother country by early settlers.

“Your aunt sets two tables, I calculate; don't she?”— Susan Warner: Queechy (vol. i. chap.

xix.)

Calculators

(The Jedediah Buxton, of Elmeton, in Derbyshire. (1705—1775.) George Bidder and Zerah Colburn (an American), who exhibited publicly.

Inaudi exhibited “his astounding powers of calculatin' ” at Paris in 1880, his additions and subtractions were from left to right.

“Buxton, being asked `How many cubical eighths—of—an—inch there are in a body whose three sides are 23,145,786 yards, 5,642,732 yards, and 54,965 yards?' replied correctly without setting down a figure.”

“Colburn, being asked the square root of 106,929 and the cube root 268,336,125, replied before the audience had set the figures down.”— Price: Parallel History, vol. ii. p. 570.

Cale

[See Kale .]

Caleb The enchantress who carried off St. George in infancy.

Caleb,

in Dryden's satire of Absalom and Achitophel, is meant for Lord Grey of Wark (Northumberland), one of the adherents of the Duke of Monmouth.

“And, therefore, in the name of dulness, be

The well—hung Balaam [Earl of Huntingdon] and old Caleb free.” Lines 512—13.

Caleb Quotem

A parish clerk or jack—of—all—trades, in Colman's play called The Review, or Wags of Windsor, which first appeared in 1808. Colman borrowed the character from a farce by Henry Lee (1798) entitled Throw Physic to the Dogs.

“I resolved, like Caleb Quotem, to have a place at the review.”— Washington Irving.

Caledon

Scotland. (See next article.)

“Not thus, in ancient days of Caledon,

Was thy voice mute amid the festal crowd.”

Sir W. Scott.

Caledonia

Scotland. A corruption of Celyddon, a Celtic word meaning “a dweller in woods and forests.” The word Celt is itself a contraction of the same word (Celyd), and means the same thing.

“Sees Caledonia in romantic view.”

Thomson.

“O Caledonia, stern and wild,

Meet nurse for a poetic child”

Sir W. Scott: Lay of the Last Minstrel.

Calembour

(French). A pun, a jest. From the “Jester of Kahlenberg,” whose name was Wigand von Theben; a character introduced in Tyll Eulenspiegel, a German tale. Eulenspiegel (a fool or jester) means Owl's looking—glass, and may probably have suggested the title of the periodical called the Owl, the witty but satirical “looking—glass” of the passing follies of the day. The jester of Calembourg visited Paris in the reign of Louis XV., and soon became noted for his blunders and puns.

Calendar

The Julian Calendar, introduced B.C. 46. It fixed the ordinary year to 365 days, with an extra day every fourth year (leap year). This is called “The Old Style.”

The Gregorian Year.

A modification of the Julian Calendar, introduced in 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII., and adopted in Great Britain in 1752. This is called “the New Style.”

The Mohammedan Calendar,

used in Mohammedan countries, dates from July 16th, 622, the day of the Hegira. It consists of 12 lunar months (29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes). A cycle is 30 years.

The Revolutionary Calendar

was the work of Fabre d'Eglantine and Mons. Romme.

Calendar

A Newgate Calendar or “Malefactors' Bloody Register,” containing the biography, confessions, dying speeches, etc., of notorious criminals. Began in 1700.

Calendars

(The ThreeArabian Nights.

Calends The first of every month was so called by the Romans. Varro says the term originated in the practice of calling together or assembling the people on the first day of the month, when the pontifex informed them of the time of the new moon, the day of the nones, with the festivals and sacred days to be observed. The custom continued till A.U.C. 450, when the fasti or calendar was posted in public places. (See Greek Calends)

Calepin

(A). A dictionary. (Italian, calepino.) Ambrosio Calepino, of Calepio, in Italy, was the author of a dictionary, so that “my Calepin,” like my Euclid, my Johnson, according to Cocker, etc., have become common nouns from proper names. Generally called Calepin, but the subjoined quotation throws the accent on the le.

“Whom do you prefer

For the best linguist? And I seelily

Said that I thought Calepine's Dictionary.”

Dr. Donne: Fourth Satire.

Caleys

(A Stock Exchange term). Caledonian Railway Ordinary Stock. A contraction of Cale—donians. (See Stock Exchange Slang .)

Calf—love

Youthful fancy as opposed to lasting attachment.

“I thought it was a childish besotment you had for the man—a sort of calf—love. ...”— Rhoda Broughton.

Calf—skin

Fools and jesters used to wear a calf—skin coat buttoned down the back. In allusion to this custom, Faulconbridge says insolently to the Archduke of Austria, who had acted most basely to Richard Coeur—de—Lion—

“Thou wear a lion's hide! Doff it, for shame,

And hang a calf—skin on those recreant limbs.” Shakespeare: King John, iii. 1.

Caliban

Rude, uncouth, unknown; as a Caliban style, a Caliban language. The allusion is to Shakespeare's Caliban (The Tempestnew creation, but also a new language.

“Satan had not the privilege, as Caliban, to use new phrases, and diction unknown.”— Dr. Bentley.

Coleridge says, “In him [Caliban], as in some brute animals, this advance to the intellectual faculties, without the moral sense, is marked by the appearance of vice.”

(Caliban is the “missing link” between brute animals and man.)

Calibre

[kal'i—ber]. A mind of no calibre: of no capacity. A mind of great calibre: of large capacity. Calibre is the bore of a gun, and, figuratively, the bore or compass of one's intelligence.

“The enemy had generally new arms ... of uniform caliber.”— Grant: Memoirs, vol. i. chap.

xxxix. p. 572.

“We measure men's calibre by the broadest circle of achievements.”— Chapin: Lessons of Faith, p. 16.

Caliburn Same as Excalibur, King Arthur's well—known sword. (See Sword .)

“Onward Arthur paced, with hand

On Caliburn's resistless brand.”

Scott: Bridal of Triermain.

Calico

So called from Calicut, in Malabar, once the chief port and emporium of Hindustan.

Calidore

(3 syl.). Sir Calidore is the type of courtesy, and hero of the sixth book of Spenser's Faërie Queene. He is described as the most courteous of all knights, and is entitled the “all—beloved.” The model of the poet was Sir Philip Sidney. His adventure is against the Blatant Beast, whom he muzzles, chains, and drags to Faërie Land.

“Sir Gawain was the Calidore of the Round Table.”— Southey.

Caligorant

An Egyptian giant and cannibal who used to entrap strangers with a hidden net. This net was made by Vulcan to catch Mars and Venus, Mercury stole it for the purpose of catching Chloris, and left it in the temple of Anubis; Caligorant stole it thence. At length Astolpho blew his magic horn, and the giant ran affrighted into his own net, which dragged him to the ground. Whereupon Astolpho made the giant his captive, and despoiled him of his net. This is an allegory. Caligorant was a great sophist and heretic in the days of Ariosto, who used to entangle people with his talk; but being converted by Astolpho to the true faith, was, as it were, caught in his own net, and both his sophistry and heresy were taken from him. (Ariosto: Orlando Furioso .)

Caligula

A Roman emperor; so called because he wore a military sandal called a caliga, which had no upper leather, and was used only by the common soldiers. (12, 37—41.)

“ `The word caligæ, however,' continued the Baron ... `means, in its primitive sense, sandals; and Caius Cæsar ... received the cognomen of Caligula, a caligis, sive caligis levio'—ribus, quibus adolescentior non fuerat in exercitu Germanici patris sui. And the caligoe were also proper to the monastic bodies; for we read in the ancient Glossarium, upon the rule of St. Benedict ... that caligoe were tied with latchets.”— Scott: Waverley. xlviii.

Caligula's Horse

Incitatus. It was made a priest and consul, had a manger of ivory, and drank wine from a golden goblet. (See Horse.)

Caliph

or Calif. A title given to the successors of Mahomet. Among the Saracens a caliph is one vested with supreme dignity. The caliphat of Bagdad reached its highest splendour under Haroun al Raschid, in the ninth century. For the last 200 years the appellation has been swallowed up in the titles of Shah, Sultan, Emir, and so on. (Arabic, Khalifah, a successor; khalafa, to succeed.)

Calista

The heroine of Rowe's Fair Penitent.

Calisto and Arcas

Calisto was an Arcadian nymph metamorphosed into a she—bear by Jupiter. Her son Arcas having met her in the chase, would have killed her, but Jupiter converted him into a he—bear, and placed them both in the heavens, where they are recognised as the Great and Little Bear.

Calixtines

(3 syl.). A religious sect of Bohemians in the fifteenth century; so called from Calix (the chalice), which they insisted should be given to the laity in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, as well as the bread or wafer.

Call

(A ). A “divine” summons or invitation, as “a call to the ministry.”

A call before the curtain.

An applause inviting a favourite actor to appear before the curtain, and make his bow to the audience.

A Gospel call.

The invitation of the Gospel to men to believe in Jesus to the saving of their souls. A morning call. A short morning visit.

A call on shareholders.

A demand to pay up a part of the money due for shares allotted in a company. Payable at call. To be paid on demand.

Call Bird

(A ). A bird trained as a decoy.

Call—boy

(The ). A boy employed in theatres to “call” or summon actors, when it is time for them to make their appearance on the stage.

Call of Abraham

The invitation or command of God to Abraham, to leave his idolatrous country, under the promise of being made a great nation.

Call of God

An invitation, exhortation, or warning, by the dispensations of Providence (Isa. xxii. 12); divine influence on the mind to do or avoid something (Heb. iii. 1).

Call of the House

An imperative summons sent to every Member of Parliament to attend. This is done when the sense of the whole House is required. At the muster the names of the members are called over, and

defaulters reported.

Call to Arms

(To ). To summon to prepare for battle. “Ad arma vocare. “

Call to the Bar

The admission of a law student to the privileges of a barrister. The names of those qualified are called over. (See page 94, col. 1, Bar.)

Call to the Pastorate

An invitation to a minister by the members of a Presbyterian or Nonconformist church to preside over a certain congregation.

Call to the Unconverted

An invitation accompanied with promises and threats, to induce the unconverted to receive the gospel. Richard Baxter wrote a book so entitled.

Call

(To). I call God to witness. I solemnly declare that what I state is true.

To call.

To invite: as, the trumpet calls.

“If honour calls, where'er she points the way,

The sons of honour follow and obey.”
Churchill: The Farewell, stanza 7.

To call

[a man] out. To challenge him; to appeal to a man's honour to come forth and fight a duel. To call in question. To doubt the truth of a statement; to challenge the truth of a statement. “In dubium vocare. “

To call over the coals.

(See Coals.)

To call to account.

To demand an explanation; to reprove.

Called

He is called to his account. He is removed by death. Called to the judgment seat of God to give an account of his deeds, whether they be good, or whether they be evil. (See page 202, col. 1, Calling.)

Callabre

or Calaber. A Calabrian fur. Ducange says, “At Chichester the `priest vicars' and at St. Paul's the `minor canons' wore a calabre amyce;” and Bale, in his Image of Both Churches, alludes to the “fair rochets of Raines (Rennes), and costly grey amicës of calaber and cats' tails.”

“The Lord Mayor and those aldermen above the chair ought to have their coats furred with grey amis, and also with changeable taffeta; and those below the chair with calabre and with green taffeta.”— Hutton: New View of London.

Caller Herrings

Fresh herrings. Hence “caller air.” (Anglo—Saxon, calian, to cool.)

Calligraphy

(The art of ). Writing very minutely and yet clearly. Peter Bale, in the sixteenth century, wrote in the compass of a silver penny the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, the Ten Commandments, two Latin prayers, his own name, the day of the month and date of the year since the accession of Queen Elizabeth, and a motto. With a glass this writing could be read. By photography a sheet of the Times newspaper has been reduced to a smaller compass. (Greek, calos—grapho, I write beautifully.)

Callimachos

The Italian Callimachos. Filippo Buonaccorsi (1437—1496).

Calling

A vocation, trade, or profession. The allusion is to the calling of the apostles by Jesus Christ to follow Him. In the legal profession persons must still be called to the bar before they can practise.

Effectual calling.

An invitation to believe in Jesus, rendered effectual by the immediate operation of the Holy Ghost.

Calliope [Kal'—li—o—pe, 4 syl., Greek, kaloz, py beautiful voice ]. The muse of epic or heroic poetry. Her emblems are a stylus and wax tablets. The painting of this Muse by Ercolana Ercolanetti (1615—1687) and her statue by Clementi (who died in 1580) are very celebrated.

The Greek word is Kallioph, in which the i is short. Erroneously called “Calilope.”

Callipolis

A character in the Battle of Alcazar (1594) by George Peele. It is referred to by Pistol in 2 Henry IV., act ii. 4; and Sir W. Scott uses the word over and over again as the synonym of lady—love, sweetheart, charmer. Sir Walter always spells the word Callipolis, but Peele calls it Calipolis. The drunken Mike Lambourne says to Amy Robsart —

“Hark ye, most fair Callipolis, or most lovely countess of clouts, and divine duchess of dark corners.”— Kenilworth, chap. xxxiii.

And the modest Roland Græme calls the beautiful Catherine his “most fair Callipolis.” (The Abbot, chap. xi.)

Callippic Period

The correction of the Metonic cycle by Callippos. In four cycles, or seventy—six years, the Metonic calculation was seven and a—half in excess. Callippos proposed to quadruple the period of Meton, and deduct a day at the end of it: at the expiration of which period Callippos imagined that the new and full moons returned to the same day of the solar year.

Callirrhoe

(4 syl.). The lady—love of Chæ'reas, in Chariton's Greek romance, entitled the Loves of Chæ'reas and Callirrhoë, written in the eighth century.

Calomel

Hooper says—

“This name, which means `beautiful black,' was originally given to the Æthiop's mineral, or black sulphuret of mercury. It was afterwards applied in joke by Sir Theodore Mayerne to the chloride of mercury, in honour of a favourite negro servant whom he employed to prepare it. As calomel is a white powder, the name is merely a jocular misnomer.”— Medical Dictionary.

Greek, kaloz beautiful ,melaz black.

Caloyers

Monks in the Greek Church, who follow the rule of St. Basil. They are divided into cenobites, who recite the offices from midnight to sunrise; anchorites, who live in hermitages; and recluses, who shut themselves up in caverns and live on alms. (Greek, kaloz and gerwu, beautiful old man.)

Calpe

(2 syl.). Calpë and Abyla. The two pillars of Hercules. According to one account, these two were originally only one mountain, which Hercules tore asunder; but some say he piled up each mountain separately, and poured the sea between them.

“Heaves up huge Abyla on Afric's sand,

Crowns with high Calpë Europe's salient strand, Crests with opposing towers the splendid scene, And pours from urns immense the sea between. Darwin: Economy of Vegetation.

Calumet

[the peace — pipe ]. When the North American Indians make peace or form an alliance, the high contracting parties smoke together to ratify the arrangement.

The peace—pipe is about two and a—half feet long, the bowl is made of highly—polished red marble, and the stem of a reed, which is decorated with eagles' quills, women's hair, and so on.

“The Great Spirit at an ancient period called the Indian nations together, and standing on the precipice of the red pipe—stone rock, broke off a piece which he moulded into the bowl of a pipe, and fitting on it a long reed, filled the pipe with the bark of red willow, and smoked over them, turning to the four winds. He told them the red colour of the pipe represented their flesh, and when they smoked it they must bury their war—clubs and scalping—knives. At the last whiff the Great Spirit disappeared.”

To present the calumet to a stranger is a mark of hospitality and good—will; to refuse the offer is an act of hostile defiance.

“Wash the war—paint from your faces,

Wash the war—stains from your fingers,

Bury your war—clubs and your weapons; ...

Smoke the calumet together,

And as brothers live henceforward.”
Longfellow: Hiawatha, i.

Calvary

[bare skull ], Golgotha [skull ]. The place of our Lord's crucifixion; so called from some fanciful resemblance which it bore to a human skull. The present church of “the Holy Sepulchre” has no claim to be considered the site thereof; it is far more likely that the “mosque of Omar,” or the dome of the rock, occupies the real site.

A Calvary.

A representation of the successive scenes of the Passion of Christ in a series of pictures, etc., in a church. The shrine containing the representations.

Calvary Clover

said to have sprung up in the track made by Pilate when he went to the cross to see his “title

affixed” [Jesus of Nazareth, king of the Jews]. It is a common trefoil, probably a native of India or Turkey. Each of the three round leaves has a little carmine spot in the centre. In the daytime the three leaves of the trefoil form a sort of cross; and in the flowering season the plant bears a little yellow flower, like a “crown of thorns.” Julian tells us that each of the three leaves had in his time a white cross in the centre, and that the centre cross lasts visible longer than the crosses of the other two leaves. (See Christian Traditions .)

Calvary Cross

(A ). A Latin cross mounted on three steps (or grises).

Calvert's Entire

The 14th Foot. Called Calvert from their colonel, Sir Harry Calvert (1806—1826), and entire, because three entire battalions were kept up for the good of Sir Harry, when adjutant—general. The term is, of course, a play on Calvert's malt liquor. The regiment is now called The Prince of Wales's Own (West Yorks. Regiment).

Calves

The inhabitants of the Isle of Wight are so called from a legendary joke which states that a calf once got its head firmly wedged in a wooden pale, and, instead of breaking up the pale, the farm—man cut off the calf's head.

Calves gone to Grass

(His ). Said of a spindle—legged man. And another mocking taunt is, “Veal will be dear, because there are no calves.”

Calves' Head

There are many ways of dressing a calf's head. Many ways of saying or doing a foolish thing; a simpleton has many ways of showing his folly; or, generally, if one way won't do we must try another. The allusion is to the great Calves' Head Club banquet, when the board was laden with calves' heads cooked in sundry ways and divers fashions.

Calves' Head Club

Instituted in ridicule of Charles I. The great annual banquet was held on the 30th January, and consisted of a cod's head, to represent the person of Charles Stuart, independent of his kingly office; a pike with little ones in its mouth, an emblem of tyranny; a boar's head with an apple in its mouth to represent the king preying on his subjects; and calves' heads dressed in sundry ways to represent Charles in his regal capacity. After the banquet, the king's book (Icon Basilikë ) was burnt, and the parting cup was, “To those worthy patriots who killed the tyrant.”

Calvinism The five chief points of Calvinism are: (1) Predestination, or particular election.

(2) Irresistible grace.

(3) Original sin, or the total depravity of the natural man, which renders it morally impossible to believe and turn to God of his own free will.

(4) Particular redemption.

(5) Final perseverance of the saints.

Calydon

A forest supposed, in the romances relating to King Arthur, to occupy the northern portion of England.

Calypso

in Fénelon's Télémaque, is meant to represent Madame de Montespan. In fairy mythology, she was queen of the island Ogygia on which Ulysses was wrecked, and where he was detained for seven years.

Calypso's Isle

Gozo, near Malta. Called in classic mythology Ogygia.

Cam and Isis

The universities of Cambridge and Oxford; so called from the rivers on which they stand.

“May you, my Cam and Isis, preach it long, `The right divine of kings to govern wrong.' “
Pope: Dunciad; iv. 187.

Cama

The God of love and marriage in Indian mythology.

Camacho

“richest of men,” makes grand preparations for his wedding with Quiteria, “fairest of women”; but, as the bridal party were on their way, Basilius cheats him of his bride by pretending to kill himself. As he is supposed to be dying, Quiteria is given to him in marriage as a mere matter of form; but, as soon as this is done, up jumps Basilius, and shows that his wounds were a mere pretence. (Cervantes: Don Quixote, pt. ii. bk. 2, ch. 3,4.)

Camal dolites

(4 syl.). A religious order of great rigidity of life, founded in the vale of Camaldoli, in the Tuscan Apennines, by St. Romuald, a Benedictine. (Eleventh century.)

Camaralzaman

(Prince) fell in love with Badoura, Princess of China, the moment he saw her. (Arabian Nights Prince Camaralzaman.)

Camarilla

(Spanish). A clique; the confidants or private advisers of the sovereign. It literally means a small private chamber, and is in Spain applied to the room in which boys are flogged.

“Encircled with a dangerous camarilla.” — The Times.

Camarina

Ne moveas Camarinam (Don't meddle with Camarina). Camarina was a lake in Sicily, which, in time of drought, yielded a pestilential stench. The inhabitants consulted an oracle about draining it, and Apollo replied, “Don't meddle with it.” Nevertheless, they drained it, and ere long an enemy marched an army over the bed of the lake and plundered the city. The proverb is applied to those who remove one evil, but thus give place to a greater. The Channel may be an evil to those who suffer sea—sickness, but it is a million times better to endure this evil than to make it a high road to invaders. The application is very extensive, as: Don't kill the small birds, or you will be devoured by insects. One pest is a safeguard against a greater one.

A similar Latin phrase is Anagyrin movëre.

“When the laird of Ellangowan drove the gipsies from the neighbourhood, though they had been allowed to remain there undisturbed hitherto, Dominie Sampson warned him of the danger by quoting the proverb. `Ne moveas Camarinam.' ” — Sir IV. Scott: Guy Mannering, chap. vii.

Cambalo's Ring

Given him by his sister Canacë. It had the virtue of healing wounds. (See Cambel .) (Spenser: Faërie Queene, bk. iv.)

“Well mote ye wonder how that noble knight,

After he had so often wounded been,

Could stand on foot now to renew the fight ...

All was through virtue of the ring he wore:

The which, not only did not from him let

One drop of blood to fall, but did restore

His weakened powers, and dulled spirits whet.” Spenser: Faërie Queene, iv. 3.

Cambel

Called by Chaucer, Cambalo; brother of Canacë, a female paragon. He challenged every suitor to his sister's hand, and overthrew all except Triamond, who married the lady. (Spenser: Faërie Queene, book iv.)

(See Canace .)

Camber

Second son of King Brute, to whom Wales was left, whence its name of Cambria. (British fable.)

Cambria

The ancient name of Wales, the land of the Cimbri or Cymry.

“Cambria's fatal day.”

Gray: Bard.

Cambrian

Pertaining to Wales; Welsh. (See above.)

“The Cambrian mountains, like far clouds,

That skirt the blue horizon, dusky rise.”

Thomson: Spring, 961—62.

Cambrian Series

(in geology). The earliest fossiliferous rocks in North Wales. So named by Professor Sedgwick.

Cambric

A kind of very fine white linen cloth, so named from Cambray or Cameryk, in Flanders, where it is still the chief manufacture.

“He hath ribbons of all the colours of the rainbow; inkles, caddises, cambricks, and lawns.” — Shakespeare: Winter's Tale, iv. 3.

Cambuscan'

King of Sarra, in the land of Tartary; the model of all royal virtues. His wife was Elfeta; his two sons, Algarsife and Cambalo; and his daughter, Canacë. On her birthday (October 15th) the King of Arabia and India sent Cambuscan a “steed of brass, which, between sunrise and sunset, would carry its rider to any spot on the earth.” All that was required was to whisper the name of the place in the horse's ear, mount upon his back, and turn a pin set in his ear. When the rider had arrived at the place required, he had to turn another pin, and the horse instantly descended, and, with another screw of the pin, vanished till it was again required. This story is told by Chaucer in the Squire's Tale, but was never finished. Milton ( Il Penseroso ) accents the word Cambus'—can.

“Him that left half—told

The story of Cambuscan bold.”

(See Canace.)

Cambyses

(3 syl.). A pompous, ranting character in Preston's lamentable tragedy of that name.

“Give me a cup of sack, to make mine eyes look red: for I must speak in passion, and I will do it in King Cambyses' vein.” — Shakespeare: I Henry IV., ii. 4.

Camden Society

for the publication of early historic and literary remains, is named in honour of William Camden, the historian.

Camel

The name of Mahomet's favourite camel was Al Kaswa. The mosque at Koba covers the spot where it knelt when Mahomet fled from Mecca. Mahomet considered the kneeling of the camel as a sign sent by God, and remained at Koba in safety for four days. The swiftest of his camels was Al Adha.

Camel.

The prophet Mahomet's camel performed the whole journey from Jerusalem to Mecca in four bounds, for which service he had a place in heaven with Alborak (the prophet's “horse"), Balaam's ass, Tobit's dog, and Ketmir (the dog of the seven sleepers). (Curzon.)

Camel.

“It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God” (Matt. xix. 24). In the Koran we find a similar expression: “The impious shall find the gates of heaven shut; nor shall he enter till a camel shall pass through the eye of a needle.” In the Rabbinical writings we have a slight variety which goes to prove that the word “camel” should not be changed into

“cable,” as Theophylact suggests: “Perhaps thou art one of the Pampedithians, who can make an elephant pass through the eye of a needle.” (See Cable.)

“It is as hard to come, as for a camel

To thread the postern of a needle's eye.”

Shakespeare: Richard II., v. 5.

Camellia

The technical name of a genus, and the popular name of the species of evergreen shrubs; so named in honour of G. J. Kamel (Latin Camellius), a Spanish Jesuit. Introduced into England in 1739.

Camelot

(Somersetshire), where King Arthur held his court. (See Winchester .)

Camelote

(2 syl.). Fustian, rubbish, trash. The cloth so called ought to be made of goats' hair, but is a mixture of wool and silk, wool and hair, or wool, silk, and hair, etc. (French, camelot; Arabic, camlat.) (See page 206, Camlet .)

Cameo

An anaglyph on a precious stone. The anaglyph is when the figure is raised in relief; an intaglio is when the figure is hollowed out. The word cameo means an onyx, and the most famous cameo in the world is the onyx containing the apotheosis of Augustus. These precious stones have two layers of different colours, one serving for the figure, and the other for the ground.

Cameron Highlanders

The 79th Regiment of Infantry, raised by Allan Cameron, of Errock, in 1793. Now called “The Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders.”

Cameronian Regiment

The 26th Infantry, which had its origin in a body of Cameronians (q.v.), in the Revolution of 1688. Now the 1st Battalion of the Scottish Rifles; the 2nd Battalion is the old No. 90.

Cameronians The strictest sect of Scotch Presbyterians, organised in 1680, by Richard Cameron, who was slain in battle at Aird's Moss in 1680. He objected to the alliance of Church and State. In 1876 most of the Cameronians were merged in the Free Church. In history the Cameronians are generally called the Covenanters.

Camilla

Virgin queen of the Volscians. Virgil (AEneid, vii. 809) says she was so swift that she could run over a field of corn without bending a single blade, or make her way over the sea without even wetting her feet.

“Not so when swift Camilla scours the plain,

Flies o'er the unbending corn and skims along the main.” Pope: Essay on Criticism, 372—3.

Camillus

five times Dictator of Rome, was falsely accused of embezzlement, and went into voluntary exile; but when the Gauls besieged Rome, he returned and delivered his country.

“Camillus, only vengeful to his foes.”

Thomson: Winter.

Camisard

In French history, the Camisards are the Protestant insurgents of the Cevennes, who resisted the violence of the dragonnades, after the revocation of the edict of Nantes. Their leader was Cavalier, afterwards Governor of Jersey.

Camisarde

or Camisado. A night attack; so called because the attacking party wore a camise or peasant's smock over their armour, both to conceal it, and that they might the better recognise each other in the dark.

Camisole

(3 syl.). A loose jacket worn by women when dressed in negligée (French).

Camisole de Force

A strait—waist—coat. Frequently mentioned in accounts of capital punishments in France.

Camlan

(Battle of, Cornwall), which put an end to the Knights of the Round Table. Here Arthur received his death wound from the hand of his nephew Modred. (A.D. 542.)

Camlet

is not connected with the word camel; it is a fine cloth made of goats' hair, called Turkish yarn, and is from the Arabic word camlat, which Littré says is so called from seil el camel (the Angora goat).

Cammock

As crooked as a cammock. The cammock is a piece of timber bent for the knee of a ship; a hockey—stick; a shinny—club. (Anglo—Saxon.)

“Though the cammock, the more it is bowed the better it is; yet the bow, the more it is bent the weaker it waxeth.” — Lily.

Camorra

A secret society of Italy organised early in the nineteenth century. It claimed the right of settling disputes, etc.

Camorrist

One of the desperadoes belonging to the Camorra. “Camorrism,” the gospel of the league.

Camp Candlestick

(A). A bottle, or a soldier's bayonet.

Camp—followers

Non—combatants (such as servants, carriers, hostlers, suttlers, laundresses, and so on), who follow an army. We are told that in 1859 as many as 85,000 camp—followers were in attendance on 15,000 combatants in a Bengal army.

Campaign Wig (A), imported from France. It was made very full, was curled, and was eighteen inches in length in the front, with drop locks. In some cases the back part of the wig was put in a black silk bag. Of course the campaign referred to the victories of Marlborough. (Social Life in the Reign of Queen Anne, chap.

xii.)

There were also campaign coats, campaign lace, campaign shoes, campaign shirts, campaign gowns, campaign waistcoats, etc.

Campania

Properly the Terra di Lavoro of Italy, i.e. the plain country about Capua.

“Disdainful of Campania's gentle plains.”

Thomson: Summer.

Campaspe

(3 syl.). A beautiful harlot, whom Alexander the Great handed over to Apellês. Apelles drew her in the nude.

“When Cupid and Campaspe played

At cards for kisses, Cupid paid.”

Lily.

Campbells are Coming

(The). This soul—stirring song was composed in 1715, when the Earl of Mar raised the standard for the Stuarts against George I. John Campbell was Commander—in—Chief of his Majesty's forces, and the rebellion was quashed. The main interest now attached to the famous song is connected with the siege of Lucknow in the Indian rebellion, 1857. Nana Sahib had massacred women and children most foully, and while the survivors were expecting instant death, a Scotch woman lying ill on the ground heard the pibroch, and exclaimed, “Dinna ye hear it? Dinna ye hear it? The pipes o' Havelock sound.” And soon afterwards the rescue was accomplished. The first verse runs thus:—

“The Campbells are coming, O—ho! O—ho!

The Campbells are coming, O—ho!

The Campbells are coming to bonnie Loch Leven,

The Campbells are coming, O—ho!

Campbellite

(3 syl.). A follower of John McLeod Campbell, who taught the universality of the atonement, for which, in 1831, he was deposed.

Campceiling

A ceiling sloping on one side from the vertical wall towards a plane surface in the middle. A corruption of cam (twisted or bent) ceiling. (Halliwell gives cam, “awry.”)

Campeador

(cam—pa'—dor). The Cid (q.v.).

Canace

(3 syl.). A paragon of women, the daughter of King Cambuscan', to whom the King of Arabia and India sent as a present a mirror and a ring. The mirror would tell the lady if any man on whom she set her heart would prove true or false, and the ring (which was to be worn on her thumb) would enable her to understand the language of birds and to converse with them. It would also give the wearer perfect knowledge of the medicinal properties of all roots. Chaucer never finished the tale, but probably he meant to marry Canacë to some knight who would be able to overthrow her two brothers, Cambalo and Algarsife, in the tournament. (Squire's Tale.) (See below.)

Canacë was courted by a crowd of suitors, but her brother, Cambalo or Cambel, gave out that anyone who pretended to her hand must encounter him in single combat and overthrow him. She ultimately married Triamond, son of the fairy Agapë. (Spenser: Faërie Queene, bk. iv. 3.) (See Cambel.)

Canache (3 syl.). One of Actæon's dogs. (Greek, “the clang of metal falling.”)

Canada Balsam

Made from the Pinus balsamea, a native of Canada.

Canaille

(French, can—nay'e). The mob, the rabble (Italian, canaglia, a pack of dogs, from Latin canis, a dog).

Canard

A hoax. Cornelissen, to try the gullibility of the public, reported in the papers that he had twenty ducks, one of which he cut up and threw to the nineteen, who devoured it greedily. He then cut up another, then a third, and so on till nineteen were cut up; and as the nineteenth was gobbled up by the surviving duck, it followed that this one duck actually ate nineteen ducks — a wonderful proof of duck voracity. This tale had the run of all the papers, and gave a new word to the language. (French, cane, a duck.) (Quetelet.)

Canary

(A). Slang for “a guinea” or “sovereign.” Gold coin is so called because, like a canary, it is yellow.

Canary—bird

(A). A jail—bird. At one time certain desperate convicts were dressed in yellow; and jail was the cage of these “canaries.”

Cancan

To dance the cancan. A free—and—easy way of dancing quadrilles invented by Rigolboche, and adopted in the public gardens, the opera comique, and the casinos of Paris. (Cancan familiarity, tittle—tattle.)

“They were going through a quadrille with all those supplementary gestures introduced by the great Rigolboche, a notorious danseuse, to whom the notorious cancan owes its origin.” — A. Egmont Hake: Paris Originals (the Chiffonier).

Cancel

to blot out, is merely “to make lattice—work.” This is done by making a cross over the part to be omitted. (Latin, cancello, to make trellis.) (See Cross It Out .)

Cancer

(the Crab) appears when the sun has reached his highest northern limit, and begins to go backward towards the south; but, like a crab, the return is sideways (June 21st to July 23rd). According to fable, Cancer was the animal which Juno sent against Hercules, when he combated the Hydra of Lernê. Cancer bit the hero's foot, but Hercules killed the creature,. and Juno took it up to heaven, and made it one of the twelve signs of the zodiac.

Candaules

(3 syl.). King of Lydia, who exposed the charms of his wife to Gy'gës; whereupon the queen compelled Gyges to assassinate her husband, after which she married the murderer, who became king, and reigned twenty—eight years. (716—678.)

Candidate

(3 syl.) means “clothed in white.” Those who solicited the office of consul, quæstor, prætor, etc., among the Romans, arrayed themselves in a loose white robe. It was loose that they might show the people their scars, and white in sign of fidelity and humility. (Latin, candidus, whence candidati, clothed in white, etc.)

Candide (2 syl.). The hero of Voltaire's novel so called. All sorts of misfortunes are heaped upon him, and he bears them all with cynical indifference.

Candle

Bell, Book, and Candle. (See page 120, col 1, Bell , etc.)

Fine

(or Gay) as the king's candle. “Bariolé comme la chandelle des rois,” in allusion to an ancient custom of presenting, on January 6th, a candle of various colours to the three kings of Cologne. It is generally applied to a woman overdressed, especially with gay ribbons and flowers. “Fine as five—pence.”

The game is not worth the candle

(Le jeu ne vaut pas la chandelle). Not worth even the cost of the candle that lights the players.

To burn the candle at both ends.

In French, “Brûler la chandelle par les deux bouts.” To indulge in two or more expensive luxuries or dissipated habits at the same time; to haste to rise up early and late take rest, eating the bread of carefulness.

To hold a candle to the devil.

To aid or countenance that which is wrong. The allusion is to the practice of Roman Catholics, who burn candles before the image of a favourite saint, carry them in funeral processions, and place them on their altars.

When Jessica (in the Merchant of Venice, ii. 6) says to Lorenzo: “What, must I hold a candle to my shame?” she means, Must I direct attention to this disguise, and blazon my folly abroad? Why, “Cupid himself would blush to see me thus transformed to a body.” She does not mean, Must I glory in my shame?

To sell by the candle.

A species of sale by auction. A pin is thrust through a candle about an inch from the top, and bidding goes on till the candle is burnt down to the pin, when the pin drops into the candlestick, and the last bidder is declared the purchaser. This sort of auction was employed in 1893, according to the Reading Mercury (Dec. 16), at Aldermaston, near Reading.

“The Council thinks it meet to propose the way of selling by `inch of candle,' as being the most probable means to procure the true value of the goods.” — Milton: Letters, etc.

To smell of the lamp

(or candle). To betray laborious art, but the best literary work is the art of concealing art; to manifest great pains and long study by night.

To vow a candle to the devil.

To propitiate the devil by a bribe, as some seek to propitiate the saints in glory by a votive candle.

What is the Latin for candle?— Tacë.

Here is a play of words: tace means hold your tongue, don't bother me. (See Goose.)

Candles

used by Roman Catholics at funerals are the relic of an ancient Roman custom.

Candle—holder

An abettor. The reference is to the practice of holding a candle in the Catholic Church for the reader, and in ordinary life to light a workman when he requires more light.

“I'll be candle—holder and look on.”— Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet, i. 4.

Candles of the Night

The stars are so called by Shakespeare, in the Merchant of Venice, v. 1. Milton has improved upon the idea:—

“Else, O thievish Night,

Why shouldst thou, but for some felonious end, In thy dark lantern thus close up the stars

That Nature hung in heaven, and filled their lamps With everlasting oil, to give due light

To the misled and lonely traveller?”

Comus,

200—206.

Candlemas Day The feast of the purification of the Virgin Mary, when Christ was presented by her in the Temple. February 2nd, when, in the Roman Catholic Church, there is a candle procession, to consecrate all the candles which will be needed in the church during the year. The candles symbolise Jesus Christ, called “the light of the world,” and “a light to lighten the Gentiles.” It was the old Roman custom of burning candles to the goddess Februa, mother of Mars, to scare away evil spirits.

“On Candlemas Day

Candles and candlesticks throw all away.”

Candour

(Mrs.). A type of female backbiters. In Sheridan's comedy of The School for Scandal.

“The name of `Mrs. Candour' has become one of those formidable by—words, which have had more power in putting folly and ill—nature out of countenance than whole volumes of remonstrance.”— T. Moore.

Canens

A nymph, wife of Picus, King of the Laurentes. When Circê had changed Picus into a bird, Canens lamented him so greatly that she pined away, till she became a vox et prætorca nihil. (Ovid: Metamorphoses, 14 fab. 9.)

Canephorae

(in architecture). Figures of young persons of either sex bearing a basket on their head. (Latin, canephoræ, plural; singular, Greek, kaghjoroz.) The English singular is “canephor” (3 syl.).

Canicular Days

The dog—days, corresponding with the overflow of the Nile. From the middle of July to the beginning of the second week in September. (Latin, canicula, diminutive of canis, a dog.)

Canicular Period

A cycle of 1461 years or 1460 Julian years, called a “Sothic period.” When it was supposed that any given day had passed through all the seasons of the year.

Canicular Year

The ancient Egyptian year, computed from one heliacal rising of the Dog—star (Sirius) to the next.

Canidia

A sorceress, who could bring the moon from heaven. Alluded to by Horace. (Epodes, v.)

“Your ancient conjurors were wont

To make her [the moon] from her sphere dismount, And to their incantations stoop.”

Butler: Hudibras,

part ii. 3.

Canister

The head (pugilistic term). “To mill his canister” is to break his head. A “canister cap” is a covering for the head, whether hat or cap. A “canister” is a small coffer or box, and the head is the “canister” or coffer of man's brains.

Canker

The briar or dog—rose.

“Put down Richard, that sweet lovely rose,

And plant this thorn, this canker, Bolingbroke.” Shakespeare: 1 Henry IV., i. 3.

Cannæ

The place where Hannibal defeated the Romans under L. Æmilius Paulus. Any fatal battle that is the turning point of a great general's prosperity is called his Cannæ. Thus, we say, “Moscow was the Cannæ of Napoleon Bonaparte.”

Cannel Coal A corruption of candle coal, so called from the bright flame, unmixed with smoke, which it yields in combustion.

Cannibal

A word applied to those who eat human flesh. The usual derivation is Caribbee, corrupted into Canibbee, supposed to be man—eaters. Some of the tribes of these islands have no r.

“The natives live in great fear of the canibals (i.e. Caribals, or people of Cariba).”— Columbus.

Cannon

(in billiards). A corruption of carrom, which is short for carambole. A cannon is when the player's ball strikes the adversary's ball in such a way as to glance off and strike a second ball.

Canoe'

(2 syl.). A boat. (Spanish, canóa, a canoe; Dutch, cano; German, kahn, a boat; Old French, cane, a ship, and canot, a boat; Latin, canna, a hollow stem or reed; our cane, can = a jug; cannon, canal, etc.)

Canon

The canons used to be those persons who resided in the buildings contiguous to the cathedral, employed either in the daily service, or in the education of the choristers. The word is Greek, and means a measuring rod, the beam of a balance; then, a roll or register containing the names of the clergy who are licensed to officiate in a cathedral church.

Canon.

A divine or ecclesiastical law.

“Or that the Everlasting had not flxed

His canon 'gainst self—slaughter.”

Shakespeare: Hamlet, i. 2.

Canon Law

A collection of ecclesiastical laws which serve as the rule of church government. (See below.)

Canonical

Canon is a Greek word, and means the index of a balance, hence a rule or law. (See above.) The sacred canon means the accepted books of Holy Scripture, which contain the inspired laws of salvation and morality; also called The Canonical Books.

Canonical Dress

The costume worn by the clergy according to the direction of the canon. Archdeacons, deans, and bishops wear canonical hats.

Canonical Epistles

The seven catholic epistles, i.e. one of James, two of Peter, three of John, and one of Jude. The epistles of Paul were addressed to specific churches or to individuals.

“The second and third epistles of John are certainly not catholic. One is to a specific lady and her children; and the other is to Gaius. If the word “canonical” in this phrase means appointed to be read in church, then the epistles of Paul are canonical. In fact there are only five canonical epistles.

Canonical Hours

The times within which the sacred offices may be performed. In the Roman Catholic Church they are seven— viz. matins, prime, tierce, sext, nones, vespers, and compline. Prime, tierce, sext, and nones are the first, third, sixth, and ninth hours of the day, counting from six in the morning. Compline is a corruption of completorium (that which completes the services of the day). The reason why there are seven canonical hours is that David says, “Seven times a day do I praise thee” (Psalm oxix. 164).

In England the phrase means the time of the day within which persons can be legally married, i.e. from eight in the morning to three p m.

Canonical Obedience The obedience due by the inferior clergy to the superior clergy set over them. Even bishops owe canonical obedience to the archbishop of the same province.

Canonical Punishments

are those punishments which the Church is authorised to inflict.

Canonicals

The pouch on the gown of an M.D., designed for carrying drugs. The coif of a serjeant—at—law, designed for concealing the tonsure.

The lamb—skin on a B A hood, in imitation of the toga candida of the Romans. The strings of an Oxford undergraduate, to show the wearer is still in leading strings. At Cambridge, however, the strings are the mark of a graduate who has won his ribbons.

The tippet on a barrister's gown, meant for a wallet to carry briefs in. The proctors' and pro—proctors' tippet, for papers— a sort of sabretache.

Canopic Vases

Used by the Egyptian priests for the viscera of bodies embalmed, four vases being provided for each body. So called from Canopus, in Egypt, where they were first used.

Canopus

The Egyptian god of water. The Chaldeans worshipped fire, and sent all the other gods a challenge, which was accepted by a priest of Canopus. The Chaldeans lighted a vast fire round the god Canopus, when the Egyptian deity spouted out torrents of water and quenched the fire, thereby obtaining the triumph of water over fire.

Canopy

properly means a gnat curtain. Herodotus tells us (ii. 95) that the fishermen of the Nile used to lift their nets on a pole, and form thereby a rude sort of tent under which they slept securely, as gnats will not pass through the meshes of a net. Subsequently the tester of a bed was so called, and lastly the canopy borne over kings. (Greek, kwuwy, a gnat; kwiwpeiou, a gnat—curtain; Latin, conopeum, a gnatcurtain.)

Canossa

Canossa, in the duchy of Modena, is where (in the winter of 1076—7) Kaiser Heinrich IV. went to humble himself before Pope Gregory VII. (Hildebrand).

Has the Czar gone to Canossa?

Is he about to eat humble pie?

When, in November, 1887, the Czar went to Berlin to visit the Emperor of Germany, the Standard asked in a leader, “Has the Czar gone to Canossa?”

Cant

A whining manner of speech; class phraseology, especially of a religious nature (Latin, canto, to sing, whence chant). It is often derived from a proper name. We are told that Alexander and Andrew Cant maintained that all those who refused the “Covenant” ought to be excommunicated, and that those were cursed who made use of the prayer—book. These same Cants, in their grace before meat, used to “pray for all those who suffered persecution for their religious opinions.” (Mercurius Publicus, No. ix., 1661.)

The proper name cannot have given us the noun and verb, as they were in familiar use certainly in the time of Ben Jonson, signifying “professional slang,” and “to use professional slang.”

“The doctor here,

When he discourses of dissection,

Of vena cava and of vena porta ...

What does he do but cant? Or if he run

To his judicial astrology,

And trowl out the trine, the quartile, and the sextile, Does he not cant?”

Ben Jonson

(1574—1637): Andrew Cant died 1664.

Cantabrian Surge

The Bay of Biscay. So called from the Cantabri who dwelt about the Biscayan shore. Suetonius tells us that a thunderbolt fell in the Cantabrian Lake (Spain) “in which twelve axes were found.”

(Galba, viii.)

“She her thundering army leads

To Calpê [Gibraltar] ... or the rough

Cantabrian Surge.”

Akenside: Hymn to the Naiades.

Cantate Sunday

Fourth Sunday after Easter. So called from the first word of the introït of the mass: “Sing to the Lord.” Similarly “Laetate Sunday" (the fourth after Lent) is so called from the first word of the mass.

Canteen'

means properly a wine—cellar. Then a refreshment—house in a barrack for the use of the soldiers. Then a vessel, holding about three pints, for the use of soldiers on the march. (Italian, cantina, a cellar.)

Canterbury

Canterbury is the higher rack, but Winchester the better manger. Canterbury is the higher see in rank, but Winchester the one which produces the most money. This was the reply of William Edington, Bishop of Winchester, when offered the archbishopric of Canterbury (1366). Now Canterbury is 6,500.

Canterbury Tales

Chaucer supposed that he was in company with a party of pilgrims going to Canterbury to pay their devotions at the shrine of Thomas à Becket. The party assembled at an inn in Southwark, called the Tabard, and there agreed to tell one tale each, both in going and returning. He who told the best tale was to be treated with a supper on the homeward journey. The work is incomplete, and we have none of the tales told on the way home.

A Canterbury Tale.

A cock—and—bull story; a romance. So called from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.

Canting Crew

(The). Beggars, gipsies, and thieves, who use what is called the canting lingo.

Canucks

The Canadians. So called in the United States of America.

Canvas

means cloth made of hemp. To canvas a subject is to strain it through a hemp strainer, to sift it; and to canvass a borough is to sift the votes. (Latin, cannabis, hemp.)

Canvas City

(A). A military encampment.

“The Grand Master assented, and they proceeded accordingly, ... avoiding the most inhabited parts of the canvas city.”— Sir W. Scott: The Talisman, chap. x.

“In 1851, during the gold rush, a town of tents, known as Canvas Town, rose into being on the St. Kilda Road, Melbourne. Several thousand inhabitants lived in this temporary settlement, which was laid out in streets and lasted for several months.”— Cities of the World; Melbourne.

Caora

A river, on the banks of which are a people whose heads grow beneath their shoulders. Their eyes are in their shoulders, and their mouths in the middle of their breasts. (Hakluyt: Voyages, 1598.) Raleigh, in his Description of Guiana, gives a similar account of a race of men. (See Blemmyes .)

“The Anthropophagi and men whose heads

Do grow beneath their shoulders.”

Shakespeare: Othello, i. 3.

Cap

Black cap (See page 140, Black Cap .)

Cater cap.

A square cap or mortar—board. (French, quartier.)

College cap. A trencher like the caps worn at the English Universities by students and bachelors of art, doctors of divinity, etc.

Fool's cap.

A cylindrical cap with feather and bells, such as licensed Fools used to wear. Forked cap. A bishop's mitre. For the paper so called, see Foolscap.

John Knox cap

(A). A cap made of black silk velvet.

“A cap of black silk velvet, after the John Knox fashion.”— Edinburgh University Calendar.

Monmouth cap (A). (See Monmouth.)

Phrygian cap

(A). Cap of liberty (q.v.).

Scotch cap. A cloth cap worn commonly in Scotland. Cap and bells. The insignia of a professional fool or jester. A feather in one's cap. An achievement to be proud of; something creditable. Square cap. A trencher or “mortar—board,” like the University cap.

Statute cap

A woollen cap ordered by statute to be worn on holidays by all citizens for the benefit of the woollen trade. To a similar end, persons were obliged to be buried at death in flannel.

“Well, better wits have worn plain statute caps.”— Shakespeare: Love's Labour Lost, v 2.

Trencher cap,

or mortar—board. A cap with a square board, generally covered with black cloth. I must put on my considering cap. I must think about the matter before I give a final answer. The allusion is to a conjurer's cap.

If the cap fits, wear it.

If the remark applies to you, apply it to yourself. Hats and caps differ very slightly in size and appearance, but everyone knows his own when he puts it on.

Setting her cap at him.

Trying to catch him for a sweetheart or a husband. The lady puts on the most becoming of her caps, to attract the attention and admiration of the favoured gentleman.

To gain the cap.

To obtain a bow from another out of respect.

“Such gains the cap of him that makes them fine,

But keeps his book uncrossed.”

Shakespeare: Cymbeline,

iii. 3.

To pull caps.

To quarrel like two women, who pull each other's caps.

Your cap is all on one side.

The French have the phrase Mettre son bonnet de travers, meaning “to be in an ill—humour.” M. Hilaire le Gai explains it thus: “La plupart des tapageurs de profession portent ordinairement le chapeau sur l'oreille. ” It is quite certain that workmen, when they are bothered, push their cap on one side of the head, generally over the right ear, because the right hand is occupied.

Cap

(the verb).

I cap to that, i.e.

assent to it. The allusion is to a custom observed in France amongst the judges in deliberation. Those who assent to the opinion stated by any of the bench signify it by lifting their toque from their heads.

To cap.

To excel.

“Well, that caps the globe.”— C. Bronte: Jane Eyre.

Cap Verses

(To). Having the metre fixed and the last letter of the previous line given, to add a verse beginning with the given letter (of the same metre or not, according to prearrangement) thus:

English.

The way was long, the wind was cold (D).

Dogs with their tongues their wounds do heal(L). Like words congealed in northern air(R).

Regions Caesar never knew (W).

With all a poet's ecstasy(Y).

You may deride my awkward pace, etc. etc.

Latin.

Nil pictis timidus navita puppibus(S).

Sunt quos curriculo pulverem Olympicum(M). Myrtoum pavidus nauta secet mare(E).

Est qui nec veteris pocula Massici(I).

Illum, si proprio condidit horreo(O).

O, et presidium ... (as long as you please).

It would make a Christmas game to cap proper names: as Plato, Otway, Young, Goldsmith, etc., or to cap proverbs, as: “Rome was not built in a day”; “Ye are the salt of the earth”; “Hunger is the best sauce”;

“Example is better than precept”; “Time and tide wait for no man”; etc.

Cap and Bells

Wearing the cap and bells. Said of a person who is the butt of the company, or one who excites laughter at his own expense. The reference is to licensed jesters formerly attached to noblemen's establishments. Their headgear was a cap with bells.

“One is bound to speak the truth ... whether he mounts the cap and bells or a shovel hat [like a bishop].”— Thackeray.

Cap and Feather Days

The time of childhood.

“Here I was got into the scenes of my cap—and—feather days.”— Cobbett.

Cap and Gown The full academical costume of a university student, tutor, or master, worn at lectures, examinations, and after “hall" (dinner).

“Is it a cap and gown affair?”— C. Bede: Verdant Green.

Cap in Hand

Submissively. To wait on a man cap in hand is to wait on him like a servant, ready to do his bidding.

Cap of Fools

(The). The chief or foremost fool; one that exceeds all others in folly.

“Thou art the cap of all the fools alive.”

Shakespeare: Timon of Athens,

iv. 3.

Cap of Liberty

When a slave was manumitted by the Romans, a small red cloth cap, called pileus, was placed on his head. As soon as this was done, he was termed libertinus (a freedman), and his name was registered in the city tribes. When Saturninus, in 263, possessed himself of the capitol, he hoisted a cap on the top of his spear, to indicate that all slaves who joined his standard should be free. When Marius incited the slaves to take up arms against Sylla, he employed the same symbol; and when Caesar was murdered, the conspirators marched forth in a body, with a cap elevated on a spear, in token of liberty (See Liberty .)

Cap of Maintenance

A cap of dignity anciently belonging to the rank of duke; the fur cap of the Lord Mayor of London, worn on days of state; a cap carried before the British sovereigns at their coronation. Maintenance here means defence.

Cap of Time

They wear themselves in the cap of time. Use more ceremony, says Parolles, for these lords do “wear themselves in the cap of time,” i.e. these lords are the favours and jewels worn in the cap of the time being, and have the greatest influence. In the cap of time being, they are the very jewels, and most honoured. (Shakespeare: All's Well, etc., ii. 1.)

Cap—acquaintance

(A), now called a bowing acquaintance. One just sufficiently known to bow to.

Cap—money

Money collected in a cap or hat; hence an improvised collection.

Cap—a—pie

The general etymology is the French cap à pied, but the French phrase is de pied en cap.

“Armed at all points exactly cap—a—pie.”

Shakespeare: Hamlet,

i. 2.

“I am courtier, cap—a—pe.”

Shakespeare: Winter's Tale,

iv. 3.

We are told that cap à pie is Old French, but it would be desirable to give a quotation from some old French author to verify this assertion. I have hunted in vain for the purpose. Again, is pie Old French for pied? This is not a usual change. The usual change would be pied into pie. The Latin might be De capi te ad pedem.

Capfull of Wind

Olaus Magnus tells us that Eric, King of Sweden, was so familiar with evil spirits that what way soever he turned his cap the wind would blow, and for this he was called Windy Cap. The Laplanders drove a profitable trade in selling winds; but, even so late as 1814, Bessie Millie, of Pomona (Orkney Islands), helped out her living by selling favourable winds to mariners for the small sum of sixpence. (See Mont St. Michel .)

Cape Spirit of the Cape. (See page 14, col. 1, Adamastor .)

Cape of Storms

(See Storms .)

Capel Court

A speculation in stocks of such magnitude as to affect the money market. Capel Court is the name of the place in London where transactions in stocks are carried on.

Caper

The weather is so foul, not even a caper would venture out. A Manx proverb. A caper is a fisherman of Cape Clear in Ireland, who will venture out in almost any weather.

Caper Merchant

A dancing—master who cuts “capers.” (See Cut Capers .)

Capet

(Cap—pay). Hugues, the founder of the French monarchy, was surnamed Capetus (clothed with a capot or monk's hood), because he always wore a clerical costume as abbot of St. Martin de Tours. This was considered the family name of the kings of France; hence, Louis XVI. was arraigned before the National Convention under the name of Louis Capet.

Capital

Money or money's worth available for production.

“His capital is continually going from him [the merchant] in some shape, and returning to him in another.”— Adam Smith: Wealth of Nations, vol. i. book ii. chap. i. p. 276.

Active capital.

Ready money or property readily convertible into it.

Circulating capital.

Wages, or raw material. This sort of capital is not available a second time for the same purpose.

Fixed capital.

Land, buildings, and machinery, which are only gradually consumed. Political capital is something employed to serve a political purpose. Thus, the Whigs make political capital out of the errors of the Tories, and vice versâ.

“He tried to make capital out of his rival's discomfiture.”— The Times.

Capital Fellow

(A). A stock—jobber, in French called Un Capitaine, par allusion aux capitaux sur lesquels un agiote habituellement. A good—tempered, jovial, and generous person.

Capitals

To speak in capitals. To emphasise certain words with great stress. Certain nouns spelt with a capital letter are meant to be emphatic and distinctive.

Capite Censi

The lowest rank of Roman citizens; so called because they were counted simply by the poll, as they had no taxable property.

Capitulars

The laws of the first two dynasties of France were so called, because they were divided into chapters. (French, capitulaire.)

Capon

Called a fish out of the coop by those friars who wished to evade the Friday fast by eating chickens instead of fish. (See Yarmouth .)

Capon

(A). A castrated cock.

A Crail's capon.

A dried haddock.

A Severn capon.

A sole.

A Yarmouth capon.

A red herring.

We also sometimes hear of a Glasgow capon, a salt herring.

Capon

(A). A love—letter. In French, poulet means not only a chicken but also a love—letter, or a sheet of

note—paper. Thus Henri IV., consulting with Sully about his marriage, says: “My niece of Guise would please me best, though report says maliciously that she loves poulets in paper better than in a fricasee.”

“Boyet ... break up this capon [i.e. open this

love—letter].”— Shakespeare. Love's Labour's Lost, iv. 1.

Capricorn

Called by Thomson, in his Winter, “the centaur archer.” Anciently, the winter solstice occurred on the entry of the sun into Capricorn; but the stars, having advanced a whole sign to the east, the winter solstice now falls at the sun's entrance into Sagittarius (the centaur archer), so that the poet is strictly right, though we vulgarly retain the ancient classical manner of speaking. Capricornus is the tenth, or, strictly speaking, the eleventh sign of the zodiac. (Dec. 21—Jan. 20.) According to classic mythology, Capricorn was Pan, who, from fear of the great Typhon, changed himself into a goat, and was made by Jupiter one of the signs of the zodiac.

Captain

Capitano del Popolo, i.e. Garibaldi (1807—1882). The Great Captain (el gran capitano). Gonzalvo di Cordova (1453—1515.) Manuel Comnenus of Trebizond (1120,1143—1180)

Captain Cauf's Tail

The commander—in—chief of the mummers of Plough Monday.

Captain Copperthorne's Crew

All masters and no men.

Captain Podd

A showman. So called from “Captain” Podd, a famous puppet—showman in the time of Ben Jonson.

Captain Stiff

To come Captain Stiff over one. To treat one with cold formality.

“I shouldn't quite come Captain Stiff over him.”— S. Warren: Ten Thousand a Year.

Captious

Fallacious, deceitful; now it means ill—tempered, carping. (Latin, captiosus.)

“I know I love in vain, strive against hope;

Yet in this captious and intenible sieve

I still pour in the waters of my love.”

Shakespeare: All's Well that Ends Well, i. 3.

Capua

Capua corrupted Hannibal. Luxury and self—indulgence will ruin anyone. Hannibal was everywhere victorious over the Romans till he took up his winter quarters at Capua, the most luxurious city of Italy. When he left Capua his star began to wane, and, ere long, Carthage was in ruins and himself an exile.

Capua was the Cannæ of Hannibal.

As the battle of Cannæ was most disastrous to the Roman army, so was the luxury of Capua to Hannibal's army. We have a modern adaptation to this proverb: “Moscow was the Austerlitz of Napoleon.”

Capuchin

A friar of the order of St. Francis, of the new rule of 1528; so called from their “capuce” or pointed cowl.

Capulet

A noble house in Verona, the rival of that of Montague (3 syl.); Juliet is of the former, and Romeo of the latter. Lady Capulet is the beau—ideal of a proud Italian matron of the fifteenth century. The expression so familiar, “the tomb of all the Capulets,” is from Burke. (Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet.)

Caput Mortuum

Latin for head of the dead, used by the old chemists to designate the residuum of chemicals, when all their volatile matters had escaped. Anything from which all that rendered it valuable has been taken away. Thus, a learned scholar paralysed is a mere caput mortuum of his former self. The French Directory, towards its close, was a mere caput mortuum of a governing body.

Caqueux

A sort of gipsy race in Brittany, similar to the Cagots of Gascony, and Colliberts of Poitou.

Carabas

He is a Marquis of Carabas. A fossil nobleman, of unbounded pretensions and vanity, who would fain restore the slavish foolery of the reign of Louis XIV.; one with Fortunatus's purse, which was never empty. The character is taken from Perrault's tale of Puss in Boots.

“Prêtres que nous vengeons

Levez la drine et partageons;

Et toi, peuple animal,

Porte encor le bât feodal. ...

Chapeau bas! Chapeau bas!

Gloire au marquis de Carabas!”
Béranger, 1816.

Caracalla

[long—mantle ]. Aurelius Antoninus was so called because he adopted the Gaulish caracalla in preference to the Roman toga. It was a large, close—fitting, hooded mantle, reaching to the heels, and slit up before and behind to the waist. Aurelius was himself born in Gaul, called Caracal in Ossian. (See Curtmantle)

Caracci

(pron. Kar—rah'—che). Founder of the eclectic school in Italy. Luis and his two cousins Augustin and Annibale founded the school called Incamminati (progressive), which had for its chief principle the strict observance of nature. Luis (1554—1619), Augustin (1558—1601), Annibale (1560—1609).

The Caracci of France.

Jean Jouvenet, who was paralysed on the right side, and painted with his left hand.

(1647—1707.)

The Annibale Caracci of the Eclectic School.

Bernardino Campi, the Italian, is so called by Lanzi (1522—1590).

Carack

or Carrack. A ship of great bulk, constructed to carry heavy frieghts. (Spanish, caraca.)

“The rich—laden carack bound to distant shores.”

Pollok: Course of Time, book vii. line 60.

Caradoc

A Knight of the Round Table, noted for being the husband of the only lady in the queen's train who could wear “the mantle of matrimonial fidelity.” Also in history, the British chief whom the Romans called Caractacus.

Caraites

A religious sect among the Jews, who rigidly adhered to the words and letters of Scripture, regardless of metaphor, etc. Of course, they rejected the rabbinical interpretations and the Cabala. The word is derived from Caraïm, equivalent to scripturarii (textualists). Pronounce Carry—ites.

Caran D'Ache

The pseudonym of M. Emanuel Poirié, the French caricaturist.

Carat of Gold

So called from the carat bean, or seed of the locust tree, formerly employed in weighing gold and silver. Hence the expressions “22 carats fine,” “18 carats fine,” etc., meaning that out of 24 parts, 22 or 18 are gold, and the rest alloy.

“Here's the note

How much your chain weighs to the utmost carat.” Shakespeare: Comedy of Errors, iv. 1.

Caraway

Latin, carum, from Caria in Asia Minor, whence the seeds were imported.

“Nay, you shall see my orchard, where in an arbour we will eat a last year's pippin of my own graffing, with a dish of caraways.”— Shakespeare: 2 Henry IV., v. 3 (Justice Shallow to Falstaff).

Carbineer

or Carabineer. Properly a skirmisher or light horseman, from the Arabic carabine. A carbine is the light musket used by cavalry soldiers.

“He ... left the Rhinegrave, with his company of mounted carbineers, to guard the passage.” Motley: Dutch Republic (vol. i. part i. chap. ii. p. 179).

Carbonado

A chop; mince meat. Strictly speaking, a carbonado is a piece of meat cut crosswise for the gridiron. (Latin, carbo, a coal.)

“If he do come in my way, so; if he do not— if

I come in his willingly, let him make a carbonado of me.”— Shakespeare: 1 Henry IV., v. 3.

Carbonari

means charcoal—burners, a name assumed by a secret political society in Italy (organised 1808—1814). Their place of muster they called a “hut;” its inside, “the place for selling charcoal;” and the outside, the “forest.” Their political opponents they called “wolves.” Their object was to convert the kingdom of Naples into a republic. In the singular number, Carbonaro. (See Charbonnerie.)

Carbuncle of Ward Hill (The). A mysterious carbuncle visible enough to those who stand at the foot of the hill in May, June or July; but never beheld by anyone who has succeeded in reaching the hill top.

“I have distinguished, among the dark rocks, that wonderful carbuncle, which gleams ruddy as a furnace to them who view it from beneath, but has ever become invisible to him whose daring foot has scaled the precipice from which it darts its splendour.”— Sir W. Scott: The Pirate, chap. xix.

Dr. Wallace thinks it is water trickling from a rock, and reddened by the sun.

Carcanet

A small chain of jewels for the neck. (French, carcan, an iron collar.)

“Like captain jewels in a carcanet.”

Shakespeare: Sonnets.

Carcass

The shell of a house before the floors are laid and walls plastered; the skeleton of a ship, a wreck, etc. The body of a dead animal, so called from the Latin caro—cassa (lifeless flesh). (French, carcasse.)

“The Goodwins, I think they call the place; a very dangerous flat and fatal, where the carcases of many a tall ship lie buried.”— Shakespeare: Merchant of Venice, iii. 1.

Carcasses

Shells with three fuzeholes. They are projected from mortars (q.v.), howitzers (q.v.), and guns. They will burn furiously for eight or ten minutes, do not burst like shells, but the flames, rushing from the three holes, set on fire everything within their influence.

“Charlestown ... having been fired by carcass from Copp's Hill, sent up dense columns of smoke.”— Lessing: United States

Card

That's the card. The right thing; the ticket. The reference is to tickets of admission, cards of the races, and programmes.

“10s. is about the card.”— Mayhew: London Labour, etc.

A queer card. An eccentric person, “indifferent honest.” A difficult lead in cards to play to. A knowing card. A sharp fellow, next door to a sharper. The allusion is to card—sharpers and their tricks.

“Whose great aim it was to be considered a knowing card.”— Dickens: Sketches, etc.

A great card. A big wig; the boss of the season; a person of note. A big card. A leading card. A star actor. A person leads from his strongest suit.

A loose card.

A worthless fellow who lives on the loose.

“A loose card is a card of no value, and, consequently, the properest to throw away.”— Hoyle: Games, etc.

A sure card. A person one can fully depend on; a person sure to command success. A project to be certainly depended on. As a winning card in one's hand.

He is the card of our house.

The man of mark, the most distingué. Osric tells Hamlet that Laertës is “the card and calendar of gentry” (v. 2). The card is a card of a compass, containing all its points. Laertës is the card of gentry, in whom may be seen all its points. We also say “a queer card,” meaning an odd fish.

That was my best trump card.

My best chance. The allusion is to loo, whist, and other games played with cards.

To play one's best card.

To do that which one hopes is most likely to secure success. To speak by the card. To speak by the book, be as precise as a map or book, be as precise as a map or book. A merchant's expression. The card is the document in writing containing the agreements made between a merchant and the captain of a vessel. Sometimes the owner binds himself, ship, tackle, and furniture for due performance, and the captain is bound to deliver the cargo committed to him in good condition. To speak by the card is to speak according to the indentures or written instructions. In some cases the reference is to the card of a mariner's compass.

“Law ... is the card to guide the world by.”— Hooker: Ecc. Pol., part ii. sec. 5.

“We must speak by the card, or equivocation will undo us.”— Shakespeare: Hamlet, v. 1.

Cards

It is said that there never was a good hand of cards containing four clubs. Such a hand is called “The Devil's Four—poster.”

Lieuben, a German lunatic, bet that he would succeed in turning up a pack of cards in a certain order stated in a written agreement. He turned and turned the cards ten hours a day for twenty years, and repeated the operation 4,246,028 times, when at last he succeeded.

In Spain, spades used to be columbines; clubs, rabbits; diamonds, pinks; and hearts, roses. The present name for spades is espados (swords); of clubs, bastos (cudgels); of diamonds, dineros (square pieces of money used for paying wages), of hearts, copas (chalices).

The French for spades is pique (pikemen or soldiers); for clubs, trèfle (clover, or husbandmen); of diamonds, carreaux (building tiles, or artisans); of hearts, choeur (choir—men, or ecclesiasties)

The English spades is the French form of a pike, and the Spanish name; the clubs is the French trefoil, and the Spanish name; the hearts is a corruption of choeur into coeur. (See Vierge.)

Court cards.

So called because of their heraldic devices. The king of clubs originally represented the arms of the Pope; of spades, the King of France; of diamonds, the King of Spain; and of hearts, the King of England. The French kings in cards are called David (spades), Alexander (clubs), Caesar (diamonds), and Charles (hearts)— representing the Jewish, Greek, Roman, and Frankish empires. The queens or dames are Argine— i.e. Juno (hearts), Judith (clubs), Rachel (diamonds), and Pallas (spades) — representing royalty, fortitude, piety, and wisdom. They were likenesses of Marie d'Anjou, the queen of Charles VII., Isabeau, the queen—mother; Agnes Sorel, the king's mistress, and Joan d'Arc, the dame of spades, or war.

He felt that he held the cards in his own hands.

That he had the whip—end of the stick; that he had the upper hand, and could do as he liked. The allusion is to games played with cards, such as whist.

He played his cards well.

He acted judiciously and skilfully, like a whistplayer who plays his hand with judgment. To play one's cards badly is to manage a project unskilfully.

The cards are in my hands.

I hold the disposal of events which will secure success. The allusion is obvious.

“The Vitelli busied at Arezzo; the Orsini irritating the French; the war of Naples imminent;— the cards are in my hands.”— Caesar Borgia, xxix.

On the cards.

Likely to happen, projected, and talked about as likely to occur. On the programme or card of the races; on the “agenda.”

To count on one's cards.

To anticipate success under the circumstances. The allusion is to holding in one's hand cards likely to win.

To go in with good cards.

To have good patronage; to have excellent grounds for expecting success. To throw up the cards. To give up as a bad job; to acknowledge you have no hope of success. In some games of cards, as loo, a player has the liberty of saying whether he will play or not, and if one's hand is hopelessly bad he throws up his cards and sits out till the next deal.

Cardinal Humours

Blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile.

Cardinal Numbers

Such numbers as 1, 2, 3, etc. 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc., are ordinal numbers.

Cardinal Points of the Compass

Due north, west, east, and south. So called because they are the points on which the intermediate ones, such as N.E., N.W., N.N.E., etc., hinge or hang. (Latin, cardo, a hinge.)

Cardinal Signs

[of the Zodiac]. The two equinoctial and the two solsticial signs, Aries and Libra, Cancer and Capricornus.

Cardinal Virtues Justice, prudence, temperance, and fortitude, on which all other virtues hang or depend.

Cardinal Winds

Those that blow due East, West, North, and South.

Cardinals

Hinges. (Latin, cardo.) The election of the Pope “hinges” on the voice of the sacred college, and on the Pope the doctrines of the Church depend; so that the cardinals are in fact the hinges on which the Christian Church turns. There may be six cardinal bishops, fifty cardinal priests, and fourteen cardinal deacons, who constitute the Pope's council, and who elect the Pope when a vacancy occurs.

Cardinal's Red Hat

Some assert that Innocent IV. made the cardinals wear a red hat “in token of their being ready to lay down their life for the gospel.”

Carduel

or Kartel. Carlisle. The place where Merlin prepared the Round Table.

Care—cloth

(The). The fine linen cloth laid over the newly—married in the Catholic Church. (Anglo—Saxon, cear, large, as cear wúnd (a big wound), cear sorh (a great sorrow), etc.)

Care killed the Cat

It is said that “a cat has nine lives,” yet care would wear them all out.

Care Sunday

(the fifth Sunday in Lent). Professor Skeat tells us (Notes and Queries, Oct. 28th, 1893), that

“care” means trouble, suffering; and that Care—Sunday means Passion—Sunday. In Old High German we have Kar—woche and Kar—fritag.

The Latin cura sometimes meant “sorrow, grief, trouble,” as “Curam et angorem animl levare.”— Cicero: Att. i. 15.

Careme

(2 syl.). Lent; a corruption of quadragesima.

Car—goose

(A) or Gargoose. The crested diver, belonging to the genus Colymbus. (Anglo—Saxon, gar and gos.)

Caricatures

mean “sketches overdrawn.” (Italian, caricatura,) from carica'rë, to load or burden.

Carillons

in France, are chimes or tunes played on bells; but in England the suites of bells that play the tunes. Our word carol approaches the French meaning nearer than our own. The best chimes in the world are those in Les Halles, at Bruges.

Carinae

Women hired by the Romans to weep at funerals; so called from Caria, whence most of them came.

Carle

or Carling Sunday [Pea Sunday ]. The octave preceding Palm Sunday; so called because the special food of the day was carling— i.e. peas fried in butter. The custom is a continuation of thee pagan bean—feast. The fifth Sunday in Lent.

Carlovingian Dynasty

So called from Carolus or Charles Martel.

Carludovica

A Panama hat, made of the Carludovica palmata; so called in compliment to Carlos IV. of Spain, whose second name was Ludovic.

Carmagnole

(3 syl.). A red Republican song and dance in the first French revolution; so called from Carmagnola, in Piedmont, the great nest of the Savoyards, noted for street music and dancing. The refrain of “Madame Veto,” the Carmagnole song, is “Dansons la Carmagnole— vive le son du canon!” The word was subsequently applied to other revolutionary songs, such as Ça ira the Marseillaise, the Chant du Depart. Besides the songs, the word is applied to the dress worn by the Jacobins, consisting of a blouse, red cap, and

tri—coloured girdlle; to the wearer of this dress or any violent revolutionist; to the speeches in favour of the execution of Louis XVI, called by M Barrière des Carmagnoles; and, lastly, to the dance performed by the mob round the guillotine, or down the streets of Paris.

Carmelites

(3 syl.). An order of mendicant friars of Mount Carmel, the monastery of which is named Elias, from Elijah the prophet, who on Mount Carmel told Ahab that rain was at hand. Also called White Friars, from their white cloaks.

Carmilhan

The phantom ship on which the Kobold of the Baltic sits when he appears to doomed vessels.

Carminative

A charm medicine. Magic and charms were at one time the chief “medicines,” and the fact is perpetuated by the word carminative, among others. Carminatives are given to relieve flatulence. (Latin, carmen, a charm.)

Carmine

(2 syl). The dye made from the carmës or kermës insect, whence also crimson, through the Italian cremisino.

Carnation

“Flesh—colour.” (Latin, caro; genitive, carnis, flesh.)

Carney

To wheedle, to keep caressing.

Carnival

The season immediately preceding Lent; shrove—tide. Ducange gives the word carne—levale. (Modern Italian, carnovále; Spanish and French, carnaval.)

Italis, carnevale, carnovale, carnaval. Quidam scriptores Itali “carne—vale” dictum putant, quasi carne vale (good—by meat); sed id etymon non probat Octav. Ferrarius. Cangius ... appellasse Gallos existimat, carn—a—val, quod sonat caro abscedit ... [We are referred to a charter, dated 1195, in which occurs the word carne—lcvamen, and a quotation is given in which occurs the phrase in carnis levamen ].— Ducange, vol. ii. p. 222.

Carotid Artery

An artery on each side of the neck, supposed by the ancients to be the seat of drowsiness, brought on by an increased flow of blood through it to the head. (Greek, caroticos, inducing sleep.)

Carouse (2 syl.). Mr. Gifford says the Danes called their large drinking cup a rouse, and to rouse is to drink from a rouse; ca—rouse is gar—rouse, to drink all up, or to drink all— i.e. in company.

“The king doth wake to—night, and takes his rouse.”Shakespeare: Hamlet, i. 4.

Carouse the hunter's hoop.

Drinking cups were anciently marked with hoops, by which every drinker knew his stint. Shakespeare makes Jack Cade promise his friends that “seven halfpenny loaves shall be sold for a penny; and the three—hooped pot have ten hoops.” Pegs or pins (q.v.) are other means of limiting the draught of individuals who drank out of the same tankard.

Carpathian Wizard

Proteus (2 syl.), who lived in the island of Carpathos, between Rhodes and Crete. He was a wizard and prophet, who could transform himself into any shape he pleased. He is represented as carrying a sort of crook in his hand. Carpathos, now called Scarpanto.

“By the Carpathian wizard's hook.”

Milton: Comus, 893.

Carpe Diem

Enjoy yourself while you have the opportunity. Seize the present day. (Horace: 1 Odes, xi. 8.) “Dum vivimus, vivamus.”

Carpenter

is from the Low Latin carpentarius, a maker of carpenta (two—wheeled carts and carriages). The carpentum was used for ladies; the carpentum funebre or carpentum pompaticum was a hearse. There was also a carpentum (cart) for agricultural purposes. There is no Latin word for our “carpenter”; the phrase faber lignarius is used by Cicero. Our forefathers called a carpenter a “smith” or a “wood—smith.” (French, charpentér.)

Carpet

The magic carpet of Tangu. A carpet to all appearances worthless, but if anyone sat thereon, it would transport him instantaneously to the place he wished to go. So called because it came from Tangu, in Persia. It is sometimes termed Prince Housain's carpet, because it came into his hands, and he made use of it. (Arabian Nights: Prince Ahmed.) (See below.)

Solomon's carpet.

The Eastern writers say that Solomon had a green silk carpet, on which his throne was placed when he travelled. This carpet was large enough for all his forces to stand upon; the men and women stood on his right hand, and the spirits on his left. When all were arranged in order, Solomon told the wind where he wished to go, and the carpet, with all its contents, rose in the air and alighted at the place indicated. In order to screen the party from the sun, the birds of the air with outspread wings formed a canopy over the whole party. (Sale: Koran.) (See above.)

Such and such a question is on the carpet.

The French sur le tapis (on the table—cloth)— i.e. before the house, under consideration. The question has been laid on the table—cloth of the house, and is now under debate.

Carpet—bag Adventurer

(A). A passing adventurer, who happens to be on the road with his travelling or carpet—bag.

Carpet—bag Government

The government of mere adventurers. In America, a state in the South reorganised by “carpet—baggers,” i.e. Northern political adventurers, who sought a career in the Southern States after the Civil War of 1865. [It may be noted that in America members of Congress and the State legislatures almost invariably reside in the district which they represent.]

Carpet Knight

One dubbed at Court by favour, not having won his spurs by military service in the field. Mayors, lawyers, and other civilians knighted as they kneel on a carpet before their sovereign. “Knights of the

Carpet,” “Knights of the Green Cloth,” “Knights of Carpetry.”

“The subordinate commands fell to young patricians, carpet—knights, who went on campaigns with their families and slaves.”— Froude: Caesar, chap. iv. p. 91.

Carpocratians

Gnostics; so called from Carpocrates, who flourished in the middle of the second century. They maintained that the world was made by angels,— that only the soul of Christ ascended into heaven,— and that the body will have no resurrection.

Carriage Company

Persons who keep their private carriage

“Seeing a great deal of carriage company”— Thackeray.

Carriages

Things carried, luggage.

“And after those days we took up our carriages, and went up to Jerusalem.”— Acts xxi. 15.

Carronades

(3 syl.). Short, light iron guns. As they have no trunnions they differ in this respect from guns and howitzers (q.v.). They were invented in 1779 by Mr. Gascoigne, director of the Carron foundry, in Scotland, whence the name. Carronades are fastened to their carriages by a loop underneath, and are chiefly used in the arming of ships, to enable them to throw heavy shot at close quarters, without overloading the decks with heavy guns. On shore they are used as howitzers.

Carry Arms!

Hold your gun in the right hand, the barrel nearly perpendicular, and resting against the hollow of the shoulder, the thumb and forefinger embracing the guard. (A military command.) (See Carry Swords .)

Carry Coals

(See Coals .)

Carry Everything before One

(To). To be beyond competition; to carry off all the prizes. A military phrase. Similarly, a high wind carries everything before it.

Carry Fire in one Hand and Water in the other

(To). To say one thing and mean another; to flatter, to deceive; to lull suspicion in order the better to work mischief.

“Altera manu fert aquam, altera ignem. Altera manu fert lapidem, altera panem ostentat.” Plautus.

Carry One's Point

(To). To succeed in one's aim. Candidates in Rome were balloted for, and the votes were marked on a tablet by points. Hence, omne punctum ferre meant “to be carried nem. con., ” or to gain every vote; and “to carry one's point” is to carry off the points at which one aimed.

Carry Out

(To) or Carry through. To continue a project to its completion.

Carry out one's Bat

(To). A cricketer is said to carry out his bat when he is not “out” at the close of the game.

Carry Swords!

Hold the drawn sword vertically, the blade against the shoulder (A military command.) (See above, Carry Arms .)

Carry the Day

(To). To win the contest; to carry off the honours of the day. In Latin, victoriam reportare.

Carry Weight (To), in races, etc., means to equalise the weight of two or more riders by adding weights to the lighter ones, till both (or all) the riders are made of one uniform weight.

“He carries weight! he rides a race! `Tis for a thousand pounds.”

Cowper: John Gilpin.

To carry weight. To have influence.

Cart before the Horse

To put the cart before the horse is to reverse the right order or allocation of things.

French:

“Mettre la charrette avant les boeufs.”

Latin:

“Currus bovem trahit Praepostere.”

Greek:

“Hysteron proteron.”

German:

“Die pferde hinter den wagen spannen.”

Italian:

“Metter il carro inanzi ai buoi.”

Carte Blanche

(French). A blank cheque signed by the giver, but left to be filled in by the receiver, with a sum of money drawn on the bank—account of the giver. Power to act at discretion in an affair placed under your charge.

Carte de Visite

(French). A visiting card, a photographic likeness on a card for the albums of friends, etc. This custom originated, in 1857, with the Duke of Parma.

Cartesian Philosophy

The philosophical system of René Descartes (Latin, Cartesius ), of La Haye, in Touraine. The basis of his system is cogito ergo sum. Thought must proceed from soul, and therefore man is not wholly material; that soul must be from some Being not material, and that Being is God. As for physical phenomena, they must be the result of motion excited by God, and these motions he termed vortices. (1596—1650.)

Of course, he begs the whole question in his first assertion. (See Cogito.)

Carthage of the North

Lubeck was so called, when it was the head of the Hanseatic League.

Carthagena

Capital of New Granada, in South America, unsuccessfully attacked in 1747 by Admiral Vernon.

“Wasteful, forth

Walks the dire power of pestilent disease ...

Such as, of late, at Carthagena quenched

The British fire. You, gallant Vernon, saw

The miserable scene; you, pitying, saw

To infant—weakness sunk the warrior's arm.”

Thomson: Summer,

1034—43.

Carthaginem esse Delendam

(censeo) were the words with which Cato the Elder concluded every speech in the Roman senate. More usually quoted “Delenda est Carthago.” They are now proverbial, and mean, “That which stands in the way of our greatness must be removed at all hazards.”

Carthaginian Faith

Treachery. (See Punica Fides .)

Carthusians

Founded, in 1086, by St. Bruno, of Cologne, who, with six companions, retired to the solitude of La Chartreuse, near Grenoble, in Vienne.

Cartoons

Designs drawn on cartone (pasteboard), like those of Raffaelle, formerly at Hampton Court, but now at Kensington Museum. They were bought by Charles I., and are seven in number: “The Miraculous Draught of Fishes,” “Feed my Lambs,” “The Beautiful Gate of the Temple,” “Death of Ananias,” “Elymas the Sorcerer,” “Paul at Lystra,” and “Paul on the Mars Hill.”

“They were designs for tapestries to be worked in Flanders.”— Julia B. De Forest: Short History of Art, p. 246.

Cartridge Paper

was originally manufactured for soldiers' cartridges. The word is a corruption of cartouche, from carta (paper).

Caryates

or Caryatids. Figures of women in Greek costume, used in architecture to support entablatures. Caryae, in Arcadia, sided with the Persians in the battle of Thermopylae; in consequence of which the victorious Greeks destroyed the city, slew the men, and made the women slaves. Praxiteles, to perpetuate the disgrace, employed figures of these women, instead of columns. (See page 72, col. 2, Atlantes, page 208, col. 2, Canephorae .)

Caryatic Order

or Caryatidic Order. Architecture in which Caryatids are introduced to support the entablature.

Casabianca

was the name of the captain of the French man—of—war, L'Orient. At the battle of Aboukir, having first secured the safety of his crew, he blew up his ship, to prevent it falling into the hands of the English. His little son, refusing to leave him, perished with his father. Mrs. Hemans has made a ballad, Casabianca, on this subject, modifying the incident. The French poets Lebrun and Chénier have also celebrated the occurrence.

Casca

A blunt—witted Roman, one of the conspirators against Julius Caesar. (Shakespeare: Julius Caesar.)

Case

(To). To skin an animal. In the Cookery by Mrs. Glasse is the direction, “Take your hare when it is cased, ... and make a pudding ...” The witticism, “First catch your hare,” may possibly have been suggested by this direction, but it is not in the Art of Cookery made Plain and Easy.

Case—hardened

Impenetrable to all sense of honour or shame. The allusion is to iron toughened by carbonising the surface in contact with charcoal in a case or closed box. It is done by heat.

Cashier'

(2 syl.). To dismiss an officer from the army, to discard from society. (French, casser, to break; Italian, cassa'rë, to blot out; Ger. kassiren.)

“The ruling rogue, who dreads to be cashiered,

Contrives, as he is hated, to be feared.”

Swift: Epistle to Mr. Gay, line 137.

Casino

Originally, a little casa or room near a theatre, where persons might retire, after the play was over, for dancing or music.

Casket Homer

Alexander the Great's edition, with Aristotle's corrections. After the battle of Arbela a golden casket, studded with jewels, was found in the tent of Darius. Alexander, being asked to what purpose it should be applied, made answer, “There is but one production in the world worthy of so costly a depository,” and placed therein his edition of Homer, which received from this circumstance the term of Casket Homer.

Caspar

A huntsman who sold himself to Zamiel, the Black Huntsman. The night before the expiration of his lease of life he bargained for three years' respite on condition of bringing Max into the power of the evil one. Zamiel replied, “To—morrow either he or you.” On the day appointed for the trial—shot, Caspar places himself in a tree. Max is told by the prince to aim at a dove. The dove flies to the tree where Caspar is concealed. Max shoots at the dove, but kills Caspar, and Zamiel comes to carry off his victim. (Weber's Opera of Der Freischütz.)

Cassandra

Daughter of Priam, gifted with the power of prophecy; but Apollo, whom she had offended, brought it to pass that no one believed her predictions. (Shakespeare: Troilus and Cressida.)

“Those who foresee and predict the downfall, meet with the fate of Cassandra.”— The Times.

Cassation

The court of cassation, in France, is the court which can casser (or quash) the judgment of other courts.

Cassi

Inhabitants of what is now Cassio hundred, Hertfordshire, referred to by Caesar in his Commentaries.

Cassibelan

Great—uncle to Cymbeline. He granted Caesar a yearly tribute of £3,000. (Shakespeare: Cymbeline).

Cassio

(in Shakespeare's Othello). Michael Cassio was a Florentine, and Othello's lieutenant. Iago made him drunk, and then set on Roderigo to quarrel with him. Cassio wounded Roderigo, and a brawl ensued, which offended Othello. Othello suspended Cassio, but Iago induced Desdemona to plead for his restoration. This interest in Cassio, being regarded by the Moor as a confirmation of Desdemona's illicit love, hinted at broadly by Iago, provoked the jealousy of Othello. After the death of the Moor, Cassio was appointed governor of Cyprus.

Cassiopeia

[the lady in the chair ]. The chief stars of this constellation form the outline of a chair. The lady referred to is the wife of Cepheus (2 syl.), King of Ethiopia. She boasted that the beauty of her daughter Andromeda surpassed that of the sea—nymphs. The sea—nymphs complained to the sea god of this affront, and Andromeda, to appease their wrath, was chained to a rock to be devoured by sea—monsters. Perseus (2 syl.) delivered her, and made her his wife. The vain mother was taken to heaven out of the way, and placed among the stars.

“That starred Ethiop queen that strove

To set her beauty's praise above

The sea—nymphs and their powers offended.

Milton: Il Penseroso

N.B.— “Her beauty's praise” means that of her beautiful daughter. Androméda was her mother's “beauty.”

Cassiterides

(5 syl.). The tin islands, generally supposed to be the Scilly Islands and Cornwall, but probably the isles in Vigo Bay are meant. It is said that the Veneti procured tin from Cornwall, and carried it to the Isles of Vigo Bay, but kept as a profound secret the place from which they obtained it. The Phoenicians were the chief customers of the Veneti.

Cast About

(To). To deliberate, to consider, as, “I am casting about me how I am to meet the expenses.” A sporting phrase. Dogs, when they have lost scent, “cast for it,” i.e. spread out and search in different directions to recover it.

Cast Accounts

(To). To balance or keep accounts. To cast up a line of figures is to add them together and set down the sum they produce. To cast or throw the value of one figure into another till the whole number is totalled.

Cast Anchor

(To). To throw out the anchor in order to bring the vessel to a standstill. (Latin, anchoram, jacere.)

Cast Aside

(To). To reject as worthless.

Cast Down

Dejected. (Latin, dejectus.)

Cast a Sheep's Eye at One

(To). To look askance or sideways at one; to look wantonly at one.

Cast beyond the Moon

To form wild conjectures. One of Heywood's proverbs. At one time the moon was supposed to influence the weather, to affect the ingathering of fruits, to rule the time of sowing, reaping, and slaying cattle, etc.

“I talke of things impossible, and cast beyond the moon.” Heywood.

Cast in One's Lot

(To). To share the good or bad fortune of another.

Cast into One's Teeth

(To). To throw a reproof at one. The allusion is to knocking one's teeth out by stones.

“All my faults observed, set in a note book,

Learned and conned by rote, to cast into my teeth.” Shakespeare: Julius Coesar.

Cast of the Eye

(A). A squint. One meaning of the word cast is to twist or warp. Thus, a fabric is said to

“cast” when it warps; and seamen speak of “casting,” or turning the head of a ship on the tack it is to sail. We also speak of a “casting" or turning vote.

“My goode bowe clene cast [twisted] on one side.”— Ascham: Toxophilus.

Cast Pearls before Swine

(To). If pearls are cast to swine, the swine would only trample them under foot.

Casting Vote

The vote of the presiding officer when the votes of the assembly are equal. This final vote casts, turns, or determines the question.

Castagnette

(Captain). A hero noted for having his stomach replaced by Desgenettes by a leather one. His career is ended by a bomb, which blows him into fragments. An extravaganza from the French of Manuel.

Castaly

A fountain of Parnassus sacred to the Muses. Its waters had the power of inspiring with the gift of poetry those who drank of them.

“The drooping Muses [Sir Industry]

Brought to another Castalie,

Where Isis many a famous nursling breeds,

Or where old Cam soft paces o'er the lea

In pensive mood.”

Thomson: Castle of Indolence,

ii. 21.

“Isis” means the University of Oxford, and “Cam” the University of Cambridge, so called from the respective rivers on which they stand.

Caste

(1 syl.), race. The Portuguese casta. In Sanskrit the word used for the same purpose is varna (colour). The four Hindu castes are Brahmins (the sacred order), Shatriya (soldiers and rulers), Vaisy'a (husbandmen and merchants), Sudra (agricultural labourers and mechanics). The first issued from the mouth of Brahma, the second from his arms, the third from his thighs, and the fourth from his feet. Below these come thirty—six inferior classes, to whom the Vedas are sealed, and who are held cursed in this world and without hope in the next. The Jews seem to have entertained the same notion respecting the common people, and hence the Sanhedrim say to the officers, “This people; who know not the law, are cursed.” (John vii. 49.)

To lose caste.

To lose position in society. To get degraded from one caste to an inferior one.

Castle Builder

(A). One who entertains sanguine hopes. One who builds air—castles which have no existence except in a dreamy imagination. (See below.)

Castle in the Air

A splendid edifice, but one which has no existence. In fairy tales we often have these castles built at a word, and vanishing as soon, like that built for Aladdin by the Genius of the Lamp. These air—castles are called by the French Châteaux d'Espagne, because Spain has no châteaux. We also find the expression Châteaux en Asie for a similar reason. (See Chateaux .)

Castle of Bungay

(My).

“Were I in my Castle of Bungay

Vpon the riuer of Waueney,

I would ne care for the King of Cockney.”

Attributed to Lord Bigod of Bungay. The lines are in Camden's Britannia (edit. 1607). The events referred to in the ballad belong to the reign of Stephen or Henry II. (See Bar—Sur—Aube, page 100, col. 1.)

Castle of Indolence

In the land of Drowsiness, where every sense is steeped in enervating delights. The owner of the castle was an enchanter, who deprived all who entered his domains of their energy and free—will. (Thomson: Castle of Indolence.)

Castle Terabil

(or “Terrible") in Arthurian legends stood in Launceston. It had a steep keep environed with a triple wall. Sometimes called Dunheved Castle. It was within ten miles of Tintagel.

Castor

A hat. Castor is the Latin for a beaver, and beaver means a hat made of the beaver's skin.

“Tom Trot

Took his new castor from his head.”

Randall: Diary.

Castor and Pollux

What we call comazants. Electric flames sometimes seen in stormy weather playing about the masts of ships. If only one flame showed itself, the Romans called it Helen, and said that it portended that the worst of the storm was yet to come; but two or more luminous flames they called Castor and Pollux, and said that they boded the termination of the storm.

But when the sons of Leda shed

Their star—lamps on our vessel's head,

The storm—winds cease, the troubled spray

Falls from the rocks, clouds flee away,

And on the bosom of the deep

In peace the angry billows sleep. E. C. B.

Horace: Odes xii., 27—32.

Castor's Horse

Cyllaros. Virgil ascribes him to Pollux. (Geor., iii.) (See Horse .)

Casuist

(3 syl.). One who resolves casus conscientiæ (cases of conscience). M. le Fevre calls casuistry “the art of quibbling with God.”

Casus Belli

(Latin). A ground for war; an occurrence warranting international hostilities.

Cat

Called a “familiar,” from the mediæval superstition that Satan's favourite form was a black cat. Hence “witches” were said to have a cat as their familiar.

Cat.

A symbol of liberty. The Roman goddess of Liberty was represented as holding a cup in one hand, a broken sceptre in the other, and with a cat lying at her feet. No animal is so great an enemy to all constraint as a cat.

Cat.

Held in veneration by the Egyptians under the name of Ælurus. This deity is represented with a human body and a cat's head. Diodorus tells us that whoever killed a cat, even by accident, was by the Egyptians punished by death. According to Egyptian tradition, Diana assumed the form of a cat, and thus excited the fury of the giants.

The London Review says the Egyptians worshipped the cat as a symbol of the moon, not only because it is more active after sunset, but from the dilation and contraction of its pupil, symbolical of the waxing and waning of the night—goddess. (See Puss.)

Hang me in a bottle like a cat.

(Much Ado about Nothing, i. I.) In olden times a cat was for sport enclosed in a bag or leather bottle, and hung to the branch of a tree, as a mark for bowmen to shoot at. Steevens tells us of another sport: “A cat was placed in a soot bag, and hung on a line; the players had to beat out the bottom of the bag without getting besmudged, and he who succeeded in so doing was allowed to hunt the cat afterwards.

Some ... are mad if they behold a cat.

(Merchant of Venice, iv. l.) Henri III. of France swooned if he caught sight of a cat, and Napoleon I. showed a morbid horror of the same; so did one of the Ferdinands, Emperor of Germany. (See Antipathy, page 53; Pig.)

Cat—call

A kind of whistle used at theatres by the audience to express displeasure or impatience. A hideous noise like the call or waul of a cat.

“I was very much surprised with the great consort of cat—calls ... to see so many persons of quality of both sexes assembled together at a kind of caterwauling.”— Addison, Spectator, No. 361.

Cat—eyed

Able to see in the dark. Cat's eye is an opalescent mineral gem.

Cat Jumps

(The). See how the cat jumps, “which way the wind blows”; which of two alternatives is likely to be the successful one before you give any opinion of its merit or adhesion to it, either moral or otherwise. The allusion is to the game called tip—cat. Before you strike, you must observe which way the “cat” has jumped up.

We are told that our forefathers had a cruel sport, which consisted in placing a cat in a tree as a mark to

shoot at. A wily sportsman would, of course, wait to see which way it jumped before he shot at her. This sort of sport was very like that of hanging two cats by their tails over a rope. (See page 224, Kilkenny Cat.)

“He soon saw which way the cat did jump,

And his company he offered plump.”

The Dog's—meat Man

(See Universal Songster, 1825.)

Cat Stane

Battle stone. A monolith in Scotland (sometimes wrongly called a Druidical stone). The Norwegian term, bauta stein, means the same thing. (Celtic, cath, battle.)

Cat and Dog

To live a cat and dog life. To be always snarling and quarrelling, as a cat and dog, whose aversion to each other is intense.

“There will be jealousies, and a cat—and—dog life over yonder worse than ever” — Carlyle: Frederick the Great (vol. ii. book ix. p. 346.).

It is raining cats and dogs.

Very heavily. We sometimes say, “It is raining pitchforks.” which is the French locution, “Il tombe des hallebardes “

. Next page

Cat and Fiddle

a public—house sign, is a corruption of Caton le fidele, meaning Caton, Governor of Calais.

Cat and Kittens

A public—house sign, alluding to the pewter—pots so called. Stealing these pots is termed “Cat and kitten sneaking.” We still call a large kettle a kitchen, and speak of a soldier's kit (Saxon, cytel, a pot, pan, or vessel generally.)

Cat and Tortoise

or Boar and Sow. Names given to the testudo.

Cat has nine Lives

(A). (See under Nine .)

Cat i' the Adage

(The). The adage referred to is, the cat loves fish, but does not like to wet her paws. Letting `I dare not' wait upon `I would,'

Like the poor cat i' the adage.”

Shakespeare Macbeth,

i.7

Cat may look at a King

(A). An insolent remark of insubordination, meaning, “I am as good as you", or “Are you too mighty to be spoken to or looked at?” “You may wear stars and ribbons, and I may be dressed in hodden grey, but a man's a man for a' that.”

Cat—o'—nine—tails

A whip, first with three, then with six, and lastly with nine lashes, used for punishing offenders, and briefly called a cat. Lilburn was scourged, in 1637, with a whip having only three lashes, but there were twenty knots in each tail, and, as he received a lash every three paces between the Fleet and Old Palace Yard, Cook says that 60,000 stripes were inflicted. Titus Oates was scourged, in the reign of James II., with a cat having six lashes, and, between Newgate and Tyburn, received as many as 17,000 lashes. The cat—o'—nine—tails once used in the British army and navy is no longer employed there, but garotters and some other offenders are still scourged. Probably the punishment was first used on board ship, where ropes would be handy, and several ropes are called cats, as “cat—harpings,” for bracing the shrouds, “cat—falls,” which pass over the cat—head and communicate with the cat—block. etc. The French martinet (q.v.) had twelve leather thongs.

Cat Proverbs

A cat has nine lives. A cat is more tenacious of life than other animals, because it generally lights upon its feet without injury, the foot and toes being padded so as to break the fall. (See Nine .)

“Tub What wouldst thou have with me?

Good king of cats, nothing but one of your nine lives.” Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet, iii. l.

All cats love fish.

(See previous column, Cat I' The Adage.)

Before the cat can lick her ear — i.e.

before the Greek kalends. Never. No cat can lick her ear. (See Never.)

Care killed the cat. (See page 216, 2, Care.)

In the dark all cats are gray.

All persons are undistinguished till they have made a name. Not room to swing a cat. Swinging cats as a mark for sportsmen was at one time a favourite amusement. There were several varieties of this diversion. Sometimes two cats were swung by their tails over a rope. Sometimes a cat was swung to the bough of a tree in a bag or sack. Sometimes it was enclosed in a leather bottle.

Sick as a cat.

Cats are very subject to vomiting. Hence the vomit of a drunkard is called “a cat,” and the act of discarding it is called “shooting the cat.”

Let the cat out of the bag.

To disclose a secret. It was formerly a trick among country folk to substitute a cat for a sucking—pig, and bring it in a bag to market. If any greenhorn chose to buy a “pig in a poke” without examination, all very well; but if he opened the sack, “he let the cat out of the bag,” and the trick was disclosed.

“She let the cat out of her bag of verse ... she almost proposed to her hero in rhyme.” George Meredith: The Egotist, iii.

To bell the cat.

(See page 119, Bell.)

To turn cat—in—pan.

To turn traitor, to be a turncoat. The phrase seems to be the French tourner cote en peine (to turn sides in trouble). I do not think it refers to turning pancakes.

“When George in pudding—time came o'er

And moderate men looked big, sir.

I turned a cat—in—pan once more.

And so became a Whig, sir.”

Vicar of Bray.

Bacon says, “There is a cunning which we in England call the turning of the cat in the pan; which is, when that which a man says to another, he says it as if another had said it to him.”

Touch not a cat but a glove.

Here “but” is used in its original meaning of “beout,” i.e. without. (For another example of “but” meaning without, see Amos iii. 7.) The words are the motto of Mackintosh, whose crest is

“cat—a—mountain salient guardant proper”; supporters, two cats proper. The whole is a pun on the word Catti, the Teutonic settlers of Caithness, i.e. Catti—ness, and mean, “Touch not the clan Cattan or Mountain Cat without a glaive.” The same words are the adopted motto of Grant of Ballindalloch, and are explained by the second motto, ensë et animo.

In French: On ne prend pas tel chat sans moufles.

What can you have of a cat but her skin?

The thing is useless for any purpose but one. In former times the cat's fur was used for trimming cloaks and coats, but the flesh is utterly useless.

Who ate the cat?

A gentleman who had his larder frequently assailed by bargees, had a cat cooked and placed there as a decoy. It was taken like the other foods, and became a standing jest against these larder pilferers.

A Cheshire cat. He grins like a Cheshire cat.

Cheese was formerly sold in Cheshire moulded like a cat. The allusion is to the grinning cheese—cat, but is applied to persons who show their teeth and gums when they laugh. (See Alice in Wonderland. )

A Kilkenny cat.

The story is that, during the rebellion of Ireland, Kilkenny was garrisoned by a troop of Hessian soldiers, who amused themselves in barracks by tying two cats together by their tails and throwing them across a clothes—line to fight. The officers, hearing of this, resolved to put a stop to the practice. The look—out man, enjoying the sport, did not observe the officer on duty approaching the barracks; but one of the troopers, more quick—sighted, seizing a sword, cut the two tails, and the cats made their escape. When the officer inquired the meaning of the two bleeding tails, he was coolly told that two cats had been fighting and had devoured each other all but the tails.

Whatever the true story, it is certain that the municipalities of Kilkenny and Irishtown contended so stoutly

about their respective boundaries and rights to the end of the seventeenth century, that they mutually impoverished each other, leaving little else than “two tails” behind.

Whittington's cat.

A cat is a ship formed on the Norwegian model, having a narrow stern, projecting quarters, and deep waist. It is strongly built, and used in the coal trade. Harrison speaks of it as a “cat” or

“catch.” According to tradition, Sir Richard Whittington made his money by trading in coals, which he conveyed in his “cat” from Newcastle to London. The black faces of his coal—heavers gave rise to the tale about the Moors. In confirmation of this suggestion, it may be added that Whittington was Lord Mayor in 1397, and coal was first made an article of trade from Newcastle to London in 1381.

Cat's Cradle

A child's play, with a piece of twine. Corrupt for cratchcradle or manger cradle, in which the infant Saviour was laid. Cratch is the French crèche (a rack or manger), and to the present hour the racks which stand in fields for cattle to eat from are called cratches.

Cat's Foot

To live under the cat's foot. To be under petticoat government; to be henpecked. A mouse under the paw of a cat lives but by sufferance and at the cat's pleasure.

Cat's Melody

(The). Squalling.

“The children were playing the cat's melody to keep their mother in countenance.” — W. B. Yeats: Fairy Tales of the Irish Peasantry, p. 238.

Cat's Paw

To be made a cat's paw of, i.e. the tool of another, the medium of doing another's dirty work. The allusion is to the fable of the monkey who wanted to get from the fire some roasted chestnuts, and took the paw of the cat to get them from the hot ashes.

“I had no intention of becoming a cat's paw to draw European chestnuts out of the fire.” — Com.

Rodgers.

At sea, light air during a calm causing a ripple on the water, and indicating a storm, is called by sailors a cat's paw, and seamen affirm that the frolics of a cat indicate a gale. These are relics of a superstition that cats are witches or demons in disguise.

Cat's Sleep

A sham sleep, like that of a cat watching a mouse.

Cats

Mistress Tofts, the singer, left legacies at death to twenty cats.

“Not Niobê mourned more for fourteen brats,

Nor Mistress Tofts, to leave her twenty cats.”

Peter Pindar: Old Simon.

Catacomb

A subterranean place for the burial of the dead. The Persians have a city they call Comb or Coom, full of mausoleums and the sepulchres of the Persian saints. (Greek, kata—kumbe, a hollow place underground.) (See Koom .)

“The most awful idea connected with the catacombs is their interminable extent, and the possibility of going astray in the labyrinth of darkness.” — Hawthorne: Marble Faun, iii.

Cataian

(3 syl.). A native of Cathay or China; outlandish, a foreigner generally, a liar.

“I will not believe such a Cataian, though the priest of the town commended him for a true man.” — Shakespeare: Merry Wives, ii. l.

Catalogue Raisonne

(French). A catalogue of books arranged under subjects.

Catamaran

A scraggy old woman, a vixen; so called by a play on the first syllable. It properly means a raft consisting of three sticks, lashed together with ropes; used on the coasts of Coromandel and Madras.

“No, you old catamaran, though you pretend you never read novels. ...” — Thackeray: Lovel the Widower, chap. i.

Cataphrygians

Christian heretics, who arose in the second century; so called because the first lived in Phrygia. They followed the errors of Montanus.

Catarrh

A cold in the head. The word means a down—running; from the Greek katarrheo (to flow down).

Catastrophe

(4 syl.). A turning upside down. The termination of a drama is always a “turning upside down” of the beginning of the plot. (Greek, kata—strepho.)

Catch

To lie upon the catch. To lie in wait “Quid me captas?”

“They sent certain of the Pharisees ... to catch Him in His words.” — Mark xii. Here the Greek word is, to take by hunting. They were to lie upon the catch till they found occasion against Him.

You'll catch it.

You'll get severely punished. Here “it” stands for the indefinite punishment, such as a whipping, a scolding, or other unpleasant consequence.

Catch a Crab

(To). In rowing, is to be struck with the handle of one's oar; to fall backwards. This occurs when the rower leaves his oar too long in the water before repeating the stroke. In Italian granchio is a crab, and pigliar il granchia is to “catch a crab,” or a Tartar.

Catch a Tartar

The biter bit. Grose says an Irish soldier in the Imperial service, in a battle against the Turks, shouted to his comrade that he had caught a Tartar. “Bring him along, then,” said his mate. “But he won't come,” cried Paddy. “Then come along yourself,” said his comrade. “Arrah!” replied Paddy, “I wish I could, but he won't let me.”

“We are like the man who boasted of having caught a Tartar, when the fact was that the Tartar had caught him.” — Cautions for the Times.

Catch as Catch can

Get by hook or crook all you can.

“All must catch that catch can.” — Johnson: Rambler, No. 197.

Catch Me at It!

Most certainly I shall never do what you say.

“ `Catch me going to London!' exclaimed Vixen.” — Miss Braddon: Vixen.

Catch the Speaker's Eye

(To). To find the eye of the Speaker fixed on you; to be observed by the Speaker. In the House of Commons the member on whom the eye of the Speaker is fixed has the privilege of addressing the House.

“He succeeded in catching the Speaker's eye.” — A. Trollope.

Catch Out

(To). In cricket, is to catch the ball of a batsman, whereby the striker is ruled out, that is, must relinquish his bat.

Catch your Hare

(First). It is generally believed that “Mrs. Glasse,” in her Cookery Book, gave this direction; but the exact words are, “Take your hare when it is cased, and make a pudding, ... etc.” To “case" means to take off the skin. Thus, in All's Well that Ends Well, iii. 6, we have these words, “We'll make you some sport with the fox ere we case him.” Scatch also means to skin, and this word gave rise to the misquoted catch. Though scatch and case both mean to skin, yet the word used in the book referred to is case, not scatch. Mrs. Glasse was the penname of Dr. John Hill (1716—1775), author of The Cookery Book. (See Case .)

Bracton, however (book iv. tit. i. chap. xxi. sec. 4), has these words: “Vulgariter dicitur, quod primo oportet cervum capere, et postea (cum captus fuerit) illum excoriare.”

The Welsh word cach = ordure, dung, and to cach (cachu) would be to clean and gut the hare.

Catch—Club

A member of the Catchclub. A bum—bailiff, a tipstaff, a constable. The pun is obvious.

Catchpenny

A worthless article puffed off to catch the pennies of those who are foolish enough to buy them.

Catchpole

A constable; a law officer whose business it was to apprehend criminals. Pole or poll means head, person; and the word means one who catches persons by the poll or neck. This was done by means of an instrument something like a shepherd's crook.

“Cacchepoles, from catch and pole, because these officers lay hold of a man's neck.” — Wiclif: New Testament (Acts xvi., Glossary).

Catch Weights

in racing, means without restrictions as to weight.

Catch—word

A popular cry, a word or a phrase adopted by any party for political or other purposes. “Three acres and a cow,” “A living wage,” are examples.

Catch—word

The first word on any page of a book or manuscript which is printed or written at the foot of the preceding page. In the early days of printing the catch—word was generally used, but for the last two hundred years the practice has been gradually dying out. Its purpose was, among other things, to enable the reader to avoid an awkward pause when turning over a leaf. The first book so printed was a Tacitus, by John de Spira, 1469.

Catch—word In theatrical parlance, is the last word or so of the previous speaker, which is the cue of the person who follows.

Catechumen

[kat'y—kumen]. One taught by word of mouth (Greek, katechoumenos). Those about to be baptised in the early Church were first taught by word of mouth, and then catechised on their religious faith and duties.

Cater—cousin

An intimate friend; a remote kinsman. (French, quatrecousin, a fourth cousin).

“His master and he, saving your worship's reverence, are scarce cater—cousins.” — Shake— speare Merchant of Venice, ii. 2.

Caterpillars

Soldiers. In 1745 a soldier, quartered at Derby, was desired by the landlord to call on him whenever he passed that way, for added Boniface, “I consider soldiers the pillars of the state.” When the rebellion was put down, it so happened that the same regiment was quartered in Derby, and the soldier called on his old host, but was very coldly and somewhat uncivilly received. The soldier reminded Boniface of what he said at parting — “I consider soldiers the pillars of the state.” “Did I say so?” said mine host, “Well, I meant cater—pillars.”

Caterwauling

The wawl or wrawl of cats, the er being either a plural, similar to “childer” (children), or a corrupted genitive.

“What a caterwauling do you keep here!” —

Shakespeare: Twelfth Night,

ii. 3.

Catgut

A contracted form of cattlegut, especially sheep. Another form is catling—gut, i.e. cattle—ing gut. In Gen. xxx. 40 we read that Jacob did separate “his own flocks by themselves, and put them not unto Laban's cattle [i.e. sheep].” Again, in xxxi. 9, Jacob said, “God hath taken away the cattle [sheep and lambs] of your father, and given them to me;” and verse 43 he says, “These cattle [sheep and lambs] are my cattle.”

Musical strings never were made from the gut of a cat.

Catgut Scraper

(A). A fiddler.

Cathari

Novatian heretics. The Waldenses were subsequently so called. (Ducange vol. ii. p. 288, col. 2.)

Catharine

To braid St. Catharine's tresses. To live a virgin.

“Thou art too fair to be left to braid St. Catha— rine's tresses” Longfellow Evangeline.

Catharine

(Knights of St), 1714. A Russian military order founded by Peter the Great after his naval victory of Aland, and so named in compliment to his wife Catharine.

Catharine of Russia

A sutler. When Czar Peter wished to marry her, it was needful to make her of noble birth; so a private person was first converted into her brother, and then into a great lord by birth. Hence Catharine, being the sister of a “great lord,” was made fit to be the wife of the Czar. (De Cusine Russia, chap.

iv.)

Catharine Theot (1725—1795). A visionary born at Avranches, who gave herself out to be (like Joanna Southcott) the mother of God, and changed her name Theot into Theos (God). She preached in Paris in 1794, at the very time that the worship of the Supreme Being was instituted, and declared that Robespierre was the forerunner of the WORD. The Comité de la Sûreté Génerale had her arrested, and she was guillotined. Catharine Theot was called by Dom Gerle “la mére de dieu,” and Catharine called Robespierre “her wellbeloved son and chief prophet.”

Catharine Wheel

(A). A sort of firework. (See below.)

Catharine Wheels

To turn Catharine Wheels. To turn head over heels on the hands. Boys in the streets, etc., often do so to catch a penny or so from trippers and others.

A Catharine—wheel window.

A wheel—window, sometimes called a rose—window, with radiating divisions. St. Catharine was a virgin of royal descent in Alexandria, who publicly confessed the Christian faith at a sacrificial feast appointed by the Emperor Maximinus, for which confession she was put to death by torture by means of a wheel like that of a chaff—cutter.

Catharine—wheel Politicians

Lovers of political changes.

Catharine—wheel Republics

“Republics,” says Mr. Lowell, “always in revolution while the powder lasts.”

Catharists

A sect of the Manicheans; so called from their professed purity of faith. (Greek, katharos, pure.) They maintained that matter is the source of all evil; that Christ had not a real body; that the human body is incapable of newness of life; and that the sacraments do not convey grace. (See Ducange: vol. ii. p. 289, col.

1.)

Cathay'

China, or rather Tartary, the capital of which was Albracca, according to Orlando Furioso. It was called Khita'i by the Tartars, and China was first entered by Europeans in the Middle Ages from the side of Tartary.

“Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of

Cathay.” Tennyson: Locksley Hall.

Cathedræ Molles

(Latin). Luxurious women. Properly, soft chairs. The cathedra was a chair for women, like our ottoman: and Juvenal applies the soft chair used by women of dainty habits to the women who use them

Cathedrals of the Old Foundation

Those which have never been monastic, but which have ab initio been governed by a dean and chapter, with the statutable dignities of precentor, chancellor, and treasurer.

Catherans

or Caterans. Highland freebooters or marauders. (Lowland Scotch, catherein, peasantry.)

Catherine

(See Catharine .)

Catholic

(The). “Catholicus,” a title inherited by the King of Spain; as the monarch of England is entitled “Fidei Defensor,” and the King of France was styled “Christianissimus.” (See page 228, Catholic Majesty .)

Catholic Association

(The), 1756. The first Catholic Association was formed for the purpose of obtaining relief from disabilities. In 1760 the association was re—established on a more representative basis, but it became moribund in 1763. Another association was organised in 1773, which fell under the control of Lord Kenmare; this society was broken up 1783. In 1793 a new society was formed on a still wider basis, and Wolfe Tone was elected secretary. In 1793 the Catholic Relief Bill received the Royal Assent. In Ireland, 1823; suppressed 1825 (6 Geo. iv. c. 4); dissolved itself February, 1829. The association was first suggested by Daniel O'Connell at a dinner—party given by Mr. O'Mara at Glancullen, and on Monday, May 12th, the first meeting of the association was held in Dempsey's Rooms, Sackville Street. It became one of the most powerful popular movements ever organised. The objects were: (1) to forward petitions to Parliament; (2) to afford relief to Catholics assailed by Orange lodges; (3) to support a Liberal press both in Dublin and London;

(4) to circulate cheap publications; (5) to aid the Irish Catholics of America; and (6) to aid English Catholics. Indirectly it undertook the repeal of the Union, and the redress of Irish grievances generally. Everyone who paid ld. a month was a member. (See Catholic Emancipation.)

Catholic Church

(The). The Church considered as a whole, as distinguished from parish churches. When the Western Church broke off from the Eastern, the Eastern Church called itself the Orthodox Church, and the Western Church adopted the term Catholic. At the Reformation the Western Church was called by the Reformers the Roman Catholic Church, and the British Established Church was called the “Protestant Church,” the “Reformed National Church,” or the “Anglo—Catholic Church.” It is foolish and misleading to call the Anglican Church the Catholic Church, as at most it is only a branch thereof. No Protestant would think of calling himself a Catholic.

Catholic Emancipation Act

(The). 10 Geo. IV. c. 7, April 13th, 1829, whereby Catholics were admitted to all corporate offices, and to an equal enjoyment of all municipal rights. The army and navy had been already opened to them. They were, however, excluded from the following offices: (1) Regent; (2) Chancellor of England or Ireland; (3) Viceroy of Ireland; (4) all offices connected with the Church, universities, and public schools; and (5) the disposal. of Church patronage.

Catholic Epistles

(The) of the New Testament are those Epistles not addressed to any particular church or individual. Conventionally they are seven— viz. 1 James, 2 Peter, 1 Jude, and 3 John; but 2 John is addressed to a “lady,” and 3 John to Gaius, and, of course, are not Catholic Epistles either in matter or otherwise.

Catholic King

(The) or His Catholic Majesty. A title given by the Pope to Ferdinand, King of Aragon (1452, 1474—1516), for expelling the Moors from Spain. This was about as unwise as the revocation of the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV.

Catholic League

(The), 1614. A confederacy of Catholics to counter—balance the Evangelic League (q.v.) of Bohemia. The two Leagues kept Germany in perpetual disturbance, and ultimately led to the Thirty Years' War (1618—1648).

Catholic Majesty

759. A title given by Gregory III. to Alfonso I., King of Asturias.

Catholic Relief

(See Catholic Association .)

Catholic Rent

(The), 1823. The subscription of ld. per month towards the expenses of the Catholic Association (q.v.).

Catholic Roll

(The). A document which each Roman Catholic was obliged to swear to on taking his seat as a Member of Parliament. It was abolished, and a single oath prescribed to all members by the 29, 30 Victoria, c. 19 (1866).

Catholicon

A panace'a. (Greek, katholicon iama, a universal remedy.)

“Meanwhile, permit me to recommend,

As the matter admits of no delay,

My wonderful catholicon.”
Longfellow: The Golden Legend, i.

Catholicos

The head of the Assyrian Nestorians. Now called the Patriarch of Armenia.

Catiline's Conspiracy Lucius Sergius Catilina, B.C. 64, conspired with a large number of dissolute young nobles to plunder the Roman treasury, extirpate the senate, and fire the capitol. Cicero, who was consul, got full information of the plot, and delivered his first Oration against Catiline November 8th, 63, whereupon Catiline quitted Rome. Next day Cicero delivered his second Oration, and several of the conspirators were arrested. On December 4th Cicero made his third Oration, respecting what punishment should be accorded to the conspirators. And on December 5th, after his fourth Oration, sentence of death was passed. Catiline tried to escape into Gaul, but, being intercepted, he was slain fighting, B.C. 64.

Catilines

and Cethegi (The). Synonyms for conspirators who hope to mend their fortunes by rebellion.

“The intrigues of a few impoverished Catilines and Cethegi.”— Motley: Dutch Republic.

Catius

In Pope's Moral Essays (Epist. i.), intended for Charles Dartineuf, a kind of Lucullus, who preferred “A rogue with venison to a rogue without.”

Catkins

The inflorescence of hazel, birch, willow, and some other trees; so called from their resemblance to a cat's tail.

“See the yellow catkins cover

All the slender willows over.”
Mary Howitt: Voice of Spring, stanza 2.

Cat—lap

Milk or weak tea, only fit for the cat to lap.

“A more accomplished old woman never drank cat—lap.”— Sir W. Scott: Redgauntlet, chap. xii.

Cato

He is a Cato. A man of simple life, severe morals, self—denying habits, strict justice, brusque manners, blunt of speech, and of undoubted patriotism, like the Roman censor of that name.

Cato—Street Conspiracy

A scheme entertained by Arthur Thistlewood and his fellow—conspirators to overthrow the Government by assassinating the Cabinet Ministers. So called from Cato Street, where their meetings were held. (1820.)

The other names of these conspirators are Brunt, Davidson, Harrison, Ings, Monument, Tidd, and Wilson. All eight were sent to the Tower, March 3rd, 1820, by warrant of the Secretary of State.

Catsup

or Ketchup. The Eastern kitjap (soy sauce).

Catted

The anchor hung on the cathead, a piece of timber outside the ship to which the anchor is hung to keep it clear of the ship.

“The decks were all life and commotion; the sailors on the forecastle singing, `Ho! cheerly. men' as they catted the anchor.”— H. Melville:

Omoo, xxxvi. p. 191.

Catual

Chief minister of the Zamorin or ancient sovereign of India.

“Begirt with high—plumed nobles, by the flood

The first great minister of India stood,

His name `the Catual' in India's tongue.”
Camoens: Lusiad, book vii.

Catum

(Al) [the strong ]. A bow which fell into the hands of Mahomet when the property of the Jews of Medina was confiscated. In the first battle the prophet drew it with such force that it snapped in two.

Catwater

The estuary of the Plym (Plymouth). A corruption of château (chat—eau); as the castle at the mouth of the Plym used to be called.

Caucasians

according to Blumenbach's ethnological system, represent the European or highest type of the human race, so called from Caucasus, the mountainous range. Whilst the professor was studying ethnology, he was supplied with a skull from these regions, which he considered the standard of the human type.

Caucus

A meeting of citizens in America to agree upon what members they intend to support, and to concert measures for carrying out their political wishes. The word arose from the caulkers of Boston, who had a dispute with the British soldiers a little before the Revolution. Several citizens were killed, and meetings were held at the caulkers' house or calk—house, to concert measures for redress of grievances.

“The whole Fenian affair is merely a caucus in disguise.”— The Times.

“This day the caucus club meets ... in the garret of Tom Dawes, the adjutant of the Boston regiment.”— John Adams: Diary, vol. ii. p. 164, February, 1763.

Caudine Forks

A narrow pass in the mountains near Capua, now called the Valley of Arpaia. It was here that the Roman army, under the consuls T. Veturius Calvinus and Sp. Postumius fell into the hands of the Samnites, and were made to pass under the yoke.

“Hard as it was to abandon an enterprise so very dear to him ... he did not hesitate to take the more prudent course of passing under (sic) the Caudine Forks of the Monroe doctrine, and leave Maximilian and the French bondholders to their fate.”— Standard, Nov. 17th, 1866.

Caudle

is any sloppy mess, especially that sweet mixture given by nurses to gossips who call to see the baby during the first month. The word simply means something warm. (Latin, calidus; French, chaudeau, Italian,

caldo.)

Caudle

(Mrs.). A curtain lecturer. The term is derived from a series of papers by Douglas Jerrold, which were published in Punch. These papers represent Job Caudle as a patient sufferer of the curtain lectures of his nagging wife.

Caught Napping

(To be). To suffer some disadvantage while off one's guard. Pheasants, hares, and other animals are sometimes surprised “napping.” I have myself caught a cock—pheasant napping.

Caul

The membrane on the heads of some new—born infants, supposed to be a charm against death by drowning.

To be born with a caul was with the Romans tantamount to our phrase, “To be born with a silver spoon in one's mouth,” meaning “born to good luck.” M. Francisque—Michel, in his Philologie—Comparée, p. 83, 4, says: “Calle, espéce de coiffure, est synonyme de coiffé, ” and quotes the proverb, “Ste. Migorce! nous sommes nées coiffées. ” (La Comédie des Proverbes, act ii. 4.)

Cauld—lad

(The) of Hilton Hall. A house—spirit, who moved about the furniture during the night. Being resolved to banish him, the inmates left for him a green cloak, and hood, before the kitchen—fire, which so delighted him that he never troubled the house any more; but sometimes he might be heard singing—

“Here's a cloak, and here's a hood,

The cauld—lad of Hilton will do no more good.”

Cauline

(Sir) (2 syl.). A knight who lived in the palace of the King of Ireland, and “used to serve the wine.” He fell in love with Christabelle, the king's daughter, who plighted her troth to him secretly, for fear of the king. The king discovered the lovers in a bower, and banished Sir Cauline. After a time an eldridge came, and demanded the lady in marriage. Sir Cauline slew the “Soldain,” but died of the wounds received in the combat; and the fair Christabelle died of grief, having “burst her gentle hearte in twayne.” (Percy's Reliques, iv.)

Caurus

or Corus. The west—north—west wind, which blew from Caurus (Argestes).

“The ground by piercing Caurus seared.”

Thomson: Castle of Indolence.

ii. 78.

Causa Causans

The initiating cause; the primary cause.

Causa Causata

The cause which owes its existence to the “causa causans”; the secondary cause. The vera causa is (a) the immediate predecessor of an effect; (b) a cause verifiable by independent evidence. (Mill.)

In theology God is the causa causans, and creation the causa causata. The presence of the sun above the horizon is the vera causa of daylight, and his withdrawal below the horizon is the vera causa of night.

Cause

(The). A mission; the object or project. To make common cause. To abet the same object. Here “cause” is the legal term, meaning pro or con, as it may be, the cause or side of the question advocated.

Cause Celebre

Any famous law case.

Causes

Aristotelian causes are these four: (1) The Efficient Cause. That which immediately produces the effect. (2) The Material Cause. The matter on which (1) works.

(3) The Formal Cause. The Essence or “Form” (= group of attributes) introduced into the matter by the

efficient cause. (4) The Final or Ultimate Cause. The purpose or end for which the thing exists or the causal change takes place. But God is called the ultimate Final Cause, since, according to Aristotle, all things tend, so far as they can, to realise some Divine attribute.

God is also called The First Cause, or the Cause Causeless, beyond which even imagination cannot go.

Cautelous

Cautious, cunning, treacherous. (Latin, cautela; French, cauteleux; Spanish, cauteloso.)

“Caught with cautelous baits.”

Shakespeare: Coriolanus,

iv. 1.

“Swear priests and cowards and men cautelous.”

Shakespeare Julius Cæsar,

ii. 1.

Cauther

(Al). The lake of Paradise, the waters of which are sweet as honey, cold as snow, and clear as crystal. He who once tastes thereof will never thirst again. (The Koran.)

Caution Money

A sum deposited before entering college, by way of security.

Cautser

(See Cauther .)

Cava

Cava's traitor sire. Cava or Florinda was the daughter of St. Julian. It was the violation of Cava by Roderick that brought about the war between the Goths and the Moors. St. Julian, to avenge his daughter, turned traitor to Roderick, and induced the Moors to invade Spain. King Roderick was slain Xeres on the third day. ( A.D. 711.)

Cavalerie a Pied

The Zouaves (pronounce zwav) and Zephyrs of the French army are so called because of their fleetness and swiftness of foot.

Cavalier

(3 syl.). A horseman; whence a knight, a gentleman. (Latin, caballus, a horse.)

The Cavalier.

Eon de Beaumont, the French soldier; Chevalier d'Eon. (1728—1810.) Charles Breydel, the Flemish landscape painter. (1677—1744.) Francesco Cairo (Cavaliere del Cairo), historian. (1598—1674.)

Jean le Clerc, le chevalier. (1587—1633.)

J. Battista Marini, Italian poet; Il cavalier (1569—1656).

Andrew Michael Ramsay (1686—1743).

Cavalier

or Chevalier de St. George. James Francis Edward Stuart, called “the Pretender,” or “the Old Pretender” (1688—1765). The Young Cavalier or the Bonnie Chevalier. Edward, the “Young Pretender” (1720—1785).

Cavalier Servant

in Italian cicisbe'o, and in Spanish cortejo. A gentleman that chaperones married ladies.

“Coach, servants, gondola, he goes to call,

And carries fan and tippet, gloves and shawl.”
Byron: Beppo, st. xi.

Cavaliers

Adherents of Charles I. Those of the opposing Parliament party were called Roundheads (q.v.).

Cavall' “King Arthur's hound of deepest mouth.” (Idylls of the King; Enid.)

Cave—dwellers

(See page 157, col. 1, Bohemian Bretheren .)

Cave In

Shut up! have done! I'll cave in his head (break it). His fortune has caved in (has failed). The bank has caved in (come to a smash). The affair caved in (fell through). Common American expressions.

In the lead diggings, after a shaft has been sunk, the earth round the sides falls or caves in, unless properly boarded; and if the mine does not answer, no care is taken to prevent a caving in.

Cave ne literas Bellerophontis adferras

Take care that the letter you carry is not a warrant for your death. (See page 121, col. 1, Bellerophon .)

Cave of Achadh Aldai

A cairn in Ireland, so called from Aldai, the ancestor of the Tuatha de Danaan kings.

Cave of Adullam

(The). (See page 17, col. 1, Adullamites .)

Cave of Mammon

The abode of the god of wealth in Spenser's Faërie Queene, ii. 7.

Caveat

(3 syl.) To enter a caveat. To give legal notice that the opponent is not to proceed with the suit in hand until the party giving the notice has been heard; to give a warning or admonition.

Caveat Emptor

The buyer must be responsible for his own free act. Let the buyer keep his eyes open, for the bargain he agrees to is binding. In English law, Chief Justice Tindal modified this rule. He said if the buyer gives notice that he relies on the vendor's judgment, and the vendor warrants the article, then the vendor is bound to furnish an article “reasonable and fit for the purpose required.”

Cavell

or Cavel. A parcel or allotment of land measured by a cord or cable. (German, kabel, whence kaveln, to assign by lot.)

Cavendish Tobacco

An American brand of chewing or smoking tobacco, prepared for use by softening, sweetening with molasses, and pressing into plugs. Called “Cavendish” from the original manufacturer.

Caviare

(3 syl.). Caviare to the general. Above the taste or comprehension of ordinary people. Caviare is a kind of pickle made from the roe of sturgeons, much esteemed in Muscovy. It is a dish for the great, but beyond the reach of the general public. (Hamlet, ii. 2.)

“All popular talk about lacustrine villages and flint implements ... is caviare to the multitude.”— Pall Mall Gazette.

Cavo—rilievo

“Relief,” cut below the original surface, the highest parts of the figure being on a level with the surface. Also called Intaglio—rilievato (pronounce cah'—vo—rel—ye'—vo).

Caxon

A worn—out wig; also a big cauliflower wig, worn out or not. It has been suggested that the word is from the proper name, but nothing whatever is known about such a person.

“People scarce could decide on its phiz,

Which looked wisest— the caxon or jowl.

Peter Pindar: The Portfolio.

C.D

i.e. Cætera desunt (Latin). The rest [of the MS.] is wanting.

Cean

The Cean poet. Simonides, of Ceos.

“The Cean and the Teian muse.”

Byron: Don Juan (The Poet's Song).

Ceca to Mecca

(From). From one end of the world to the other; from pillar to post. It is a Spanish phrase meaning to roam about purposelessly. Ceca and Mecca are two places visited by Mohammedan pilgrims. (Compare: From Dan to Beersheba; and From Land's End to John o' Groat's.)

“ `Let us return home,' said Sancho, `no longer ramble about from Ceca to Mecca.' ”— Cervantes; Don Quixote, I. iii. 4.

Cecilia

(St.). A Roman lady who underwent martyrdom in the third century. She is the patron saint of the blind, being herself blind; she is also patroness of musicians, and “inventor of the organ.”

“At length divine Cecilia came,

Inventress of the vocal frame.”

Dryden: Alexander's Feast.

According to tradition, an angel fell in love with her for her musical skill, and used nightly to visit her. Her husband saw the heavenly visitant, who gave to both a crown of martyrdom which he brought from Paradise. Dryden and Pope have written odes in her honour, and both speak of her charming an angel by her musical powers:

“He [Timotheus] raised a mortal to the skies,”

She [Cecilia] brought an angel down.”

Dryden: Alexander's Feast.

Cecil's Fast

A dinner off fish. W. Cecil (Lord Burleigh) introduced a Bill to enjoin the eating of fish on certain days in order to restore the fish trade.

Ced

Kêd, or Ceridwen. The Arkite goddess or Ceres of the Britons.

“I was first modelled into the form of a pure man in the hall of Ceridwen, who subjected me to penance.”— Taliesin (Davies's Translation.

Cedar

Curzon says that Solomon cut down a cedar, and buried it on the spot where the pool of Bethesda used to stand. A few days before the crucifixion, this cedar floated to the surface of the pool, and was employed as the upright of the Saviour's cross. (Monasteries of the Levant.) (See Cross .)

Cedilla

The mark under a French sibilant c. This mark is the letter z, and the word is from the Italian zediglia (“zeticula,” a little z. (Greek, zeta; Spanish, ceda, with a diminutive.)

Ceelict

(St.) or St. Calixtus, whose day is the 14th of October, the day of the Battle of Hastings. Brown Willis tells us there was a tablet once in Battle parish church with these words:

“This place of war is Battle called, because in battle here

Quite conquered and o'erthrown the English nation were. This slaughter happenëd to them upon St. Ceelict's day,” etc.

Ceinture de la Reine

The octroi levied at Paris, which at one time was the queen's pin—money or private purse.

Celadon

The lover of Amelia, a “matchless beauty.” Being overtaken by a storm, Amelia became alarmed, but Celadon, folding her in his arms, exclaimed, “ `Tis safety to be near thee, sure, and thus to clasp perfection.” As he spoke, a flash of lightning struck Amelia dead. (Thomson: The Seasons; Summer.)

Celandine a shepherdess in love with Marina. Finding his suit too easily granted, he waxed cold, and discarded the “matchless beauty.” (W. Browne: Britannia's Pastorals; 1613.)

Celestial City

(The). Heaven is so called by John Bunyan in his Pilgrim's Progress.

Celestial Empire

(The). China; so called because the first emperors were all celestial deities

Celestians

Followers of Celestius, disciple of Pelagius. St. Jerome calls him “a blockhead swollen with Scotch pottage”— Scotch being, in this case, what we now call Irish.

Cella

[heavenliness ]. Mother of Faith, Hope, and Charity. She lived in the hospice called Holiness. (Spenser Faërie Queene, bk. i. 10.)

Celia

or Cælia. A common poetical name for a lady or lady—love. Thus, Swift had an ode in which Strephon describes Cælia's dressing—room.

“Five hours, and who can do it less in

By haughty Cælia spent in dressing.”

Celt

A piece of stone, ground artificially into a wedge—like shape, with a cutting edge. Used, before the employment of bronze and iron, for knives, hatchets, and chisels.

Celts

(The), or The Kelts. This family of nations includes the Irish, Erse, Manx, Welsh, Cornish, and Low Bretons. According to historic fable, Celtina was the daughter of Britannus. She had a son by Hercules, named Celtus, the progenitor of the Celts.

Cemetery

properly means a sleeping—place. The Jews used to speak of death as sleep. The Persians call their cemeteries “The Cities of the Silent.” The Greeks thought it unlucky to pronounce the name of Death. (Greek, koiiheterion.)

Cenobites

(3 syl.). Monks. So called because they live in common. Hermits and anchorites are not cenobites, as they live alone. (Greek, koihobioles)

Cenomanni

The inhabitants of Norfolk, Suffolk, and Cambridge, referred to by Caesar in his Commentaries.

Cenotaphs

The most noted in ancient times— ÆNEAS to Deiphobus (Æneid, 1. 6: v. 505).

ANDROMACHE (4 syl.) to Hector (Æneid. 1.3; v. 302) ARGENTIER to Kallaischros (Anthologia, bk. iii. 22).

ARISTOTLE to Hermlas and Kubuios (Diogenes Laertius).

The ATHENIANS to the poet Euripides.

CALLIMACHOS to Sopolis, son of Dioclidês (Epigram of Callimachos, 22). CATULLUS to his brother (Epigram of Catullus, 103).

DIDO to Sichaeus (Justin, xviii. 6).

EUPOLIS and Aristodicê to their son Theotimos. GERMAIN DE BRIE to Hervé, the Breton, in 1512. ONESTOS to Timoclês (Anthologia, iii. p. 366).

The ROMANS to Drusus in Germany, and to Alexander Severus, the emp., in Gaul (Suetonius: Life of Claudius; and the Anthologia ).

STATIUS to his father (The Sylvæ of Statius, v. Epicedium. 3.

TIMARES to his son Teleutagoras.

XENOCRATES to Lysidices (Anthologia).

A cenotaph (Greek, keuoz tafoz an empty tomb) is a monument or tablet to the memory of a person whose body is buried elsewhere. A mausoleum is an imposing monument enshrining the dead body itself.

Censorius et Sapiens

Cato Major was so called. ( B.C. 234—149.)

Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles

French imitations of Granucci, Malespini, and Campeggi, Italian tale—writers of the seventeenth century.

Centaur

(2 syl.). A huntsman. The Thessalian centaurs were half—horses, half—men. They were invited to a marriage feast, and, being intoxicated, behaved with great rudeness to the women. The Lapithae took the women's part, fell on the centaurs, and drove them out of the country.

“Feasts that Thessalian centaurs never knew.”

Thomson: Autumn.

Cent—cyne

One of the upper ten; a person of high birth, a descendant of the race of kings. (Anglo—Saxon cyne, royal; cyne—dom, a kingdom; also noble, renowned, chief.)

“His wife, by birth a Cent—cyne, went out as a day—servant.”— Gaboriau: Promise of Marriage, chap. v.

Cento

Poetry made up of lines borrowed from established authors. Ausonius has a nuptial idyll composed from verses selected from Virgil. (Latin, cento, patchwork.)

The best known are the Homerocentones (3 syl.), the Cento Virgilianus by Proba Falconia (4th century), and the Cento Nuptiälis of Ausonius. Metellus made hymns out of the Odes of Horace by this sort of patchwork. Of modern centos, the Comédie des Comédies, made up of extracts from Balzac, is pretty well known.

Central Sun

That body or point about which our whole system revolves. Mädler believed that point to be eta in Taurus.

Centre

In the Legislative Assembly The Centre were the friends of order. In the Fenian rebellion, 1866, the chief movers were called Head Centres, and their subordinates Centres.

Centre of Gravity

That point on which a body acted on by gravity is balanced in all positions.

Centumviri

A court under whose jurisdiction the Romans placed all matters pertaining to testaments and inheritances.

Centurion

A Roman officer who had the command of 100 men. His badge was a vine—rod. (Latin, centum, a hundred.)

Century White

John White, the Nonconformist lawyer. So called from his chief publication, The First Century of Scandalous, Malignant Priests, made and admitted into Benefices by the Prelates, etc.

(1590—1645).

Cephalus and Procris

Made familiar to us by an allusion to them in the play of Pyramus and Thisbê, where they are miscalled Shafalus and Procrus. Cephalus was the husband of Procris, who, out of jealousy, deserted him. Cephalus went in search of her, and rested a while under a tree. Procris, knowing of his whereabouts, crept through some bushes to ascertain if a rival was with him. Cephalus heard the noise, and thinking it to be made by some wild beast, hurled his javelin into the bushes and slew Procris. When the unhappy man discovered what he had done, he slew himself in anguish of spirit with the same javelin.

“Pyramus: Not Shafalus to Procrus was so true.

Thisbe:

As Shafalus to Procrus, I to you.” Shakespeare: Midsummer Night's Dream. v. 1.

Cepheus

(2 syl.). One of the northern constellations, which takes its name from Cepheus, King of Ethiopia, husband of Cassiopeia and father of Andromeda.

Cepola

Devices of Cépola. Quips of law are so called from Bartholomew Cépola whose law—quirks for prolonging lawsuits have been frequently reprinted.

Cequiel

(3 syl.). A spirit who transported Torralba from Valladolid' to Rome and back again in an hour and a half. (Pellicer.)

Ceraunium The opal. So called by the ancients from a notion that it was a thunder—stone. (Latin, ceraunium; Greek, keraunios. )

Cerberus

A grim, watchful keeper, house—porter, guardian, etc. Cerberus, according to Roman mythology, is the three—headed dog that keeps the entrance of the infernal regions. Herculës dragged the monster to earth, and then let him go again. (See Sop .)

Orpheus (2 syl.) lulled Cerberus to sleep with his lyre; and the Sibyl who conducted Æneas through the Inferno, also threw the dog into a profound sleep with a cake seasoned with poppies and honey.

The origin of the fable of Cerberus is from the custom of the ancient Egyptians of guarding graves with dogs.

The exquisite cameo by Dioscoridês, in the possession of the King of Prussia, and the painting of Hercules and Cerberus, in the Farnésé Gallery of Rome, are of world—wide renown.

Cerdonians

A sect of heretics, established by Cerdon of Syria, who lived in the time of Pope Hyginus, and maintained most of the errors of the Manichees.

Ceremonious

(The). Peter IV. of Aragon. (1319, 1336—1387.)

Ceremony

When the Romans fled before Brennus, one Albinus, who was carrying his wife and children in a cart to a place of safety, overtook at Janiculum the Vestal virgins bending under their load, took them up and conveyed them to Cærë, in Etruria. Here they remained, and continued to perform their sacred rites, which were consequently called “Cære—monia.” (Livy, v.)

Scaliger says the word comes from cerus=sanctus. Cerus manus= Creator; and Cerco (according to Varro) is by metathesis for creo. Ceres, according to Scaliger, is also from creo. By this etymology, “Ceremony” means sacred rites, or solemn acts in honour of the Creator. The great objection to this etymology is that Cicero, Tacitus, and other classic authors spell the word Cære—monia and not Cere—monia.

Master of the Ceremonies. An officer, first appointed by James I., to superintend the reception of ambassadors and strangers of rank, and to prescribe the formalities to be observed in levees and other grand public functions.

Ceres

(2 syl.). Corn. Ceres was the Roman name of Mother—Earth, the protectress of agriculture and of all the fruits of the earth.

“Dark frowning heaths grow bright with Ceres' store.” Thomson: Castle of Indolence, ii. 27.

Cerinthians

Disciples of Cerinthus, a heresiarch of the first century. They denied the divinity of Christ, but held that a certain virtue descended into Him at baptism, which filled Him with the Holy Ghost.

Cerulean Brother of Jove

(The ). Neptune. Here cerulean means green.

Cess

Measure, as ex—cess, excess—ive. Out of all cess means excessively, i.e. ex (out of all) cess.

“Poor jade, is wrung in the withers out of all cess.”— Shakespeare: 1 Henry IV., ii. 1.

Cess.

A tax, contracted from assessment (“sess"); as a “church—cess.” In Ireland the word is used sometimes as a contraction of success, meaning luck, as “bad cess to you!”

Cestui que Vie

is the person for whose life any lands or hereditaments may be held.

Cestui que use,

the person entitled to a use. Cestui que trust, the person for whose benefit a trust may be created.

Cestus in Homer, is the girdle of Venus, of magical power to move to ardent love. In Jerusalem Delivered, Armida wore a similar cestus.

Cf

Latin, confer = compare.

Chabouk

(See Chibouque , p. 245.)

Chabouk

or Chabuk. A long whip, or the application of whips and rods; a Persian and Chinese punishment. (Dubois.)

“Drag forward that fakir, and cut his robe into tatters on his back with your chabouks.”— Scott: The Surgeon's Daughter, c. xiv.

The criticism of the chabuk.

The application of whips or rods (Persian). (Dubois.)

“If that monarch did not give the chabuk to Feramorz, there would be an end to all legitimate government in Bucharia.”— T. Moore: Lalla Rookh.

Chacun a son Gout

“Everyone has (a ) his taste”; or, “Everyone to (à) his taste.” The former is French, the latter is English—French. The phrase is much more common with us than it is in France, where we meet with the phrases— Chacun a sa chacunerie (everyone has his idiosyncrasy), and chacun a sa marotte (everyone has his hobby). In Latin sua cuique voluptas, “as the good—man said when he kissed his cow.”

Chad—pennies

Whitsuntide offerings at St. Chad's cathedral, Lichfield, for keeping it in repair.

Chaff

An old bird is not to be caught with chaff. An experienced man, or one with his wits about him, is not to be deluded by humbug. The reference is to throwing chaff instead of bird—seed to allure birds. Hence—

You are chaffing me.

Making fun of me. A singular custom used to exist in Notts and Leicestershire some half a century ago. When a husband ill—treated his wife, the villagers emptied a sack of chaff at his door, to intimate that “thrashing was done within,” which some think to be the origin of the word.

“To chaff, ” meaning to banter, is a variant of chafe, to irritate.

Chair

(The ). The office of chief magistrate in a corporate town.

Below the chair.

An alderman who has not yet served the mayoralty.

Passed the chair.

One who has served the chief office of the corporation. The word is also applied to the office of a professor, etc., as “The chair of poetry, in Oxford, is now vacant.” The word is furthermore applied to the president of a committee or public meeting. Hence—

To take the chair.

To become the chairman or president of a public meeting. The chairman is placed in a chair at the head of the table, or in some conspicuous place like the Speaker of the House of Commons, and his decision is absolutely final in all points of doubt. Usually the persons present nominate and elect their own chairman; but in some cases there is an ex officio chairman.

Chair

When members of the House of Commons and other debaters call out “Chair,” they mean that the chairman is not properly supported, and his words not obeyed as they ought to be. Another form of the same expression is, “Pray support the chair.”

Groaning chair.

The chair in which a woman is confined or sits afterwards to receive congratulations. Similarly “groaning cake” and “groaning cheese” are the cake and cheese which used to be provided in “Goose month.”

“For a nurse, the child to dandle,

Sugar, soap, spiced pots, and candle

A groaning chair, and eke a cradle”

Poor Robin's Almanack,

1676.

Chair—days

Old age.

“I had long supposed that chair—days, the beautiful name for those days of old age ... was of Shakespeare's own invention ... but this is a mistake ... the word is current in Lancashire still.”— Trench: English Past and Present, v.

“In thy reverence and thy chair—days, thus

To die in ruffian battle.”

Shakespeare: 2 Henry VI.,

act v. 2.

Chair of St. Peter

(The). The office of the Pope of Rome, said to be founded by St. Peter, the apostle; but St. Peter's Chair means the Catholic festival held in commemoration of the two episcopates founded by the apostle, one at Rome, and the other at Antioch (January 18th and February 22nd).

Chalcedony

[kalcedony]. A precious stone, consisting of half — transparent quartz: so called from Chalcedon, in Asia Minor, where it was first found. Its chief varieties are agate, carnelian, cat's—eye, chrysoprase, flint, hornstone, onyx, plasma, and sard.

Albertus Magnus (book i. chap. 2) says: “It dispels illusions and all vain imaginations. If hung about the neck as a charm, it is a defence against enemies, and keeps the body healthful and vigorous.

Chaldee's

(Kal—dees). The Land of the Chaldees. Babylonia.

Chalk

I'll chalk out your path for you— i.e. lay it down or plan it out as a carpenter or ship—builder plans out his work with a piece of chalk.

I can walk a chalk as well as you.

I am no more drunk than you are. The allusion is to the ordeal on board ship of trying men suspected of drunkenness. They were required to walk along a line chalked on the deck, without deviating to the right or left.

The tapster is undone by chalk, i.e.

credit. The allusion is to scoring up credit on a tally with chalk. This was common enough early in the nineteenth century, when milk scores, bread scores, as well as beer scores were general.

Chalk it up.

Put it to his credit.

As good—humoured sarcasm, Chalk it up! is tantamount to saying, “What you have done so astonishes me that I must make some more or less permanent record of it.”

Chalk and Cheese

I know the difference between chalk and cheese. Between what is worthless and what is valuable, between a counterfeit and a real article. Of course, the resemblance of chalk to cheese has something to do with the saying, and the alliteration helps to popularise it.

“This Scotch scarecrow was no more to be compared to him than chalk was to cheese”— Sir

W. Scott: Woodstock, xxiv.

I cannot make chalk of one and cheese of the other.

I must treat both alike; I must show no favouritism. They are no more like than chalk is like cheese. There may be a slight apparent resemblance, but there is no real likeness.

Chalks

I beat him by long chalks. Thoroughly. In allusion to the ancient custom of making merit marks with chalk, before lead pencils were so common.

Walk your chalks.

Get you gone. Lodgings wanted for the royal retinue used to be taken arbitrarily by the marshal and sergeant—chamberlain, the inhabitants were sent to the right about, and the houses selected were notified by a chalk mark. When Mary de Medicis, in 1638, came to England, Sieur de Labat was employed to mark “all sorts of houses commodious for her retinue in Colchester.” The same custom is referred to in the Life and Acts of Sir William Wallace, in Edinburgh. The phrase is “Walk, you're chalked,” corrupted into Walk your chalks.

In Scotland, at one time, the landlord gave the tenant notice to quit by chalking the door.

“The prisoner has cut his stick, and walked his chalk, and is off to London.”— C. Kingsley.

Challenge to the Array

(A Challenge to the Polls (A). An objection or protest to certain persons selected for a jury. If a man is not qualified to serve, or if he is supposed to be biassed, he may be challenged. In capital cases a prisoner may challenge persons without assigning any reason, and in cases of treason as many as thirty—five. (22 Henry VIII., c. 14; 7, 8 George IV., c. 28, s. 3.)

Challenging a Jury

This may be to object to all the jurors from some informality in the way they have been “arrayed” or empanelled, or to one or more of the jurors, from some real or supposed disqualification or bias of judgment. The word “challenge” is Norman, and is exactly equivalent to “call out;” hence we say Captain A challenged or called out Captain B.

Cham

(kam). The sovereign prince of Tartary, now written, “khan.”

“Fetch you a hair off the great Cham's beard.”— Shakespeare: Much Ado About Nothing, ii. 1.

The great Cham of Literature.

Dr. Samuel Johnson (1709—1784).

Chambre Ardente

(French), “A lighted chamber” (A darkened court). Before the Revolution, certain offences in France were tried in a court from which daylight was excluded, and the only light admitted was by torches. These inquisitorial courts were devised by Cardinal Lorraine. The first was held in the reign of Francois I., for trying heretics. Brinvilliers and his associates were tried in a darkened court in 1680. Another was held in 1716, during the regency. When judges were ashamed to be seen, prisoners could not expect much leniency.

Chameleon

You are a chameleon, i.e. very changeable— shifting according to the opinions of others, as the chameleon changes its hue to that of contiguous objects.

“As the chameleon, who is known

To have no colours of its own,

But borrows from his neighbour's hue,

His white or black, his green or blue.”

Prior

Pliny tells us that Democritus wrote a book on superstitions connected with the chameleon.

C'est un cameleon.

One who shifts his opinions according to circumstances; a vicar of Bray. To chameleonise is to change one's opinions as a chameleon changes its colour.

Champ de Manoeuvre

(Le). The soldiers' exercise ground.

Champs de Mai

The same as the Champs de Mars (q.v.), transferred after 755 to the month of May. Napoleon I. revived these meetings during the “Hundred Days” (June 1st, 1815).

Champs de Mars

The March meetings held by Clovis and his immediate followers, sometimes as mere pageants for the amusement of the freedmen who came to offer homage to their lord, and pay their annual gifts; sometimes for business purposes, especially when the king wished to consult his warriors about some expedition.

Champak'

An Indian tree (Michelia Champaca). The wood is sacred to Buddha, and the strongly—scented golden flowers are worn in the black hair of Indian women.

“The Champak odours fail.”

Shelley: Lines to Indian Air.

Champerty

(Latin, campi partitio, division of the land) is a bargain with some person who undertakes at his own cost to recover property on condition of receiving a share thereof if he succeeds.

“Champerty is treated as a worse offence; for by this a stranger supplies money to carry on a suit, on condition of sharing in the land or other property.”— Parsons: Contracts (vol. ii. part

ii. chap. 3, page 264.)

Champion and Severall

A “champion” is a common, or land in allotments without enclosures. A “severall” is a private farm, or land enclosed for individual use. A champion also means one who holds a champion.

“The champion differs from severall much

For want of partition, closier, and such.”

Tusser: Five Hundred Points, etc. (Intro.).

Champion of England

A person whose office it is to ride up Westminster Hall on a Coronation Day, and challenge any one who disputes the right of succession. The office was established by William the Conqueror, and was given to Marmion and his male descendants, with the manor of “broad Scrivelsby.” De Ludlow received the office and manor through the female line; and in the reign of Richard II. Sir John Dymoke succeeded through the female line also. Since then the office has continued in the Dymoke family.

“These Lincoln lands the Conqueror gave,

That England's glove they might convey

To knight renowned amongst the brave—

The baron bold of Fonteney.”

An Anglo—Norman Ballad modernised.

Chance

(See Main Chance .)

Chancel

means a lattice—screen. In the Roman law courts the lawyers were cut off from the public by such a screen. (Latin, cancellus. )

Chancel of a church.

That part of a church which contains the altar, and the seats set apart for the choir. It is

generally raised a step or more above the floor of the nave.

Chancellor

A petty officer in the Roman law courts stationed at the chancel (q.v.) as usher of the court. In the Eastern Empire he was a secretary or notary, subsequently invested with judicial functions. The office was introduced into England by Edward the Confessor, and under the Norman kings the chancellor was made official secretary of all important legal documents. In France, the chancellor was the royal notary, president of the councils, and keeper of the Great Seal.

Chancellor of England

(The). The Lord Chancellor, or the Lord High Chancellor. The highest judicial functionary of the nation, who ranks above all peers, except princes of the blood and the Archbishop of Canterbury. He is “Keeper of the Great Seal,” is called “Keeper of His (or Her) Majesty's Conscience,” and presides on the Woolsack in the House of Lords.

Chancellor of the Exchequer

(The ). The minister of finance in the Privy Council.

Chancery

The part of the Court occupied by the lawyers.

To get a man's head into chancery

is to get it under your arm, where you can pummel it as long as you like, and he cannot get it free without great difficulty. The allusion is to the long and exhausting nature of a Chancery suit. If a man once gets his head there, the lawyers punish him to their heart's content.

“When I can perform my mile in eight minutes, or a little less, I feel as if I had old Time's head in chancery.”— Holmes: Autocrat, chap. vii. p. 191.

Chaneph

The island of religious hypocrites, inhabited by sham saints, tellers of beads, mumblers of ave marias, and friars who lived by begging. (The word meant hypocrite in Hebrew.) (See Rabelais: Pantagruel, iv. 63, 64.)

Change

Ringing the changes. Repeating the same thing in different ways. The allusion is to bell—ringing. To know how many changes can be rung on a peal of bells, multiply the known preceding number by the next subsequent one, thus: 1 bell no change; 2 bells, 1 X 2 = 2 changes; 3 bells, 2 X 3 = 6 changes; 4 bells, 6 X 4 = 24 changes; 5 bells, 24 X 5 = 120 changes; 6 bells, 720 changes, etc.

Take your change out of that.

Said to a person who insults you when you give him a quid pro quo, and tell him to take out the change. It is an allusion to shopping transactions, where you settle the price of the article, and put the surplus or change in your pocket.

Changeling

(2 syl.) A peevish, sickly child. The notion used to be that the fairies took a healthy child, and left in its place one of their starveling elves which never did kindly

“Oh, that it could be proved

That some night—tripping fairy had exchanged

In cradle—clothes our children as they lay,

And called mine Percy, his Plantagenet!

Then would I have his Harry, and he mine.”

Shakespeare: 1 Henry IV., i. 1.

Chant du Depart

After the Marseillaise, the most celebrated song of the first French Revolution. It was written by M. J. Chénier for a public festival, held June 11th, 1794, to commemorate the taking of the Bastille. The music is by Méhul. A mother, an old man, a child, a wife, a girl, and three warriors sing a verse in turn, and the sentiment of each is, “We give up our claims on the men of France for the good of the Republic.” (See page 217, col. 1, Carmagnole.)

“La republique nous appelle,

Sachons vaincre on sachons perir,

Un Français doit vivre pour elle,

Pour elle un Français is doit mourir.”

M. J. Chenier.

The Republic invites,

Let us conquer or fall;

For her Frenchmen live,

And die at her call. E. C. B.

Chantage

A subsidy paid to a journal. Certain journals will pronounce a company to be a “bubble one” unless the company advertises in its columns; and at gaming resorts will publish all the scandals and mischances connected with the place unless the proprietors subsidise them, or throw a sop to Cerberus. This subsidy is technically known as Chantage in France and Italy.

Chanticleer

The cock, in the tale of Reynard the Fox, and in Chaucer's Nonne Prestes Tale. The word means “shrill—singer.” (French chanter—clair, to sing clairment, i.e. distinctly.)

“My lungs began to crow like chanticleer.”

Shakespeare: As you Like It,

ii. 7

Chaonian Bird

(The ). The dove. So called because it delivered the oracles of Chaonia (Dodona).

“But the mild swallow none with toils infest,

And none the soft Chaonian bird molest.”
Ovid: Art of Love, ii.

Chaonian Food

Acorns. So called from the oak trees of Chaonia or Dodona. Some think beech—mast is meant, and tell us that the bells of the oracle were hung on beech—trees, not on oaks.

The Greek word is fhgoz; Latin, fagus. Hence Strabo, Dwdwuhu, fhgou te Pelasgwu edrauou hkeu (He to Dodona came, and the hallowed oak or beech [fagus ], the seat of the Pelasgi.) Now, “fagus” means the food—tree, and both acorns and mast are food, so nothing determinate can be derived from going to the root of the word, and, as it is extremely doubtful where Dodona was, we get no light by referring to the locality. Our text says Chaonia (in Epirus), others place it in Thessaly.

Chaos

(kaos ). Confusion; that confused mass of elemental substances supposed to have existed before God reduced creation into order. The poet Hesiod is the first extant writer that speaks of it.

“Light, uncollected, through the chaos urged

Its infant way, nor order yet had drawn

His lovely train from out the dubious gloom.”

Thomson: Autumn, 732—4.

Chap

A man, properly a merchant. A chap—man is a merchantman or tradesman. “If you want to buy, I'm your chap.” A good chap—man or chap became in time a good fellow. Hence, A good sort of chap, A clever chap, etc. (Anglo—Saxon, ceap—mann.)

An awkward customer is an analogous phrase.

Chap—book

(A ). A cheap little book containing tales, ballads, lives, etc., sold by chapmen.

Chapeau or Chapel de Roses. C'est un petit mariage, car quand on demande ce qu'un père donne à une fille, et qu'on veut répondre qu'il donne peu, on dit quil lui donne un chapeau de roses. Les roses sont consacrés à Venus, aux Grâces, et à l'Amour, (Les Origines de quelques Coutumes Anciennes, 1672.)

N.B.— “Chapel” we now call a chaplet.

Chapeau—bras

A soft hat which can be folded and carried under the arm (bras, French for arm). Strictly speaking, it should be a three—cornered hat.

Chapel

is the chest containing relics, or the shrine thereof (Latin, capella; French, chape, a cope). The kings of France in war carried St. Martin's cope into the field, and kept it in a tent as a talisman. The place in which the cope was kept was called the chapelle, and the keeper thereof the chapelain.

Chapel (A).

Either a place subsidiary to the parish church, or a place of worship not connected with the State, as a Methodist Chapel, a Baptist Chapel, etc.

Chapel

in printers' parlance, meant his workshop. In the early days of printing, presses were set up in the chapels attached to abbeys, as those of Caxton in Westminster Abbey. (See Monk, Friar , etc.)

Chapel.

The “caucus” of journeymen printers assembled to decide any point of common interest. The chairman is called the “father of the chapel.”

To hold a chapel.

To hold a printers' caucus.

Chapel—of—Ease

A place of worship for the use of parishioners residing at a distance from the parish church.

Chaperon

A lady's attendant and protector in public. So called from the Spanish hood worn by duennas. (English—French.) (See Tapisserie .)

To chaperone.

To accompany a young unmarried lady in loco parentis, when she appears in public or in society.

Chapter

To the end of the chapter. From the beginning to the end of a proceeding. The allusion is to the custom of reading an entire chapter in the first and second lesson of the Church service. This is no longer a general rule in the Church of England.

Chapter and Verse

To give chapter and verse is to give the exact authority of a statement, as the name of the author, the title of the book, the date thereof, the chapter referred to, and any other particular which might render the reference easily discoverable.

Chapter of Accidents

(A ). Unforeseen events. To trust to the chapter of accidents is to trust that something unforeseen may turn up in your favour. The Roman laws were divided into books, and each book into chapters. The chapter of accidents is that under the head of accidents, and metaphorically, the sequence of unforeseen events.

Chapter of Possibilities

(The ). A may—be in the course of events.

Character

In character. In harmony with a person's actions, etc.

Out of character.

Not in harmony with a person's actions, writings, profession, age, or status in society.

Character

(A ). An oddity. One who has a distinctive peculiarity of manner: Sam Weller is a character, so is Pickwick. And Sam Weller's conduct in the law—court was “in character,” but had he betrayed his master it would have been “out of character.”

Charbonnerie Democratique

A new Carbonari society, founded in Paris on the principles of Babeuf. The object of these Republicans was to make Paris the centre of all political movements. (See page 214, col. 2,

Carbonari .)

Charge

Curate in charge. A curate placed by a bishop in charge of a parish where there is no incumbent, or where the incumbent is suspended.

To charge oneself with.

To take upon oneself the onus of a given task. To give charge over. To set one in authority over.

“I gave my brother Hanani ... charge over Jerusalem.”— Nehemiah vii. 2.

To give in charge.

To hand over a person to the charge of a policeman. To have in charge. To have the care of something.

To take in charge.

To “take up” a person given in charge; to take upon oneself the responsibility of something.

Charge

(To ). To make an attack or onset in battle. “To charge with bayonets” is to rush on the enemy with levelled bayonets.

To return to the charge.

To renew the attack.

Charge d'Affaires

The proxy of an ambassador, or the diplomatic agent where none higher has been appointed.

Charicleia

The lady—love of Theagenës in the exquisite erotic Greek romance called The Loves of Theagenes and Charicleia, by Heliodoros, Bishop of Trikka, in the fourth century.

Charing Cross

Not from chère reine, in honour of Eleanor, the dear wife of Edward I., but la chère reine (the Blessed Virgin). Hence, in the Close Roll, Richard II, part I (1382), we read that the custody of the falcons at Charryng, near Westminster, was granted to Simon Burley, who was to receive 12d. a day from the Wardrobe. A correspondent in Notes and Queries, Dec. 28th, 1889, p. 507, suggests the Anglo—Saxon cérran (to turn), alluding to the bend of the Thames.

“Queen Eleanor died at Harby, Nottinghamshire, and was buried at Westminster. In every town where the corpse rested the king caused a cross `of cunning workmanship' to be erected in remembrance of her. There were fourteen, some say fifteen, altogether. The three which remain are in capitals: Lincoln, Newark, Grantham, Leicester, Stamford, GEDDINGTON, NORTHAMPTON, Stony—Stratford, Woburn, Dunstable, St. Albans, WALTHAM, West—Cheap (Cheapside), Charing, and (15th Herdly?)”

In front of the South Eastern Railway station (Strand) is a model, in the original dimensions, of the old cross, which was made of Caen stone, and was demolished in 1643.

Chariot

According to Greek mythology, the chariot was invented by Erichthonius to conceal his feet, which were those of a dragon.

“Seated in car, by him constructed first

To hide his hideous feet.”

Rose: Orlando Furioso, xxxvii. 27.

Chariot of the Gods

So the Greeks called Sierra Leone, in Africa, a ridge of mountains of great height. A sierra means a saw, and is applied to a ridge of peaked mountains.

“Her palmy forests, mingling with the skies,

Leona's rugged steep behind us flies.”

Camoens. Lusiad, book 5.

Chariots or Cars.

That of

ADME'TOS was drawn by lions and wild boars. BACCHUS by panthers.

CERES (2 syl.) by winged dragons.

CYB'ELE (3 syl.) by lions.

DIANA by stags.

JUNO by peacocks.

NEPTUNE by sea—horses.

PLUTO by black horses.

The SUN by seven horses (the seven days of the week).

VENUS by doves.

Charioteers

(in Rome) were classed under four factions, distinguished by their liveries:— white, red, sky—blue, and green. Domitian added two more, viz. the golden and the purple.

Charities

Masks.

“Our ladies laugh at bare—faced trulls when they have those mufflers on, which they call masks, and which were formerly much more properly called charity, because they cover a multitude of sins.”— Rabelais: Pantagruel, v. 27.

Charity

Charity begins at home. “Let them learn first to show piety at home” (1 Tim. v. 4 and 8).

Cold as charity.

Than which what's colder to him who gives and him who takes?

Charivari

The clatter made with pots and pans, whistling, bawling, hissing, and so on. Our concert of “marrow—bones and cleavers”; the German Katzenmusik, got up to salute with ridicule unequal marriages. Punch is our national Charivari, and clatters weekly against political and social wrong—sidedness.

Charlatan

The following etymology is suitable to a book of Phrase and Fable. It is said that one Latan, a famous quack, used to go about Paris in a gorgeous car, in which he had a traveling dispensary. A man with a horn announced the approach of this magnate, and the delighted sightseers used to cry out, “Voila! le char de Latan. ” When I lived in Paris I often saw this gorgeous car; the horn—man had a drum also, and M. Latan, dressed in a long showy robe, wore sometimes a hat with feathers, sometimes a brass helmet, and sometimes a showy cap. He was a tooth—extracter as well as dispenser.

Probably “Latan” was an assumed name, for charlatan is undoubtedly the Italian ciarlatano, a babbler or quack.

Charlemagne

His nine wives were Hamiltrude, a poor Frankish woman, who bore him several children; Desiderata, who was divorced; Hildegarde, Fastrade (daughter of Count Rodólph the Saxon), and Luitgarde the German, all three of whom died before him, Maltegarde; Gersuinde the Saxon; Regina; and Adalinda.

Charlemagne's peers.

(See Paladins.) Charlemagne's sword. La Joyeuse. Faire Charlemagne. To carry off one's winnings without giving the adversaries “their revenge.”

“Faire Charlemagne cest se retirer du jeu avec tout son gain, ne point donner de revanche. Charlemagne garda jusqu' á la fin toutes ses conquetes et quitta le jeu de la vie sans avoir rien rendu du fruit de ses victoires. Le joueur qui se retire les mains pleins, fait conine Charlemagne.”— Genin Recreations. i. 186.

Charles

An ill—omened name for kings:

England:

Charles I. was beheaded by his subjects.

Charles II. lived long in exile.

Charles Edward, the Young Pretender, died in poverty and disgrace in France.

France:

Charles I., the Bald, marching to repel the invading Saracens, was forsaken by his followers, and died of poison at Brios.

Charles II., the Fat, reigned wretchedly, and died a beggarly dependent on the stinting bounty of the Archbishop of Metz.

Charles III., the Simple, died in the dungeon of Château Thierry.

Charles IV., the Fair, reigned six years, married thrice, but buried all his children except one daughter, who was forbidden by the Salic law to succeed to the crown.

Charles VI. lived and died an idiot or madman.

Charles VII. starved himself to death.

Charles VIII. smashed his head against the lintel of a doorway in the Château Amboise, and died in agony. Charles IX. died at the age of twentyfour, harrowed in conscience for the part he had taken in the “Massacre of St. Bartholomew.”

Charles X. spent a quarter of a century in exile, and when he succeeded to the throne, fled for his life and died in exile.

Charles le Téméraire, of Burgundy, lost his life at Nancy, where he was utterly defeated by the Swiss.

Naples:

Charles I. saw the French massacred in the “Sicilian Vespers,” and experienced only disasters. Charles II., the Lame, was in captivity at his father's death.

Charles III., his grandson, was assassinated. (See Jane)

Charles I

When Bernini's bust of Charles I. was brought home, the King was sitting in the garden of Chelsea Palace. He ordered the bust to be uncovered, and at the moment a hawk with a bird in its beak flew by, and a drop of the blood fell on the throat of the bust. The bust was ultimately destroyed when the palace was burnt down.

Charles and the Oak

When Charles II. fled from the Parliamentary army, he took refuge in Boscobel House; but when he deemed it no longer safe to remain there, he concealed himself in an oak. Dr. Stukeley says that this tree “stood just by a horse—track passing through the wood, and the king, with Colonel Carlos, climbed into it by means of the hen—roost ladder. The family reached them victuals with a nuthook.” (Itinerarium Curiosum, iii. p. 57, 1724.)

Charles's Wain

The constellation called the Great Bear, which forms the outline of a wheelbarrow or rustic wagon. “Charles” is a corruption of the word churles, the farmer's wagon. (Anglo—Saxon, ceorles wan.)

Sometimes still further corrupted into “King Charles's wain.”

Charleys

or Charlies. The old night watch, before the police force was organised in 1829. So called from Charles I., in whose reign the system was re—organised. (1640.)

Charlotte Elizabeth

Mrs. Tonna (1792—1846).

Charm

means a song. Incantation is singing on or against some one. Enchant is the same. (Latin, carmen. )

Charon's Toll

[care—un].' A coin, about equal to a penny, placed in the mouth or hand of the dead to pay Charon for ferrying the spirit across the river Styx to the Elysian fields.

Charter

(See People's Charter )

Chartism

The political system of the Chartists, who, in 1838, demanded the People's Charter, consisting of five principles: universal suffrage, annual parliaments, stipendiary members, vote by ballot, and electoral districts.

Charybdis [ch=k]. A whirlpool on the coast of Sicily. Scylla and Charybdis are employed to signify two equal dangers. Thus Horace says an author trying to avoid Scylla, drifts into Charybdis, i.e. seeking to avoid one fault, falls into another. The tale is that Charybdis stole the oxen of Hercules, was killed by lightning, and changed into the gulf.

“Thus when I shun Scylla, your father, I fall into Charybdis, your mother.”— Shakespeare: Merchant of Venice, iii. 5.

Chase

(A). A small deer—forest held, for the most part, by a private individual, and protected only by common law. Forests are royal prerogatives, protected by the “Forest Laws.”

Chase

(A). An iron frame used by printers for holding sufficient type for one side of a sheet. The type is first set up letter by letter in the “composing stick,” and is then transferred to the “galley,” where it appears in columns. It is next divided into pages, and then transferred to the chase, where it is held tight by quoins, or small wedges of wood. The word is French, chasse (a frame), our case—ment. (See Stick)

Chasidim

and Zadikim. After the Babylonish captivity the Jews were divided into two groups— those who accepted and those who rejected the Persian innovation. The former were called pietists (chasidim), and the latter uprights (zadikim).

Chasseurs de Vincennes

(French). The Duke of Orleans' rifle corps; so called because they were garrisoned at Vincennes. (1835.)

Chat

Nid d'une souris dans Voreille d'un chat. A mare's nest. This French phrase is the translation of a line in Wynkyn de Worde's Amusing Questions, printed in English in 1511. “Demand: What is that that never was and never will be? Response: A mouse's nest in a cat's ear.” (See Mare's Nest )

Chat de Beaugency

(Le). Keeping the word of promise to the ear, but breaking it to the sense. The legend is this: An architect was employed to construct a bridge over the Loire, opposite Beaugency, but not being able to accomplish it, made a league with the devil to give his sable majesty the first living being which crossed the bridge. The devil supposed it would be the architect himself, but when the bridge was finished the man threw a cat forwards, and it ran over the bridge like a wild thing. The devil was furious, but a bargain's a bargain, and the “cat of Beaugency” became a proverb.

Chateaux en Espagne

[Castles in Spain.] A castle in the air; something that exists only in the imagination. In Spain there are no châteaux. (See Castle )

Château.

Many wines are named after the manor on which the grapes are grown: as Château Lafitte, Château La Tour, Château Margaux, Château Rose (and Bordeaux), Château Yquem (a white Bordeaux), etc.

Chattelin's

A fashionable coffee—house in the reign of Charles II.

“Met their servant coming to bring me to Chatelin's, the French house, in Covent Garden, and there with music and good company ... mighty merry till ten at night. The Duke of Monmouth and a great many blades were at Chatelin's, and I left them there.”— Pepys: Diary, April 22nd, 1668.

Chatterbox

A talkative person. The Germans have Plaudertasche (chatterbag). Shakespeare speaks of the clack—dish. “His use was to put a ducat in her clack—dish” (Measure for Measure, iii. 2)— i.e. the box or dish used by beggars for collecting alms, which the holder clatters to attract attention. We find also chatter—basket in old writers, referring to the child's rattle.

Chatterhouse

To go through the chatterhouse. Between the legs of one or more boys, set apart like an inverted A, who strike, with their hands or caps, the victim as he creeps through. Halliwell (Archaic Dict.) gives chat, a small twig, and chatter, to bruise; also chattocks, refuse wood left in making faggots. Probably, the boys used little twigs or sticks instead of caps or hands. And to go through chatterhouse means to get a

trouncing or tunding. The pun between chatterhouse and charterhouse is obvious.

Chatterpie

Same as chatterbox. The pie means the magpie. (Mag, to chatter.) (See Halliwell.)

Chaucer of Painting

(The). Albert Dürer of Nurnberg (1471—1528). “The prince of artists.”

Chauvin

A blind idolator of Napoleon the Great. The name is taken from Les Aides de Camp, by Bayard and Dumanoir, but was popularised in Charet's Conscrit Chauvin.

Chauvinism.

A blind idolatry of Napoleon the Great. Now it means a blind and pugnacious patriotism: a warlike spirit.

“Chauvin, patriote ardent, jusqu'à l'exagération. Allusion au nom d'un type de caricature populaire, comme le prouve cet exemple: 1820, époque ou un liberalism plus large commença à se moquer de ces éloges donnés aux conscrit Chauvin, fit justice de ces niaiseries de

l'opinion.”— Lorédan Larchey: Dictionnaire de l'Argot Parisien, 1872.

Chawbacon

(A). An uncouth rustic, supposed to eat no meat but bacon. I myself knew a most respectable day—labourer, who had saved up enough money to keep himself in old age, who told me he never saw or touched any meat in his cottage but bacon, except once a year, and that was on club—day (1879). He never ate rabbit, game, chicken, or duck.

Chawed up

Done for, utterly discomfited, demolished. (American.)

Che sara, sara

What shall be will be. The motto of the Russells (Bedford)

“What doctrine call ye this, Che sara, sara!” — Faust (Anster's translation), i. 1.

Cheap as a Sardinian

A Roman phrase referring to the great crowds of Sardinian prisoners brought to Rome by Tiberius Gracchus, and offered for sale at almost any price.

Cheap Jack

Jack, the chap—man. Not cheap, meaning low—priced, but cheap meaning merchant, as in “chapman,” “Cheap—side,” etc. Jack is a term applied to inferior persons, etc. (Saxon, cepa, a merchant; ceapian, to buy; ceapmann, a tradesman.) (See Jack )

Cheapside Bargain

(A). A very weak pun, meaning that the article was bought cheap or under its market value.

Cheater

(2 syl.) originally meant an Escheator or officer of the king's exchequer appointed to receive dues and taxes. The present use of the word shows how these officers were wont to fleece the people. (See Catchpole ).

Compare with escheator the New Testament word “Publicans,” or collectors of the Roman tax in Judæa, etc.

Chech

Called also stone—chest, kistvaen (a sepulchral monument or cromlech).

“We find a rude chech or flat stone of an oval form, about three yards in length, five feet over where broadest, and ten or twelve inches thick.”— Camden.

Checkmate

in the game of chess, means placing your adversary's king in such a position that he can neither cover nor move out of check. Figuratively, “to checkmate” means to foil or outwit another; checkmated, outmanoeuvred. “Mate” (Arabic, mat, dead; Spanish, matar, to kill). The German schach means both chess

and check, and the Italian scacco means the squares of the chess—board; but schach—matt and scaccomatto = check—mate. The French échec is a “stoppage,” whence donner or faire échec et mat, to make a stoppage

(check) and dead; the Spanish, xaque de mate means the check of death (or final check).

If we go to Arabic for “mate,” why not go there for “check” also? And “sheik mat” = the king dead, would be consistent and exact. (See Chess)

Cheek

None of your cheek. None of your insolence. “None of your jaw" means none of your nagging or word irritation.

We say a man is very cheeky, meaning that he is saucy and presumptuous.

To give cheek.

To be insolent. “Give me none of your cheek.” To have the cheek. To have the face or assurance. “He hadn't the cheek to ask for more.”

“On account of his having so much cheek”— Dickens: Bleak House.

Cheek

(To). To be saucy. “You must cheek him well,” i.e. confront him with fearless impudence; face him out.

Cheek by Jowl

In intimate confabulation; tête—á—tête. Cheek is the Anglo—Saxon ceca, céac—bán, cheek—bone; and jowl is the Anglo—Saxon ceole (the jaw); Irish, gial.

“Ill go with thee, cheek by jowl.”— Shakespeare: Midsummer Night's Dream, iii. 2.

Cheese

Tusser says that a cheese, to be perfect, should not be like (1) Gehazi, i.e. dead white, like a leper; (2) not like Lot's wife, all salt; (3) not like Argus, full of eyes; (4) not like Tom Piper, “hoven and puffed,” like the cheeks of a piper; (5) not like Crispin, leathery; (6) not like Lazarus, poor; (7) not like Esau, hairy; (8) not like Mary Magdalene, full of whey or maudlin; (9) not like the Gentiles, full of maggots or gentils; and (10) not like a bishop, made of burnt milk. (Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry.)

A cheese which has no resemblance to these ten defects is “quite the cheese.”

Bread and cheese.

Food generally, but of a frugal nature. “Come and take your bread and cheese with me this evening.”

A green cheese:

An unripe cheese. The moon made of green cheese. A slight resemblance, but not in the least likely. “You will persuade him to believe that the moon is made of green cheese.” (See above.)

`Tis an old rat that won't eat cheese.

It must be a wondrously toothless man that is inaccessible to flattery; he must be very old indeed who can abandon his favourite indulgence; only a very cunning rat knows that cheese is a mere bait.

Cheese

Something choice (Anglo—Saxon, ceos—an, to choose; German, kiesen; French, choisir). Chaucer says, “To cheese whether she wold him marry or no.”

“Now thou might cheese

How thou couetist [covetest] to calme, now thou Knowist all mi names.”

P. Ploughman's Vision.

It is not the cheese.

Not the right thing; not what I should choose.

He is quite the cheese

or just the cheese— i.e. quite the thing. By a double refinement we get the slang varieties, That's prime Stilton, or double Gloster — i.e. slap bang up.

Cheeseparer (A). A skinflint: a man of small savings; economy carried to excess like one who pares or shaves off very thinly the rind of his cheese instead of cutting it off. The tale is well known of the man who chose his wife out of three sisters by the way they ate their cheese. One pared it— she (he said) was mean; one cut it off extravagantly thick— she was wasteful; the third sliced it off in a medium way, and there his choice fell.

Cheeseparing Economy

A useless economy. The French say, “Une économie de bouts de chandelles.” The allusion is to the well—known tale of a man who chose one of three sisters for wife by the way they pared their cheese. (See above.)

Cheese—Toaster

(A). A sword; also called a “toasting—fork.” “Come! out with your toaster.” In Latin veru means a dart, a spit used in roasting, or a toasting fork. Thus we have “pugnant mucrone veruque Sabello” (Æn. vii. 663), and in Æn. i. 210, etc., we read that the men prepared their supper, after slaying the beasts, “pars in frustra secant, verubusque trementia figunt.” In the former example veru is used for an instrument of war, and in the latter for a toasting—fork or spit.

Cheesewring

(Lynton, Devon). A mass of eight stones, towering to the height of thirty—two feet; so called because it looks like a gigantic cheese—press. This is probably a natural work, the effect of some convulsion. The Kilmarth Rocks, and part of Hugh Lloyd's Pulpit, present somewhat similar piles of stone.

Chef d'OEuvre

A masterpiece. (French.) (Pronounce sha deuvr. )

Chemistry

[kemistry] is from the Arabic kimia, whence al—kimia (the occult art), from kamai (to conceal).

Inorganic chemistry

is that branch of chemistry which is limited to metallic and non—metallic substances, which are not organised bodies.

Organic chemistry

is devoted to organised bodies and their elements.

Chemos

or Chemosh [Keemosh]. War—god of the Moabites; god of lust.

“Next, Chemos, the obscene dread of Moab's sons,

From Aroer to Nebo, and the wild

Of southmost Abarim.”

Milton: Paradise Lost,

book i, 406—8.

Chennappa

The city of Chennappa. So Madras is called by the natives.

Chenu

(French). Hoary, grey—headed. This word is much used in Paris to signify good, delicate, exquisite in flavour, delicious, de bon goût. It was originally applied to wine which is improved by age. Thus we

hear—commonly in Paris the expression, “Voilá du vin qui est bien chenu” (mellow with age). Sometimes gris (grey, with age) is substituted, as, “Nous en boirons tant de ce bon vin gris" (Le Tresor des Chansons Nouvelles, p. 78). The word, however, is by no means limited to wine, but is applied to well—nigh everything worthy of commendation. We even hear Chenu Reluit, good morning; and Chenu sorgue, good night.

“Reluit,” of course, means “sunshine,” and “sorgue” is an old French word for evening or brown. “Chenument” = á merveille.

Chequers A public—house sign. In England without doubt the arms of Fitzwarren, the head of which house, in the days of the Henrys, was invested with the power of licensing vintners and publicans, may have helped to popularise this sign, which indicated that the house was duly licensed; but the sign has been found on houses in exhumed Pompeii, and probably referred to some game, like our draughts, which might be indulged in on the premises. Possibly in some cases certain public—houses were at one time used for the payment of doles, etc., and a chequer—board was provided for the purpose. In such cases the sign indicated the house where the parish authorities met for that and other purposes.

Cheronean

[ch=k]. The Cheronean Sage. Plutarch, who was born at Chaerone'a, in Boeotia (46—120).

“This phrase, O Cheronean sage, is thine.”

Beattie: Minstrel.

Cherry

The whole tree or not a cherry on it. “Aut Caesar aut nullus.” All in all or none at all.

“This Hospitaller seems to be one of those pragmatical knaves who must have the whole tree, or they'll not have a cherry on it.”

To make two bites of a cherry.

To divide something too small to be worth dividing.

Cherry Fairs

Now called teagardens. Nothing to do with cherries; it is cheery fairs— i.e. gay or recreation fairs. A “cheering” is a merrymaking. Halliwell tells us that “Cherry (or rather chery) fairs are still held in Worcestershire.” Gower says of this world, “Alle is but a cherye—fayre,” a phrase frequently met with.

“This life, my son, is but a chery—fayre.”— MS. Bodl. 221 (quoted by Halliwell).

Cherry Trees and the Cuckoo

The cherry tree is strangely mixed up with the cuckoo in many cuckoo stories, because of the tradition that the cuckoo must eat three good meals of cherries before he is allowed to cease singing.

“Cuckoo, cuckoo, cherry—tree,

Good bird, prithee, tell to me

How many years I am to see.”

The answer is made by the cuckoo repeating its cry the prophetic number of times.

Cherubims

The 11th Hussars are so called, by a bad pun, because their trousers are of a cherry colour.

Chery and Fair—Star

Chery was the son of a king's brother and Brunetta; Fair—star was the daughter of the king and Blondina, the two fathers being brothers, and the two mothers sisters. They were cast on the sea adrift, but were found and brought up by a corsair and his wife. Ultimately they are told of their birth by a green bird, and marry each other. This tale is imitated from The Sisters who Envied their Younger Sister, in Arabian Nights.

N.B.— The name is from the French cher (dear), and is about equal to “deary” or “dear one.” It is quite wrong to spell it with a double r. (Comtesse d'Aulnoy: Fairy Tales.)

Cheshire

is the Latin castra'—shire, called by the Romans Devana castra (the camp town of Deva, or Deemouth).

Chess

Called by the Hindus cheturanga (the four angas)— i.e. the four members of the army— viz. elephants, horses, chariots, and foot—soldiers; called by the ancient Persians chetrang. The Arabs, who have neither c nor

g, called it shetranj, which modern Persians corrupted into sacchi, whence the Italian scacchi, German schach, French echec, our chess. (See page 242, Checkmate )

Chesterfield

lauded by Thomson in his Winter is the fourth earl, author of Chesterfield's Letters to His Son (1694—1773).

Chesterfield House

(London) was built by Isaac Ware for Philip, fourth earl of Chesterfield. (See above.)

Chestnut

A stale joke. In The Broken Sword, an old melodrama by William Dillon, Captain Xavier is for ever telling the same jokes with variations. He was telling about one of his exploits connected with a cork—tree, when Pablo corrects him, “A chestnut—tree you mean, captain.” “Bah! (replied the captain) I say a cork—tree.”

“A chestnut—tree,” insists Pablo. “I must know better than you (said the captain); it was a cork—tree, I say.”

“A chestnut (persisted Pablo). I have heard you tell the joke twenty—seven times, and I am sure it was a chestnut.”

“Is not this an illustration of the enduring vitality of the `chestnut'? [joke].”— Notes and Queries.

Chestnut Sunday

Rogation Sunday, or the Sunday before Ascension Day.

Cheval

(French, á cheval ). Troops are arranged á cheval when they command two roads, as Wellington's army at Waterloo, which, being at the apex of two roads, commanded that between Charleroi and Brussels, as well as that to Mons.

“The Western Powers will assuredly never permit Russia to place herself again á cheval between the Ottoman empire and Persia.”—The Times.

Cheval de Bataille

(His). His strong argument. (See Notes and Queries, May 22nd, 1886, p. 410.)

Chevalier d'Industrie

A man who lives by his wits and calls himself a gentleman.

“Denicheur de fauvettes, chevalier de l'ordre de l'industrie, qui va chercher quelque bon nid, quelque femme qui lui fasse sa fortune.”— Gongam, ou l'Homme Prodigieux (1713).

Chevalier du Brouillard

(Le). The French Jack Sheppard. A drama.

Chevaux de Frise

(French). Horses of Friesland. A beam filled with spikes to keep off horses, so called from its use in the siege of Groningen, Friesland, in 1594. A somewhat similar engine had been used before, but was not called by the same name. In German it is “a Spanish horseman” (ein Spanischer Reiter).

Cheveril

He has a cheveril conscience. One that will easily stretch like cheveril or kid leather.

“Oh, here's a wit of cheveril, that stretches from an inch narrow to an ell broad!”— Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet, ii. 4.

“Your soft cheveril conscience would receive.

If you might please to stretch it.”

Shakespeare: Henry VIII., ii. 3.

Chevy Chase

There had long been a rivalry between the families of Percy and Douglas, which showed itself by incessant raids into each other's territory. Percy of Northumberland one day vowed he would hunt for three days in the Scottish border, without condescending to ask leave of Earl Douglas. The Scotch warden said in

his anger, “Tell this vaunter he shall find one day more than sufficient.” The ballad called Chevy Chase mixes up this hunt with the battle of Otterburn, which, Dr. Percy justly observes, was “a very different event.”

(Chaucer, chevachie, a military expedition on horseback.)

“To louder strains he raised his voice, to tell

What woful wars in `Chevy Chase' befell,

When Percy drove the deer with hound and horn, Wars to be wept by children yet unborn.”

Gay: Pastoral VI.

Chiabreresco

(Italian). Poetry formed on the Greek model; so called from Gabriel Chiabrera, surnamed the “Pindar of Italy” (1552—1637).

Chiar—oscuro

[pronounce ke—ar—ros—ku'—ro . A style of painting now called “black and white.”

“Chiar—oscuro ... is the art of representing light in shadow and shadow in light, so that the parts represented in shadow shall still have the clearness and warmth of those in light; and those in light, the depth and softness of those in shadow.”— Chambers: Encyclopædia, iii. p. 171.

Chibiabos

The musician; the harmony of nature personified. He teaches the birds to sing and the brooks to warble as they flow. “All the many sounds of nature borrow sweetness from his singing.”

“Very dear to Hiawatha

Was the gentle Chibiabos.

For his gentleness he loved him,

And the magic of his singing.”
Longfellow: Hiawatha, vi.

Chibouque

(A). A smoking—pipe with a long tube, used in the East (Turkish).

Chic

Fashionable; comme il faut; the mode. This is an archaic French word in vogue in the seventeenth century. It really is the Spanish chico, little, also a little boy, and chica, a little girl or darling. Similarly, wee in Scotch is a loving term of admiration and pride. (Chic is an abbreviation of the German geschickt, apt, clever.)

“Juse de mots de l'art, je met en marge hic;

J'espere avec le tems que j'entendrai le chic.”
Les Satyres de Du Lorens, xii. p. 97.

Avoir le chic.

To have the knack of doing the thing smartly. Chicard and chicandard = elegant, de grand style, are very common expressions with artists.

Chichivache

(3 syl.). French for the “sorry cow,” a monster that lived only on good women— all skin and bone, because its food was so extremely scarce. The old English romancers invented another monster, which they called Bicorn, as fat as the other was lean; but, luckily, he had for food “good and enduring husbands,” of which there is no lack. (See Bicorn )

“O noble wyvës, full of heigh prudence,

Let noon humilitie your tongës nayle,

Ne lat no clerk have cause or diligence

To write of you a story of such mervayle

As of Griseldes, pacient and kynde,

Lest Chichi—vache you swolwe in hir entraile.”

Chaucer: L'Envoye de Chaucer, v. 9064.

The French chiche—face means “thin—face.” Lydgate wrote a poem entitled Bycorne and Chichevache.

Chick—a—biddy

(A). A child's name for a young chicken, and a mother's word of endearment to her young child. “Biddy” is merely the call of a child, bid—bid—bid—bid to a chicken.

“Do you, sweet Rob? Do you truly, chickabiddy?”—Dickens: Dombey and Son.

Chicken

(plural chickens ). It is quite a mistake to suppose “chickens” to be a double plural. The Anglo—Saxon is cicen, plural cicen—u. We have a few plural forms in—en, as ox—en, brack—en, children, brethren, hosen, and eyen; but of these children and brethren are not the most ancient forms. “Chick” is a mere contraction of chicken.

The old plural forms of “child” are child—r—e, dialectic child—er; children is a later form. The old plural forms of “brother” are brothru, brothre, brethre; later forms are brethren and brothres (now brothers).

Children and chicken must always be pickin'.

Are always hungry and ready to eat food. To count your chickens ere they are hatched (Hudibras). To anticipate profits before they come. One of Æsop's fables describes a market woman saying she would get so much for her eggs, with the money she would buy a goose; the goose in time would bring her so much, with which she would buy a cow, and so on; but in her excitement she kicked over her basket, and all her eggs were broken. The Latins said, “Don't sing your song of triumph before you have won the victory” (ante victoriam canere triumphum ). “Don't crow till you are out of the wood” has a similar meaning. (See page 36, col. 2, Alnaschar's Dream)

Curses like chickens come home to roost. (See under

Curses) Mother Carey's chickens. (See Mother Carey)

She's no chicken.

Not young. The young child as well as the young fowl is called a chicken or chick.Chicken of St. Nicholas (The). So the Piedmontese call the ladybird, or little red beetle with spots of black, called by the Russians “God's little cow,” and by the Germans, “God's little horse” sent as a messenger of love.

Chicken—hearted

Cowardly. Young fowls are remarkably timid, and run to the wing of the hen upon the slightest cause of alarm.

Chien

Entre chien et loup. Dusk, between daylight and lamp—light; owllight.

“The best time to talk of difficult things is entre chien et loup, as the Guernsey folk say.”— Mrs. Edwardes: A Girton Girl, chap. xlvi.

Chien de Jean de Nivelle

(Le), which never came when it was called. Jean de Nivelle was the eldest son of Jean II. de Montmorency, born about 1423. He espoused the cause of the Duke of Burgundy against the orders of Louis XI. and the wish of his father, who disinherited him. Bouillet says: Jean de Nivelle était devenu en France à cause du refus qu'il fit de répondre à l'appel de son roi un object de haine et de mépris; et le peuple lui donna le surnom injurieux de chien, de là le proverbe.

“Cest le chien de Jean de Nivelle

Qui s'en fuit toujours quand on l'appelle.

The Italians call this Arlotto's dog.

Child

at one time, meant a female infant, and was the correlative of boy.

“Mercy on `s! A barne, a very pretty barne. A boy or a child, I wonder?”— Shakespeare: Winter's Tale, iii. 3.

Child of God

(A), in the Anglican and Catholic Church, means one who has been baptised; others consider the phrase to mean one converted by special grace and adopted into the holy family of God's Church.

“In my baptism, wherein I was made a member of Christ, the child of God, and an inheritor of the Kingdom of Heaven.”— Church Catechism.

Child of the Cord

So the defendant was called by the judges of the vehmgericht in Westphalia, because everyone condemned by the tribunal was hanged to the branch of a tree.

Childe

as Childe Harold, Childe of Ellechilde Waters, Childe Roland, Childe Tristram, Childe Arthur, etc. In all these cases the word “Childe” is a title of honour, like the infante and infanta of Spain. In the times of chivalry, the noble youths who were candidates for knighthood were, during their time of probation, called infans, valets, damoysels, and bacheliers. Childe or infant was the term given only to the most noble. (In Anglo—Saxon, the same word [cniht ] means both a child and a knight.)

Childe Harold

A man sated of the world, who roams from place to place to flee from himself. The “childe” is, in fact, Lord Byron himself, who was only twenty—one when he began, and twenty—eight when he finished the poem. In canto i. (1809), he visited Portugal and Spain; in canto ii. (1810), Turkey in Europe; in canto iii. (1816), Belgium and Switzerland; and in canto iv. (1817), Venice, Rome, and Florence.

Children

The children in the wood. The master of Wayland Hall, Norfolk, on his deathbed left a little son, three years old, and a still younger daughter, named Jane, to the care of his wife's brother. The boy was to have 300 a year when he came of age, and the girl 500 as a wedding portion; but, if the children died previously, the uncle was to inherit. After twelve months had elapsed, the uncle hired two ruffians to murder the two babes. As they went along one of the ruffians relented, and killed his fellow; then, putting down the children in a wood, left them. The poor babes gathered blackberries to allay their hunger, but died during the night, and “Robin Redbreast” covered them over with strawberry leaves. All things went ill with the cruel uncle; his sons died, his barns were fired, his cattle died, and he himself perished in gaol. After the lapse of seven years, the ruffian was taken up for highway robbery, and confessed the whole affair. (Percy: Reliques, iii. ii. 18.)

“Then sad he sung `The Children in the Wood.' (Ah! barbarous uncle, stained with infant blood!) How blackberries they plucked in deserts wild,

And fearless at the glittering falchion smiled;

Their little corpse the robin—redbreast found,

And strewed with pious bill the leaves around.” Gay: Pastoral VI.

Children. Three hundred and sixty—five at a birth. It is said that the Countess of Henneberg accused a beggar of adultery because she carried twins, whereupon the beggar prayed that the countess might carry as many children as there are days in the year. According to the legend, this happened on Good Friday, 1276. All the males were named John, and all the females Elizabeth. The countess was forty—two at the time.

Children

as plural of “child.” (See under Chicken,) page 245, col. 2.)

Chilenos People of Chili.

Chilian

A native of Chili, pertaining to Chili, etc.

Chiliasts

[kiliasts]. Another word for Millenarians; those who believe that Christ will return to this earth and reign a thousand years in the midst of His saints. (Greek, chilias, a thousand.)

Chillingham Cattle

A breed of cattle (bos taurus) in the park of the Earl of Tankerville, supposed to be the last remnant of the wild oxen of Britain.

Chillon'

Prisoner of Chillon. Francois de Bonnivard, of Lunes. Lord Byron makes him one of six brothers, all of whom suffered as martyrs. The father and two sons died on the battle—field; one was burnt at the stake; three were incarcerated in the dungeon of Chillon, near the lake of Geneva— of these, two died, and Francois was set at liberty by “the Bearnais.” Byron says that Bonnivard has left traces of his footsteps in the pavement of the dungeon. He was put in prison for “republican principles” by the Duke—Bishop of Savoy. (1496—1570.)

Chilminar'

and Balbec. Two cities built by the Genii, acting under the orders of Jan ben Jan, who governed the world long before the time of Adam. Chilminar, or the “Forty Pillars,” is Persepolis. These two cities were built as lurking places for the Genii to hide in.

Chiltern Hundreds

(The). There are three, viz. Stoke, Desborough, and Bonenham (or Burnham). At one time the Chiltern Hills, between Bedford and Hertford, etc., were covered with beech trees which formed shelter for robbers; so a steward was appointed by the Crown to put down these marauders and protect the inhabitants of the neighbourhood from depredations. The necessity of such watch and ward has long since ceased, but the office remains; and, since 1750, when a Member of Parliament wishes to vacate his seat, one way of doing so is by applying for the stewardship of the three Chiltern Hundreds. The application being granted, the Member is advanced to an office under the Crown, and his seat in the House is ex officio vacated. Immediately the Member has effected his object, he resigns his office again. The gift is in the hands of the Chancellor of the Exchequer. It was refused to a Member for Reading in 1842.

The Stewardships used for a similar purpose were Old Sarum (in Sussex), East Hendred (in Berks), the Manor of Poynings (in Sussex), Hempholwic (in Yorkshire), all of which have dropped out of use. The Stewardship of the Manor of Northstead (in Yorks) survives (1894), but the Escheatorships of Munster and Ulster were abolished in 1838.

The London Gazette of August 4, 1893, announced that the “Chancellor of the Exchequer has appointed William Henry Grenfell to be steward and bailiff of the Chiltern Hundreds in the room of John Morrogh, resigned.”

Chimaera

[kimera]. An illusory fancy, a wild, incongruous scheme, a castle in the air. Homer describes the chimæra as a monster with a goat's body, a lion's head, and a dragon's tail. It was born in Lycia, and was slain

by Bellerophon. (Greek, chimaira, a shegoat.)

Chime in with

(To). To be in harmony with, to accord with, to fall in with. The allusion is to chiming bells.

“This chimed in with Mr. Dombey's own hope and belief.”— Dickens: Dombey and Son.

Chimney Money

or Hearth money. A Crown duty for every fireplace in a house (14 Car. ii. c. 2). Repealed by 1 Will. & Mary, i. c. 2.

Chimneypot Hat

(A). The ordinary cylindrical black—silk hat, generally worn as more dressy than the soft felt hats or stiff billycocks. Called by the French cheminée.

Chinese Gordon

General Gordon (afterwards killed at Khartoum), who succeeded in putting down the Taëping rebellion, which broke out in 1851 and lasted fifteen years. The rebels had ravaged sixteen of the eighteen provinces, and had destroyed six hundred cities. In 1861 Ward raised an army called the “Ever Victorious,” which was placed under General Gordon, and in 1864 the rebellion was stamped out.

Chingachgook

The Indian chief in Fenimore Cooper's Last of the Mohicans, Pathfinder, Deerslayer, and Pioneer. Called in French Le Gros Serpent.

Chink

or Jink. Money; so called because it chinks or jingles in the purse. Thus, if a person is asked if he has money, he rattles that which he has in his purse or pocket.

“Have chinks in thy purse.” Tusser.

Chintz

means spotted. The cotton goods originally manufactured in the East. (Persian, chinz, spotted, stained; Hindu, chint, plur. chints; Sanscrit, chitra, variegated.)

Chios

(Kios). The man of Chios. Homer, who lived at Chios, near the Ægean Sea. Seven cities claim to be his place of birth—

“Smyrna, Rhodos, Colophon, Salamis, Chios, Argos, Athe'næ.”— Varro.

Chip

or Chips.

A carpenter is known by his chips.

A man is known to be a carpenter by the chips in his workshop, so the profession or taste of other men may be known by their manners or mode of speech. There is a broadcloth slang as well as a corduroy slang; a military, naval, school, and university slang.

Such carpenters, such chips.

As the workman, so his work will be.

Brother Chip.

Properly a brother carpenter, but in its extended meaning applied to anyone of the same vocation as ourselves. (Es nostræ fasciæ; Petronius.)

The ship's carpenter is, at sea, commonly addressed as “chips.”

Saratoga chips.

Potatoes sliced thin while raw, and fried crisp. Sometimes called chipped potatoes.

Chip of the Old Block

(A). A son or child of the same stuff as his father. The chip is the same wood as the block. Burke applied the words to W. Pitt

Chiron

[Kiron ]. The centaur who taught Achilles music, medicine, and hunting. Jupiter placed him in heaven among the stars, where he is called Sagittarius (the Archer).

Chiron,

according to Dantë, has watch over the lake of boiling blood, in the seventh circle of hell.

Chirping Cup or Glass. A merry—making glass or cup of liquor. Wine that maketh glad the heart of man, or makes him sing for joy.

“A chirping cup is my matin song,

And my vesper bell is my bowl; Ding dong!”

A Friar of Orders Grey.

Chisel

I chiselled him means, I cheated him, or cut him out of something.

Chitty—faced

Baby—faced, lean. A chit is a child or sprout. Both chit and chitty—faced are terms of contempt. (Anglo—Saxon, cith, a twig, etc.)

Chivalry

The paladins of Charlemagne were all scattered by the battle of Roncesvallës. The champions of Diderick were all assassinated at the instigation of Chriemhilda, the bride of Ezzel, King of the Huns.

The Knights of the Round Table were all extirpated by the fatal battle of Camlan.

Chivalry.

The six following clauses may be considered almost as axioms of the Arthurian romances:— (1) There was no braver or more noble king than Arthur.

(2) No fairer or more faithless wife than Guiniver.

(3) No truer pair of lovers than Tristan and Iseult (or Tristram and Ysolde).

(4) No knight more faithful than Sir Kaye.

(5) None so brave and amorous as Sir Launcelot.

(6) None so virtuous as Sir Galahad.

The flower of Chivalry.

William Douglas, Lord of Liddesdale. (Fourteenth century.)

Chivy

A chase in the school game of “Prisoners' Base” or “Prison Bars.” Probably a gipsy word. One boy sets a chivy, by leaving his bar, when one of the opposite side chases him, and if he succeeds in touching him before he reaches “home,” the boy touched becomes a prisoner.

Chivy

or Chivvy. Slang for the face. Much slang is due to rhyme, and when the rhyme is a compound word the rhyming part is sometimes dropped and the other part remains. Thus Chivy [Chevy]—chase rhymes with “face,” by dropping “chase” chivy remains, and becomes the accepted slang word. Similarly, daisies=boots, thus: daisy—roots will rhyme with “boots,” and by dropping “roots,” the rhyme, daisy remains. By the same process sky is the slang for pocket, the compound word which gave birth to it being “sky—rocket.”

“Christmas” the slang for a railway guard, as “Ask the Christmas,” is, of course, from the rhyme

“Christmas—card”; and “raspberry” the slang for heart, is from the rhyme “raspberry—tart.”

“Then came a knock at the Rory o'More [door],

Which made my raspberry beat.”

Other examples given under their proper heads.

Chlo'e

(Kloee). The shepherdess beloved by Daphnis in the pastoral romance of Longus, entitled Daphnis and Chloë. St. Pierre's tale of Paul and Virginia is founded on the exquisite romance of Longus.

Prior calls Mrs. Centlivre “Cloe.”

Chloe

in Pope's Moral Essays (epist. ii.), Lady Suffolk, mistress of George II. “Content to dwell in decencies for ever.”

Choereas

[Kereas ]. The lover of Callirrhoë, in Chariton's Greek romance, called the Loves of Choereas and Callirrhoë. (Eighth century.)

Choice Spirit

(A) or “Choice Spirit of the Age,” a gallant of the day, being one who delights to exaggerate the whims of fashion.

Hobson's Choice.

(See Hobson.)

Choke

May this piece of bread choke me, if what I say is not true. In ancient times a person accused of robbery had a piece of barley bread, on which the mass had been said, given him to swallow. He put it in his mouth uttering the words given above, and if he could swallow it without being choked, he was pronounced innocent. Tradition ascribes the death of the Earl Godwin to choking with a piece of bread, after this solemn appeal. (See Corsned .)

Choke—pear

An argument to which there is no answer. Robbers in Holland at one time made use of a piece of iron in the shape of a pear, which they forced into the mouth of their victim. On turning a key, a number of springs thrust forth points of iron in all directions, so that the instrument of torture could never be taken out except by means of the key.

Choker

(A). A neckcloth. A white choker is a white neckcloth or necktie, worn in full dress, and generally by waiters and clergymen. Of course, the verb to choke has supplied the word.

Chop

and Chops. Chop and change (To). To barter by the rule of thumb. Boys “chop” one article for another (Anglo—Saxon, cip—an, or ceáp—ian, to sell or barter).

A mutton chop

is from the French coup—er, to cut off. A piece chopped off. The wind chops about. Shifts from point to point suddenly. This is cip—an, to barter or change hands. ( See above To Chop And Change.)

“How the House of Lords and House of Commons chopped round.”— Thackeray: The Four Georges (George I.).

Chop—fallen

Crest—fallen; down in the mouth. (See next column, Chops .)

Chop—House

(A). An eating—house where chops and steaks are served.

“John Bull ... would set up a chop—house at the very gates of paradise.”— Washington Irving: vol. i. chap. vi. p. 61.

A Chinese custom—house is called a Chop—house (Hindu, chap, a stamp).

Chop Logic (To). To bandy words; to altercate. Lord Bacon says, “Let not the council chop with the judge.” (See Chop And Change .)

“How now, how now, chop logic! What is this? `Proud,' and `I thank you,' and `I thank you not,' And yet `not proud.' “

Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet,

iii. 5.

Chops

The face, is allied to the Latin caput, the head; Greek, kegaloz Anglo—Saxon ceafel, the snout; in the plural, the cheeks. We talk of a “pig's chap.”

The Latin cap—ut gives us the word chap, a fellow or man; and its alliance with chop gives us the term

“chapped” hands, etc. Everyone knows the answer given to the girl who complained of chapped lips: “My dear, you should not let the chaps come near your lips.”

Down in the chops— i.e.

down in the mouth in a melancholy state; with the mouth drawn down. (Anglo—Saxon, cealf, the snout or jaw; Icelandic, kiaptr.)

Chops of the Channel

The short broken motion of the waves, experienced in crossing the English Channel; also the place where such motion occurs.

Chopine

(2 syl.), or Chopin. A high—heeled shoe. The Venetian ladies used to wear “high—heeled shoes like stilts.” Hamlet says of the actress, “Your lady—ship is nearer to heaven, than when I saw you last, by the altitude of a chopine” (act ii. s. 2). (Spanish, chapin, a high cork shoe.)

Choreu'tæ

[Korutee ]. A sect of heretics, who, among other errors, persisted in keeping the Sunday a fast.

Choriambic Metre

Horace gives us a great variety, but the main feature in all is the prevalence of the choriambus. Specimen translations of two of these metres are subjoined:

(1) Horace, 1 Odes, viii.

Lydia, why on Stanley.

By the great gods, tell me, I pray, ruinous love you centre? Once he was strong and manly,

Never seen now, patient of toil, Mars' sunny camp to enter. E.C.B.

(2) The other specimen is 1 Odes, xii.

When you, with an approving smile,

Praise those delicate arms, Lydy, of Telephus, Ah me! how you stir up my bile!

Heart—sick, that for a boy you should forsake me thus. E.C.B.

Chouans

(2 syl.). French insurgents of the Royalist party during the Revolution. Jean Cottereau was their leader, nicknamed chouan (owl), because he was accustomed to warn his companions of danger by imitating the screech of an owl. Cottereau was followed by George Cadoudal.

It is an error to suppose Chouan to be a proper name.

Choughs Protected

(See page 137, col. 1, Birds , etc.)

Chouse

(1 syl.). To cheat out of something. Gifford says the interpreter of the Turkish embassy in England is called chiaus, and in 1609 this chiaus contrived to defraud his government of 4,000, an enormous sum at that period. From the notoriety of the swindle the word chiaus or to chouse was adopted.

“He is no chiaus.”

Ben Jonson: Alchemist, i. 1 (1610).

Chriem—hilda

or Chriem—hild. A woman of unrivalled beauty, sister of Gunther, and beloved by Siegfried, the two chief heroes of the Nibelungenlied. Siegfried gives her a talisman taken from Gunther's lady—love, and Gunther, in a fit of jealousy, induces Hagen to murder his brother—in—law. Chriemhild in revenge marries Ezzel, King of the Huns; invites the Nibelungs to the wedding feast; and there they are all put to the sword, except Hagen and Gunther, who are taken prisoners, and put to death by the bride. (See Kriemhild .)

Chriss—cross Row

(row to rhyme with low). The alphabet in a horn—book, which had a cross at the beginning and end.

“Philosophy is all the go,

And science quite the fashion;

Our grandams learnt the Chriss—cross Row,

L—d, how their daughters dash on.”

Anon. in the Eaglet.

Chrisom

or Chrism signifies properly “the white cloth set by the minister at baptism on the head of the newly anointed with chrism”— i.e. a composition of oil and balm. In the Form of Private Baptism is this direction: “Then the minister shall put the white vesture, commonly called the chrisome, upon the child.” The child thus baptised is called a chrisom or chrisom child. If it dies within the month, it is shrouded in the vesture; and hence, in the bills of mortality, even to the year 1726, infants that died within the month were termed chrisoms. (The cloth is so called because it was anointed. Greek, chrisma, verb chrio, to anoint.)

“A' made a finer end and went away an it had been any chrisom child.”— Shakespeare: Henry

V., ii. 3.

Christabel

[Kristabel ]. The heroine of Coleridge's fragmentary poem of that name.

Christabelle

[Kristabel ]. Daughter of a “bonnie king” in Ireland. She fell in love with Sir Cauline (q.v.).

Christendom

[Kris'—en—dum ] generally means all Christian countries; but Shakespeare uses it for baptism, or “Christian citizenship.” Thus, in King John, the young prince says:—

“By my christendom!

So I were out of prison and kept sheep,

I should be merry as the day is long.”

Act iv sc. 1.

Christian

[ch = k]. The hero of John Bunyan's allegory called The Pilgrim's Progress. He flees from the

“City of Destruction,” and journeys to the “Celestial City.” He starts with a heavy burden on his back, but it falls off when he stands at the foot of the cross.

Christian.

A follower of Christ. So called first at Antioch (Acts xi. 26). Most Christian Doctor. John Charlier de Gerson (1363—1429).

Most Christian King.

The style of the King of France. (1469.)

Pepin le Bref was so styled by Pope Stephen III. (714—768).

Charles le Chauve was so styled by the council of Savonnières (823, 840—877). Louis XI. was so styled by Pope Paul II. (1423, 1461—1483).

Since which time (1469) it was universally adopted in the French monarchy.

“And thou, O Gaul, with gaudy trophies plumed, `Most Christian king.' Alas! in vain assumed.”
Camoens: Lusiad, book vii.

Founder of Christian Eloquence.

Louis Bordaloue, the French preacher (1632—1704).

Christian Traditions

connected with natural objects. 1. Birds, Beasts, and Fishes.

The Ass: Cross on the back. (See Ass.)

Bunting.

(See Yellowhammer.)

The Crossbill has nothing to do with the Christian cross; the bird is so called, because its mandibles cross each other.

Haddock:

The finger—marks on the Haddock and John Dory. (See Haddock, etc.) Ichthus, a fish. (See Ichthus.)

Pike's

Head (q.v.).

Pigeons

or Doves: The Russians are averse to pigeons as a food, because the Holy Ghost assumed the form of a dove at the baptism of Jesus. (Sporting Magazine, January, 1825, p. 307.)

Robin Redbreast:

The red breast. (See Robin.) Stork: The cry of the Stork. (See Stork.) Swallow: The cry of the Swallow. (See Swallow.) Swine: The holes in the forefeet of Swine. (See Pigs.) 2. The Vegetable World.

The Arum, Aspen, Calvary—clover, Cedar (see also Cross), Dwarf—elder, Judas—tree, Passion—flower, Purple Orchis, Red Anemone, Rood Selken, Spotted Persicaria, Thistle.

(See these articles, and Flowers With Traditions Of Christ.)

3. The Number Thirteen. (See Thirteen.)

Christian'a [ch = k]

. The wife of Christian, who started with her children and Mercy from the “City of

Destruction” long after her husband. She was placed under the guidance of Mr. Great—Heart, and went, therefore, in “silver slippers" along the thorny road (Bunyan: The Pilgrim's Progress, part ii.).

Christmas

(Kristmas). “Christmas comes but once a year.” (Thomas Tusser.)

Christmas

Slang for a railway—guard. Explained under Chivy (q.v. ).

Christmas Box

A small gratuity given to servants, etc., on Boxing Day (the day after Christmas Day). In the early days of Christianity boxes were placed in churches for promiscuous charities, and opened on Christmas Day. The contents were distributed next day by the priests, and called the “dole of the Christmas box,” or the

“box money.” It was customary for heads of houses to give small sums of money to their subordinates “to put into the box” before mass on Christmas Day. Somewhat later, apprentices carried a box round to their master's customers for small gratuities. The custom since 1836 has been gradually dying out.

“Gladly the boy, with Christmas—box in hand,

Throughout the town his devious route pursues, And of his master's customers implores

The yearly mite.”

Christmas.

Christmas Carols

are in commemoration of the song of the angels to the shepherds at the nativity. Durand tells us that the bishops with the clergy used to sing carols and play games on Christmas Day. (Welsh, carol, a love—song; Italian, carola, etc.)

Christmas Day

Transferred from the 6th of January to the 25th of December by Julius I. (337—352). Old Christmas Day. January 6th. When Gregory XIII. reformed the Calendar in 1582, he omitted ten days; but when the New Style was adopted in England in 1752, it was necessary to cut off eleven days, which drove back January 6th to December 25th of the previous year. So what we now call January 6th in the Old Style would be Christmas Day, or December 25th.

Christmas Decorations

The great feast of Saturn was held in December, when the people decorated the temples with such green things as they could find. The Christian custom is the same transferred to Him who was born in Bethlehem on Christmas Day. The holly or holy—tree is called Christ's—thorn in Germany and Scandinavia, from its use in church decorations and its putting forth its berries about Christmas time. The early Christians gave an emblematic turn to the custom, referring to the “righteous branch,” and justifying the custom from Isaiah lx. 13— “The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee; the fir—tree, the pine—tree, and the box together, to beautify the place of my sanctuary.”

Christmas Trees and Maypoles are remnants of the Scandinavian Ash, called Yggdrasil', the Tree of Time, whose roots penetrate to heaven, Niffheim and Ginnungagap (the gap of gaps). In Ginnungagap the frost giants dwell, in Niffheim is the great serpent Nidhögg; and under this root is Helheim, the home of the dead. We are told that the ancient Egyptians, at the Winter Solstice, used a palm branch containing twelve leaves or shoots to symbolise the “completion of the year.” The modern custom comes from Germany.

Christolytes

[Kris'—to—lites ]. A sect of Christians that appeared in the sixth century. They maintained that when Christ descended into hell, He left His soul and body there, and rose only with His heavenly nature.

Christopher

(St.). The giant carried a child over a brook, and said, “Chylde, thou hast put me in grete peryll. I might bere no greater burden.” To which the child answered, “Marvel thou nothing, for thou hast borne all the world upon thee, and its sins likewise.” This is an allegory: Christopher means Christ—bearer; the child was Christ, and the river was the river of death.

Chronicle Small Beer

(To). To note down events of no importance whatsoever.

“He was a wight, if ever such wight were ...

To suckle fools and chronicle small beer.”

Shakespeare: Othello, ii. 1.

Chronicon ox Chronicis

is by Florence, a monk of Worcester, the earliest of our English chroniclers. It begins from Creation, and goes down to 1119, in which year the author died; but it was continued by another hand to 1141. Printed in 4to at London, 1592. Its chief value consists in its serving as a key to the Saxon chronicle.

Chrononhotonthologos

[ch = k]. A burlesque pomposo in Henry Carey's farce, so called. Anyone who delivers an inflated address.

“Aldiborontephoscophornio, where left you Chrononhotonthologos?”— H. Carey.

Chrysalis

[ch = k]. The form which caterpillars assume before they are converted into butterflies or moths. The chrysalis is also called an aurelia, from the Latin aurum, gold. The external covering of some species has a metallic, golden hue, but others are green, red, black, etc. (Greek, chrusos, gold.)

The plural is either chrysalises or chrysalides (4 syl.).

Chrysaor

[ch = k]. Sir Artegal's sword, “that all other swords excelled.” (Spenser: Faërie Queene.) (See Sword .)

Chrysippus

Nisi Chrysippus fuisset, Porticus non esset. Chrysippus of Soli was a disciple of Zeno the Stoic, and Cleanthes his successor. He did for the Stoics what St. Paul did for Christianity— that is, he explained the system, showed by plausible reasoning its truth, and how it was based on a solid foundation. Stoicism was founded by Zeno, it is true; but if Chrysippus had not advocated it, the system would never have taken root.

Chubb

(Thomas). A deistical writer who wrote upon miracles in the first half of the eighteenth century.

“He heard of Blount, of Mandeville, and Chubb.” Crabbe: Borough.

Chuck Full

Probably a corruption of chock full or choke full — i.e. full enough to choke one.

“Ayr was holding some grand market; streets and inn had been chokefull during the sunny hours.”— Carlyle, in Froude's Jane W. Carlyle, vol. i. letter 1xxxvii. p. 275.

Chukwa

The tortoise at the South Pole on which the earth is said to rest.

Chum

A crony, a familiar companion, properly a bedfellow; a corruption either of chamber—mate or comrade.

“To have a good chum is one of the pleasantest parts of a voyage.”— Nordhoff: Merchant Vessels, chap. xii. p. 164.

Chum in with

(To). To be on friendly terms with. (See above.)

Church

The etymology of this word is generally assumed to be from the Greek, Kuriou oikos (house of God); but this is most improbable, as the word existed in all the Celtic dialects long before the introduction of Greek. No doubt the word means “a circle.” The places of worship among the German and Celtic nations were always circular. (Welsh, cyrch, French, cirque; Scotch, kirk; Greek, kirk—os, etc.) Compare Anglo—Saxon circe, a church, with circol, a circle.

High, Low,

and Broad Church. Dr. South says, “The High Church are those who think highly of the Church and lowly of themselves; the Low Church, those who think lowly of the Church and highly of themselves"

(this may be epigrammatic, but the latter half is not true). Broad Church are those who think the Church is broad enough for all religious parties, and their own views of religion are chiefly of a moral nature, their doctrinal views being so rounded and elastic that they can come into collision with no one.

By the “High Church” now are meant those who follow the “Oxford Movement”; the “Low Church” party call themselves the “Evangelical" Church party.

The Church of Latter—day Saints.

The Mormons.

The Anglican Church.

That branch of the Protestant Church which, at the Reformation, was adopted in England. It disavowed the authority of the Pope, and rejected certain dogmas and rules of the Roman Church. Since 1532 generally called the “Established Church,” because established by Act of Parliament.

The Catholic Church.

The Western Church called itself so when it separated from the Eastern Church. It is also called the Roman Catholic Church, to distinguish it from the Anglican Church or Anglican Catholic Church, a branch of the Western Church.

The Established Church.

The State Church, which, in England, is Episcopalian and in Scotland Presbyterian. Before the Reformation it was, in both countries, “Catholic;” before the introduction of Christianity it was Pagan, and before that Druidism. In Turkey it is Mohammedanism; in Russia the Greek Church; in China, India, etc., other systems of religion.

To go into the Church.

To take holy orders, or become an “ordained” clergyman.

Church—goer

(A). One who regularly attends the parish church.

Church Invisible

(The). Those who are known to God alone as His sons and daughters by adoption and grace. (See Church Visible .)

“Oh, may I join the choir invisible.” G. Eliot.

Church Militant

The Church on earth means the whole body of believers, who are said to be “waging the war of faith” against “the world, the flesh, and the devil.” It is therefore militant, or in warfare. (See Church Triumphant .)

Church Porch

(The) was used in ancient times for settling money transactions, paying dowries, rents, and purchases of estates. Consequently, it was furnished with benches on both sides. Hence, Lord Stourton sent to invite the Hartgills to meet him in the porch of Kilmington church to receive the 2,000 awarded them by the Star Chamber. (Lord de Ros: Tower of London.)

Church Triumphant

(The). Those who are dead and gone to their rest. Having fought the fight and triumphed, they belong to the Church triumphant in heaven. (See Church Militant .)

Church Visible

(The). All ostensible Christians; all who profess to be Christians; all who have been baptised and admitted into Church Communion. (See Church Invisible .)

Churched

Baptized. To church a woman is to read the appointed service when a woman comes to church to return thanks to God for her “safe deliverance” and restored health.

Churchwarden

(A). A long clay pipe, such as churchwardens used to smoke some half a century ago when they met together in the parish tavern, after they had made up their accounts in the vestry, or been elected to office at the Easter meeting.

“Thirty years have enabled these [briar—root pipes] to destroy short clays, ruin meerschaums, and even do much mischief to the venerable church warden.”— Notes and Queries, April 25th, 1885 p. 323.

Churchyard Cough

(A). A consumptive cough indicating the near approach of death.

Chuzzlewit

(Martin). The hero of Dickens's novel so called. Jonas Chuzzlewit is a type of mean tyranny and sordid greed.

Chyndonax

A chief Druid, whose tomb, with a Greek inscription, was discovered near Dijon in 1598.

Ci—devant (French). Former, of times gone by. As Ci—devant governor — i.e. once a governor, but no longer so, Ci—devant philosophers means philosophers of former days.

“The appellation of mistress put her in mind of her ci—devant abigailship.”— Jane Porter: Thaddeus of Warsaw, chap. xxi.

Cicero

So called from the Latin, cicer (a wart or vetch). Plutarch says “a flat excrescence on the tip of his nose gave him this name.” His real name was (Tullius) Tully.

La Bouche de Ciceron.

Philippe Pot, prime minister of Louis XI. (1428—1494.) The Cicero of France. Jean Baptiste Massillon (1663—1742.)

The Cicero of Germany.

Johann III., elector of Brandenburg. (1455—1499.) The Cicero of the British Senate. George Canning (1770—1827.)

The British Cicero.

William Pitt, Earl of Chatham (1708—1778.) The Christian Cicero. Lucius Coelius Lactantius, a Christian father, who died 330. The German Cicero. Johann Sturm, printer and scholar. (1507—1589.)

Cicerone

(4 syl.). A guide to point out objects of interest to strangers. So called in the same way as Paul was called by the men of Lystra “Mercurius, because he was the chief speaker” (Acts xiv. 12). Cicero was the speaker of speakers at Rome; and certainly, in a party of sight—seers, the guide is “the chief speaker.” It is no compliment to the great orator to call the glib patterer of a show—place a Cicero; but we must not throw stones at our Italian neighbours, as we have conferred similar honour on our great epic poet in changing “Grub

Street” into “Milton Street.” Pronounce chick—e—reny.

“Every glib and loquacious hireling who shows strangers about their pleasure—galleries, palaces, and ruins is called [in Italy] a cicerone or a Cicero.”— Trench: On the Study of Words, lecture iii. p. 88.

In England, generally called “a guide.”

Cicisbe'o

[che—chiz—bee'—o]. A dangler about women; the professed gallant of a married woman. Also the knot of silk or ribbon which is attached to fans, walking—sticks, umbrellas, etc. Cicis—beism, the practice of dangling about women.

Ciclenius

or Cyllenius. Mercury. So called from mount Cylle'në, in Peloponnesus, where he was born.

Cicuta

In Latin cicuta means the length of a reed up to the knot, such as the internodes made into a Pan—pipe. Hence Virgil (Ecl. ii. 36) describes a Pan—pipe as “septem compacta cicutis fistula.” It is called Cow—bane, because cows not unfrequently eat it, but are killed by it. It is one of the most poisonous of plants, and some think it made the fatal draught given to Socratês.

“Sicut cicuta homini venenum est, sic cicutæ vinum.”— Pliny, xiv. 7.

“Quæ poterunt unquam satis expurgare cicutæ.” Horace: 2 Epist. ii. 53.

Cid

Arabic for lord. Don Roderigo Laynez, Ruy Diaz (son of Diaz), Count of Bivar'. He was called “mio cid el campëador,” my lord the champion (1025—1099). Corruption of Saïd.

The Cid's horse.

Babieca. (3 or 4 syl.). (See Horse.) The Cid's sword. Colada. The sword taken by the Cid Roderigo from King Bucar was called Tizona. (See Sword.)

The Portuguese Cid.

Nunez Alvarez Pereira, general diplomatist. (1360—1431.)

Cid Hamet Benengeli The supposititious author of Don Quixote's Adventures.

Cigogne

(French). A stork. Conte de la cigogne. An old wife's tale; silly tittle—tattle. “On conte des choses merveilleuses de la cigogne” (wonderful stories are told of the stork). This, no doubt, refers to the numerous Swedish legends of the stork, one of which is that its very name is derived from a stork flying round the cross of Christ, crying, Styrka! Styrka! (strengthen, strengthen, or bear up), and as the stork has no voice at all, the legend certainly is a “Conte de la cigogne,” or old wife's fable.

“Japprehende qu'on ne croye que tout ce que j'ai rapporté jusqu'a present ne passe pour des contes de la cigogne, ou de ma mére Poie.”— Le Romam Bourgeois, 1713.

Cillaros

(See Horse .)

Cimmerian Bosphorus

The strait of Kaffa.

Cimmerian Darkness

Homer (possibly from some story as to the Arctic night) supposes the Cimmerians to dwell in a land “beyond the ocean—stream,” where the sun never shone. (Odys., xi. 14.)

“In dark Cimmerian desert ever dwell.”

Milton: L'Allegro.

Cinchona

or Quinine. So named from the wife of the Contë del Chinchon, viceroy of Peru, whence the bark was first sent to Europe in 1640. Linnæus erroneously named it Cinchona for Chinchona. (See Peruvian Bark)

Cincinnatus

the Roman, was ploughing his field, when he was saluted as Dictator. After he had conquered the Volsci and delivered his country from danger, he laid down his office and returned to his plough.

“And Cincinnatus, awful from the plough.”

Thomson: Winter,

512.

The Cincinnatus of the Americans.

George Washington (1732—1799).

Cinderella

[little cinder girl]. Heroine of a fairy tale. She is the drudge of the house, dirty with housework, while her elder sisters go to fine balls. At length a fairy enables her to go to the prince's ball; the prince falls in love with her, and she is discovered by means of a glass slipper which she drops, and which will fit no foot but her own.

The glass slipper is a mistranslation of pantoufle en vair (a fur slipper), not en verre. (R. C. Perrault: Contes de Fées.)

Cinque Cento

An epithet applied to art between 1500—1600; called in France Renaissance, and in England Elizabethan. It was the revival of the classical or antique, but is generally understood as a derogatory term, implying debased or inferior art. The great schools of art closed with 1500. The “immortal five” great painters were all born in the previous century: viz. Leonardo da Vinci, born 1452; Michel Angelo, 1474; Titian, 1477; Raphael, 1480; and Correggio, 1494. Cinque Cento is the Italian for 500, omitting the thousand=mil cinque cento.

Cinque Ports

(The). Originally the five seaports Hastings, Sandwich, Dover, Romney, and Hythe. Subsequently Winchelsea and Rye were added.

Cinter

(A). The framing erected between piers to hold up the stones of an arch during the making thereof.

“Certain crude beliefs may be needful in the infancy of a nation, but when the arch is made, when the intelligence is fully developed, the cinter is thrown down and truth stands unsupported.”— E. D. Fawcett.

Cipher

Dr. Whewell's riddle is—

“A headless man had a letter (o) to write,

He who read it (naught) had lost his sight;

The dumb repeated it (naught) word for word,

And deaf was the man who listened and heard (naught).

Circe

(2 syl.). A sorceress. She lived in the island of Ææa. When Ulysses landed there, Circë turned his companions into swine, but Ulysses resisted this metamorphose by virtue of a herb called moly, given him by Mercury.

“Who knows not Circe,

The daughter of the Sun, whose charmëd cup

Whoever tasted lost his upright shape,

And downward fell into a grovelling swine?”

Milton: Comus, 50— 53.

Circle of Ulloa

A white rainbow or luminous ring sometimes seen in Alpine regions opposite the sun in foggy weather.

Circuit

The journey made through the counties of Great Britain by the judges twice a year. There are six circuits in England, two in Wales, and three in Scotland. Those in England are called the Home, Norfolk, Midland, Oxford, Western, and Northern; those of Wales, the North and South circuits; and those of Scotland, the Southern, Western, and Northern.

Circumbendibus

(A). He took a circumbendibus, i.e. he went round about and round about before coming to the point.

“Partaking of what scholars call the periphrastic and ambagitory, and the vulgar the circumbendibus.”— Sir W. Scott: Waverley, chap. xxiv.

Circumcellians

A sect of the African Donatists in the fourth century; so called because they rambled from town to town to redress grievances, forgive debts, manumit slaves, and set themselves up as the oracles of right and wrong. (Latin, circum—cello, to beat about.)

Circumcised Brethren

(in Hudibras). They were Prynne, Bertie or Burton, and Bastwick, who lost their ears and had their noses slit for lampooning Henrietta Maria and the bishops.

Circumlocution Office A term applied in ridicule to our public offices, because each person tries to shuffle off every act to some one else; and before anything is done it has to pass through so many departments, that every fly is crushed on a wheel. The term was invented by Charles Dickens, and appears in Little Dorrit.

Ciric—Sceat

or Church Scot. An ecclesiastical due, paid chiefly in corn, in the reign of Canute, etc., on St. Martin's Day.

Cist

(Greek kistê, Latin cista). A chest or box. Generally used as a coffer for the remains of the dead. The Greek and Roman cist was a deep cylindrical basket made of wickerwork, like a lady's work—basket. The basket into which voters cast their tablets was called a “cist;” but the mystic cist used in the rites of Ceres was latterly made of bronze.

Cist Urn

(A). An urn for the ashes of those buried in cists.

Cistercians

A religious order, so called from the monastery of Cistercium, near Dijon, in France. The abbey of Cistercium or Citeaux was founded by Robert, abbot of Molême, in Burgundy, at the close of the eleventh century.

Citadel

(A), in fortification, a small strong fort, constructed either within the place fortified, or on the most inaccessible spot of its general outline; to give refuge for the garrison, that it may prolong the defence after the place has fallen, or to hold out for the best terms of capitulation. Citadels generally command the interior of the place, and are useful, therefore, for overawing a population which might otherwise strive to shorten a siege. (French, citadelle; Italian, citadella, a little city.)

Cities

Cities of Refuge. Moses, at the command of God, set apart three cities on the east of Jordan, and Joshua added three others on the west, whither any person might flee for refuge who had killed a human creature inadvertently. The three on the east of Jordan were Bezer, Ramoth, and Golan; the three on the west were Hebron, Shechem, and Kedesh. (Deut. iv. 43; Josh. xx. 1—8.)

The Cities of the Plain.

Sodom and Gomorrah.

“Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent toward Sodom.”— Gen. xiii. 12.

The Seven Cities.

Egypt, Jerusalem, Babylon, Athens, Rome, Constantinople, and either London for commerce, or Paris for beauty. (See Pentapolis.)

Citizen King

(The). Louis Philippe of France. So called because he was elected king by the citizens of Paris. (Born 1773, reigned 1830—1848, died 1850.)

City

(A), strictly speaking is a large town with a corporation and cathedral; but any large town is so called in ordinary speech. In the Bible it means a town having walls and gates.

“The eldest son of the first man [Cain] builded a city (Gen. iv. 17)— not, of course, a Nineveh or a Babylon, but still a city.”— Rawbinson: Origin of Nations, part i. chap. i. p. 10.

City College

(The). Newgate. The wit is now a thing of the past.

City of Bells

(The). Strasburg.

“He was a Strasburgher, and in that city of bells had been a medical practitioner.”— Mayne Reid: The Scalp Hunters, chap. xxv.

City of David (The). Jerusalem. So called in compliment to King David. (2 Sam. v. 7, 9.)

City of Destruction

(The). This world, or rather, the world of the unconverted. Bunyan makes Christian flee from the “City of Destruction" and journey to the “Celestial City,” by which he allegorises the “walk of a Christian” from conversion to death.

City of God

(The). The church or whole body of believers; the kingdom of Jesus Christ, in contradistinction to the city of the World, called by John Bunyan the City of Destruction. The phrase is that of St. Augustine; one of his chief works bearing that title, or rather De Civitate Dei.

City of Lanterns

(The). A supposititious city in Lucian's Veræ Historiæ, situate somewhere beyond the zodiac. (See Lantern Land .)

City of Palaces

(The). Agrippa, in the reign of Augustus, converted Rome from “a city of brick huts to one of marble palaces.” (Cf. Suetonius.) Calcutta is called the “City of Palaces.” Modern Paris well deserves the compliment of being so called.

City of Refuge

(The). Medina, in Arabia, where Mahomet took refuge when driven by conspirators from Mecca. He entered the city, not as a fugitive, but in triumph, A.D. 622. (See under Cities Of Refuge , page 255.)

City of St. Michael

(The). Dumfries, of which city St. Michael is the patron saint.

City of Saints

Montreal, in Canada, is so named because all the streets are named after saints.

“Mr. Geo. Martin ... said he came from [Montreal] a city of saints, where all the streets were named after saints.”— Secular Thought, September 10th, 1891.

City of the Great King

(The)— i.e. Jerusalem. (Psa. xlviii. 2; Matt. v. 35.)

City of the Seven Hills

(The). Rome, built on seven hills (Urbs septacollis ). The hills are the Aventine, Cælian, Capitoline, Esquiline, Palatine, Quirinal, and Viminal.

The AVENTINE HILL was given to the people. It was deemed unlucky, because here Remus was slain. It was also called “Collis Dianae,” from the Temple of Diana which stood there.

The CAELIAN HILL was given to Caelius Vibenna, the Tuscan, who came to the help of the Romans in the Sabine war.

The CAPITOLINE HILL or “Mons Tarpeius,” also called “Mons Saturni,” on which stood the great castle or capitol of Rome. It contained the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus.

The ESQUILINE HILL was given by Augustus to Mecænas, who built thereon a magnificent mansion. The PALATINE HILL was the largest of the seven. Here Romulus held his court, whence the word “palace” (palatium).

The QUIRINAL HILL was where the Quirés or Curês settlèd. It was also called “Cabalinus,” from two marble statues of a horse, one of which was the work of Phidias, the other of Praxiteles.

The VIMINAL HILL was so called from the number of osiers (vimines ) which grew there. It contained the Temple of Jupiter Viminalis.

City of the Sun

(The). A romance by Campanella, similar to the Republic of Plato, Utopia of Sir Thomas More, and Atlantis of Lord Bacon (1568—1639).

City of the Violet Crown

Athens is so called by Aristophanes iostefauoz (see Equites, 1323 and 1329; and Acharnians, 637). Macaulay refers to Athens as the “violet—crowned city.” Ion (a violet) was a representative

king of Athens, whose four sons gave names to the four Athenian classes; and Greece, in Asia Minor, was called Ionia. Athens was the city of “Ion crowned its king” or “of the Violet crowned.” Similarly Paris is the “city of lilies”— i.e. fleurs—de—luce or Louis—flowers.

I do not think that Athens was called from “the purple hue which Hymettus assumed in the evening sky.”

Civic Crown

(See under Crown .)

Civil List

Now applied to expenses voted annually by Parliament to pay the personal expenses of the Sovereign, the household expenses, and the pensions awarded by Royal bounty; but before the reign of William III. it embraced all the heads of public expenditure, except those of the army and navy.

Civil Magistrate

(A). A civic or municipal magistrate, as distinguished from ecclesiastical authority.

Civil Service Estimates

(The), C.S.E. The annual Parliamentary grant to cover the expenses of the diplomatic services, the post—office and telegraphs, the grant for national education, the collection of the revenue, and other expenses neither pertaining to the Sovereign, the army, nor the navy.

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Civil War

War between citizens (civilês). In English history the term is applied to the war between Charles I. and his Parliament; but the War of the Red and White Roses was a civil war. In America the War of Secession (1861—1865) was a civil war.

Civis Romanus Sum

This single plea sufficed to arrest arbitrary condemnation, bonds, and scourging. Hence, when the centurion commanded Paul “to be examined by scourging,” he virtually pleaded “Civis Romanus sum”; and asked, “Is it lawful for you to scourge a Roman citizen, and uncondemned? ” (1) No Roman citizen could be condemned unheard; (2) by the Valerian Law he could not be bound; (3) by the Sempronian Law it was forbidden to scourge him, or to beat him with rods. (See also Acts xvi. 37, etc.)

Civitas Solis

A political and philosophical romance by Thomas Campanella (1568—1639), born at Stillo, or Stilo, in Italy. This romance is a kind of Utopia, formed on the model of Plato's Republic. His society is a sort of convent—life established on the principles of a theocratic communism.

Clabber Napper's Hole

Near Gravesend; said to be named after a free—booter; but more likely the Celtic Caerber l'arber (water—town lower camp).

Clack Dish

A dish or basin with a movable lid. Some two or three centuries ago beggars used to proclaim their want by clacking the lid of a wooden dish.

“Can you think I get my living by a bell and clack—dish?

... “How's that? “Why, begging, sir.” Family of Love (1608).

Claft

An Egyptian head—dress with long lappets pendent on the shoulders, as in the statue of Amenophis III.

Clak—ho—haryah

At Fort Vancouver the medium of intercourse is a mixture of Canadian—French, English, Indian, and Chinese. An Englishman goes by the name of Kint—shosh, a corruption of King George; an American is called Boston; and the ordinary salutation is clak—ho—haryah. This is explained by the fact that the Indians, frequently hearing a trader named Clark addressed by his companions, “Clark, how are you?” imagined this to be the correct English form of salutarion. (Taylor: Words and Places.)

Clam

(See Close As A Clam .)

Clan—na—Gael

(The). An Irish Fenian organisation founded in Philadelphia in 1870, and known in secret as the “United Brotherhood”; its avowed object being to secure “the complete and absolute independence of Ireland from Great Britain, and the complete severance of all political connection between the two countries, to be effected by unceasing preparation for armed insurrection in Ireland.” (See Dynamite Saturday .)

In 1883 Alexander Sullivan was elected one of the three heads of this club, to which is due the dynamite

outrages in London (January, 1885), and the design to murder the Queen's ministers.

Clap—trap

Something introduced to win applause: something really worthless, but sure to take with the groundlings. A trap to catch applause.

Clapper

A plank bridge over a stream; a ferry—gate. A roofing—board is called a clap—board.

“A little low and lonesome shed,

With a roof of clap—boards overhead.”

Alice Cary: Settlers' Christmas Eve.

Probably a corruption of clath—board, a covering board, from Anglo—Saxon, clath, a covering, whence our clothes.

Boards for making casks are also called “clap—boards.”

Clapperclaw

To jangle and claw each other about. (Dutch and German, klappen, to strike, clatter.)

“Now they are clapper—clawing one another I'll go look on.”— Shakespeare: Troilus, and Cressida, v. A.

A clapper—claw is a back—scratcher.

Clapper — dudgeons

Abram—men (q.v.). The clapper is the tongue of a bell, and in cant language the human “tongue.” Dudgeon is a slang word for a beggar.

Clapping the Prayer Books

OR stamping the feet, in the Roman Catholic Church, on Good Friday, is designed to signify the abandonment of our Saviour by His disciples. This is done when twelve of the thirteen burning candles are put out. The noise comes from within the choir.

Claque;

Claqueurs Applause by clapping the hands; persons paid for doing so. M. Sauton, in 1820, established in Paris an office to ensure the success of dramatic pieces. He was the first to organise the Parisian claque. The manager sends an order to his office for any number of claqueurs, sometimes for 500 or even more. The class is divided into commissaires, those who commit the pieces to memory and are noisy in pointing out its merits; rieurs, who laugh at the puns and jokes; pleureurs chiefly women, who are to hold their pocket—handkerchiefs to their eyes at the moving parts; chatouilleurs, who are to keep the audience in good humour; and bisseurs, who are to cry (bis) encore. The Romans had their Laudicoeni (q.v.).

Claras

(Stock Exchange term) The Chatham, London, and Dover Railway Ordinary Stock (C L.R.S.)

Clare

(St.) A religious order of women, the second that St. Francis instituted. It was founded in 1213, and took its name from its first abbess.

Clarenceux King—of—Arms

One of the two provincial heralds, with jurisdiction over the southern provinces. The name was taken in honour of the Duke of Clarence, third son of Edward III. The herald of the northern provinces is called Norroy King—of—Arms.

Garter—King—of—Arms, also “Principal King—of—Arms,” has to attend on Knights of the Garter, and arrange whatever is required in connection with these knights. There is a Bath King—of—Arms, not a member of the college, to attend on Knights of the Bath.

Clarendon

The Constitutions of Clarendon. Laws made by a general council of nobles and prelates, held at Clarendon, in Wiltshire, in 1164, to check the power of the Church, and restrain the prerogatives of

ecclesiastics. These famous ordinances, sixteen in number, define the limits of the patronage and jurisdiction of the Pope in these realms.

Clarendon Type

The black letters which head these articles are so called.

Claret

The wine so called does not receive its name from its colour, but the colour so called receives its name from the wine. The word means clarified wine (vinum claretum) What we call hippocras was called claretum, made of wine and honey clarified.

Claret

Blood. To broach one's claret. To give one a bloody nose; so called from the claret colour.

Claret Cup

A drink made of claret, brandy, lemon, borage, sugar, ice, and carbonated water

Claret Jug

(One's) One's nose. (See above, Claret )

To tap one's claret jug

To give one a bloody nose. “Tap” is meant for a pun— to broach and to knock.

Classic Races

(The). The five chief horse—races in England, viz. the 2,000 and 1,000 guinea races for

two—year—olds, run at Newmarket, the Derby for fillies and colts, the Oaks for fillies only, and the St. Leger.

Classics

The best authors. The Romans were divided by Servius into six classes. Any citizen who belonged to the highest class was called classicus, all the rest were said to be infra clàssem. From this the best authors were termed classici aucto'rës (classic authors), i.e. authors of the best or first class. The high esteem in which Greek and Latin were held at the revival of letters obtained for these authors the name of classic, emphatically; and when other first—rate works are intended some distinctive name is added, as the English, French, Spanish, etc., classics.

Claude Lorraine

(i.e. of Lorraine). This incorrect form is generally used in English for the name of Claude le Lorrain, or Claude Gelée, the French landscape painter, born at the Château—de—Chamage, in Lorraine.

(1600—1682.)

The Scotch Claude.

Thomas of Duddingston (near Edinburgh)

Claus

(Santa). (See Santa Claus )

Clause

Letter—clause, a close letter sealed with the royal signet or privy—seal, in opposition to letters—patent, which are left open, the seal being attached simply as a legal form (“Clause,” Latin clausus, shut, closed.

“Patent,” Latin patens, open.)

Clause Rolls

(Rotuli clausi). Close Rolls. (See Close Rolls )

“Clause Rolls contain all such matters of record as were committed to close writs. These Rolls are preserved in the Tower”— Jacob: Law Dictionary

Clavie

Burning of the Clavie on New—year's eve (old style) in the village of Burghead, on the southern shore of the Moray Frith. The clavie is a sort of bonfire made of casks split up. One of the casks is split into two parts of different sizes, and an important item of the ceremony is to join these parts together with a huge nail made for the purpose. Whence the name clavus (Latin), a nail. Chambers, who in his Book of Days (vol. ii. p. 789) minutely describes the ceremony, suggests that it is a relic of Druid worship, but it seems to me to be connected with the Roman ceremony observed on the 13th September, and called the clavus annalis. The two divisions of the cask, I think, symbolise the old and the new year, which are joined together by a nail. The two parts are unequal, because the part of the new year joined on to the old is very small in comparison.

Clavileno The wooden horse on which Don Quixote got astride, in order to disenchant the Infanta Antonomasia and her husband, who were shut up in the tomb of Queen Maguncia, of Canday'a. It was the very horse on which Peter of Provence carried off the fair Magalona; it was constructed by Merlin, and was governed by a wooden pin in the forehead. (The word means Wooden Peg.) (Don Quixote, part ii. book 3, chaps. 4, 5.) (See Cambuscan )

Claw

means the foot of an animal armed with claws; a hand. To claw is to lay one's hands upon things. It also means to tickle with the hand; hence to please or flatter, puff or praise. (Anglo—Saxon, clawu, a claw, with the verb clawian, to claw.)

Claw me and I will claw thee,

means, “praise me, and I will praise you,” or, scratch my back, and I will do the same for you.

“Laugh when I am merry, and claw no man in his humour.”— Shakespeare: Much Ado, etc., i.

3.

Claw—backs

Flatterers. Bishop Jewel speaks of “the Pope's claw—back.” (See above, and Clapperclaws )

Claymore

or Glaymore (2 syl.) is the Celtic glaif (a bent sword), Gaelic claidheamh (a sword), and mór (great). (See Morglay )

“I've told thee how the Southrons fell

Beneath the broad claymore.”

Aytoun: Execution of Montrose, stanza 2

Clean

Free from blame or fault.

“Ye are clean, but not all.”— John xiii. 10.

BILL. To show a clean bill of health. (See page 135, col. 1, Bill Of Health.) BREAST. To make a clean breast or Make a clean breast of it. To make a full and unreserved confession. HANDS. To have clean hands. To be quite clear of some stated evil. Hence “clean—handed.”

To keep the hands clean.

Not to be involved in wrong—doing.

HEART. To have a clean heart. A righteous spirit.

“Create in me a clean heart, and renew a right spirit within me.”— Psalm li. 10.

HEELS. To show a clean pair of heels. To make one's escape, to run away. Here “clean” means free from obstruction.

“The Maroons were runaway slaves who had ... shown their tyrants a clean pair of heels”— Sala.

LIFE. To live a clean life. Blameless and undefiled.

TONGUE. A clean tongue. Not abusive, not profane, not foul.

Clean

(To).

Clean away!

Scrub on, go on cleaning, etc. To clean down. To sweep down, to swill down. To clean out. To purify, to make tidy. Also, to win another's money till his pocket is quite empty. To clean up. To wash up, to put in order.

Clean, used adverbially, means entirely, wholly; as, “you have grown clean out of knowledge,” i.e. wholly beyond recognition.

Clean and Unclean Animals

Pythagoras taught the doctrine of the transmigration of the soul, but that it never entered into those animals which it is lawful to eat. Hence those animals which were lawful food for man were those into which the human soul never entered; but those into which the human soul entered were unclean or not fit for human food. This notion existed long before the time of Pythagoras, who learnt it in Egypt.

In the Old Testament, those animals which chew the cud and part the hoof were clean, and might be eaten. Hares and rabbits could not be eaten because (although they chew the cud) they do not part the hoof. Pigs and camels were unclean, because (although they part the hoof) they do not chew the cud. Birds of prey were accounted unclean. Fish with fins and scales were accounted fit food for man. (Lev. xi.)

Cleaned Out

Impoverished of everything. De Quincey says that Richard Bentley, after his lawsuit with Dr. Colbatch, “must have been pretty well cleaned out.”

Clear

(verb).

Clear away.

Remove.

Clear off!

Away with you! Take away. Clear out. Empty out, make tidy. (See below, Clear Out For Guam.) Clear up. Become fine after rain or cloudiness; to make manifest; to elucidate what was obscure. To clear an examination paper. To floor it, or answer every question set.

To clear the air.

To remove the clouds, mists, and impurities. To clear the dishes. To empty them of their contents.

To clear the room.

To remove from it every thing or person not required. To clear the table To remove what has been placed on it.

Clear the Court

Remove all strangers, or persons not officially concerned in the suit.

Clear the Decks

Prepare for action by removing everything not required. Clear used adverbially means wholly, entirely, as, “He is gone clear away,” “Clear out of sight.”

Clear

(the adjective)

A clear head.

— A mind that can understand clearly anything which it grasps. A clear statement. A straightforward and intelligible statement.

A clear style

[of writing] A lucid method of expressing one's thoughts.

Clear as Crystal. Clear as Mud

(See Similes )

Clear—coat A mixture of size, alum, and whitening, for sizing walls. To cover over whatever might show through the coat of colour or paper to be put on it, also to make them stick or adhere more firmly.

Clear Day

(A) A bright day, an entire day, as, “The bonds must be left three clear days for examination,” to examine them before the interest is paid.

Clear Grit

(The) The real thing, as “champagne is ... if it be but the clear grit” (Anglo—Saxon, gryt, bolted flour).

A man of grit, or clear grit, is one of decision, from whom all doubt or vacillation has been bolted out, as husks from fine flour.

Clear Out For Guam

(To) The ship is bound for no specific place. In the height of the gold fever, ships were chartered to carry passengers to Australia without having return cargoes secured for them. They were, therefore, obliged to leave Melbourne in ballast, and to sail in search of homeward freights. The Custom House regulations required, however, that, on clearing outwards, some port should be named; and it became the habit of captains to name “Guam” (a small island of the Ladrone group) as the hypothetical destination. Hence, “to clear out for Guam" came to mean, clear out for just anywhere— we are bound for whatever coast we may choose to venture upon (See Notes and Queries, April 18th 1885, p. 314)

Clear Voice

(A) A voice of pure intonation, neither husky, mouthy, nor throaty

Cleared out

I am quite cleared out. I have spent all my money, I have not a farthing left. In French, Je suis Anglé (See French Leave .) Cleared out means, my purse or pocket is cleared out of money.

Clearing House

A building in Lombard Street, set apart, since 1775, for interchanging bankers' cheques and bills. Each bank sends to it daily all the bills and cheques not drawn on its own firm; these are sorted and distributed to their respective houses, and the balance is settled by transfer tickets. The origin of this establishment was a post at the corner of Birchin Lane and Lombard Street, where banking clerks met and exchanged memoranda.

Railway lines have also their “Clearing Houses” for settling the “tickets” of the different lines. A “clearing banker” is a banker who has the entrée of the clearing house.

“London has become the clearing—house of the whole world, the place where international debts are exchanged against each other. And something like 5,000 million pounds'—worth of checks and bills pass that clearing yearly.”— A C Perry Elements of Political Economy. p. 363.

Cleave

Either to stick to or to part from. A man “shall cleave to his wife” (Matt. xix. 5). As one that “cleaveth

wood” (Psalm cxli. 7). The former is the Anglo—Saxon clíf—an, to stick to, and the latter is cleof—an, to split.

Clelia

A vain, frivolous female butterfly, with a smattering of everything. In youth she coquetted, and, when youth was passed, tried sundry ways of earning a living, but always without success. It is a character in Crabbe's Borough.

Clelie

A character in Madam Scudéri's romance so called. This novel is a type of the buckram formality of Louis XIV. It is full of high—flown compliments, theatrical poses, and cut—and—dry sentiments.

Clement

(St.). Patron saint of tanners, being himself a tanner. His symbol is a pot, because November the 23rd, St. Clement's Day, is the day on which the early Danes used to go about begging for ale.

Clementina (The Lady). In love with Sir Charles Grandison, who marries Harriet Biron. (Richardson: Sir Charles Grandison.)

Clench

and Clinch. To clench is to grasp firmly, as, “He clenched my arm firmly,” “He clenched his nerves bravely to endure the pain.” (Anglo—Saxon, be—clencan, to hold fast.)

To clinch is to make fast, to turn the point of a nail in order to make it fast. Hence, to clinch an argument. (Dutch, klinken, to rivet. Whence “clinker—built,” said of a ship whose planks overlap each other, and are riveted together.)

I gave him a clencher

(should be “clincher”). I nailed him fast.

Cleombrotos

(4 syl.). A philosopher who so admired Plato's Phaedon that he jumped into the sea in order to exchange this life for a better. He was called Ambraciota (of Ambracia), from the place of his birth in Epirus.

“He who to enjoy

Plato's elysium, leaped into the sea,

Cleombrotus.”

Milton: Paradise Lost,

iii. 471—3.

Cleon

The personification of glory in Spenser's Faërie Queene.

Cleopatra

was introduced to Julius Caesar by Apollodorus in a bale of rich Syrian rugs. When the bale was unbound, there was discovered the fairest and wittiest girl of all the earth, and Caesar became her captive slave.

Cleopatra and her Pearl

It is said that Cleopatra made a banquet for Antony, the costliness of which excited his astonishment; and, when Antony expressed his surprise, Cleopatra took a pearl ear—drop, which she dissolved in a strong acid, and drank to the health of the Roman triumvir, saying, “My draught to Antony shall far exceed it.” There are two difficulties in this anecdote— the first is, that vinegar would not dissolve a pearl; and the next is, that any stronger acid would be wholly unfit to drink. Probably the solution is this: the pearl was sold to some merchant, whose name was synonymous with a strong acid, and the money given to Antony as a present by the fond queen. The pearl melted, and Cleopatra drank to the health of Antony as she handed him the money. (See “Gresham” in Reader's Handbook.)

Clergy

The men of God's lot or inheritance. In St. Peter's first epistle (ch. v. 3) the Church is called “God's

heritage” or lot. In the Old Testament the tribe of Levi is called the “lot or heritage of the Lord.” (Greek, Latin, clerus and clericus, whence Norman clerex and clerkus; French, clergé.)

Benefit of clergy.

(See Benefit)

Clergymen

The dislike of sailors to clergymen on board ship arises from an association with the history of Jonah. Sailors call them a kittle cargo, or kittlish cargo, meaning dangerous. Probably the disastrous voyage of St. Paul confirmed the prejudice.

Clerical Titles

(1) CLERK. As in ancient times the clergyman was about the only person who could write and read, the word clerical, as used in “clerical error,” came to signify an orthographical error. As the respondent in church was able to read, he received the name of clerk, and the assistants in writing, etc., are so termed in business.

(Latin, clericus, a clergyman.)

(2) CURATE. One who has the cure of souls. As the cure of the parish used to be virtually entrusted to the clerical stipendiary, the word curate was appropriated to this assistant.

(3) RECTOR. One who has the parsonage and great tithes. The man who rules or guides the parish. (Latin, “a ruler.”)

(4) VICAR. One who does the “duty” of a parish for the person who receives the tithes. (Latin, vicarius, a deputy.)

(5) INCUMBENT and PERPETUAL CURATE are now termed Vicars. (See Parsons)

The French curé equals our vicar, and their vicaire our curate.

Clerical Vestments

(1) White. Emblem of purity, worn on all feasts, saints' days, and sacramental occasions. (2) Red. The colour of blood and of fire, worn on the days of martyrs, and on Whit—Sunday, when the Holy Ghost came down like tongues of fire.

(3) Green. Worn only on days which are neither feasts nor fasts.

(4) Purple. The colour of mourning, worn on Advent Sundays, in Lent, and on Ember days.

(5) Black. Worn on Good Friday, and when masses are said for the dead.

Clerimond

Niece of the Green Knight (q.v.), bride of Valentine the brave, and sister of Ferragus the giant. (Valentine and Orson.)

Clerk

A scholar. Hence, beau—clerc. (See above, Clerical Titles .)

“All the clerks,

I mean the learned ones, in Christian kingdoms, Have their free voices.”

Shakespeare: Henry VIII.,

ii. 2.

St. Nicholas's Clerks.

Thieves. An equivoque on the word Nick.

“I think there came prancing down the hill a couple of St. Nicholas's clerks.”— Rowley: Match at Midnight, 1633.

Clerk—ale

and Church—ale. Mr. Douce says the word “ale” is used in such composite words as bride—ale,

clerk—ale, church—ale, lamb—ale, Midsummer—ale, Scot—ale, Whitsun—ale, etc., for revel or feast, ale being the chief liquor given.

“The multitude call Church—ale Sunday their revelyng day, which day is spent in bulbeatings, bearbeating, ... dicying, ... and drunkenness.”— W. Kethe (1570).

Clerkenwell

(London) means the Clerks'—well, where the parish clerks of London used to assemble yearly to play some sacred piece.

Clerkly

Cleverly; like a scholar.

“I thank you, gentle servant: `tis very clerkly done.”

Shakespeare: Two Gentlemen of Verona,

iii. 1.

Client

In Roman history meant a plebeian under the patronage of a patron. The client performed certain services, and the patron protected the life and interests of the client. The word is now a legal one, meaning a person who employs the services of a legal adviser to protect his interests.

Clifford

(Paul). A highwayman, reformed by the power of love, in Sir L. Bulwer Lytton's novel so called.

Climacteric

It was once believed that 7 and 9, with their multiples, were critical points in life; and 63, which is produced by multiplying 7 and 9 together, was termed the Grand Climacteric, which few persons succeeded in outliving.

“There are two years, the seventh and the ninth, that commonly bring great changes in a man's life, and great dangers; wherefore 63, that contains both these numbers multiplied together, comes not without heaps of dangers.”— Levinus Lemnius.

Climacteric Years

are seventh and ninth, with their multiples by the odd numbers 3, 5, 7, 9— viz. 7, 9, 21, 27, 35, 45, 49, 63, and 81, over which astrologers supposed Saturn, the malevolent planet, presided. Hippocrates recognises these periods. (See Nine )

Climax

means a stair (Greek), applied to the last of a gradation of arguments, each of which is stronger than the preceding. The last of a gradation of words of a similar character is also called a climax. The point of highest development.

“In the very climax of his career ... he was stricken down.”— Chittenden: Recollections of Lincoln chap. xlv. p. 454.

Climb

On the climb. Under the hope of promotion. Thomas Becket, after he became Cardinal—archbishop of Canterbury, was at the top of the tree, and no further promotion was in the power of the king to bestow. Being no longer on the climb, he could set the king at defiance, and did do so.

Clinch

To bend the point of a nail after it is driven home. The word is sometimes written clench, from the French clenche, the lift of a latch. (German, klinke; Dutch, klinken, to rivet.) (See page 261, col. 1, Clench )

That was a clincher.

That argument was not to be gainsaid, that remark drove the matter home, and fixed it “as a nail in a sure place.”

A lie is called a clincher from the tale about two swaggerers, one of whom said, “I drove a nail right through the moon.” “Yes,” said the other, “I remember it well, for I went the other side and clinched it.” The French say, Je lui ai bien rivé son clou (I have clinched his nail for him).

Clinker

(Humphrey). Hero of Smollett's novel so called. The general scheme of Oliver Twist resembles it. Humphrey is a workhouse boy, put out apprentice; but being afterwards reduced to great want, he attracts the notice of Mr Bramble, who takes him into his service. He turns out to be Bramble's natural son, and falls in love with Winifred Jenkins, Miss Bramble's maid.

Clio

was one of the nine Muses, the inventress of historical and heroic poetry.

Clio.

Addison is so called because his papers in the Spectator are signed by one of the four letters in this word, probably the initial letters of Chelsea, London, Islington, Office. (See Notarica)

See

Professor Morley's “Introduction to the Spectator, ” on the subject.

Clipper

A fast—sailing ship.

“We shall have to catch the Aurora, and she has a name for being a clipper.”— A. C. Doyle: The Sign of Four, chap. x.

She's a clipper. Said of a stylish or beautiful woman. A first—class craft.

Clipping Pace

(A). Very fast. A clipper is a fast—sailing vessel.

“Leaving Bolus Head, we scudded on at a clipping pace, and the skiff yielded so much to the breeze that Bury said we must reef the mainsail.”— W. S. Trench: Realities of Irish Life, chap. x

Cliquot

(of Punch celebrity). A nickname of Frederick William IV. of Prussia called from his fondness for champagne (1795, 1840—1861)

Cloacina

Goddess of sewers (Latin, cloaca, a sewer)

“Then Cloacina, goddess of the tide.

Whose sable streams beneath the city glide

Indulged the modish flame, the town she loved

A mortal scavenger she saw she loved.”

Cloak and Sword Plays

Modern comedy, played in the ordinary costume of modern life. The phrase was adopted by Canderon who lived in Spain while gentlemen were accustomed to wear cloaks and swords For tragedy the men actors wore either heraldic or dramatico—historic dresses. In England actors in tragedy and old comedy wore the costume of Charles II's period, till quite recently

Clock

So church bells were once called (German glocke, French, cloche Mediæval Latin, cloca)

“Wel sikerer [surer] was his crowyng in his logge

Than is a clok [bell] or abbay orologge”

Chaucer The Nonne Prestes Tale (1639—40)

Clock

The tale about St. Paul's clock striking thirteen is given in Walcott's Memorials of Westminster, and refers to John Hatfield, who died 1770, aged 102. He was a soldier in the reign of William III, and was brought before a court—martial for falling asleep on duty upon Windsor Terrace. In proof of his innocence he asserted that he heard St. Paul's clock strike thirteen, which statement was confirmed by several witnesses.

Clodhopper

A farmer, who hops or walks amongst the clods. The cavalry call the infantry clodhoppers, because they have to walk instead of riding horseback.

Clog Almanac

A primitive almanac or calendar, originally made of a “clog,” or log of wood, with four faces or parallelograms, the sharp edge of each face or side was divided by notches into three months, every week being marked by a big notch. The face left of the notched edge contained the saints' days, the festivals, the phases of the moon, and so on in Runic characters, whence the “clog” was also called a Runic staff. These curiosities are not uncommon, and specimens may be seen in the British Museum, the Bodleian (Oxford), the Ashmolean Museum, St. John's (Cambridge), the Cheetham Library (Manchester), and other places both at home and abroad.

Cloister

He retired into a cloister, a monastery. Almost all monasteries have a cloister or covered walk, which generally occupied three sides of a quadrangle.

Clootie Auld Clootie Old Nick. The Scotch call a cloven hoof a cloot, so that Auld Clootie is Old Cloven foot.

Cloridano

(in Oriando Furioso) A humble Moorish youth, who joins Medoro in seeking the body of King Dardinello to bury it. Medoro being wounded, Cloridano rushed madly into the ranks of the enemy and was slai.n

Clorinda

(in Jerusalem Delivered) A female knight who came from Persia to oppose the Crusaders, and was appointed by Aladine leader of all the Pagan forces. Tancred fell in love with her, but not knowing her in a night attack slew her after a most dreadful combat. Before she died she received Christian baptism at the hands of Tancred, who mourned her death with great sorrow of heart. (Book xii.)

Senapus of Ethiopia (a Christian) was her father but her being born white alarmed her mother, who changed her babe for a black child. Arse'tës, the eunuch, was entrusted with the infant Clorinda, and as he was going through a forest he saw a tiger, dropped the child, and sought safety in a tree. The tiger took the babe and suckled, it after which Arsetes left Ethiopia with the child for Egypt.

Close as a Clam

A clam is a bivalve mollusca, which burrows in sand or mud. It is about the size of a florin, and may be eaten raw or fried like an oyster. Clams are gathered only when the tide is out. When the tide is in they are safe from molestation, hence the saying “Happy as a clam at high tide”. (Anglo—Saxon clam, mud verb claem—ian, to glue German, klamm, close)

Close Rolls

are mandates, letters, and writs of a private nature, addressed, in the Sovereign's name, to individuals and folded or closed and sealed on the outside with the Great Seal.

Patent

Rolls are left open, with the seal hanging from the bottom.

Close—time for Game

(See Sporting Seasons .)

Closh

(Mynherr). A Dutch Jack—tar. Closh is corrupt form of Claus, a contraction of Nicholas, a name as common with the Dutch as Jack is with the English people.

Cloten

A vindictive lout who wore his dagger in his mouth. He fell in love with Imogen, but his love was not reciprocated (Shakespeare Cymbeline.)

Cloth

(The). The clergy, the clerical office, thus we say “having respect for the cloth” Formerly the clergy used to wear a distinguishing costume, made of grey or black cloth.

Clotharius

or Clothaire (in Jerusalem Delivered) At the death of Hugo he takes the lead of the Franks, but is shot by Clorinda (q.v.) with an arrow (book xi.). After his death, his troops sneak away and leave the Christian army (book xiii.).

Clotho

in Classic mythology One of the Three Fates. She presided over birth, and drew from her distaff the thread of life, Atropos presided over death and cut the thread of life, and Lachesis spun the fate of life between birth and death. (Greek, klótho, to draw thread from a distaff.)

“A France slashed asunder with Clotho—scissors and civil war”— Carlyle. (This is an erroneous allusion It was Atropos who cut the thread.)

Cloud, Clouds

He is in the clouds In dreamland, entertaining visionary notions; having no distinct idea about the matter in question.

He is under a cloud.

Under suspicion, in disrepute.

To blow a cloud is to smoke a cigar or pipe.

Cloud

A dark spot on the forehead of a horse between the eyes. A white spot is called a star, and an elongated star is a blaze. (See Blaze )

“Agrippa He [Antony] has a cloud on his face.

Enobarbus.

He were the worse for that were he a horse” Shakespeare. Antony and Cleopatra, iii 2

Cloud

(St.). Patron saint of nailsmiths, by a play upon the French word clou, a nail.

Clouded Cane

(A). A malacca cane clouded or mottled from age and use. These canes were very fashionable in the first quarter of the present century.

Cloven foot

To show the cloven foot, i.e. to show a knavish intention, a base motive. The allusion is to Satan, represented with the legs and feet of a goat; and, however he might disguise himself, he could never conceal his cloven feet. (See Bag O'Nails, Goat .)

“Real grief little influenced its composition and the cloven foot peeps out in some letters written by him at the period.”— St. James's Magazine

Clover

He's in clover. In luck, in prosperous circumstances, in a good situation. The allusion is to cattle feeding in clover fields.

Clowns

The three most celebrated are Joseph Grimaldi (1779—1837), the French Carlin (1713—1783), and Richard Tarlton, in the days of Queen Elizabeth, who acted at the galleried inn called the Belle Sauvage.

“To sit with Tarlton on an alehouse signe.”

Club

A society of persons who club together, or form themselves into a knot or lump. The word was originally applied to persons bound together by a vow. (German, gelübde) (See Cards 4 clubs.)

“[1190] was the era of chivalry, for bodies of men uniting themselves by a sacred vow, gelubde, which word and thing have passed over to us in a singularly dwindled condition, `club' we call it; and the vow does not rank very high”— Carlyle: Frederick the Great vol i. p 111

Club—bearer

(The). Periphe'tës, the robber of Argolis, is so called because he murdered his victims with an iron club.

Club—land

That part of the West End of London where the principal clubs are situated, the members of such clubs.

Club—law

The law of might or compulsion through fear of chastisement. Do it or get a hiding.

Clue

I have not yet got the clue: to give a clue, i.e. a hint. A clue is a ball of thread (Ang—Saxon, cleowen) The only mode of finding the way out of the Cretan labyrinth was by a skein of thread, which, being laid along the proper route, indicated the right path.

Clumsy (Norwegian, klump, a lump, Swedish, klummsen, benumbed; Icelandic, klumsa). Piers Plowman has “thou klompsist for cold,” and Wiclif has “Our hondis ben aclumpsid”. Halliwell gives us clumpish = awkward, and clump = lazy.

Cluricaune

(3 syl.) An elf of evil disposition who usually appears as a wrinkled old man, and has knowledge of hid treasures. (Irish mythology.)

Clydesdale Horses

Scotch draught—horses, not equal to Shire—horses in size, but of great endurance. (See Shire Horses )

Clym of the Clough

with Adam Bell and William of Cloudesly, were noted outlaws, whose skill in archery rendered them as famous in the north of England as Robin Hood and Little John in the midland counties. Their place of resort was in Englewood Forest, near Carlisle. N.B.— Englewood means firewood. Clym of the Clough means Clement of the Cliff.

Clytie

(3 syl.). A water—nymph, in love with Apollo. Meeting with no return, she was changed into a sunflower, which, traditionally, still turns to the sun, following him through his daily course.

Cneph

The name under which the Egyptians adore the Creator of the world.

Cnidian Venus

(The) The exquisite statue of Venus or Aphroditê by Praxitelês, placed in the temple of Venus, at Cnidus.

Co

A contraction of company, as Smith and Co.

Coach

(A) A private tutor The term is a pun on getting on fast. To get on fast you take a coach, you cannot get on fast without a private tutor— ergo, a private tutor is the coach you take in order that you may get on quickly. (University slang.)

“The books are expensive, and often a further expense is entailed by the necessity of securing `a coach.' ”— Stedman Oxford, chap. x. p. 188.

To dine in the coach.

In the captain's private room. The coach or couch of a ship is a small apartment near the stern, the floor being formed of the aftmost part of the quarter—deck, and the roof by the poop.

A slow coach.

A dull, unprogressive person, somewhat fossilised.

“What a dull, old—fashioned chap thou be st but thou wert always a slow—coach.”— Mrs. Gaskell: Cibbie Marsh (Era 2).

Coach—and—four

(or Coach—and—six). It is said one may drive a coach—and—four through an Act of Parliament, i.e. lawyers can always find for their clients some loophole of escape.

“It is easy to drive a coach—and—four through wills, and settlements, and legal things.”— H. R. Haggard.

“[Rice] was often heard to say that he would drive a coach and six horses through the Act of Settlement.”— Welwood.

Coach—and—pair

(A). A coach drawn by a pair of horses. Coach—and—four, coach—and—six, etc.

Coach Away

Get on a little faster Your coach drags; drive on faster

Coached Up

Taught by a private tutor for examination. “Well coached up,” well crammed or taught.

Coal Hot as a coal. The expression has an obvious allusion

To post the coal

or cole To pay or put down the cash. Coal=money has been in use in the sporting world for very many years. Buxton, in 1863, used the phrase “post the coal,” and since then it has been in frequent use. Probably rhyming slang “Coal,” an imperfect rhyme of gool =gold. (See page 248, Chivy and page 266, Coaling)

“It would not suit me to write, ... even if they offered, ..., to post the cole.”— Hood.

Coal Brandy

Burnt brandy The ancient way to set brandy on fire was to drop in it a live or red—hot coal.

Coals

To blow the coals To fan dissensions, to excite smouldering animosity into open hostility, as dull coals are blown into a blaze by a pair of bellows.

To carry coals

To be put upon. “Gregory, o' my word, we'll not carry coals”— i.e. submit to be “put upon” (Romeo and Juliet, i. 1) So in Every Man out of his Humour, “Here comes one that will carry coals, ergo, will hold my dog.” The allusion is to the dirty, laborious occupation of coal—carriers. Gifford, in his edition of Ben Jonson, says, “Of these (i.e scullions, etc.), the most forlorn wretches were selected to carry coals to the kitchen, halls, etc.” (See page 141, col. 1, Blackguard)

To carry coals to Newcastle.

To do what is superfluous. As Newcastle is the great coal—field, it would be quite superfluous to carry coals thither. The French say, “Porter de l'eau à la rivière ” (to carry water to the river). There are numerous Latin equivalents as, “To carry wood to the forests,” “Poma Alcinoo dare ” (See Alcinoo); “Noctuas Athenas ferre ” (See Noctuas), “Crocum in Ciliciam ferre ” (See Crocum).

To haul over the coals.

To bring to task for shortcomings, to scold. At one time the Jews were “bled” whenever the kings or barons wanted money, and one very common torture, if they resisted, was to haul them over the coals of a slow fire, to give them a “roasting.” (See Ivanhoe, where Front—de—Boeuf threatens to haul Isaac over the coals.)

Coals of Fire

To heap coals of fire on the head of a foe. To melt down his animosity by deeds of kindness.

“If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat, and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink, for thou shalt beap coals of fire upon his head.” Prov xxv. 21, 22.

Coaling

in theatrical slang, means telling phrases and speeches, as, “My part is full of `coaling lines.' ” Coal being money, means profit, whence coaling. (See p. 265, To Post The Goal ...)

Coalition Government

A Government formed by various parties by a mutual surrender of principles. The administration of Lord North and Charles Fox, 1783, was a coalition, but it fell to pieces in a few months. That of Lord Salisbury with the old Whig party headed by Lord Hartington was a coalition (1886—1892).

Coast Clear

Is the coast clear? The coast is clear. There is no likelihood of interference. None of the coast—guards are about.

Coast Men of Attica

The merchant class who lived along the coast—lands (Parali ).

Coasting Lead

(A). A sounding lead used in shallow water.

Coasting Trade

Trade between ports of the same country carried on by coasting vessels.

Coasting Waiter

An officer of Customs in the Port of London, whose duty it was to visit and make a return of coasting vessels trading from one part of the kingdom to another, and which (from the nature of their cargo) were not required to report or make entry at the Custom House. These vessels were liable to the payment of

certain small dues, which it was the duty of the Coasting Waiter to exact. He was also expected to search the cargo, that no contraband goods were illicitly on board. Like Tide Waiters, these Coasting Waiters were abolished in the latter half of the nineteenth century, and their duties have since been performed by the Examining Officer. Their salary was about 40 a year.

Coat

Cut your coat according to your cloth. Curtail your expenses to the amount of your income; live within your means. Si non possis quod velis, velis id quod possis.

Near is my coat, but nearer is my skin. “Tunica pallío propior est.” “Ego proximus mihi.” To baste one's coat. To dust his jacket; to beat him.

To wear the king's coat.

To be a soldier. Turning one's coat for luck. It was an ancient superstition that this was a charm against evil spirits. (See Turncoat)

“William found

A means for our deliverance: `Turn your cloaks, Quoth hee, `for Pucke is busy in these oakes.' “

Bishop Corbett: Iter Boreale

Coat of Arms

A surcoat worn by knights over their armour, decorated with devices by which heralds described the wearer. Hence the heraldic device of a family. Coat—armour was invented in the Crusading expeditions, to distinguish the various noble warriors when wrapped in complete steel, and it was introduced into England by Richard Lion—heart.

Coat of many Colours

(Gen. xxxvii. 3). Harmer, in his Observations (vol. ii. p. 386), informs us that “many

colours” in this connection does not mean striped, flowered embroidered, or “printed” with several colours, but having “divers pieces of different colours sewed together” in patchwork. The Hebrew word is passeem. In 2 Sam. xiii. 18 we are told that king's daughters wore a garment of many colours or divers pieces. Dr. Adam Clarke says that similar garments “are worn by persons of distinction in Persia, India, and some parts of China to the present day.” The great offence was this: Jacob was a sheik, and by giving Joseph a “prince's robe” he virtually announced him his heir. (See Divers Colours )

Coats, Hosen, and Hats

(Dan. iii, 21). These were not articles of dress, but badges of office. It will be recollected that Shadrach and his two companions had recently been set over provinces of Babylon; and Nebuchadnezzar degraded them by insisting on their wearing their insignia of office. The word cap would be better than “hat,” their caps of office; and sandàls would be better than “hosen.” Coats or cloaks have always designated office. “Hosen” means what the Romans called calceus patricius, which were sandalled up to the calf of the leg. Every Latin scholar knows that calceos mutare means to “become a senator.”

Cob

(A). Between a pony and a horse in size, from thirteen to nearly fifteen hands high. The word means big, stout. The original meaning is a tuft or head, hence eminent, large, powerful. The “cob of the county” is the great boss thereof. A rich cob is a plutocrat Hence also a male, as a cob—swan.

Riding horses run between fifteen and sixteen hands in height, and carriage horses, between sixteen and seventeen hands.

Cobalt

From the German Kobold (a gnome). The demon of mines. This metal was so called by miners, because it was long thought to be useless and troublesome. It was consequently attributed to the ill offices of the mine demon.

Cobbler

A drink made of wine (sherry), sugar, lemon, and ice. It is sipped up through a straw. (See Cobbler's Punch )

“This wonderful invention, sir, ... is called cobbler,— Sherry cobbler, when you name it long; cobbler when you name it short.”— Dickens: Marten Chuzzlewit, xvii.

Cobbler

Let not the cobbler overstep his last (Ne sutor ultra crepidam ). Let no one presume to interfere in matters of which he is ignorant. The tale goes that a cobbler detected a fault in the shoe—latchet of one of Apelles' paintings, and the artist rectified the fault. The cobbler, thinking himself very wise, next ventured to criticise the legs; but Apelles answered, “Keep to your trade”— you understand about shoes, but not about anatomy.

Cobbler Poet

(The). Hans Sachs of Nuremberg, prince of the mastersingers of Germany (1494—1574).

Cobbler's Punch

Gin and water, with a little treacle and vinegar.

Cobbler's Toast

School—boys' bread and butter, toasted on the dry side and eaten hot.

Cobham

referred to by Thomson in his Autumn, was Sir Richard Temple, created Lord Cobham in 1714.

Cob—nut

A nut with a tuft. (Welsh, cob or cop, a tuft; German, kopf, the head.)

Coburgs

A corded or ribbed cotton cloth made in Coburg (Saxony), or in imitation thereof. Chiefly used for ladies' dresses.

Cobweb

Cob, Teutonic for “spider.” Dutch, spinnckop; Saxon, attercop (poisonous spider); Chaldee, kopi (spider's web).

Cock

Mahomet found in the first heaven a cock of such enormous size that its crest touched the second heaven. The crowing of this celestial bird arouses every living creature from sleep except man. The Moslem doctors say that Allah lends a willing ear to him who reads the Koran, to him who prays for pardon, and to the cock whose chant is divine melody. When this cock ceases to crow, the day of judgment will be at hand.

Cock.

Dedicated to Apollo, the sun—god, because it gives notice of the rising of the sun. It was dedicated to Mercury, because it summons men to business by its crowing. And to Æsculapius, because “early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy.”

A cock on church spires is to remind men not to deny their Lord as Peter did, but when the cock crew he

“went out and wept bitterly.” Peter Le Neve affirms that a cock was the warlike ensign of the Goths, and therefore used in Gothic churches for ornament.

Every cock crows on its own dunghill,

or Ilka cock crows on his own midden. It is easy to brag of your deeds in your own castle when safe from danger and not likely to be put to the proof.

Latin:

Gallus in suo sterquilinio plurimum potest.

French:

Chien sur son fumier est hardi.

Spanish: Cada Galla canta en su muladar.

Nourish a cock, but offer it not in sacrifice. This is the eighteenth Symbolic Saying in the Protreptics of Iamblichus. The cock was sacred to Minerva, and also to the Sun and Moon, and it would be impious to offer a sacrilegious offering to the gods. What is already consecrated to God cannot be employed in sacrifice.

That cock won't fight.

That dodge wouldn't answer; that tale won't wash. Of course, the allusion is to fighting cocks. A bet is made on a favourite cock, but when pitted he refuses to fight.

To cry cock.

To claim the victory; to assert oneself to be the superior. As a cock of the walk is the chief or ruler of the whole walk, so to cry cock is to claim this cockship.

Cock and Bottle

A public—house sign, meaning draught and bottled ale may be had on the premises. The “cock” here means the tap. It does not mean “The Cork and Bottle.”

Cock and Bull Story

A corruption of a concocted and bully story. The catch—pennies hawked about the streets are still called cocks— i.e. concocted things. Bully is the Danish bullen (exaggerated), our bull—rush (an exaggerated rush), bull—frog, etc.

Another etymology may be suggested. The idol Nergal was the most common idol of the ancient Phoenicians, Indians, and Persians, and Nergal means a dunghill cock. The Egyptian bull is equally notorious under the name of Osiris. A cock—and—bull story may therefore mean a myth, in reference to the mythological fables of Nergal and Osiris.

The French equivalents are faire un coq à l'âne and un conie de ma mère Voie (a mother goose tale).

Cock and Pie

(By). We meet with cock's bones, cock's wounds, cock's mother, cock's body, cock's passion, etc., where we can have no doubt that the word is a minced oath, and stands for the sacred name which should never be taken in vain. The Pie is the table or rule in the old Roman offices, showing how to find out the service for each day, called by the Greeks pinax (an index). The latter part of the oath is equivalent to “the Mass book.”

“By cock and pie, sir, you shall not away to—night.”— Shakespeare: 2 Henry IV., act v. 1.

Cock and Pie

(as a public—house sign) is probably “The Cock and Magpie.”

Cock of Hay

(A) or a haycock. A small heap of hay thrown up temporarily. (German, Kocke, a heap of hay; Norwegian, kok, a heap.)

Cock of the North

The Duke of Gordon. So called on a monument erected to his honour at Fochabers, in Aberdeenshire. (Died 1836.)

Cock of the Walk

The dominant bully or master spirit. The place where barn—door fowls are fed is called the walk, and if there is more than one cock they will fight for the supremacy of this domain.

Cock—a—hoop

or Cock—a—houp. To sit cock—a—houp. Boastful, defiant, like a game cock with his houpe or crest erect; eagerly expectant. (French, coq à huppe.)

“And having routed a whole troop,

With victory was cock—a—hoop.”

Butler: Hudibras, i. 3.

Cock apace

Set off as fast as you can run. A cock is a tap through which liquor runs. “To cock” is to walk lightly or nimbly.

“If storms be nigh then cock apace,” says Tusser (1174).

Cockboat

or Cockle Boat.. A small boat made of a wicker frame, and covered with leather or oil—cloth. The Welsh fishers used to carry them on their backs. (Welsh, cwch, a boat; French, coche, a passage boat; Irish, coca; Italian, cocca; Norwegian, kog, a cockboat.)

Cock—crow

The Hebrews divided the night into four watches: 1, The “beginning of the watches” or “even” (Lam. ii. 19); 2, “The middle watch” or “midnight” (Judg. vii. 19); 3, “The cock—crowing;” 4, “The morning watch” or “dawning” (Exod. xiv. 24).

“Ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cock—crowing, or in the morning.”— Mark xiii. 35.

The Romans divided the night into sixteen parts, each one hour and a—half, beginning at midnight. The third of these divisions (3 a.m.) they called gallicinium, the time when cocks begin to crow; the next was conticinium, when they ceased to crow; and fifth was diluculum, dawn.

Probably the Romans sounded the hour on a trumpet (bugle) three times, and if so it would explain the diversity of the Gospels: “Before the cock crow” (John xiii. 38, Luke xxii. 34, and Matt. xxvi. 34); but

“Before the cock crow twice ” (Mark xiv. 30)— that is, before the “bugle” has finished sounding.

Apparitions vanish at cock crow.

This is a Christian superstition, the cock being the watch—bird placed on church spires, and therefore sacred.

“The morning cock crew loud,

And at the sound it [the Ghost] shrunk in haste away, And vanished from our sight.”

Shakespeare: Hamlet,

i. 2.

Cock—eye

A squint. Cock—eyed, having a squint; cross—eyed. (Irish and Gaelic, caog, a squint; “caogshuil,” squint—eyed.)

Cock—fighting

was introduced into Britain by the Romans. It was a favourite sport both with the Greeks and with the Romans.

That beats cock—fighting.

That is most improbable and extraordinary. The allusion is to the extravagant tales told of fighting—cocks.

“He can only relieve his feelings by the ... frequent repetition, `Well, that beats

cock—fighting!' ”— Whyte—Melville.

To live like fighting—cocks. To live in luxury. Before game—cocks are pitted they are fed plentifully on the very best food.

Cock—horse

To ride—a—cock—horse. To sit astride a person's foot or knee while he dances or tosses it up and down.

Cock Lane Ghost A tale of terror without truth; an imaginary tale of horrors. In Cock Lane, Stockwell (1762), certain knockings were heard, which Mr. Parsons, the owner, declared proceeded from the ghost of Fanny Kent, who died suddenly, and Parsons wished people to suppose that she had been murdered by her husband. All London was agog with this story; but it was found out that the knockings were produced by Parsons' daughter (a girl twelve years of age) rapping on a board which she took into her bed. Parsons was condemned to stand in the pillory. (See Stockwell Ghost )

Cock—pit

The judicial committee of the privy council is so called, because the council—room is built on the old cock—pit of Whitehall palace.

“Great consultations at the cockpit about battles, duels, victories, and what not.”— Poor Robin's Almanack, 1730.

Cock Sure

is cocky sure — pertly confident. We call a self—confident, over—bearing prig a cocky fellow, from the barnyard despot; but Shakespeare employs the phrase in the sense of “sure as the cock of a firelock.”

“We steal as in a castle, cock—sure.”— Shakespeare: 1 Henry IV., ii. 1.

The French phrase is à coup sûr, as “Nous réussirons à coup sûr, ” we are certain of success, “Cela est ainsi à coup sûr, ” etc., and the phrase “Sure as a gun,” seem to favour the latter derivation.

Cock the Ears

(To). To prick up the ears, or turn them as a horse does when he listens to a strange sound. Here “cock” means to turn, and seems to be connected with the Greek a circle, and the verb .

Cock the Nose

or Cock up the nose. To turn up the nose in contempt. (See Cock Your Eye )

Cock up your Head

[foot, etc.]. Lift up, turn up your head or foot. The allusion is to cocking hay, i.e. lifting it into small heaps or into the haycart. (See Cock Of Hay )

Cock your Eye

(To) is to shut one eye and look with the other; to glance at. A “cock—eye” is a squinting eye, and “cock—eyed” is having squinting eyes. In many phrases, cock means to turn. (See above.)

Cock your Hat

(To). To set your hat more on one side of the head than on the other; to look knowing and pert. Soldiers cock their caps over the left side to “look smart.” (See Cocked Hat )

Cockade

The men—servants of the military wear a small black cockade on their hat, the Hanoverian badge. The Stuart cockade was white. At the battle of Sherra—Muir, in the reign of George I., the English soldiers wore a black rosette in their hats. In the song of Sherra—Muir the English soldiers are called “the red—coat lads wi' black cockades.” (French, cocarde; German, kokarde.)

In the British Army and Navy the cockade, since the Hanoverian accession, has been black. AUSTRIAN cockade is black and yellow. All sentry boxes and boundary posts are so painted. Ein schwarz—gelber was the nickname of an Austrian Imperialist in 1848.

BAVARIA, light blue and white are the royal colours.

BELGIUM, black, yellow, and red.

FRANCE (regal), the royal colour was white.

HANOVER, the cockade was black. Black enters into all the German cockades.

PRUSSIA, black and white are the royal colours.

RUSSIA, green and white are the royal colours.

To mount the cockade.

To become a soldier. From time immemorial the partisans of different leaders have adopted some emblem to show their party; in 1767 an authoritative regulation determined that every French soldier should wear a white cockade, and in 1782 the badge was restricted to the military. The phrase given above is common both to England and France.

Cockaigne

(Land of). An imaginary land of idleness and luxury. The subject of a burlesque, probably “the earliest specimen of English poetry which we possess.” London is generally so called, but Boileau applies the phrase to Paris. (See page 270, col. 2, Cockney )

Allied to the German, kuchen, a cake. Scotland is called the “land of cakes” there is the old French word cocaigne, abundance. Compare Latin coquo, to cook, coquinaria, coquina, etc.

Ellis, in his Specimens of Early English Poets (i. 83—95), has printed at length an old French poem called

“The Land of Cockaign” (thirteenth century) where “the houses were made of barley sugar and cakes, the streets were paved with pastry, and the shops supplied goods for nothing.”

Cockatrice

(3 syl.). A monster with the wings of a fowl, tail of a dragon and head of a cock. So called because it was said to be produced from a cock's egg hatched by a serpent. According to legend, the very look of this monster would cause instant death. In consequence of the crest with which the head is crowned, the creature is called a basilisk, from the Greek, basiliskos (a little king). Isaiah says, “The weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice den” (xi. 8), to signify that the most noxious animal should not hurt the most feeble of God's creatures. Figuratively, it means an insidious, treacherous person bent on mischief.

“They will kill one another by the look, like cockatrices.”— Shakespeare: Twelfth Night, iii. 4.

Cocked Hat

(A). A hat with the brim turned, like that of a bishop, dean, etc. It is also applied to the chapeau bras, and the military full—dress hat, pointed before and behind, and rising to a point at the crown, the chapeaù à cornu. “Cock” in this phrase means to turn; cocked, turned up.

Knocked into a cocked hat.

In the game of nine—pins, three pins were set up in the form of a triangle, and when all the pins except these three were knocked down, the set was technically said to be “knocked into a cocked hat.” Hence, utterly out of all shape or plumb. A somewhat similar phrase is “Knocked into the middle of next week.”

Cocked—hat Club

(The). A club of the Society of Antiquaries. A cocked hat was always placed before the president when the club met.

There was another club so called in which the members, during club sittings, wore cocked hats.

Cocker

According to Cocker. All right, according to Cocker. According to established rules, according to what is correct. Edward Cocker (1631—1677) published an arithmetic which ran through sixty editions. The phrase, “According to Cocker,” was popularised by Murphy in his farce called The Apprentice.

Cockie

or Cocky. Bumptious, overbearing, conceited, and dogmatical; like a little bantam cock.

Cockle Hat

A pilgrim's hat. Warburton says, as the chief places of devotion were beyond sea, or on the coasts, pilgrims used to put cockle—shells upon their hats, to indicate that they were pilgrims. Cockles are symbols of St. James, patron saint of Spain. Cockle—scallop, as in heraldry.

“And how shall I your true love know

From many another one?

Oh, by his cockle hat and staff,

And by his sandal shoon.”

Beaumont and Fletcher: The Friar of Orders Grey.

Cockle Shells

Favourite tokens worn by pilgrims in their hats. The polished side of the shell was scratched with some rude drawing of the “blessed Virgin,” the Crucifixion, or some other subject connected with the pilgrimage. Being blessed by the priest, they were considered amulets against spiritual foes, and might be used as drinking vessels.

Cockles

To cry cockles. To be hanged; from the gurgling noise made in strangulation.

Cockles of the Heart

“To warm the cockles of one's heart, ” said of good wine. (Latin, cochleae cordis, the ventricles of the heart.)

“Fibræ quidem rectis hisce exterioribus in dextro ventriculo proxime subjectæ oblique dextrorsum ascendentes in basim cordis terminantur, et spirali suo ambitu helicem sive cochleam satis apte referunt.”— Lower: Tractatus de Corde, p. 25. (1669.)

Cockledemoy

(A ). An amusing rogue, a sort of Tyll Eulenspiegel. A character in Marston's comedy of The Dutch Courtesan. He cheats Mrs. Mulligrub, a vintner's wife, of a goblet and salmon.

Cockney

One born within sound of Bow—bells, London; one possessing London peculiarities of speech, etc.; one wholly ignorant of country sports, country life, farm animals, plants, and so on.

Camden says the Thames was once called “the Cockney.”

The word has been spelt Cockeney, Cockaneys, Cocknell, etc. “Cocknell” would be a little cock. “Puer in deliciis matris nutritus, ” Anglice, a kokenay, a pampered child. “Niais" means a nestling, as faucon niais, and if this is the last syllable of “Cockney,” it confirms the idea that the word means an enfant gâté.

Wedgwood suggests cocker (to fondle), and says a cockerney or cockney is one pampered by city indulgence, in contradistinction to rustics hardened by outdoor work. (Dutch, kokkeler, to pamper; French, coqueliner, to dangle.)

Chambers in his Journal derives the word from a French poem of the thirteenth century, called The Land of Cocagne, where the houses were made of barley—sugar and cakes, the streets paved with pastry, and the shops supplied goods without requiring money in payment. The French, at a very early period, called the English cocagne men, i.e. bons vivants (beef and pudding men).

“Cry to it, nuncle, as the cockney did to the cels, when she put them into the paste alive.”— Shakespeare: Lear, ii. 4.

The king of cockneys.

A master of the revels chosen by students of Lincoln's Inn on Childermas Day (Dec. 28th).

Cockney School

Leigh Hunt, Hazlitt, Shelley, and Keats; so called by Lockhart. (1817.)

“If I may be permitted to have the honour of christening it, it may be henceforth referred to by the designation of the `Cockney School.' ”— Z. Blackwood's Magazine, Oct., 1817.

Cockpit of Europe

Belgium is so called because it has been the site of more European battles than any other country; for example, Oudenarde, Ramillies, Fontenoy, Fleurus, Jemmapes, Ligny, Quatre Bras, Waterloo.

Cockshy

(A ). A free fling or “shy” at something. The allusion is to the once popular Shrove—Tuesday sport of shying or casting stones or sticks at cocks. This sport is now superseded by pigeon—shooting, which is thought to be more aristocratic! but can hardly be deemed more humane.

Cockswain

or COXSWAIN [cox'n ]. The swain or servant of the cock or boat, together with its crew. (Anglo—Saxon, swan or swein, a youth or servant, and cock, a boat.) (See Cockboat )

Cocktail

The New York World, 1891, tells us that this is an Aztec word, and that “the liquor was discovered by a Toltec noble, who sent it to the king by the hand of his daughter Xochitl. The king fell in love with the maiden, drank the liquor, and called them xoc—tl, a name perpetuated by the word cocktail.

Cocktail is an iced drink made of spirits mixed with bitters, sugar, and some aromatic flavouring. Champagne cocktail is champagne flavoured with Angostura bitters; soda cocktail is sodawater, sugar, and bitters.

“Did ye iver try a brandy cocktail, Cornel?”— Thackeray: The Newcomes, xiii.

Cocqcigrues

At the coming of the Cocqcigrues. That good time coming, when every mystery shall be cleared up.

“ `That is one of the seven things,' said the fairy Bedonebyasyoudid, `I am forbidden to tell till the coming of the Cocqcigrues.' ”— C. Kingsley: The Water Babies, chap. vi.

Cocytus

[Ko—kytus ]. One of the five rivers of hell. The word means the “river of lamentation.” The unburied were doomed to wander about its banks for 100 years. (Greek, koku'o, to weep.)

“Cocytus, named of lamentation loud

Heard on the rueful stream.”

Milton: Paradise Lost, ii. 579.

Codds

Codgers. Thackeray says, “The Cistercian lads call the poor brethren of the Charterhouse codds, ” adding, “but I know not wherefore.” (Turkish, kodjah, an old man or woman.) We say “Well, old boy,”

without referring to age.

“I say, do you know any of the old codds ...? Colonel Newcome is going to be a codd.”— Nineteenth Century, October, 1893, p. 589.

Codille

(2 syl.). Triumph. A term in the game of Ombre. When one of the two opponents of Ombre has more tricks than Ombre, he is said to have won Codille, and takes all the stake that Ombre played for. Thus Belinda is said, in the Rape of the Lock, to have been “between the jaws of ruin and Codille.” She wins with the “king of hearts,” and she wins codille.

Codlin's your Friend, not Short

(Dickens: Old Curiosity Shop, chap. xix.). Codlin had a shrewd suspicion that little Nell and her grandfather had absconded, and that a reward would be offered for their discovery. So he tried to bespeak the goodwill of the little girl in the hope of making something of it.

“None of the speakers has much to say in actual hostility to Lord Salisbury's speech, but they all harp upon the theory that Codlin is the friend, not Short.”— Newspaper paragraph, Oct. 13th, 1885.

Coehorns

(2 syl.). Small howitzers of about 4 2/3 inches calibre; so called from Baron van Coehorn, of Holland.

Coenobites

or Cenobites (3 syl.). Monks who live in common, in contradistinction to the hermits or anchorites. (Greek, koinosbios. )

Coeur de Lion

Richard I. of England; so called from the prodigies of personal valour performed by him in the Holy Land. (1157, 1189—1199.)

Louis VIII. of France, more frequently called Le Lion. (1187, 1223—1226.) Boleslas I. of Poland, also called “The Intrepid.” (960, 992—1025.)

Coffee

The Turkish word is Kauhi, Kauveh or Kauvey.

Coffee.

In Ardennes ten cups of coffee are taken after dinner, and each cup has its special name. (1) Café (2) Gloria, (3) Pousse Café (4) Goutte, (5) Regoutte, (6) Sur—goutte, (7) Rincette, (8) Re—rincette, (9)

Sur—rincette, and (10) Coup de l'érier. Gloria is coffee with a small glass of brandy in lieu of milk; all the following have more and more l'eau de vie; and the last is the “stirrup—cup.”

Coffin

A raised crust, like the lid of a basket. Hence Shakespeare speaks of a “custard coffin” (Taming of the Shrew, iv. 3). Mahomet's Coffin )

“Of the paste a coffin will I rear.'

Shakespeare: Titus Andronicus,

v. 2.

Coggeshall

A Coggeshall job. The saying is, that the Coggeshall folk wanted to divert the current of a stream, and fixed hurdles in the bed of it for the purpose. Another tale is that a mad dog bit a wheelbarrow, and the people, fearing it would go mad, chained it up in a shed. (See Gotham )

Cogito ergo sum

Descartes' axiom. This is a petitio principii. “I think" can only prove this: that “I think.” And he might just as well infer from it the existence of thought as the existence of I. He is asked to prove the latter, and immediately assumes that it exists and does something, and then infers that it exists because it does something. Suppose I were asked to prove the existence of ice, and were to say, ice is cold, therefore there is such a thing as ice. Manifestly I first assume there is such a thing as ice, then ascribe to it an attribute, and then argue back that this attribute is the outcome of ice. This is not proof, but simply arguing in a circle.

Cohens (Stock Exchange term). The Turkish '69 loan, floated by the firm of that name.

Coif

(1 syl.). The coif of the old serjeant—at—law was a relic of his ecclesiastical character. The original serjeants—at—law were clerical lawyers, and the coif is the representation of the tonsure. Serjeants of the Coif. Serjeants—at—law (now abolished). (See above.)

Coiffe

Il est né coiffé. He is born with a silver spoon in his mouth; born to fortune. (See page 229, col. 2, Caul

)

“Quelques enfans viennent au monde avec une pellicule ... que l'on appelle du nom de coëffe; et que l'on croit estre une marque de bonheur. Ce qui a donné lieu au proverbe françois. ... Il

est né coëffé. “— Traite des Superstition, 1679.

Coiffer to Sainte Catherine

To remain an old maid. “St. Catherine est la patronne des filles à marier et des vieilles filles. Ce sont ces dernières qui restent ordinairement pour soigner les chapelles consacrées à la sainte, et qui sont chargées de sa toilette.” (Hetaire le Gai: Encyclopédie des Proverbes Français. )

“Il crois peut—etre que je le regrette, que, de désespoir je vais coiffer St. Catherine. Ah! ah! mais non! moi aussi je veux me marier.”— La Mascotte (an opera).

Coin

Paid in his own coin. Tit for tat. “Par pari referre. “

Coin Money

(To ). To make money with rapidity and ease.

“For the last four years ... I literally coined money.”— F. Kemble: Residence in Georgia.

Coins

BRITISH Iron rings were used for money by the ancient Britons, and Segonax, a petty king under Cassivelân, is the first whose head was impressed on the coin. Gold, silver, and copper coins were struck by Cunobelin.

The ROMANS introduced their own coins into the island.

The oldest ANGLO—SAXON coin was the sceatta (pl. sceattae ), sixth century. In the reign of Ethelbert, King of Kent, money accounts were kept in pounds, mancuses, shillings, and pence. One of the last being equal to about 3 pence of our money. 5 pence = one scilling, 30 scillings one manca or mancus, and 40 one pound. Mancuses were in gold and silver also.

The NORMANS introduced pence with a cross so deeply impressed that the coin could be broken either into two or four parts, hence the terms half—pence and fourthings.

The Angel, a gold coin (7s. 6d.), was introduced by Edward IV., and had a figure of Michael slaying the dragon.

The Bawbee first came into use in the reign of James VI. of Scotland. (French, bas—billon, base copper coin.)

The Carolus (20s.) was a gold coin of the reign of Charles I.

The Crown (5s.) was first issued in 1553. Crowns and half—crowns are still in common circulation. English Dollars (4s. 6d.) were introduced in 1798.

Florins,

a gold coin (6s.), were issued by Edward III.; but the silver florin (2s.) in 1849. The Guinea (a gold coin = 21s.) was first issued in 1717; but a gold coin so—called, of the value of 30s., was issued in 1673, reduced in 1696 to 22s.

Our Sovereign was first issued in 1816, but there were coins so called in the reigns of Henry I. (worth 22s.), Edward VI. (from 24s. to 30s.).

Shillings

of the present value date from 1503; pence made of bronze in 1862, but copper pence were coined in 1620, half—pence and farthings in 1665.

Coke To cry coke. To cry peccavi; to ask for mercy. Ruddiman says “coke” is the sound which cocks utter when they are beaten.

Coke upon Littleton

Tent and brandy.

“Another ... sipping Coke upon Littleton, i.e. tent and brandy.”— Nichols: Illustrations of Literature (1743).

Colbronde

or Colbrand. The Danish giant slain by Sir Guy of Warwick. By the death of this giant the land was delivered from Danish tribute.

“I am not Samson, nor Sir Guy, nor Colbrand,

To mowem down before me.”

Shakespeare: Henry VIII., v. 4.

Colcannon

Potatoes and cabbage pounded together and then fried in butter (Irish). “Col” is cole or cale, i.e. cabbage.

“About 1774 Isaac Sparks, the Irish comedian, founded in Long Acre a Colcannon Club.”— The Athenæum, January 20th, 1875.

Cold as Charity

(See Charity )

Cold—Bath Fields

So called from the cold baths established there by Mr. Bains, in 1697, for the cure of rheumatism, convulsions, and other nervous disorders.

Cold Blood

Done in cold blood. (French, sang froid.) Not in the heat of temper; deliberately, and with premeditation. The allusion is to the ancient notion that the blood grew hot and cold, and this difference of temperature ruled the temper.

Cold—blooded Animals

As a rule, all invertebrate animals, and all fishes and reptiles, are called

cold—blooded, because the temperature of their blood is about equal to the medium in which they live.

Cold—blooded Persons

Those not easily excited; those whose passions are not easily roused; those whose circulation is sluggish.

Cold—chisel

(A ). A chisel of tempered steel for cutting cold metal.

Cold Drawn Oil

Castor oil, obtained by pressure in the cold.

Cold Pigeon (A ). A message sent in place of a love—letter. The love—letter would have been a poulet (q.v.). A pigeon pie is called a dove—tart, and dove is symbolical of love. Pyramus says of Thisbe, “What dead, my dove?” A verbal message is “cold comfort” to a lover looking out for a letter.

Cold Pudding settles Love

by giving the pains of indigestion, colic, etc.

Cold Shoulder

To show or give one the cold shoulder is to assume a distant manner towards a person, to indicate that you wish to cut his acquaintance. The reference is to a cold shoulder of mutton served to a stranger at dinner; there is not much of it, and even what is left is but moderate fare.

Cold Steel

The persuasion of cold steel is persuasion enforced at the point of the sword or bayonet.

Cold Water Ordeal

An ancient method of testing the guilt or innocence of the common sort of people. The accused, being tied under the arms, was thrown into a river. If he sank to the bottom, he was held to be guiltless, and drawn up by the cord; but if he floated, the water rejected him, because of his guilt.

Cold Without

An elliptical expression, meaning spirits mixed with cold water without sugar.

Coldbrand

(See Colbronde )

Coldstream Guards

One of the three regiments of Foot Guards. It was originally under the command of Colonel Monk (1650—1660), and in January, 1660, marched under him from Coldstream in Berwickshire with the object of bringing back Charles II. to the throne.

Cole

= money. (See Coal )

Cole

(King ). A legendary British king, described as “a merry old soul” fond of his pipe, fond of his glass, and fond of his “fiddlers three.” (Kg. Coïl, i.)

Colemira

(3 syl.). A poetical name for a cook; being, of course, compounded of coal and mire.

“ `Could I,' he cried, `express how bright a grace

Adorns thy morning hands and well—washed face, Thou wouldst, Colemira, grant what I implore,

And yield me love, or wash thy face no more.' “ Shenstone: Colemira, an Eclogue.

Colin Clout

A name which Spenser assumes in The Shepherd's Calendar, and in the pastoral entitled Colin Clout's Come Home Again, which represents his return from a visit to Sir Walter Raleigh, “the Shepherd of the Ocean.”

Colin Tampon

The nickname of a Swiss, as John Bull is of an Englishman, Brother Jonathan of a North American, and Monsieur Crapaud of a Frenchman.

Collapse

The scheme collapsed. Came to nothing. An inflated balloon is said to collapse when the gas has escaped and the sides fall together, or pucker into wrinkles. As a collapsed balloon will not mount, a collapsed scheme will not go off. (Latin, collapsus, collabor, to fall or sink together.)

Collar

Against the collar. Somewhat fatiguing. When a horse travels up—hill the collar distresses his neck, so foot—travellers often find the last mile or so “against the collar,” or distressing. Authors of long books often find the last few pages wearisome and against the grain.

In collar. In harness. The allusion is to a horse's collar, which is put on when about to go to work. Out of collar. Out of work, out of place. (See above.)

To slip the collar. To escape from restraint; to draw back from a task begun. To work up to the collar. To work tooth and nail; not to shirk the work in hand. A horse that lets his collar lie loose on his neck without bearing on it does not draw the vehicle at all, but leaves another to do the real work.

“As regarded himself, the path lay plain. He must work up to the collar, hot and hard, leaving himself no time to feel the parts that were galled and wrung.”— Mrs. Edwardes: A Girton Girl, chap. iv.

Collar

(verb). To collar one. To seize by the collar; to prig; to appropriate without leave.

To collar the cole

or coal. To prig the money. (See Coal)

Collar—day

(A ). In royal levees, means that attendants are to wear all their insignia and decorations, such as medals, stars, ribbons, and orders. This is done on grand occasions by order of the Crown. The Queen's Collar—day is when she wears the Order of the Garter.

Collar of Arsinoe

(4 syl.) or Collar of Alphesibea, given by her to her husband Alcmeon, was a fatal gift; so was the collar and veil of Eriphyle, wife of Amphiaraos. (See Fatal Gifts )

Collar of SS

A decoration restricted to the Lord Chief Justices of the Queen's Bench, the Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer, the Lord Mayor of London, the Kings—of—Arms, the Heralds, the Sergeant—at—Arms, and the Sergeant Trumpeter. (Coussan's Heraldry. ) (See SS.)

Collectivists

Collectivism is the opposite of Individualism. In the latter system, everyone is to be his own master, and everything is to be free and in common. In the former system, government is to be the sole employer, the sole landlord, and the sole paymaster. Private property is to be abolished, competition to be stamped out; everyone must work for his living, and the State must find the work. Bellamy's novel of Looking Backward will give a pretty fair notion of what is meant by Collectivism. (See Individualists )

College

(New ). Newgate prison. “To take one's final degree at New College” is to be hanged. “King's

College” is King's Bench Prison, now called Queen's College. Prisoners are “collegiates.” College is the Latin collegium, and has a very wide range, as, College of the Apostles, College of Physicians, College of Surgeons, Heralds College, College of Justice, etc.; and on the Continent we have College of Foreign Affairs, College of War, College of Cardinals, etc.

College Colours

CAMBRIDGE BOAT CREWS, light blue.

Caius,

light blue and black. Catherine's, blue and white. Christ's, common blue. Clare, black and golden yellow. Corpus, cherry—colour and white. Downing, chocolate. Emmanuel, cherry—colour and dark blue Jesus, red and black.

John's,

bright red and white. King's, violet.

Magdalen,

indigo and lavender. Pembroke, claret and French grey. Peterhouse, dark blue and white.

Queen's, green and white.

Sydney,

red and blue.

Trinity, dark blue.

Trinity Hall, black and white.

OXFORD BOAT CREWS, dark blue.

St. Alban's,

blue with arrow—head. Balliol, pink, white, blue, white, pink. Brazenose, black, and gold edges. Christ Church, blue with red cardinal's hat. Corpus, red with blue stripe.

St. Edmond's,

red, and yellow edges. Exeter, black, and red edges.

Jesus,

green, and white edges John's, yellow, black, red. Lincoln, blue with mitre. Magdalen, black and white. St. Mary's, white, black, white. Merton, blue, with white edges and red cross. New College, three pink and two white stripes. Oriel, blue and white.

Pembroke,

pink, white, pink. Queen's, red, white, blue, white, blue, white, red. Trinity, blue, with double dragon's head, yellow and green, or blue, with white edges. University, blue, and yellow edges.

Wadham,

light blue.

Worcester,

blue, white, pink, white, blue.

College Colours

(America) in football matches, boating, etc.

Adelbert,

Bismarck brown and purple. Alleghany, cadet blue and old gold. Amherst, white and purple.

Bates,

garnet.

Boston University,

scarlet and white. Bowdoin, white.

Brown,

brown and white.

Buchtel,

orange and blue. California, blue and gold. C.C.N.Y., lavender. Colby, silver grey. Columbia, blue and white. Cornell, cornelian and white. Dartmouth, dark green. Dickinson, red and white. Hamilton, rose pink. Harvard, crimson.

Hobart,

orange and purple. Kenyon, mauve.

Lafayette, white and maroon. Madison, orange and maroon. Michigan, blue and maize. New York University, violet.

Ohio University, blue.

Princeton,

orange and black. Rensselaer Polytechnic, cherry. Rochester, blue and grey. Rutgers, scarlet.

Swarthmore,

garnet.

Syracuse,

blue and pink. Trinity, white and green. Tufts, blue and brown. Union, garnet.

University of North Carolina, white and blue. of South Carolina, red and blue.

of Pennsylvania, blue and red.

of the South, red and blue.

of Vermont, old gold and green.

of Virginia, cardinal and grey.

Vassar,

pink and grey.

Wesleyan,

cardinal and black. Williams, royal purple. Wooster, old gold.

Yale,

blue.

College Port

The worst species of red wine that can be manufactured and palmed off upon young men at college. (See Widows' Port )

“We all know what college port is like.”— The Times.

Colliberts

A sort of gipsy race in Poitou, Maine, and Anjou, similar to the Cagots of Gascony and the Caqueux of Brittany. In feudal times a collibert was a serf partly free, but bound to certain services. (Latin, col—libertus, a fellow freedman.)

Colluthians

A religious sect which rose in the fourth century; so called from Colluthos of Alexandria, their founder.

Colly my Cow

A corruption of Calainos, the most ancient of Spanish ballads. Calainos the Moor asked a damsel to wife, who said the price of winning her should be the heads of the three paladins of Charlemagne, named Rinaldo, Roland, and Olivier. Calainos went to Paris and challenged the paladins. First Sir Baldwin, the youngest knight, accepted the challenge and was overthrown; then his uncle Roland went against the Moor and smote him.

Collyridians

A sect of Arabian Christians, chiefly women, which first appeared in 373. They worshipped the Virgin Mary, and made offerings to her in a twisted cake, called a collyris. (Greek, kollura, a little cake.)

Collywobbles

The grips, usually accompanied with sundry noises in the stomach. These noises are called the “borbarigmus.” (The wobbling caused by a slight colic.)

Cologne

The three kings of Cologne. The three magi, called Gaspar, Melchior, and Balthazar. They are called by other names, but those given are the most generally accepted.

Colon

One of the rabble leaders in Hudibras was Noel Perryan, or Ned Perry, an ostler, who loved bear—baiting, but was a very straight—laced Puritan of low morals.

Colophon

The end of a book. Colophon was a city of Ionia, the inhabitants of which were such excellent horsemen that they would turn the scale of battle to the side on which they fought; hence, the Greek phrase, To add a colophonian, means “to put a finishing stroke to any matter.” (Strabo.) In the early times of printing, the statement containing the date, place, printer, and edition was given at the end of the book, and was called the colophon. Now called the “imprint.”

“The volume was uninjured ... from title—page to colophon.”— Scott: The Antiquary.

Coloquintida

or Colocynth. Bitterapple or colocynth. (Greek, kolokunthis. )

“The food that to him now is luscious as locusts, shall be to him shortly as bitter as coloquintida.”— Shakespeare: Othello, i. 3.

Coloquintida

(St. ). Charles I. was so called. He was bitter as gall to the Levellers.

“The Levellers styled him [Charles I.] an Ahab, and a Coloquintida, a man of blood, and the everlasting obstacle to peace and liberty.”— Howitt: History of England (“Charles I.,” chap.

vi. p. 284).

Colorado

(U.S. America). A Spanish word meaning red, referring to the red hue of the water of the river.

Colossal

Gigantic. As a colossal scheme. (See below. )

Colossus

or Colossos (Latin, colossus ). A giant. The Rhodian Colossos was a gigantic statue of brass, 126 feet high, executed by Chares. It is said that ships could pass full sail under the legs of this statue, but the notion of a striding statue rose in the sixteenth century, and is due to Blaise de Vigenère, who was the first to give the chef d'oeuvre of Chares this impossible position. The Comte de Caylus has demonstrated that the Apollo of Rhodes was never planted at the mouth of the Rhodian port, that it was not a striding statue, and that ships never passed under it. Neither Strabo nor Pliny makes mention of any of these things, though both describe the gigantic statute minutely. Philo (the architect of Byzantium, third century) has a treatise on the seven wonders of the world, and says that the Colossos stood on a block of white marble, and Lucius Ampellius, in a similar treatise, says it stood in a car. Tickell out—herods Herod in the following lines:

“So, near proud Rhodes, across the raging flood,

Stupendous form! the vast Colossus stood,

While at one foot the thronging galleys ride,

A whole hour's sail scarce reached the farther side; Betwixt his brazen thighs, in loose array,

Ten thousand streamers on the billows play.”

On the Prospect of Peace.

“He doth bestride the narrow world

Like a Colossus.” Shakespeare: Julius Cæsar, i. 2.

The twin Colossi of Amenophis III., on the banks of the Nile, near Thebes, are seated. The statue of Liberty, New York, is colossal.

Colour

(See Rank .)

Colour

Colours. A man of colour. A negro, or, more strictly speaking, one with negro blood. (See Colours .)

“There are three great classes: (1) the pure whites; (2) the people of colour; (3) negroes and mulattoes.”— Edwards: St. Domingo, i.

Colours

(1) Black:

In blazonry,

sable, signifying prudence, wisdom, and constancy. In art, signifying evil, falsehood, and error.

As a mortuary colour,

signifying grief, despair, death. (In the Catholic Church violet may be substituted for black).

In metals

it is represented by lead. In precious stones it is represented by the diamond.

In planets it stands for Saturn.

In heraldry

it is engraved by perpendicular and horizontal lines crossing each other at right angles. (2) Blue:

In blazonry,

azure, signifying chastity, loyalty, fidelity. In art (as an angel's robe) it signifies fidelity and faith. In art (as the robe of the Virgin Mary) it signifies modesty. In art (in the Catholic Church) it signifies humility and expiation. As a mortuary colour it signifies eternity (applied to Deity), immortality (applied to man). In metals it is represented by tin.

In precious stones

it is represented by sapphire. In planets it stands for Jupiter.

In heraldry

it is engraved by horizontal lines. (3) Green:

In blazonry,

vert, signifying love, joy, abundance. In art, signifying hope, joy, youth, spring (among the Greeks and Moors it signified victory). In church ornaments, signifying God's bounty, mirth, gladness, the resurrection.

In metals

it is represented by copper. In precious stones it is represented by the emerald. In planets it stands for Venus.

As a railway signal

it means caution, go slowly.

In heraldry

it is engraved from left to right.

(4) Purple:

In blazonry,

purpure, signifying temperance. In art, signifying royalty.

In metals

it is represented by quicksilver. In precious stones it is represented by amethyst. In planets it stands for Mercury.

In heraldry

it is engraved by lines slanting from right to left. (5) Red:

In blazonry,

gules; blood—red is called sanguine. The former signifies magnanimity, and the latter, fortitude. In metals it is represented by iron (the metal of war).

In precious stones

it is represented by the ruby. In planets it stands for Mars.

In heraldry

it is engraved by perpendicular lines. (6) White:

In blazonry,

argent; signifying purity, truth, innocence. In art, priests, Magi, and Druids are arrayed in white. Jesus after the resurrection should be draped in white.' As a mortuary colour it indicates hope.

In metals

it is represented by silver. In precious stones it is represented by the pearl. In planets it stands for Diana or the Moon.

In heraldry

it is engraved by shields left white. (7) Yellow:

In blazonry

or signifying faith, constancy, wisdom, glory.

In modern art

or signifying jealousy, inconstancy, incontinence. In France the doors of traitors used to be daubed with yellow, and in some countries Jews were obliged to dress in yellow. In Spain the executioner is dressed in red and yellow.

In Christian art

Judas is arrayed in yellow; but St. Peter is also arrayed in golden yellow. In metals it is represented by gold.

In precious stones

it is represented by the topaz. In planets it stands for Apollo or the Sun.

In heraldry it is engraved by dots.

Colours for Church Decoration

White, for festivals of our Lord, for Easter, and for all saints except martyrs.

Red,

for martyrs, for Ash Wednesday, the last three days of Holy Week, and Whit Sunday. Blue, for all week—days after Trinity Sunday.

Blue

or Green, indifferently, for ordinary Sundays. Violet, Brown, or Grey, for Advent and Lent. Black, for Good Friday.

Colours of the University Boats, etc

(See College Colours .)

Colours

Accidental colours. Those colours seen on a white ground after looking for some time at a bright—coloured object, like the sun.

Complementary colours.

Colours which, in combination, produce white light

“The colour transmitted is always complementary to the one reflected.”— Brewster: Optics,

xii.

Fundamental colours.

The seven colours of the spectrum: violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange, and red. Or red, yellow, blue, also called primary or simple colours.

Secondary colours.

Those which result from the mixture of two or more primary or simple colours.

Colours

He was with the colours. In active military service.

“The period ... was raised from seven to nine years, five years being passed with the colours, and four in the reserve.”— Edinburgh Review (1886).

His coward lips did from their colours fly.

He was unable to speak. As cowards run away from their regimental colours, so [Caesar's] lips, when he was ill, ran away from their colour and turned pale.

To come out in his true colours.

To reveal one's proper character, divested of all that is meretricious. To describe [a matter] in very black colours. To see them with a jaundiced eye, and describe them accordingly; to describe [the matter] under the bias of strong prejudice.

To desert one's colours.

To become a turncoat; to turn tail. The allusion is to the military flag. To give colour or To give some plausible colour to the matter. To render the matter more plausible; to give it a more specious appearance.

To paint in bright colours.

To see or describe things in couleur de rose. Also “to paint in lively colours.” To put a false colour on a matter. To misinterpret it, or put a false construction on it.

To see things in their true colours.

To see them as they really are. Under colour of ... Under pretence of ...; under the alleged authority of ... Wearing his colours. Taking his part; being strongly attached to one. The idea is from livery.

“Jim could always count on every man, woman, and child, wherever he lived, wearing his colours, and backing him ... through thick and thin.”— Boldrewood: Robbery Under Arms, chap. xiv.

Without colour. “In nudâ veritate,”

without disguise.

Colours

National colours —

Great Britain Red and blue.

America, U.S. Stars on blue, white with red stripes.

Austria Red, white, and red.

Bavaria Red

Denmark Red, with white cross.

France Blue, white, and red.

Netherlands Red, white, and blue.

Portugal Blue and white.

Prussia White.

Russia White, with blue cross.

Spain Red, yellow, and red.

Sweden Blue, with yellow cross.

Switzerland Red, with white cross.

Colours Nailed to the Mast

(With our), à outrance. If the colours are nailed to the mast, they cannot be lowered to express submission.

“If they catch you at disadvantage, the mines for your life is the word; and so we fight them with our colours nailed to the mast.”— Sir W. Scott: The Pirate, chap. xxi.

Colour—blindness

Incapacity of discerning one colour from another. The term was introduced by Sir David Brewster. It is of three sorts: (1) inability to discern any colours, so that everything is either black or white, shade or light; (2) inability to distinguish between primary colours, as red, blue, and yellow; or secondary colours, as green, purple, and orange; and (3) inability to distinguish between such composite colours as browns, greys, and neutral tints. Except in this one respect, the colour—blind may have excellent vision.

Colour Sergeant

A sergeant who carries or has charge of the regimental colours.

Colour

(verb). To colour up, to turn red in the face; to blush.

(A). A blush.

Colporteur

A hawker or pedlar; so called because he carries his basket or pack round his neck. The term is more especially applied to hawkers of religious books. (Latin, collum, the neck; porto, to carry.)

Colt (A). A piece of knotted rope eighteen inches long for the special benefit of ship boys; a cat—o'—nine—tails.

“Look alive there, lads, or as sure as my name is Sam Weston I'll give the colt to the last man off the deck.”— J. Grant: Dick Rodney, chap. vii.

Colt

(A). A barrister who attends a sergeant—at—law at his induction.

“I accompanied the newly—made Chief Baron as his colt.”— Pollock.

“Then Mr. Railey, his colt, delivered his ring to the Lord Chancellor.”— Wynne.

Colt

(To). To befool, to gull. (Italian, colto, cheated, befooled.)

Colt—pixy

(A). A pixy, puck, or fairy. To colt—pixy is to take what belongs to the pixies, and is specially applied to the gleaning of apples after the crop has been gathered in; these apples were the privilege of the pixies, and to colt—pixy is to deprive the pixies of their perquisites.

Colt's Revolver

A fire—arm which, by means of revolving barrels, can be fired several times without intermission. This instrument was patented by Colonel Samuel Colt, U.S., in 1835.

Colt's—tooth

The love of youthful pleasure. Chaucer uses the word “coltish" for skittish. Horses have at three years old the colt's—tooth. The allusion is to the colt's teeth of animals, a period of their life when their passions are strongest.

“Her merry dancing—days are done;

She has a colt's—tooth still, I warrant.”

King: Orpheus and Eurydice

“Well said, Lord Sands;

Your colt's—tooth is not cast yet.”

Shakespeare: Henry VIII., 1.3.

Columbine

(3 syl.). The sweetheart of Harlequin, and, like him, supposed to be invisible to mortal eyes. Columbina in Italian is a pet—name for a lady—love, and means a little dove, a young coquette.

Columbus

His signature was—

S. i.e., Servidor

S. A. S. Sus Altezas Sacras

X. M. Y. Jesus Maria Isabel

Xto. FERENS Christo—pher

El Almirante El Almirante.

In English, “Servant— of their Sacred Highnesses— Jesus Mary and Isabella— Christopher— the Admiral.” The second Columbus. Cyrus West Field was so called by John Bright when he completed the Atlantic Cable. Born at Stockbridge, Massachusetts, 1819.

Columbus of the Skies

(The). Sir F. William Herschel, discoverer of Georgium Sidus (Uranus), 1738—1822.

Column The Alexandrine Column. Made of granite; in memory of the Emperor Alexander.

The Column of Antoninus.

At Rome; made of marble, 176 feet high; in memory of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antonius. Like that of Trajan, this column is covered externally with spiral bas—reliefs representing the wars carried on by the emperor.

Sixtus V. caused the original statue of this column to be supplanted by a figure of St. Paul. (See Trajan's Column.)

The Column of Arcadius.

At Constantinople; made of marble.

Column at Boulogne

To commemorate the camp of Boulogne. This formidable army was intended for the invasion of England. England also girded herself for battle, and here the matter ended. The Column perpetuates the memory of this threat. The Duke of York's Column, in London, at the top of the steps leading into St. James's Park. Erected in 1830—1833 in memory of Frederick, Duke of York, second son of George

III., who died in 1827. It is of the Tuscan order, was designed by R. Wyatt, and is made of Aberdeenshire granite On the summit is a statue of the duke by Sir R. Westmacott.

The Column of July.

1832, Paris; made of bronze, and erected on the spot where the Bastille stood, to commemorate the revolution of July, 1830, when Charles X. abdicated. It is surmounted with a statue of Liberty standing on one foot.

London's Column.

(See Monument.)

Nelson's Column.

In Trafalgar Square, London, was erected in 1843. The four lions, by Landseer, were added in 1867. The order of the Column is Corinthian, and the material Devonshire granite. The reliefs are (north side ) the battle of the Nile, where Nelson was wounded, (south side) Nelson's death at the battle of Trafalgar, (east side) the bombardment of Copenhagen; and (west side) the battle of St. Vincent. The column is surmounted by a statue of Nelson by E. H. Baily.

Column of the Place Vendôme.

Paris, 1806—1810; made of bronze, and erected in honour of Napoleon I. The spiral outside represents in bas—relief the battles of Napoleon I., ending with Austerlitz in 1805. It is a facsimile of Trajan's Column.

In 1871 the statue of Napoleon, which surmounted this column, was hurled to the ground by the Communists, but in 1874 a statue of Liberty was substituted for the original one.

Pompey's Column.

In Egypt, made of marble.

Trajan's Column.

At Rome, made of marble, A.D. 114, by Apollodorus. It is 132 feet in height, and has inside a spiral staircase of 185 steps, and 40 windows to let in light. It was surmounted by a statue of the Emperor Trajan, but Sixtus V. supplanted the original statue by that of St. Peter The spiral outside represents in bas—reliefs the battles of the emperor.

Columns of Hercules

Two large pyramidal columns set up by the Phoenicians as lighthouses and landmarks, dedicated, one to Hercules (the sun), and the other to Astarte (the moon).

By the Greeks and Romans the two pyramidal mountains at the Straits of Gibraltar (Calpe and Abyla), the former in Europe and the latter in Africa, were termed the Pillars of Hercules.

Coma Berenices

(4 syl.). (See Berenice .)

Comazants

Called St. Elmo fires by the French, Castor and Pollux by the Romans. A celestial light seen occasionally to play round mast—heads, etc. (Latin, coma, hair.) Virgil makes good use of this phenomenon while Æneas is hesitating whether to leave burning Troy or not:

“Ecce levis summo de vertice visus Iuli

Fundere lumen apex, tractuque innoxia mo

Lambere flamma comas, et circum tempora pasci Nos, pavidi trepidare metu, crinemque flagrantem Excutere, et sanctos restinguere fontibus ignes.”

When old Anchises interferes, and a falling star is interpreted to mean that Jupiter will lead them forth securely. (Æneid, ii. 682, etc.)

Comb

A crabtree comb. A cudgel applied to the head. To smooth your hair with a crabtree comb, is to give the head a knock with a stick.

Reynard's wonderful comb.

This comb existed only in the brain of Master Fox. He said it was made of the Panthera's bone, the perfume of which was so fragrant that no one could resist following it; and the wearer of the comb was always cheerful and merry. (Reynard the Fox, chap. ii.)

To comb one's head.

To humiliate a person, or to give him a “set down.”

“I'll carry you with me to my country box, and keep you out of harm's way, till I find you a wife who will comb your head for you.”— Bulwer—Lytton: What will he do with it? iv. 16.

To comb your noddle with a three—legged stool

(Taming of the Shrew, i. 1) is to beat you about the head with a stool. Many stools, such as those used by milkmaids, are still made with three legs; and these handy weapons seem to have been used at one time pretty freely, especially by angry women.

To cut one's comb.

To take down a person's conceit. In allusion to the practice of cutting the combs of capons.

To set up one's comb

is to be cockish and vainglorious.

Comb the Cat

(To). To run your fingers through the lashes of a cat—o'—nine—tails to disentangle them.

Come and take Them

The reply of Leonidas, King of Sparta, to the messengers sent by Xerxes to Thermop'—ylae. Xerxes said, “Go, and tell those madmen to deliver up their arms.” Leonidas replied, “Go, and tell Xerxes to come and take them.”

Come Ather

(pron. ah—ther) means, when addressed to horses, “come hither”— i.e. to the left, the side on which the teamsman walks.

Come Down a Peg

Humiliated; lowered in dignity, tone, demands, etc.

“Well, he has come down a peg or two, and he don't like it.”— Haggard.

A come down. Loss of prestige or position.

“ `Now I'm your worship's washerwoman.' The dignitary coloured, and said that `this was rather a come down.' ”— Reade.

Come Down upon One

(To). To reproach, to punish severely, to make a peremptory demand.

Come Home

Return to your house; to touch one's feelings or interest.

“No poetry was ever more human than Chaucer's; none ever came more generally ... home to its readers.”— Green: Short History of the English People, chap. v.

Come it

Has he come it? Has he lent the money? Has he hearkened to your request? Has he come over to your side? Also, “Out with it!”

Come it Strong

Lay it on thick; to exaggerate or overdo. (See Draw It Mild .)

Come Lightly

Lightly come, lightly go. There is a somewhat similar Latin proverb, male parta, male dilabuntur.

Come Of

What's to come of it? What's to come of him? A contracted form of become. To come of [a good stock] is to be descended from [a good family].

Come Off

(To). To occur, to take place. (Anglo—Saxon, of—cuman = Latin, pro—cedo, to proceed.) To come off with honours is to proceed to the end successfully.

Come On!

A challenge to fight with fists.

Come Out

Said of a young lady after she has been introduced at Court, or has entered into society as a “grown—up” person. She “comes out into society.”

Come Over One

(To). To wheedle one to do or give something. (Anglo—Saxon, ofer—cuman, to overcome.) To come over one is in reality to conquer or get your own way.

Come Round

(See Coming , etc.).

Come Short

(To). Not to be sufficient. “To come short of” means to miss or fail of attaining.

Come That

as, Can you come that? I can't come that. Here, “come" means to arrive at, to accomplish.

Come the Religious Dodge

(To) means to ask or seek some favour under pretence of a religious motive. Here “come” means to come and introduce. (See Dodge)

Come to

Amount to, to obtain possession. “It will not come to much.”

Come to Grief

(To). To fail, to prove a failure, as, “the undertaking (or company) came to grief,” i.e. to a grievous end.

Come to Hand

(It has). Been received. “Come into my hand.” In Latin, ad manus (alicujus) pervenire.

“Your letter came to hand yesterday.”— A. Trollope.

Come to Pass

(To). To happen, to befall, to come about.

“What thou hast spoken is come to pass.”— Jer. xxxii. 24.

“It came to pass in those days that there went out a decree.”— Luke ii. 1.

Come to an End

To terminate. The allusion is to travelling, when the traveller has come to the end of his journey.

Come to the Hammer To be sold by auction.

Come to the Heath

To tip. A pun taken from the place called Tip—tree Heath, in Essex. Our forefathers, and the French too, delighted in these sort of puns. A great source of slang. (See Chivy .)

Come to the Point

Speak out plainly what you want, do not beat about the bush, but state at once what you wish to say. The point is the gist or grit of a thing. Circumlocution is wandering round the point with words; to come to the point is to omit all needless speech, and bring all the straggling rays to a focus or point.

Come to the Scratch

(See Scratch .)

Come to the Worst

If the worst come to the worst; even if the very worst occurs.

Come Under

(To). To fall under; to be classed under.

Come Up

Marry, come up! (See Marry .) “To come up to” means to equal, to obtain the same number of marks, to amount to the same quantity.

Come Upon the Parish

(To). To live in the workhouse; to be supported by the parish.

Come Yorkshire over One

(To). To bamboozle one, to overreach one. Yorkshire has always been proverbial for shrewdness and sharp practice. “I's Yorkshire too” means, I am 'cute as you are, and am not to be taken in.

Comedy

means a village—song (Greek, Kome—ode), referring to the village merry—makings, in which comic songs still take a conspicuous place. The Greeks had certain festal processions of great licentiousness, held in honour of Dionysos, in the suburbs of their cities, and termed komoi or village—revels. On these occasions an ode was generally sung, and this ode was the foundation of Greek comedy. (See Tragedy .)

The Father of comedy.

Aristophanës, the Athenian ( B.C. 444—380).

Comes

(2 syl.). A Latin military title, now called count on the continent of Europe, but earl in England from the Saxon earldorman (alderman), Danish eorle. The wife of an earl is called countess.

Comet Wine

A term of praise to signify wine of superior quality. A notion prevails that the grapes in comet years are better in flavour than in other years, either because the weather is warmer and ripens them, better, or because the comets themselves exercise some chemical influence on them. Thus, wine of the years 1811, 1826, 1839, 1845, 1852, 1858, 1861, etc., have a repute.

“The old gentleman yet nurses some few bottles of the famous comet year (i.e. 1811), emphatically called comet wine.”— The Times.

Coming Round

He is coming round. Recovering from sickness; recovering from a fit of the sulks; returning to friendship. Death is the end of life, and therefore recovering from “sickness nigh unto death” is coming back to health, or coming round the corner.

Command Night

In theatrical parlance, a night on which a certain play is performed by command of some person of authority or influence.

Commandment

The eleventh commandment. Thou shalt not be found out.

“After all, that Eleventh Commandment is the only one that is vitally important to keep in these days.”— B. H. Buxton: Jennie of the Prince's, iii. 314.

The ten commandments. The ten fingers or nails. (Shakespeare: 2 Henry VI., i. 3.)

Comme il Faut

(French, pronounce cum eel fo), as it should be; quite proper; quite according to etiquette or rule.

Commendam

A living in commendam is a living held by a bishop till an incumbent is appointed. When a clergyman accepts a bishopric he loses all his previous preferment; but in order that these livings may not be uncared for, they are commended by the Crown to the care of the new bishop till they can be properly transferred. Abolished in 1836.

Commendation Ninepence

A bent silver ninepence, supposed to be lucky, and commonly used in the seventeenth century as a love—token, the giver or sender using these words, “From my love, to my love.” Sometimes the coin was broken, and each kept a part.

“Like commendation ninepence, crooked,

With `To and from my love,' it looked.”

Butler: Hudibras, i. 1.

Filbert:

As this divides, thus are we torn in twain. Kitty: And as this meets, thus may we meet again.” Gay: What d'ye Call It?

Commis—voyageur

(A). A commercial traveller.

Committee

A committee of the whole house, in Parliamentary language, is when the Speaker leaves the chair and all the members form a committee, where anyone may speak once or more than once. In such cases the chair is occupied by the chairman of committees, elected with each new Parliament.

A standing committee,

in Parliamentary language, is a committee which continues to the end of the current session. To this committee are referred all questions which fall within the scope of their appointment.

Committing Falsehood

Swindling.

The Earl of Rosebery pointed out that the expression “committing false—hood” in Scotch law was synonymous with what in England was called swindling (April 25th, 1885).

Commodity of Brown Paper

(A). Rubbish served as make—weight; worthless stock; goods palmed off on the inexperienced. In most auctions the buyer of a lot has a fair share of the commodity of brown paper. Rubbish given to supplement a loan.

“Here's young Master Rash! he's in for a commodity of brown paper and old ginger,

nine—score and seventeen pounds [i.e. 197, a part of the advance being old ginger and brown paper].”— Shakespeare: Measure for Measure, iv. 3.

Commodore

A corruption of “commander” (French, commandeur; Spanish, comendador). A naval officer in temporary command of a squadron or division of a fleet. He has the pay of a rear—admiral.

Common Pleas

Civil actions at law brought by one subject against another— not by the Crown against a subject. The Court of Common Pleas is for the trial of civil [not capital] offences. In 1875 this court was abolished, and in 1880 it was represented by the Common Pleas Division and merged in the King's [or Queen's] Bench Division.

Common Prayer The Book of Common Prayer. The book used by the Established Church of England in “divine service.” Common, in this case, means united.

Common Sense

does not mean that good sense which is common, or commonly needed in the ordinary affairs of life, but the sense which is common to all the five, or the point where the five senses meet, supposed to be the seat of the soul, where it judges what is presented by the senses, and decides the mode of action. (See Seven Senses .)

Commoner

The Great Commoner. 1. Sir John Barnard, who, in 1737, proposed to reduce the interest of the national debt from 4 per cent. to 3 per cent., any creditor being at liberty to receive his principal in full if he preferred it. Mr. Goschen (1889—90) reduced the 3 per cents. to two and a half.

2. William Pitt, the statesman (1759—1806).

Commons

To put one on short commons. To stint him, to give him scanty meals. In the University of Cambridge the food provided for each student at breakfast is called his commons; hence food in general or meals.

To come into commons.

To enter a society in which the members have a common or general dinner table.

Commons in Gross

— that is, at large. These are commons granted to individuals and their heirs by deed, or claimed by prescription as by a parson or corporation.

Commonwealths

(Ideal). “Utopia” by Sir Thomas More, “The New Atlantis" by Lord Bacon, “The City of the Sun” by Campanella, etc.

Companion Ladder

The ladder leading from the poop to the main deck. The “companion way” is the staircase to the cabin. (Dana: Seaman's Manual.)

The staircase from the deck to the cabin.

Companions of Jehu

The Chouans were so called, from a fanciful analogy between their self—imposed task and that appointed to Jehu, on being set over the kingdom of Israel. Jehu was to cut off Ahab and Jezebel, with all their house, and all the priests of Baal. The Chouans were to cut off all who assassinated Louis XVI., and see that his brother (Jehu) was placed on the throne.

Comparisons are Odorous

So says Dogberry. (Much Ado About Nothing, iii. 5.)

“We own your verses are melodious,

But then comparisons are odious.”

Swift, Answer to Sheridan's “Simile.”

Complementary Colours

(See Colours )

Complexion

literally means “what embraces or contains,” and the idea implies that the colour of the skin corresponds to the habit of body, and the habit of body answers to the element which predominates. If fire predominates, the person is bilious or full of bile, if air, he is sanguine or full of blood, if earth, the body is melancholic or full of black bile, if water, it is phlegmatic or full of phlegm. The first is hot and dry, the second hot and moist, the third cold and dry, and the last moist and cold like water.

“'Tis ill, tho' different your complexions are [i.e. dispositions].” Dryden.

“Cretans through mere complexion lie.”

Pitt: Hymn of Callimachus.

Compline

(2 syl.). The last service of the day in the Roman Catholic Church. First appointed by the abbot Benedict in the sixth century. The word is a corruption of completorium.

In ecclesiastical Latin vesperinus, from vesper, means evening service, and completinus is formed on the same model.

Compostella

A corruption of Giacomo—postolo (James the Apostle). So called after his relics were transferred thither from Iria Flavia (El Padron) on the borders of Galicia, in the ninth century. Leo III. transferred the See of Iria Flavia to Compostella. (Somewhere between 810 and 816.)

Compte rendu

The account already sent; the account of particulars delivered; a report of proceedings.

Comrade

(2 syl.). The name of Fortunio's fairy horse. It ate but once a week; knew the past, present, and future; and spake with the voice of a man. (Grimm's Goblins: Fortunio.) (See Horse )

Comrades

(2 syl.). Those who sleep in the same bed—chamber. It is a Spanish military term derived from the custom of dividing soldiers into chambers. The proper spelling is camerades, men of the same camera (chamber).

Comus

God of revelry. Milton represents him as a male Circe. (Greek, komos, carousal.)

“This nymph [Circe], that gazed upon his [Bacchus's] clustering locks, ... Had by him, ere he parted thence, a son,

Much like his father, but his mother more,

Whom therefore she brought up, and Comus named.”

Milton: Comus,

54—58.

Comus.

The elder brother in this domestic drama is meant for Lord Viscount Brackley, eldest son of John, Earl of Bridgewater, president of Wales. The younger brother is Mr. Thomas Egerton. The lady is Lady Alice Egerton. (Milton.)

Comus's Court

A social gathering formerly held at the Half—Moon Tavern in Cheapside, London.

Con Amore

(Italian). With heart and soul; as, “He did it con amore ”— i.e. lovingly, with delight, and therefore in good earnest.

Con Commodo

(Italian). At a convenient rate. A musical term.

Con Spirito

(Italian). With quickness and vivacity. A musical term.

Conan

The Thersites of “Fingal;” brave even to rashness.

Blow for blow

or claw for claw, as Conan said. Conan made a vow never to take a blow without returning it; when he descended into the infernal regions, the arch—fiend gave him a cuff, which Conan instantly returned, saying “Claw for claw.”

“ `Blow for blow,' as Conan said to the devil.”— Scott Waverley, chap. xxii.

Concert Pitch

The degree of sharpness or flatness adopted by a number of musicians acting in concert, that all the instruments may be in accord. Generally, a particular note is selected for the standard, as A or C; this

note is put into the proper pitch, and all other notes are regulated by it.

Concerto

(Italian). A composition intended to display the powers of some particular instrument, with orchestral accompaniments.

Concierge

(3 syl.). French. The door — porter of a public or private “hotel,” or house divided into flats, or of a prison.

Conciergerie

(French.) The office or room of a concierge or porter's lodge; a state prison. During the Revolution it was the prison where the chief victims were confined prior to execution.

Conclave

(2 syl.). A set of rooms, all of which are entered by one common key (Latin, con clavis). The word is applied to the little deal cells erected in some large apartment for the cardinals who meet to choose a new Pope, because the long gallery of the Vatican between the cells and the windows of the palace is common ground to all the conclavists. The assembly itself is, by a figure of speech, also called a conclave.

Conclamatio

amongst the ancient Romans, was similar to the Irish howl over the dead; and, as in Ireland, women led the funeral cortège, weeping ostentatiously and gesticulating. “One not howled over” (corpus nondum conclamatum) meant one at the point of death; and “one howled for” was one given up for dead or really deceased. Virgil tells us that the ululation was a Phoenician custom; and therefore he makes the palace ring with howls when Dido burnt herself to death.

“Lamentis, gemituque, et foemineo ululato,

Texta fremunt.” Æneid, iv. 667.

Conclamatum est

He is dead past all hope. The sense of hearing is generally the last to fail in the hour of death, hence the Romans were accustomed to call on the deceased three times by name, and if no indication of hearing was shown death was considered certain. Conclamatum est, he has been called and shows no sign.

Concord is Strength

The wise saw of Periander, “tyrant” of Corinth ( B.C. 665—585).

Concordat

An agreement made between a ruler and the Pope relative to the collation of benefices. As the Concordat of 1801 between Napoleon Bonaparte and Pope Pius VII.; the Concordat of 1516 between Francois

I. and Pope Leo X. to abolish the “pragmatic sanction;” and the Germanic Concordat of 1448 between Frederick III. and Pope Nicholas V.

Condign'

Latin; condignus (well worthy); as condign punishment— i.e. punishment well deserved.

“In thy condign praise.”

Shakespeare: Love's Labour's Lost,

i. 2.

Condottieri

Leaders of military adventurers in the fifteenth century. The most noted of these brigand leaders in Italy were Guarnieri, Lando, Francesco of Carmagnola, and Francesco Sforza. Giacomo Sforza, the son of Francesco, married the daughter of the Duke of Milan, and succeeded his father—in—law. The singular is Condottiere (5 syl.).

Confederate States

The eleven States which revolted from the Union in the late American Civil War (1861—1866)— viz. Georgia, North and South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Florida and Texas.

Confederation of the Rhine Sixteen German provinces in 1806 dissolved their connection with Germany, and allied themselves with France. At the downfall of Napoleon in 1814 this confederation melted away of itself.

Confession

John of Nepomuc, canon of Prague, suffered death rather than violate the seal of confession. The Emperor Wenceslas ordered him to be thrown off a bridge into the Moldau, because he refused to reveal the confession of the empress. He was canonised as St. John Nepomucen.

Confiscate

(3 syl.). To forfeit to the public treasury. (Latin, con fiscus, with the tribute money.)

“If thou dost shed one drop of Christian blood,

Thy lands and goods are, by the laws of Venice, Confiscate to the State of Venice.”

Shakespeare: Merchant of Venice, iv. 1.

Confusion Worse Confounded

Disorder made worse than before.

“With ruin upon ruin, rout on rout,

Confusion worse confounded.”

Milton: Paradise Lost, ii. line 996.

Conge

“To give a person his congé” is to dismiss him from your service. “To take one's congé” is to give notice to friends of your departure. This is done by leaving a card at the friend's house with the letters P.P.C. (pour prendre congé) inscribed on the left—hand corner. (French, donner congé and donner à son congé.)

Conge d'Elire

(Norman — French, leave to elect). A royal warrant given to the dean and chapter of a diocese to elect the person nominated by the Crown to their vacant see.

Congleton Bears

The men of Congleton. It is said that the Congleton parish clerk sold the church Bible to buy a bear.

Congregationalists

Those Protestant Dissenters who maintain that each congregation is an independent community, and has a right to make its own laws and choose its own minister. They rose in the time of Queen Elizabeth.

Congreve Rockets

(1808.) So called from Sir William Congreve, eldest son of Lieut.—Colonel Sir William Congreve (1772—1828).

Congreves

A predecessor of Lucifer matches. The splints were first dipped in sulphur, and then tipped with the chlorate of potash paste, in which gum was substituted for sugar, and there was added a small quantity of sulphide of antimony. The match was ignited by being drawn through a fold of sand—paper with pressure. These matches, being dangerous, were prohibited in France and Germany. (See Prometheans;Lucifers )

Conjugal

What pertains to conjuges (yoke—fellows). In ancient times a yoke (jugum) was put on a man and woman by way of marriage ceremony, and the two were said to be yoked together by marriage.

Conjuring Cap

I must put on my conjuring cap— i.e. your question requires deliberate thought, and I must reflect on it. Eric XIV., King of Sweden, was a great admirer of magic, and had an “enchanted cap” made, either to keep his head warm or for mystification. He pretended to have power over the elements; and when a storm arose, his subjects used to say “The king has got on his conjuring cap.”

Connecticut U.S. America, is the Indian Quin — neh — tuk — qut, meaning “land of the long tidal river.”

Connubialis de Mulcibre fecit Apellem

Love turned a blacksmith into a great artist. Said of Quentin Matsys, the blacksmith of Antwerp, who was in love with an artist's daughter. The father scorned the alliance, and said he should not be accepted unless he made himself a worthy artist. This did Matsys and won his bride. The sentence may be seen still on the monument of Quentin Matsys outside Antwerp cathedral.

Conqueror

The Conqueror.

Alexander the Great. The conqueror of the world. ( B.C. 356, 336—323.) Alfonso of Portugal. (1094, 1137—1185.)

Aurungzebe the Great. Alemgir. The most powerful of the great Moguls. (1618, 1659—1707.) James I. of Aragon. (1206, 1213—1276.)

Othman or Osman I. Founder of the Turkish power. (1259, 1299—1326.) Francisco Pizarro. Conquistador. So called because he conquered Peru. (1475—1541.) William, Duke of Normandy. So called because he obtained England by conquest. (1027, 1066—1087.)

Conqueror's Nose

(A). A prominent straight nose, rising at the bridge. Charlemagne had such a nose, so had Henry the Fowler (Heinrich I. of Germany), Rudolf I. of Germany; Friedrich I. of Hohenzollern, famous for reducing to order his unruly barons by blowing up their castles (1382—1440); our own “Iron Duke,” Bismarck, the iron Chancellor of Prussia, etc.

Conquest

(The). The accession of William I. to the crown of England. So called because his right depended on his conquest of Harold, the reigning king. (1066.)

Conrad

(Lord). Afterwards called Lara, the corsair. A proud, ascetic, but successful captain. Hearing that the Sultan Seyd was about to attack the pirates, Conrad assumed the disguise of a dervish and entered the palace, while his crew set fire to the sultan's fleet. The trick being discovered, Conrad was taken prisoner, but was released by Gulnare, the sultan's favourite concubine, whom he had rescued from the flaming palace. Gulnare escaped with the corsair to the Pirates' Isle, and when Conrad found Medora dead, he left the island, and no one knew whither he went. The rest of his adventures are recorded under his new name of Lara. (Byron: The Corsair.)

Conscience

Have you the conscience to [demand such a price]. Can your conscience allow you to [demand such a price]. Conscience is the secret monitor within man which accuses or excuses him, as he does what he thinks to be wrong or right.

In all conscience.

As, “And enough too, in all conscience.” Meaning that the demand made is as much as conscience would tolerate without accusing the person of actual dishonesty; to the verge of that fine line which separates honesty from dishonesty.

My conscience!

An oath. I swear by my conscience.

Court of Conscience.

Established for the recovery of small debts in London and other trading places. These courts have been superseded by county courts.

“Why should not Conscience have vacation,

As well as other courts o' the nation?”

Butler: Hudibras, ii. 2.

Nonconformist Conscience.

(See Nonconformist)

Conscience Clause

(A). A clause in an Act of Parliament to relieve persons with conscientious scruples from certain requirements in it.

Conscience Money

Money paid anonymously to Government by persons who have defrauded the revenue. Their conscience being uneasy, they send the deficit to the Treasury, and the sum is advertised in the Gazette.

Conscious Water

The conscious water saw its God, and blushed (Nympha pudica Deum vidit, et erubuit). Crashaw's epigram on the miracle of Cana in Galilee. “The modest water” would be a closer rendering.

Conscript Fathers

In Latin, Patres Conscripti. The Roman senate. Romulus instituted a senate consisting of a hundred elders, called Patres (Fathers). After the Sabines joined the State, another hundred were added. Tarquinius Priscus, the fifth king, added a third hundred, called Patres Minorum Gentium. When Tarquinius Superbus, the seventh and last king of Rome, was banished, several of the senate followed him, and the vacancies were filled up by Junius Brutus, the first consul. The new members were enrolled in the senatorial register, and called Conscripti; the entire body was then addressed as Patres [et] Conscripti or Patres, Conscripti.

Consentes Dii

The twelve chief Roman deities— Jupiter, Apollo, Mars, Neptune, Mercury, and Vulcan. Juno, Vesta, Minerva, Ceres, Diana, and Venus. Ennius puts them into two hexameter verses:

“Juno, Vesta, Minerva, Ceres, Diana, Venus, Mars,

Mercurius, Jovi', Neptunus, Vulcanus, Apollo.”

Called “consentes,” says Varro,

“Quia in consilium Jovis adhibebantur.”— De Lingua Latina, vii. 28.

Consenting Stars

Stars forming configurations for good or evil. In Judges v. 20 we read that “the stars in their courses fought against Sisera,” i.e. formed unlucky or malignant configurations.

“... Scourge the bad revolting stars

That have consented unto Henry's death.”

Shakespeare: 1 Henry VI., i. 1.

Conservative

(4 syl.). A medium Tory— one who wishes to preserve the union of Church and State, and not radically to alter the constitution. The word was first used in this sense in 1830, in the January number of the Quarterly Review — “We have always been conscientiously attached to what is called the Tory, and which might with more propriety be called the Conservative party” (p. 276).

Canning, ten years previously, had used the word in a speech delivered at Liverpool in March, 1820. In

Lord Salisbury's Ministry those Whigs and Radicals who joined the Conservatives were called “Liberal Unionists” because they objected to give Ireland a separate parliament (1885).

Consistory

(A). An ecclesiastical court. In Rome it consists of the cardinals, presided over by the Pope. In England it is a diocesan court, presided over by the chancellor of the diocese.

Consolidated Fund

(The). In 1757 an Act was passed for consolidating the nine loans bearing different interests, into one common loan bearing an interest of three per cent. In 1890 this interest was reduced to two and three—quarter per cent.; and in 1903 will be still further reduced to two and a—half per cent. This fund is pledged for the payment of the interest of the national debt, the civil list, the salaries of the judges, ambassadors, and other high officials, etc.

Consols

A contraction of Consolidated Fund. (See above.)

Consort

is, properly, one whose lot is cast in with another. As the Queen does not lose by marriage her separate existence, like other women, her husband is called a consort, because he consorts with the Queen, but does not share her sovereignty.

“Wilt thou be our consort?”

Shakespeare: Two Gentlemen of Verona,

iv. 1.

Conspirators

Members of a commercial ring or corner. (See Corner, Trusts ) These merchants “conspire” to fix the price of articles, and make the public bleed ad libitum. In criminal law it means persons who league together to do something unlawful.

Constable

(Latin, comes—stabuli) means “Master of the Horse.” The constable of England and France was at one time a military officer of state, next in rank to the crown.

To overrun

or outrun the constable. To get into debt; spend more than one's income; to talk about what you do not understand. (See below. )

“Quoth Hudibras, Friend Ralph, thou hast

Outrun the constable at last;

For thou hast fallen on a new

Dispute, as senseless as untrue.”
Butler: Hudibras, i. 3.

Who's to pay the constable?

Who is to pay the score?

The constable arrests debtors, and, of course, represents the creditor; wherefore, to overrun the constable is to overrun your credit account. To pay the constable is to give him the money due, to prevent an arrest.

Constable de Bourbon

Charles, Duc de Bourbon, a powerful enemy of Francois I. He was killed while heading the assault on Rome. (1527.)

Constantine Tolman

(Cornwall). A vast egg—like stone, thirty—three feet in length, eighteen in width, and fourteen in thickness, placed on the points of two natural rocks, so that a man may creep under it. The stone upheld weighs 750 tons.

Constantine's Cross

In Latin, vinces in hoc; in English, By this conquer. It is said that Constantine, on his march to Rome, saw a luminous cross in the sky, in the shape and with the motto here given. In the night before the battle of Saxa Rubra a vision appeared to him in his sleep, commanding him to inscribe the cross and the motto on the shields of his soldiers. He obeyed the voice of the vision, and prevailed. The monogram

is CRistoz (Christ). (See Gibbon: Decline and Fall, chap. xix. n.)

This may be called a standing miracle in legendary history; for, besides Andrew's cross, and the Dannebrog or red cross of Denmark (q.v.), we have the cross which appeared to Don Alonzo before the battle of Ourique in 1139, when the Moors were totally routed with incredible slaughter. As Alonzo was drawing up his men, the figure of a cross appeared in the eastern sky, and Christ, suspended on the cross, promised the Christian king a complete victory. This legend is commemorated by the device assumed by Alonzo, in a field argent five escutcheons azure, in the form of a cross, each escutcheon being charged with five bezants, in memory of the five wounds of Christ. (See Labarum)

Constituent Assembly

The first of the national assemblies of the French Revolution; so called because it took an oath never to separate till it had given to France a constitution. (1788—1791.)

Constituents

Those who constitute or elect members of Parliament. (Latin, constituo, to place or elect, etc.)

Constitution

The fundamental laws of a state. It may be either despotic, aristocratic, democratic, or mixed.

To give a nation a constitution

is to give it fixed laws even to the limitation of the sovereign's rights, so that the people are not under the arbitrary caprice of a ruler, but under a known code of laws. A despotism or autocracy is solely under the unrestricted will of the despot or autocrat.

Constitutions of Clarendon

(See Clarendon

Apostolic Constitutions.

A “Catholic” code of both doctrine and discipline collected by Clemens Romaus. The word “Apostolic,” as in the “Apostles' Creed,” does not mean made by the Apostles, but what the

“Church” considered to be in accordance with apostolic teaching.

Construe

To translate. To translate into English means to set an English word in the place of a foreign word, and to put the whole sentence in good grammatical order. (Latin, construo, to construct.)

Consuelo

(4 syl.). The impersonation of moral purity in the midst of temptations. The heroine of George Sand's (Mad. Dudevant's) novel of the same name.

Contango

The sum paid by a speculator on a “bull account” (i.e. a speculation on the rise in the price of certain stock), to defer completing the bargain till the next settling day. (See Backwardation )

Contemplate

(3 syl.). To inspect or watch the temple. The augur among the Romans, having taken his stand on the Capitoline Hill, marked out with his wand the space in the heavens he intended to consult. This space he called the templum. Having divided his templum into two parts from top to bottom, he watched to see what would occur; the watching of the templum was called contemplating.

Contempt of Court

Refusing to conform to the rules of the law courts. Consequential contempt is that which tends to obstruct the business or lower the dignity of the court by indirection. Direct contempt is an open insult or resistance to the judge or others officially employed in the court.

Contenement

A word used in Magna Charta, meaning the lands and chattels connected with a tenement; also whatever befits the social position of a person, as the arms of a gentleman, the merchandise of a trader, the ploughs and wagons of a peasant, etc.

“In every case the contenement (a word expressive of chattels necessary to each man's station) was exempted from seizure.”— Hallam: Middle Ages, part ii. chap. viii. p. 342.

Contentment is true Riches

The wise saw of Democritos, the laughing philosopher. ( B.C. 509—400.)

“Content is wealth, the riches of the mind;

And happy he who can such riches find.”

Dryden: Wife of Bath's Tale.

Contests of Wartburg

(The), sometimes called The Battles of the Minstrels. An annual contest held in Wartburg, in Saxe Weimar, for a prize given by Hermann, Margrave of Thuringia, for the best poem. About 150 specimens of these poems are still extant, by far the best being those of Walter of Vogelweide, in Thuringia (1168—1230).

The poem called The Contest of Wartburg is by Wolfram, a minnesinger. It records the contest of the two great German schools of poetry in the thirteenth century— the Thuringian and the Suabian. Henry of

Vogel—weide and Henry of Ofterdingen represent the two schools.

Continence of a Scipio

It is said that a beautiful princess fell into the hands of Scipio Africanus, and he refused to see her, “lest he should be tempted to forget his principles.” The same is said of Cyrus (see Panthea), of Anson (see Theresa ), and of Alexander.

Continental System

A name given to Napoleon's plan for shutting out Great Britain from all commerce with the continent of Europe. He forbade under pain of war any nation of Europe to receive British exports, or to send imports to any of the British dominions. It began Nov. 21st, 1806.

Contingent

(A). The quota of troops furnished by each of several contracting powers, according to agreement. The word properly means the number which falls to the lot of each; hence we call a fortuitous event a contingency.

Contra bonos Mores

(Latin). Not in accordance with good manners; not comme il faut (q.v.).

Contretemps

(French). A mischance, something inopportune. Literally, “out of time.”

Conventicle

means a “little convent,” and was originally applied to a cabal of monks against the election of a proposed abbot. It now means a religious meeting of dissenters. (Latin, conventus, an assembly, with a diminutive.) (See Chapel )

Conversation Sharp

Richard Sharp, F.R.S., the critic. (1759—1835.)

Convey

A polite term for steal. Thieves are, by a similar euphemism, called conveyers. (Latin, con—veho, to carry away.)

“Convey, the wise it call. Steal! foh! a fico for the phrase.”— Shakespeare: Merry Wives of Windsor, i. 3.

Conveyers

Thieves. (See above.)

“Bolingbroke. `Go, some of you, convey him to the Tower.'

Rich. II.

`O, good! “Convey.” Conveyers are ye all,

That rise thus nimbly by a true king's fall.' “

Shakespeare: Richard II., iv. 4.

Conway Cabal

(The), 1777. A faction organised to place General Gates at the head of the American army. He conquered Burgoyne, October, 1777, at Saratoga, and hoped to supplant Washington. The Conway referred to is the town in New Brunswick, North America, where the cabal was formed.

General Gates was conquered in 1780 by Lord Cornwallis.

Conyger

or Conigry. A warren for conies, a cony—burrow.

Cooing and Billing

like Philip and Mary on a shilling. The reference is to coins struck in the year 1555, in which Mary and her consort are placed face to face, and not cheek by jowl, the usual way.

“Still amorous, and fond, and billing,

Like Philip and Mary on a shilling.”
Hudibras, part iii. 1.

Cook your Goose

(See Goose )

Cooked

The books have been cooked. The ledger and other trade books have been tampered with, in order to show a balance in favour of the bankrupt. The term was first used in reference to George Hudson, the railway king, under whose chairmanship the Eastern Counties Railway accounts were falsified. The allusion is to preparing meat for table.

Cooking

Terms belonging to cuisine applied to man under different circumstances: Sometimes he is well basted; he boils with rage, is baked with heat, and burns with love or jealousy. Sometimes he is buttered and well buttered; he is often cut up, devoured with a flame, and done brown. We dress his jacket for him; sometimes he is eaten up with care; sometimes he is fried. We cook his goose for him, and sometimes he makes a goose of himself. We make a hash of him, and at times he makes a hash of something else. He gets into hot water, and sometimes into a mess. Is made into mincemeat, makes mincemeat of his money, and is often in a pickle. We are often asked to toast him, sometimes he gets well roasted, is sometimes set on fire, put into a stew, or is in a stew no one knows why. A “soft” is half—baked, one severely handled is well peppered, to falsify accounts is to salt them, wit is Attic salt, and an exaggerated statement must be taken cum grano salis. A pert young person is a sauce box, a shy lover is a spoon, a rich father has to fork out, and is sometimes dished of his money.

ii. Connected with foods and drinks.

A conceited man does not think small beer (or small potatoes) of himself, and our mouth is called a potato—trap. A simpleton is a cake, a gudgeon, and a pigeon. Some are cool as a cucumber, others hot as a quail. A chubby child is a little dumpling. A man or woman may be a cheese or duck. A courtesan is called a mutton, and a large coarse hand is a mutton fist. A greedy person is a pig, a fat one is a sausage, and a shy one, if not a sheep, is certainly sheepish; while a Lubin casts sheep's eyes at his lady—love. A coward is chicken —hearted, a fat person is crummy, and a cross one is crusty, while an aristocrat belongs to the upper crust of society. A yeoman of the guards is a beef—eater, a soldier a red herring, a policeman a lobster, and a stingy, ill—tempered old man is a crab. A walking advertiser between two boards is a sandwich. An alderman

in his chair is a turkey hung with sausages. Two persons resembling each other are like as two peas. A chit is a mere sprat, a delicate maiden a tit—bit, and a colourless countenance is called a whey — face. “How now? ... Where got ye that whey—face?”

Cooks

Athenæ'us affirms that cooks were the first kings of the earth.

In the luxurious ages of ancient Greece Sicilian cooks were most esteemed, and received very high wages. Among them Trimalcio was very celebrated. It is said that he could cook the most common fish, and give it the flavour and look of the most highly esteemed.

In the palmy days of Rome a chief cook had 800 a year. Antony gave the cook who arranged his banquet for Cleopatra the present of a city.

Modern Cooks.

CAREME. Called the “Regenerator of Cookery” (1784—1833). FRANCATELLI (Charles Elmé), who succeeded Ude at Crockford's. Afterwards he was appointed to the Royal household, and lastly to the Reform Club (1805—1876).

SOYER (Alexis), who died 1858. His epitaph is Soyer tranquille.

UDE. The most learned of modern cooks, author of Science de Gueule. It was Ude who said, “A cook must be born a cook, he cannot be made.” Another of his sayings is this: “Music, dancing, fencing, painting, and mechanics possess professors under the age of twenty years, but pre—eminence in cookery can never be attained under thirty years of age.” Ude was chef to Louis XIV., then to Lord Sefton, then to the Duke of York, then to Crockford's Club. He left Lord Sefton's because on one occasion one of the guests added pepper to his soup.

VATEL. At a fête given by the great Condé to Louis XIV. at Cantilly the roti at the twenty—fifth table was wanting. Vatel being told of it exclaimed that he could not survive such a disgrace. Another messenger then announced that the lobsters for the turbot—sauce had not arrived, whereupon Vatel retired to his room and, leaning his sword against the wall, thrust himself through, and at the third attempt succeeded in killing himself (1671).

WELTJE. Cook to George while Prince Regent.

Cool Card

You are a cool card (or pretty cool card). A person who coolly asks for something preposterous or outrageous. Card = character, hence a queer card, a rum card, etc. And “cool” in this connection means coolly impudent.

Gifford says the phrase means a “cooling—card, or bolus ”; but this is not likely, as a cool—card acts generally as an irritant. A person's card of address is given at the door, and represents the person himself, and this without doubt is the card referred to.

“You're a shaky old card; and you can't be in love with this Lizzie.”— Dickens: Our Mutual Friend, book iii. chap. i. p. 192.

Cool as a Cucumber

Perfectly composed; neither angry nor agitated in the least.

Cool Hundred

(A) or Cool Thousand (or any other sum) means entire, or the whole of 100. Cool, in this case, means not influenced by hot—headed enthusiasm or exaggeration.

“I lost a cool hundred myself.”— Mackenzie.

Cool Tankard

(A) or Cool Cup. A drink made of wine and water, with lemon, sugar, and borage; sometimes also slices of cucumber.

Coon

(A) means a racoon, a small American animal valued for its fur. It is about the size of a fox, and lodges in hollow trees.

A gone coon.

A person in a terrible fix; one on the verge of ruin. The coon being hunted for its fur is a “gone

coon” when it has no escape from its pursuers. It is said that Colonel Crockett was one day out

racoon—shooting in North America, when he levelled his gun at a tree where an “old coon” was concealed. Knowing the colonel's prowess, it cried out, in the voice of a man, “Hallo, there! air you Colonel Crockett? for if you air, I'll jist come down, or I know I am a gone 'coon.”

Martin Scott, lieutenant—general of the United States, is said to have had a prior claim to this saying.

Cooper

Half stout and half porter. The term arises from the practice at breweries of allowing the coopers a daily portion of stout and porter. As they do not like to drink porter after stout, they mix the two together.

Cooper

A coop for wine bottles. The bottles lie in a slanting position in the coop, and may be transported in it from place to place. We find allusions to “six—bottle coopers” not unfrequently, i.e. coops or cases containing six bottles. Compare “hen—coops,” “cooped up,” etc. (Latin, cupa, a cask; our “cup.”)

“(Enter waiter with a cooper of wine.)

Waiter:

Six bottles of wine for Corporal Toddy.” O'Keeffe: Rogues All, iii. 4.

Cooper

Do you want a cooper? This question is asked of those who have an order to visit the wine cellars of the London Docks. The “cooper" bores the casks and gives the visitor different wines to taste.

Cooper's Hill

Near Runnymede and Egham. Both Denham and Pope have written in praise of this hill.

“If I can be to thee

A poet, thou Parnassus art to me.” Denham.

Coot

A silly old coot. Stupid as a coot. The coot is a small water—fowl.

Bald as a coot.

The coot has a strong, straight, and somewhat conical bill, the base of which tends to push up the forehead, and there dilates, so as to form a remarkable naked patch.

Cop

(A). A policeman.

Cop

(A). A copperhead (q.v.).

Cop To throw, as cop it here. The word properly means to beat or strike, as to cop a shuttlecock or ball with a bat. (Greek, copto, to beat); but in Norfolk it means to “hull” or throw.

Cop

(To). To catch [a fever, etc.]. To “get copped” is to get caught by the police. (Latin, capere, to take, etc.) A similar change of a into o is in cotched (caught).

“They thought I was sleepin', ye know,

And they sed as I'd copped it o' Jim;

Well, it come like a bit of a blow,

For I watched by the deathbed of him.”

Sims: Dagonet Ballads (The Last Letter).

“ `I shall cut this to—morrow, ...” said the younger man. `You'll be copped, then,' replied the other.”— T. Terrell: Lady Delmar.

Copenhagen

The Duke of Wellington's horse, on which he rode in the Battle of Waterloo, “from four in the morning till twelve at night.” It was a rich chestnut, 15 hands high. It was afterwards a pensioner in the paddocks of Strathfieldsaye. It died quite blind, in 1835, at the age of twenty—seven, and was buried with military honours. (See Horse .)

Copernicanism

The doctrine that the earth moves round the sun, in opposition to the doctrine that the sun moves round the earth; so called after Nicolas Copernicus, the Prussian astronomer. (1473—1543.)

“Even Bellarmine does not by any means hold the consensus to be decisive against Copernicanism; for, in his letter to F. Foscarini, he says that though he does not believe that any proof of the earth's motion can be adduced, yet, should such proof occur, he is quite prepared to change his views as to the meaning of the Scripture text.”— Nineteenth Century, May, 1886 (The Case of Galileo ).

“Whereas it has come to the knowledge of the Holy Congregation that that false Pythagorean doctrine altogether opposed to Holy Scripture, on the mobility of the earth and the immobility of the sun, taught by Nicholas Copernicus. ... This congregation has decreed that the said book of Copernicus be suspended until it be corrected.”— Decree of the H. Congregation of the Index, A.D. 1616. (Quoted in the Nineteenth Century, as above.)

Copesmate

(2 syl.). A companion. “Copesmate of ugly night” (Rape of Lucrece), a mate who copes with you.

Cophetua

An imaginary king of Africa, of great wealth, who “disdained all womankind.” One day he saw a beggar—girl from his window, and fell in love with her. He asked her name; it was Penelophon, called by Shakespeare Xenelophon (Love's Labour's Lost, iv. 1).

They lived together long and happily, and at death were universally lamented. (Percy's Reliques, book ii. 6.)

“King Cophetua loved the beggar—maid.”

Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet.

ii. 1.

Copper

(A). A policeman. Said to be so called from the copper badge which Fernando Wood, of New York, appointed them to wear; but more likely a variant of “cop” (q.v.).

“There were cries of `Coppers, Coppers!' in the yard, and then a violent struggle. ... Whoever it was that was wanted had been evidently secured and dragged off to gaol.'— T. Terrell: Lady Delmar, 1.

Copper was by the ancient alchemists called Venus; gold, symbol of Apollo (the sun); silver, of Diana (the moon); iron, of Mars; quicksilver, of Mercury; tin, of Jupiter; and lead, of Saturn.

Copper

Give us a copper, i.e. a piece of copper money. I have no coppers — no ha'pence.

Copper Captain

(A). A Brummagem captain; a “General von Poffenburgh.” Michael Perez is so called in Rule a Wife and have a Wife, by Beaumont and Fletcher.

“To this copper—captain was confided the command of the troops.”— W. Irving.

Copper Nose

Oliver Cromwell; also called “Ruby Nose,” “Nosey,” and “Nose Almighty,” no doubt from some scorbutic tendency which showed itself in a big red nose.

Copper—nosed Harry

Henry VIII. When Henry VIII. had spent all the money left him by his miserly father, he minted an inferior silver coin, in which the copper alloy soon showed itself on the more prominent parts, especially the nose of the face; and hence the people soon called the king “Old Copper—nose.”

Copperheads

Secret foes. Copperheads are poisonous serpents of America that give no warning, like rattlesnakes, of their attack. In the great Civil War of the United States the term was applied by the Federals to the peace party, supposed to be the covert friends of the Confederates.

Copple

The hen killed by Reynard, in the tale of Reynard the Fox.

Copronymus

So Constantine V. was surnamed (718, 741—775). “Kopros” is the Greek for dung, and Constantine V. was called Copronymus: “Parce qu'il salit les fonts baptismaux lorsqu'on le baptisait. “

Copts

The Jacobite Christians of Egypt, who have for eleven centuries been in possession of the patriarchal chair of Alexandria. The word is probably derived from Coptos, the metropolis of the Thebaid. These Christians conduct their worship in a dead language called “Coptic" (language of the Copts).

“The Copts [of Egypt] circumcise, confess to their priests, and abstain from swine's flesh. They are Jacobites in their creed.”— S. Olin; Travels in Egypt (vol. i. chap viii. p. 102).

Copus

A drink made of beer, wine, and spice heated together, and served in a “loving—cup.” Dog—Latin for cupellon Hippocratis (a cup of hippocras).

Copy

That's a mere copy of your countenance. Not your real wish or meaning, but merely one you choose to present to me.

Copy

is a printer's term both for original MS. and printed matter that is to be set up in type.

Copyhold Estate

Land which a tenant holds [or rather, held ] without any deed of transfer in his own possession. His only document is a copy of the roll made by the steward of the manor from the court—roll kept in the manor—house.

“The villein took an oath of fealty to his lord for the cottage and land which he enjoyed from his bounty. ... These tenements were suffered to descend to their children ... and thus the tenure of copyhold was established.”— Lingard: England (vol. ii. chap. i. p. 27, note).

Copyright

The law of copyright was made in 1814 (54 Geo. III. c. 156). It enacted that an author should possess a right in his work for life, or for twenty—eight years. If he died before the expiration of twenty—eight years, the residue of the right passed to the heirs.

By Talfourd's or Lord Mahon's Act (1842) the time was extended to forty—two years, and at least seven years after decease: for example, if the time unexpired exceeds seven years, the heirs enjoy the residue; if less, the heirs claim seven years.

In the first case eleven copies of the work had to be given for public use; by Lord Mahon's Act the number was reduced to five: i.e. one to each of the following institutions, viz. the British Museum, the Bodleian

(Oxford), the University library (Cambridge), the Advocates' library (Edinburgh), and the library of Trinity College (Dublin).

The six omitted are Sion College, the Scotch Universities of Glasgow, Aberdeen, and St. Andrews, and King's Inn (Dublin).

Coq—a—l'ane

A cock—and—bull story; idle nonsense, as “Il fait toujours des coq—à—l'âne ”— he is always doing silly things, or talking rubbish.

Il m'a répondu par un coq—à—l'âne

— His reply was nothing to the purpose.

Corah

in Dryden's satire of Absalom and Achitophel, is meant for Dr. Titus Oates (Numbers xvi.). North describes him as a short man, extremely ugly: if his mouth is taken for the centre, his chin, forehead, and cheek—bones would fall in the circumference.

“Sunk were his eyes, his voice was harsh and loud;

Sure signs he neither choleric was, nor proud;

His long chin proved his wit; his saint—like grace

A church vermilion, and a Moses' face.

His memory, miraculously great,

Could plots, exceeding man's belief, repeat

Dryden: Absalom and Achitophel, i. 646—51.

Coral Beads

The Romans used to hang beads of red coral on the cradles and round the neck of infants, to

“preserve and fasten their teeth,” and save them from “the falling sickness.” It was considered by soothsayers as a charm against lightning, whirlwind, shipwreck, and fire. Paracelsus says it should be worn round the neck of children as a preservative “against fits, sorcery, charms, and poison.” The coral bells are a Roman Catholic addition, the object being to frighten away evil spirits by their jingle.

“Coral is good to be hanged about the neck of children ... to preserve them from the falling sickness. It has also some special sympathy with nature, for the best coral ... will turn pale and wan if the party that wears it be sick, and it comes to its former colour again as they

recover.”— Plat: Jewel—House of Art and Nature.

Coral Master

A juggler. So called by the Spaniards. In ancient times the juggler, when he threw off his mantle, appeared in a tight scarlet or coral dress.

Coram Judice

(Latin). Under consideration; still before the judge.

Coranach

or CORONACH. Lamentation for the dead, as anciently practised in Ireland and Celtic Scotland. (Gaelic, comh rànaich, crying together.) Pennant says it was called by the Irish hululoo.

Corbant

The rook, in the tale of Reynard the Fox. (Latin, corvus; French, corbeau.) Heinrich von Alkmar.

Corbeaux

Bearers, i.e. persons who carry the dead to the grave; mutes, etc. So called from the corbillards, or coches d'eau, which went from Paris to Corbeil with the dead bodies of those who died in the 16th century of a fatal epidemic.

“Jai lu quelque part que ce coche [the Gorbillard] servit, sous Henri IV., a transporter des morts, victimes d'une epidémie de Paris à Corbeil. Le nom de Corbillard resta depuis aux

voitures funebres.”— Alf. Bonnardot.

Corceca

[Blind—heart ]. Superstition is so named in Spenser's Faërie Queene. Abessa tried to make her understand that danger was at hand, but, being blind, she was dull of comprehension. At length she was induced to shut her door, and when Una knocked would give no answer. Then the lion broke down the door, and both entered. The meaning is that England, the lion, broke down the door of Superstition at the Reformation. Corceca means Romanism in England. (Book i. 3.)

Corcyrean Sedition

(The), B.C. 479. Corcyra was a colony of Corinth, but in the year of the famous Battle of Platæa revolted from the mother country and formed an alliance with the Athenians. The Corinthians made war on the colony and took 1,000 prisoners; of these 250 were men of position, who promised as the price of liberty to bring back the Corcyreans to the mother country. This was the cause of the sedition. The 250 returned captives represented the oligarchical party; their opponents represented the democratic element. The latter prevailed, but it would be difficult to parallel the treachery and brutality of the whole affair.

(Thucydides, book iv. 46, 48.)

Cordelia

The youngest of Lear's three daughters, and the only one that loved him. (Shakespeare: King Lear.)

Cordelia's Gift

A “voice ever soft, gentle, and low; an excellent thing in woman.” (Shakespeare: King Lear, v. 3.)

“It is her voice that he hears prevailing over the those [sic ] of the rest of the company, ... for she has not Cordelia's gift.”— Miss Broughton: Dr. Cupid.

Cordeliers

i.e. “cord—wearers,” 1215. A religious order of the Minor Brothers of St. Francis Assisi. They wore a large grey cloth vestment, girt about the loins with a rope or cord. It was one of the mendicant orders, not allowed to possess any property at all; even their daily food was a gift of charity. The Cordeliers distinguished themselves in philosophy and theology. Duns Scotus was one of their most distinguished members.

The tale is that in the reign of St. Louis these Minorites repulsed an army of infidels, and the king asked who those gens de cordelies (corded people) were. From this they received their appellation.

Cordeliers

(The), 1790. A French political club in the Great Revolution. It held its meetings in the “Convert des Cordeliers,” which was in the “Place de l'École de Médecine.” The Cordeliers were the rivals of the Jacobins, and numbered among its members Paré (the president), Danton, Marat, Camille Desmoulins, Hébert, Chaumette, Dufournoy de Villiers, Fabre d'Eglantine (a journalist), and others. The Club of the Cordeliers was far in advance of the Jacobins, being the first to demand the abolition of the monarchy and the establishment of a commonwealth instead. Its leaders were put to death between March 24th and April 5th, 1794.

This club was nicknamed “The Pandemonium,” and Danton was called the “Archfiend.” When Bailly, the mayor, locked them out of their hall in 1791, they met in the Tennis Court (Paris), and changed their name into the “Society of the Rights of Man”; but they are best known by their original appellation.

Cordon

(The), in fortification, is the flat stone covering of the revetment (q.v.), to protect the masonry from the rain.

Cordon

(Un grand). A member of the Legion d'Honneur. The cross is attached to a grand (broad) ribbon.

Cordon Bleu

(Un) (French). A knight of the ancient order of the St. Esprit (Holy Ghost); so called because the decoration is suspended on a blue ribbon. It was at one time the highest order in the kingdom.

Un repas de cordon bleu.

A well—cooked and well—appointed dinner. The commandeur de Souvé Comte

d'Olonne, and some others, who were cordons bleus (i.e. knights of St. Esprit), met together as a sort of club, and were noted for their excellent dinners. Hence, when anyone had dined well he said, “Bien, c'est un vrai repas de cordon bleu. “

Une Cordon Bleu.

A facetious compliment to a good female cook. The play is between cordon bleu, and the blue ribbons or strings of some favourite cook.

Cordon Noir

(Un). A knight of the Order of St. Michael, distinguished by a black ribbon.

Cordon Rouge

(Un) (French). A chevalier of the Order of St. Louis, the decoration being suspended on a red ribbon.

Corduroy

A corded fabric, originally made of silk, and worn by the kings of France in the chase. (French, cord du roy.)

Corduroy Road.

A term applied to roads in the backwoods and swampy districts of the United States of America, formed of the halves of trees sawn in two longitudinally, and laid transversely across the track. A road thus made presents a ribbed appearance, like the cloth called corduroy.

“Look well to your seat, 'tis like taking an airing

On a corduroy road, and that out of repairing.”

Lowell: Fable for Critics, stanza 2.

Cordwainer

Not a twister of cord, but a worker in leather. Our word is the French cordouannier (a maker or worker of cordouan); the former a corruption of Cordovanier (a worker in Cordovan leather).

Corea

(The). The dancing mania, which in 1800 appeared in Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virginia. The usual manifestations were laughing, shouting, dancing, and convulsions. (Latin chorea, a dance where many dance simultaneously.)

Corflambo

The impersonation of sensual passion in Spenser's Faërie Queene. (Book iv. 8.)

Corineus

(3 syl.). A mythical hero in the suite of Brute, who conquered the giant Goëm'agot, for which achievement the whole western horn of England was allotted him. He called it Corinea, and the people Corineans, from his own name.

“In meed of these great conquests by them got,

Corineus had that province utmost west

To him assynëd for his worthy lot,

Which of his name and memorable gest,

He callëd Cornwall.”

Spenser: Faërie Queene, ii. 10.

Corinnus

A Greek poet before the time of Homer. He wrote in heroic verse the Siege of Troy, and it is said that Homer is considerably indebted to him. (Suidas.)

Corinth

Non cuivis homini contingit adire Corinthum (It falls not to every man's lot to go to Corinth). Gellius, in his Noctes Atticæ, i. 8, says that Horace refers to Laïs, a courtesan of Corinth, who sold her favours at so high a price that not everyone could afford to purchase them; but this most certainly is not the meaning that Horace intended. He says, “To please princes is no little praise, for it falls not to every man's lot to go to Corinth.” That is, it is as hard to please princes as it is to enter Corinth, situated between two seas, and hence called Bimaris Corinthus. (1 Odes, vii. line 2.)

Still, without doubt, the proverb was applied as Aulus Gellius says: “The courtesans of Corinth are not

every man's money.” Demosthenes tells us that Laïs sold her favours for 10,000 [Attic] drachmae (about 300), and adds tanti non emo poenitere. (Horace: 1 Epistles, xvii. line 36.)

Corinth

There is but one road that leads to Corinth. There is only one right way of doing anything. The Bible tells us that the way of evil is broad, because of its many tracks; but the way of life is narrow, because it has only one single footpath.

“All other ways are wrong, all other guides are false. Hence my difficulty:— the number and variety of the ways. For you know, `There is but one road that leads to Corinth.' ”— Pater: Marius the Epicurean, chap. 24.

Corinth's Pedagogue

Dionysios the younger, on being banished a second time from Syracuse, went to Corinth and became schoolmaster. He is called Dionysios the tyrant. Hence Lord Byron says of Napoleon—

“Corinth's pedagogue hath now

Transferred his by—word to thy brow.”

Ode to Napoleon, stanza xiv.

Corinthian

(A). A licentious libertine. The immorality of Corinth was proverbial both in Greece and Rome. To Corinthianise is to indulge in licentious conduct. A gentleman sportsman who rides his own horses on the turf, or sails his own yacht.

A Corinthian.

A member of the pugilistic club, Bond Street, London.

Corinthian Brass

A mixed metal made by a variety of metals melted at the conflagration of Corinth in B.C. 146, when the city was burnt to the ground by the consul Mummius. Vases and other ornaments were made by the Romans of this metal, of greater value than if they had been made of silver or gold.

The Hông—hee vases (1426) of China were made of a similar mixed metal when the Imperial palace was burnt to the ground. These vessels are of priceless value.

“I think it may be of Corinthian brass,

Which was a mixture of all metals, but

The brazen uppermost.”

Byron: Don Juan,

vi. 56.

Corinthian Order

The most richly decorated of the five orders of Greek architecture. The shaft is fluted, and the capital adorned with acanthus leaves. (See Acanthus .)

Corinthian Tom

The sporting rake in Pierce Egan's Life in London. A “Corinthian” was the “fast man” of Shakespeare's period.

“I am no proud Jack, like Falstaff; but a Corinthian, a lad of mettle, a good boy.”— Shakespeare: 1 Henry IV., ii. 4.

Corinthian War (The), B.C. 395—387. A suicidal contention between the Corinthians and the Lacedemonians. The allies of Corinth were Athens, Thebes, and Argos. The only battle of note was that of Coronea won by the Lacedemonians. Both the contending parties, utterly exhausted, agreed to the arbitration of Artaxerxes, and signed what is called The Peace of Antalkidas.

Not long after this destructive contest Epaminondas and Pelopidas (Theban generals) won the battle of Leuctra ( B.C. 371), from which defeat the Lacedemonians never recovered.

Corked

This wine is corked— i.e. tastes of the cork.

Corker

or Calker. The nail in a horse's shoe to prevent slipping in frosty weather. (Latin, calx.)

Corking—pins

Pins at one time used by ladies to keep curls on the forehead fixed and in trim.

Cormoran'

The Cornish giant who fell into a pit twenty feet deep, dug by Jack the Giant—killer, and filmed over with grass and gravel. The name means cormorant or great eater. For this doughty achievement Jack received a belt from King Arthur, with this inscription—

“This is the valiant Cornish man

That slew the giant Cormoran.”

Jack the Giant—killer.

Corn ... Horn

Up corn, down horn. When corn is high or dear, beef is down or cheap, because persons have less money to spend on meat.

Corn in Egypt

(There's). There is abundance; there is a plentiful supply. Of course, the reference is to the Bible story of Joseph in Egypt.

Corn — Law Rhymer

Ebenezer Elliot, who wrote philippics against the corn laws (1781—1849).

“Is not the corn—law rhymer already a king?”— Carlyle.

Cornstalks

In Australia and the United States, youths of colonial birth are so called from being generally both taller and more slender than their parents.

Corns

To tread on one's corns. To irritate one's prejudices; to annoy another by disregard to his pet opinions or habits.

Cor`nage

(2 syl.), horn—service. A kind of tenure in grand serjeanty. The service required was to blow a horn when any invasion of the Scots was perceived. “Cornagium” was money paid instead of the old service.

Corneille du Boulevard

Guilbert de Pixérécourt (1773—1844).

Corneille d'Esope

(La). Motley work. “C'est la corneille d'Esope. “

The allusion is to the fable of the Jackdaw which decked itself with the plumage of the peacocks. The jackdaw not only lost its borrowed plumes, but got picked well—nigh to death by the angry peacocks.

Corner

(A). The condition of the market with respect to a commodity which has been largely bought up, in order to create a virtual monopoly and enhance its market price; as a salt—corner, a corner in pork, etc. The idea is that the goods are piled and hidden in a corner out of sight.

“The price of bread rose like a rocket, and speculators wished to corner what little wheat there was.”— New York Weekly Times (June 13, 1894).

Corner

Driven into a corner. Placed where there is no escape; driven from all subterfuges and excuses.

Corner

(The). Tattersall's horse—stores and betting—rooms, Knightsbridge Green. They were once at the corner of Hyde Park.

To make a corner.

To combine in order to control the price of a given article, and thus secure enormous profits. (See Corner.)

What have I done to deserve a corner?

To deserve punishment. The allusion is to setting naughty children in a corner by way of punishment.

“There's nothing I have done yet, o' my conscience,

Deserves a corner.”

Shakespeare: Henry VIII.,

iii. 1.

Corner—stone

(The). The chief corner—stone. A large stone laid at the base of a building to strengthen the two walls forming a right angle. These stones in some ancient buildings were as much as twenty feet long and eight feet thick. Christ is called (in Eph. ii. 20) the chief corner—stone because He united the Jews and Gentiles into one family. Daughters are called corner—stones (Psalm cliv. 12) because, as wives and mothers, they unite together two families. In argument, the minor premise is the chief corner—stone.

Cornet

The terrible cornet of horse. William Pitt, first Earl of Chatham (1708—1778). His son William was “the pilot that weathered the storm” (meaning the French Revolution and Napoleon).

Cornette

Porter la cornette. To be domineered over by the woman of the house; to be a Jerry Sneak. The cornette is the mob—cap anciently worn by the women of France. Porter les culottes (to wear the breeches) is the same idea; only it shows who has the mastery, and not who is mastered. In the latter case it means the woman wears the dress of the man, and assumes his position in the house. Probably our expression about

“wearing the horns” may be referred to the “cornette” rather than to the stag or deer.

Corngrate

(2 syl.). A term given in Wiltshire to the soil in the north—western border, consisting of an irregular mass of loose gravel, sand, and limestone.

Cornish Hug

A hug to overthrow you. The Cornish men were famous wrestlers, and tried to throttle their antagonist with a particular grip or embrace called the Cornish hug.

Cornish Language

was virtually extinct 150 years ago. Doll Pentreath, the last person who could speak it, died, at the age of ninety—one, in 1777. (Notes and Queries.)

Cornish Names

“By Tre, Pol, and Pen,

You shall know the Cornishmen.”

Thus, Tre [a town] gives Trefry, Tregengon, Tregony, Tregothnan, Trelawy, Tremayne, Trevannion, Treveddoe, Trewithen, etc.

Pol

[a head] gives Polkerris Point, Polperro, Polwheel, etc. Pen [a top] gives Penkevil, Penrice, Penrose, Pentire, etc.

Cornish Wonder

(The). John Opie, of Cornwall, the painter. (1761—1807.)

Cornubian Shore (The). Cornwall, famous for its tin mines.

“... from the bleak Cornubian shore

Dispense the mineral treasure, which of old

Sidonian pilots sought.”

Akenside: Hymn to the Naiads.

Cornu—copia

(See Amalthaeas Horn .)

Cornwall

(See Barry, Corineus .)

Coronach

(See Coranach .)

Coronation Chair

consists of a stone so enclosed as to form a chair.

It was probably the stone on which the kings of Ireland were inaugurated on the hill of Tara. It was removed by Fergus, son of Eric, to Argyleshire, and thence by King Kenneth (in the ninth century) to Scone, where it was enclosed in a wooden chair. Edward I. transferred it to Westminster.

The monkish legend says that it was the very stone which formed “Jacob's pillow.” The tradition is, “Wherever this stone is found, there will reign some of the Scotch race of kings.” (See Scone.)

Coroner

means properly the crown—officer. In Saxon times it was his duty to collect the Crown revenues; next, to take charge of Crown pleas; but at present to uphold the paternal solicitude of the Crown by searching into all cases of sudden or suspicious death. (Vulgo, crowner; Latin, corona, the crown.)

“But is this law?

Ay, marry, is't: crowner's quest law.”

Shakespeare: Hamlet, v. 1.

Coronet

A crown inferior to the royal crown. A duke's coronet is adorned with strawberry leaves above the band; that of a marquis with strawberry leaves alternating with pearls; that of an earl has pearls elevated on stalks, alternating with leaves above the band; that of a viscount has a string of pearls above the band, but no leaves; that of a baron has only six pearls.

Coronis

Daughter of a King of Phocis, changed by Athena into a crow. There was another Coronis, loved by Apollo, and killed by him for infidelity.

Corporal Violet

(See Violet .)

Corporation

A large paunch.

A municipal corporation

is a body of men elected for the local government of a city or town.

Corps de Garde

(French). The company of men appointed to watch in a guard—room; the guard—room.

Corps Diplomatique

(French). A diplomatic body [of men].

Corps Legislatif

(French). The lower house of the French legislature. The first assembly so called was when Napoleon I. substituted a corps legislatif and a tribunal for the two councils of the Directory, Dec. 24, 1799. The next was the corps legislatif and conseil d'état of 1807. The third was the corps legislatif of 750 deputies of 1849. The legislative power under Napoleon III. was vested in the Emperor, the senate, and the corps legislatif. (1852.)

Corpse Candle

The ignis fatuus is so called by the Welsh because it was supposed to forbode death, and to show the road that the corpse would take. Also a large candle used at lich wakes— i.e. watching a corpse before interment. (German leiche, a corpse.)

Corpus Christi

[body of Christ ]. A festival of the Church, kept on the first Thursday after Trinity Sunday, in honour of the eucharist. There are colleges both at Cambridge and Oxford so named.

Corpus Delicti (Latin). The fundamental fact that a crime has really been committed; thus finding a murdered body is “corpus delicti” that a murder has been committed by someone.

Corpuscular Philosophy

promulgated by Robert Boyle. It accounts for all natural phenomena by the position and motion of corpuscles. (See Atomic Philosophy .)

Corrector

(See Alexander The Corrector .)

Correggio

The Correggio of sculptors. Jean Goujon, who was slain in the massacre of St. Bartholomew. (1510—1572.)

Corroboree

An Australian wardance.

“He roared, stamped, and danced corroboree, like any black fellow.”— Kingsley: Water—Babies, chap. viii. p. 300.

Corrouge

The sword of Sir Otuel in mediaeval romance. (See Sword .)

Corrugated Iron

Sheet iron coated with zinc. It is called corrugated or wrinkled because the sheet is made wavy by the rollers between which it is made to pass.

Corrupticolae

A sect of heretics of the sixth century, who maintained that Jesus Christ was corruptible.

Corruption of Blood

Loss of title and entailed estates in consequence of treason, by which a man's blood is attainted and his issue suffers.

Corsair'

means properly “one who gives chase.” Applied to the pirates of the northern coast of Africa. (Italian corso, a chase; French corsaire; Latin cursus.)

Corsned

means the “cursed mouthful.” It was a piece of bread “consecrated for exorcism,” and given to a person to swallow as a test of his guilt. The words of “consecration” were, “May this morsel cause convulsions and find no passage if the accused is guilty, but turn to wholesome nourishment if he is innocent.” (Saxon, corse, curse; snaed, mouthful.) (See Choke .)

Cortes

(2 syl.). The Spanish or Portuguese parliament. The word means “court officers.”

Cortina

The skin of the serpent Pytho, which covered the tripod of the Pythoness when she delivered her oracles. “Tripodas cortina tegit” (Prudentius: Apophthegmata, 506); also the tripod itself, or the place where the oracle was delivered. (Virgil: AEneid, vi. 345.) “Neque te Phoebi cortina fefellit.”

Corvinus

[a raven ]. Janos Hunyady, Governor of Hungary, is so called from the raven on his shield. There were two Romans so called— viz. Valerius Maximus Corvinus Messala, and Valerius Messala Corvinus.

Marcus Valerius was so called because, in a single combat with a gigantic Gaul during the Gallic war, a raven flew into the Gaul's face and so harassed him that he could neither defend himself nor attack his adversary.

Corybantic Religion

An expression applied by Prof. Huxley to the Salvation Army and its methods. The rowdy processions of the Salvation Army (especially at Eastbourne, 1891), resembling the wild ravings of the ancient Corybantes, or devotees of Bacchus, more than sober, religious functions, have given colour to the new word.

Corycian Cave (The), on Mount Parnassus; so called from the nymph Corycia. The Muses are sometimes called Corycides (4 syl.).

“The immortal Muse

To your calm habitations, to the cave

Corycian ... will guide his footsteps.”

Akenside: Hymn to the Naiads.

Corycian Nymphs

(The). The Muses. (See above.)

Corydon

A swain; a brainless, love—sick spooney. It is one of the shepherds in Virgil's eclogues.

Coryphaeus

(The) or “Corypheus.” The leader and speaker of the chorus in Greek dramas. In modern English it is used to designate the chief speaker and most active member of a board, company, or expedition.

Coryphaeus of German Literature

(The). Goethe, “prince of German poets” (1749—1812).

“The Polish poet called upon ... the great Coryphæus of German literature.”— See Notes and Queries, 27th April, 1878.

Coryphaeus of Grammarians

Aristarchos of Samothrace. A coryphaeus was the leader of the Greek chorus; hence the chief of a department in any of the sciences or fine arts. Aristarchos, in the second century B.C., was the chief or prince of grammarians. (Greek, koruphaios, leader.)

Coryphee

A ballet—dancer. (See preceding column.)

Cosa

(plu. Cosas). A theoretic speculation; a literary fancy; a whim of the brain (Indian).

Cosmiel

(3 syl.). The genius of the world. He gave Theodidactus a boat of asbestos, in which he sailed to the sun and planets. (Kircher: Ecstatic Journey to Heaven.)

Cosmopolite

(4 syl.). A citizen of the world. One who has no partiality to any one country as his abiding—place; one who looks on the whole world with “an equal eye.” (Greek, cosmospolites.)

Cosset

A house pet. Applied to a pet lamb brought up in the house; any pet. (Anglo—Saxon, cot—seat, cottage—dweller; German, kossat.)

Costard

A clown in Love's Labour's Lost (Shakespeare), who apes the court wit of Queen Elizabeth's time, but misapplies and miscalls like Mrs. Malaprop or Master Dogberry.

Costard

A large apple, and, metaphorically, a man's head. (See Costermonger .)

“Take him over the costard with the hilts of thy sword.”— Shakespeare: Richard III., i. 4.

Costermonger

A seller of eatables about the streets, properly an appleseller (from costard, a sort of apple, and monger, “a trader;" Saxon, mangian, “to trade"), a word still retained in iron—monger, cheese—monger, fish—monger, news—monger, fell—monger, etc.

“Her father was an Irish costarmonger.”

B. Jonson: The Alchemist, iv. 1.

Cote—hardi

A tight—fitting tunic buttoned down the front.

“He was clothed in a cote—hardi upon the gyse of Almayne [Germany].”— Geoffroi de la Tour: Landry.

Cotereaux

(French). Cut—throats. The King of England, irritated at the rising in Brittany in the twelfth century, sent the Brabancons (q.v. ) to ravage the lands of Raoul de Fourgères. These cut—throats carried knives (couteaux) with them, whence their name.

Coterie'

(3 syl.). A French word, originally tantamount to our “guild,” a society where each paid his quota—

i.e.

his quote—part or gild (share). The French word has departed from its original meaning, and is now applied to an exclusive set, more especially of ladies.

“All coteries ... it seems to me, have a tendency to change truth into affectation.”— E. C. Gaskell; Charlotte Brontë (vol. ii. chap. xi. p 47).

Cotillon

(co—til'—yon) means properly the “under—petticoat.” The word was applied to a brisk dance by eight persons, in which the ladies held up their gowns and showed their under—petticoats. The dance of the present day is an elaborate one, with many added figures.

Cotset

The lowest of bondsmen. So called from cot—seat (a cottage—dweller). These slaves were bound to work for their feudal lord. The word occurs frequently in Domesday Book.

Cotswold Barley

You are as long a—coming as Cotswold barley. Cotswold, in Gloucestershire, is a very cold, bleak place on the wolds, exposed to the winds, and very backward in vegetation, but yet it yields a good late supply of barley.

Cotswold Lion

A sheep for which Cotswold hills are famous. Fierce as a Cotswold lion (ironical).

Cotta

in Pope's Moral Essays (Epistle 2). John Holles, fourth Earl of Clare, who married Margaret, daughter of Henry Cavendish, Duke of Newcastle, and was created Duke of Newcastle in 1694 and died 1711.

Cottage Countess

(The). Sarah Higgins, of Shropshire, daughter of a small farmer, in 1790 married Henry Cecil, Marquis of Exeter and Lord of Burleigh. The bridegroom was at the time living under the name of John Jones, separated from his wife, whose maiden name was Emma Vernon. She eloped with a clergyman, and subsequently to the second marriage “John Jones,” the lord of Burleigh, obtained a divorce and an Act of Parliament to legitimatise the children of his second wife. Sarah Higgins was seventeen at the time of her marriage, and “John Jones” was thirty. They were married by licence in the parish church of Bolas. Tennyson has a poem on the subject called The Lord of Burleigh, but historically it is not to be trusted.

Cottage Orne

(A) (French). A cottage residence belonging to persons in good circumstances.

Cottys

One of the three Hundred—handed giants, son of Heaven and Earth. His two brothers were Briareus [Bri—a—ruce ] and Gyges or Gyes. (See Hundred—Handed, Giants .)

Cotton

To cotton to a person. To cling to one or take a fancy to a person. To stick to a person as cotton sticks to our clothes.

Cotton Lord

A great cotton lord. A rich Manchester cotton manufacturer, a real lord in wealth, style of living, equipage, and tenantry.

Cottonian Library

In the British Museum. Collected by Sir R. Cotton, and added to by his son and grandson, after which it was invested in trustees for the use of the public.

Cottonopolis

Manchester, the great centre of cotton manufactures.

“His friends thought he would have preferred the busy life of Cottonopolis to the out—of—way county of Cornwall.”— Newspaper paragraph, January, 1886.

Cotytto

The Thracian goddess of immodesty, worshipped at Athens with nocturnal rites.

“Hail! goddess of nocturnal sport,

Dark—veiled Cotytto.”

Milton: Comus,

129, 130.

Coucy

Enguerrand III., Sire de Coucy, has won fame by his arrogant motto:

“Roi je ne suis,

Ni Prince, ni comte, aussi,

Je suis Le Sire de Coucy.”

Couleur de Rose

(French). Highly coloured; too favourably considered; overdrawn with romantic embellishments, like objects viewed through glass tinted with rose pink.

Coulin

A British giant, pursued by Debon (one of the companions of Brute) till he came to a chasm 132 feet across, which he leaped; but slipping on the opposite side, he fell back into the chasm and was killed.

(Spenser: Faërie Queene.) (See Giants .)

Councils

Ecumenical Councils. There are twenty—one recognised, nine Eastern and twelve Western. THE NINE EASTERN: (1) Jerusalem; (2 and 8) Nice, 325, 787; (3, 6, 7, 9) Constantinople, 381, 553, 680, 869; (4) Ephesus, 431; (5) Chalcedon, 451.

THE TWELVE WESTERN: (10, 11, 12, 13, 19) Lateran, 1123, 1139, 1179, 1215, 1517; (14, 15) Synod of Lyon, 1245, 1274; (16) Synod of Vienne, in Dauphiné, 1311; (17) Constance, 1414; (18) Basil, 1431—1443;

(20) Trent, 1545—1563; (21) Vatican, 1869.

Of these, the Church of England recognises only the first six, viz.: 325 of Nice, against the Arians.

381 of Constantinople, against “heretics.”

431 of Ephesus, against the Nestorians and Pelagians.

451 of Chalcedon, when Athanasius was restored.

553 of Constantinople, against Origen.

680 of Constantinople, against the Monothelites (4 syl.).

Counsel

Keep your own counsel. Don't talk about what you intend to do. Keep your plans to yourself.

“Now, mind what I tell you, and keep your own counsel.”— Boldrewood: Robbery Under Arms, chap. vi.

Count Kin with One

(To), is a Scotch expression meaning to compare one's pedigree with that of another.

Count not your Chickens

... (See Chicken .)

Count out the House

(To). To declare the House of Commons adjourned because there are not forty members present. The Speaker has his attention called to the fact, and must himself count the number present. If he finds there are not forty members present, he declares the sitting over.

Count Upon

(To). To rely with confidence on some one or some thing, to reckon on.

Countenance (To). To sanction, to support. Approval or disapproval is shown by the countenance. The Scripture speaks of “the light of God's countenance,” i.e. the smile of approbation, and to “hide His face” (or countenance) is to manifest displeasure.

“General Grant, neither at this time nor at any other, gave the least countenance to the efforts

...— Nicolay and Hay: Abraham Lincoln (vol. ix chap. ii. p. 51).

To keep in countenance.

To encourage, or prevent one losing his countenance or feeling dismayed. To keep one's countenance. To refrain from smiling or expressing one's thoughts by the face.

Out of countenance.

Ashamed, confounded. With the countenance fallen or cast down. To put one out of countenance is to make one ashamed or disconcerted. To “discountenance” is to set your face against something done or propounded.

Counter—caster

One who keeps accounts, or casts up accounts by counters. Thus, in The Winter's Tale, the Clown says, “Fifteen hundred shorn; what comes the wool to? I cannot do't without counters.” (Act iv. s. 3.)

“And what was he?

Forsooth, a great arithmetician,

And I ... must be belee'd and calmed

By debitor and creditor, this counter—caster”

Shakespeare: Othello, i. 1.

Countercheck Quarrelsome

(The). Sir, how dare you utter such a falsehood? Sir, you know that it is not true. This is the third remove from the lie direct; or rather, the lie direct in the third degree.

The Reproof Valiant, the Countercheck Quarrelsome, the Lie Circumstantial, and the Lie Direct, are not clearly defined by Touchstone. That is not true, how dare you utter such a falsehood, if you say so, you are a liar, you lie, or are a liar, seem to fit the four degrees.

Counterforts

in permanent fortification. The sides of ditches strengthened interiorly by buttresses some fifteen or eighteen feet apart. (See Revetments .)

Counter—jumper

A draper's assistant, who jumps over the counter to go from one part of the shop to another.

Counterpane

A corruption of counterpoint, from the Latin culcita (a wadded wrapper, a quilt). When the stitches were arranged in patterns it was called culcita puncta, which in French became courte—pointe, corrupted into contre—pointe, counter—point, where point is pronounced “poyn,” corrupted into “pane.”

Counterscarp

in fortification, the side of a ditch next to the open country. The side next to the place fortified is the escarp.

Countess di Civillari

(The). A bog, sewer, cesspool, into which falls the filth of a city. Two wags promised Simon da Villa an introduction to the Countess di Civillari, and tossed him, in his scarlet gown, into a ditch where farmers “emptied the Countess of Civillari for manuring their lands.” Here the doctor floundered about half the night, and, having spoilt his robes, made the best of his way home, to be rated soundly by his wife.

(Boccaccio: Decameron, Eighth day, ix.)

Country

To appeal to the country. To dissolve Parliament in order to ascertain the wish of the country by a new election of representatives.

Father of his country.

(See Father.)

Country—dance

A corruption of the French contre danse (a dance where the partners face each other).

Coup [coo ]. He made a good coup. A good hit or haul. (French.)

Coup d'Etat

(French) means a state stroke, and the term is applied to one of those bold measures taken by Government to prevent a supposed or actual danger, as when a large body of men are arrested suddenly for fear they should overturn the Government.

The famous coup d'état, by which Louis Napoleon became possessed of absolute power, took place on December 2nd, 1851.

Coup de Grace

The finishing stroke. When criminals were tortured by the wheel or otherwise, the executioner gave him a coup de grâce, or blow on the head or breast, to put him out of his misery.

“The Turks dealt the coup de grâce to the Eastern empire.”— Times.

The following is taken from a note (chap. xxx.) of Sir W. Scott's novel The Betrothed.

“This punishment [being broken on the wheel] consists in the executioner, with a bar of iron, breaking the shoulder—bones, arms, thigh—bones, and legs— taking alternate sides. The punishment is concluded by a blow across the breast, called the coup de grâce, or blow of mercy because it removes the sufferer from his agony. Mandrin, the celebrated smuggler, while in the act of being thus tortured, tells us that the sensibility of pain never continues after the nervous system has been shattered by the first blow.”

Coup de Main

(French). A sudden stroke; a stratagem whereby something is effected suddenly. Sometimes called a coup only, as “The coup [the scheme] did not answer.”

“London is not to be taken by a coup de main. ”— Public Opinion.

Coup d'OEil

(French). A view; glance; prospect; effect of things in the mass. These principles are presented at a single coup d'oeil.

The coup d'oeil was grand in the extreme.

Coup de Pied de l'Ane

(kick from the ass's foot). A blow given to a vanquished or fallen man; a cowardly blow; an insult offered to one who has not the power of returning or avenging it. The allusion is to the fable of the sick lion kicked by the ass. (French.)

Coup de Soleil

(French). A sun—stroke, any malady produced by exposure to the sun.

Coup de Theatre

An unforeseen or unexpected turn in a drama to produce a sensational effect. In ordinary life, something planned for effect. Burke and his dagger was meant for a coup de théâtre, but it was turned into farce by a little ready wit. (See Dagger—Scene .)

Coup Manque

(A). A false stroke.

“Shoot dead, or don't aim at all; but never make a coup manque.”— Ouida: Under Two Flags, chap. xx.

Coupon A certificate of interest which is to be cut off [French, couper ] from a bond and presented for payment. It bears on its face the date and amount of interest to be paid. If the coupons are exhausted before the principal is paid off, new ones are gratuitously supplied to the holder of the bond.

Most foreign state—bonds expire in a stated term of years, generally a portion being paid off annually at par. Suppose there are 1,000 bonds, and 10 are paid off annually, then in 100 years all are paid off and the obligation is cancelled.

Courage of One's Opinion

To have the courage of one's opinion means to utter, maintain, and act according to one's opinion, be the consequences what they may. The French use the same locution. Martyrs may be said to have had the courage of their opinions.

Courland Weather

Very boisterous, uncongenial weather, with high winds, driving snow and rain, like the weather of Courland, in Russia.

Course

Another course would have done it. A little more would have effected our purpose. It is said that the peasants of a Yorkshire village tried to wall in a cuckoo in order to enjoy an eternal spring. They built a wall round the bird, and the cuckoo just skimmed over it. “Ah!” said one of the peasants, “another carse would a' done it.”

“There is a school of moralists who, connecting sundry short—comings ... with changes in manners, endeavour to persuade us that only `another carse' is wanted to wall in the cuckoo.”— Nineteenth Century, December, 1892, p. 920.

Course

To keep on the course. To go straight; to do one's duty in that course [path] of life in which we are placed. The allusion is to racing horses.

“We are not the only horses that can't be kept on the courses— with a good turn of speed, too.”— Boldrewood: Robbery under Arms, chap. xv.

Court

originally meant a coop or sheepfold. It was on the Latium hills that the ancient Latins raised their cors or cohors, small enclosures with hurdles for sheep, etc. Subsequently, as many men as could be cooped or folded together were called a corps or cohort. The “cors” or cattle—yard being the nucleus of the farm, became the centre of a lot of farm cottages, then of a hamlet, town, fortified place, and lastly of a royal residence.

Court.

A short cut, alley, or paved way between two main streets. (French, court, “short,” as prendre un chemin court, “to take a short cut.”)

Out of court.

Not worth consideration; wholly to be discarded, as such and such an hypothesis is wholly out of court, and has been proved to be untenable. “No true bill.”

Court Circular

Brief paragraphs supplied to certain daily papers by an officer (the Court Newsman) specially appointed for the purpose. He announces the movements of the sovereign, the Prince of Wales, and the court generally; gives reports of the levees, drawing—rooms, state balls, royal concerts, meetings of the Cabinet ministers, deputation to ministers, and so on. George III., in 1803, introduced the custom to prevent misstatements on these subjects.

Court—cupboard

The buffet to hold flagons, cans, cups, and beakers. There are two in Stationers' Hall.

“Away with the joint—stools, remove the court—cupboard, look to the plate.” — Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet, i.5.

Court Fools

(See Fools .)

Court Holy Water Fair speeches, which look like promises of favour, but end in nothing.

Court Plaster

The plaster of which the court ladies made their patches. These patches, worn on the face, were cut into the shape of crescents, stars, circles, diamonds, hearts, crosses; and some even went so far as to patch their face with a coach—and—four, a ship in full sail, a château, etc. This ridiculous fashion was in vogue in the reign of Charles I.; and in the reign of Anne was employed as the badge of political partisanship. (See Patches.)

“Your black patches you wear variously,

Some cut like stars, some in half—moons, some lozenges.” Beaumont and Fletcher: Elder Brother, iii.2.

Court of Love

A judicial court for deciding affairs of the heart, established in Provence during the palmy days of the Troubadours. The following is a case submitted to their judgment: A lady listened to one admirer, squeezed the hand of another, and touched with her toe the foot of a third. Query, Which of these three was the favoured suitor?

Court of Pie—powder

(See Pie Poudre .)

Court of the Gentiles

(The). They are but in the Court of the Gentiles. They are not wholly God's people; they are not the elect, but have only a smattering of the truth. The “Court of the Israelites” in the Jewish temple was for Jewish men; the “Court of the Women” was for Jewish women; the “Court of the Gentiles” was for those who were not Jews.

“Oh, Cuddie, they are but in the Court of the Gentiles,and will ne'er win farther ben, I doubt,” — Sir W. Scott: Old Mortality, chap. viii.

Courtesy

Civility, politeness. It was at the courts of princes and great feudatories that minstrels and pages practised the refinements of the age in which they lived. The word originally meant the manners of the court.

Courtesy Titles

Titles assumed or granted by social custom, but not of any legal value. The courtesy title of the eldest son of a duke is marquis; of a marquis is earl; of the eldest son of an earl is viscount. Younger sons of peers are by courtesy called lord or honourable, and the daughters are lady or honourable. These titles do not give the holders official rank to sit in the House of Lords. Even the Marquis of Lorne, the Queen's

son—in—law, is only a commoner (1894).

Cousin

Blackstone says that Henry IV., being related or allied to every earl in the kingdom, artfully and constantly acknowledged the connection in all public acts. The usage has descended to his successors, though the reason has long ago failed. (Commentaries, i. 398.)

Cousin

All peers above the rank of baron are officially addressed by the Crown as cousin. A viscount or earl is “Our right trusty and well—beloved cousin.”

A marquis is “Our right trusty and entirely—beloved cousin.”

A duke is “Our right trusty and right—entirely—beloved cousin.”

Cousin Betsy

A half—witted person, a “Bess of Bedlam” (q.v.).

“[None] can say Foster's wronged him of a penny, or gave short measure to a child or a cousin Betsy.” — Mrs. Gaskell.

Cousin—german The children of brothers and sisters, first cousins; kinsfolk. (Latin, germánus, a brother, one of the same stock.)

“There is three cozen—germans that has cozened all the hosts of Reading, of Maidenhead, of Colebrook, of horses and money.” — Shakespeare: Merry Wives of Windsor, iv.5.

Cousin Jack

So Cornishmen are called in the western counties.

Cousin Michael

(or Michel). The Germans are so called. Michel, in Old German, means “gross,” cousin Michel is meant to indicate a slow, heavy, simple, unrefined, coarse—feeding people.

Coute que Coute

(French). Cost what it may, at any price, be the consequences what they may.

“His object is to serve his party coûte que coûte.” — Standard.

Couvade

(2 syl.). A man who takes the place of his wife when she is in child—bed. (See Reader's Handbook, p. 217, col. 2.)

Cove

(1 syl.). An individual, as a flash cove (a swell), a rum cove (a man whose position and character is not quite palpable), a gentry cove (a gentleman), a downy cove (a very knowing individual), etc. (Gipsy, cova, a thing; cova, that man; covi, that woman.)

Covenanters

A term applied, during the civil wars, to the Scotch Presbyterians, who united by “solemn league and covenant” to resist the encroachments of Charles I. on religious liberty.

Covent Garden

A corruption of Convent Garden; the garden and burial ground attached to the convent of Westminster, and turned into a fruit and flower market in the reign of Charles II. It now belongs to the Duke of Bedford.

Coventry

To send one to Coventry. To take no notice of him; to let him live and move and have his being with you, but pay no more heed to him than to the idle winds which you regard not. According to Messrs. Chambers (Cyclopædia), the citizens of Coventry had at one time so great a dislike to soldiers that a woman seen speaking to one was instantly tabooed. No intercourse was ever allowed between the garrison and the town; hence, when a soldier was sent to Coventry, he was cut off from all social intercourse.

Hutton, in his History of Birmingham, gives a different version. He says that Coventry was a stronghold of the parliamentary party in the civil wars, and that all troublesome and refractory royalists were sent there for safe custody

The former explanation meets the general scope of the phrase the better. (See Boycott.)

Coventry Mysteries

Miracle plays acted at Coventry till 1591. They were published in 1841 for the Shakespeare Society.

Parliaments held at Coventry.

Two parliaments have been held in this city, one in 1404, styled Parliamentum Indoctorum; rand the other in 1459, called Parliamentum Diabolicum.

Cover

To break cover. To start from the covert or temporary lair. The usual earth—holes of a fox being covered up the night before a hunt, the creature makes some gorse—bush or other cover its temporary

resting—place, and as soon as it quits it the hunt begins.

Covers were laid for

... Dinner was provided for. ... A cover (couvert) in French means knife, fork, spoon,

and napkin. Hence, mettre le couvert, to lay the cloth; and lever (or ôter) le couvert, to clear it away.

Covered Way

in fortification. (See Glacis .)

Covering the Face No malefactor was allowed, in ancient Persia, to look upon a king. So, in Esther vii. 5, when Haman fell into disgrace, being seen on the queen's divan, “they instantly cover Haman's face,” that he might not look on the face of Ahasuerus.

In India a low caste man covers his mouth when speaking to one of high caste.

Coverley

Sir Roger de Coverley. A member of an hypothetical club in the Spectator, “who lived in Soho Square when he was in town.” Sir Roger is the type of an English squire in the reign of Queen Anne. He figures in thirty papers of the Spectator.

“Who can be insensible to his unpretending virtues and amiable weaknesses; his modesty, generosity, hospitality, and eccentric whims; the respect for his neighbours, and the affection of his domestics?” — Hazlitt.

Covetous Man

A Tantalus (q.v.).

“In the full flood stands Tantalus, his skin

Washed o'er in vain, for ever dry within.

He catches at the stream with greedy lips —

From his parched mouth the wanton torrent slips ...

Change but the name, this fable is thy story:

Thou in a flood of useless wealth dost glory,

Which thou canst only touch, but never taste.”

Cowley: Horace, satire i.

Cow

The cow that nourished Ymir with four streams of milk was called Audhumla. (Scandinavian mythology.) (See Audhumla.)

Curst cows

(See under Curst.)

The whiter the cow, the surer is it to go to the altar. The richer the prey, the more likely is it to be seized.

“The system of impropriations grew so rapidly that, in the course of three centuries, more than a third part of all the benefices in England became such, and those the richest, for the whiter the cow, the surer was it to go to the alter.” — Blant: Reformation in England, p. 63.

Cow's Tail

“Always behind, like a cow's tail.” “Tanquam coda vituli.” (Petronius.)

The cow knows not the worth of her tail till she loses it,

and is troubled with flies, which her tail brushed off.

“What we have we prize not to the worth

Whiles we enjoy it; but being lack'd and lost,

Why, then we rack the value.”

Shakespeare: Much Ado about Nothing, iv.1.

Cow—lick

A tuft of hair on the human forehead, sometimes called a feather; it cannot be made to lie in the same direction as the rest of the hair by brushing, or even by pomatum. When cows lick their hides they make the hair stand on end.

“This term must have been adopted from a comparison with that part of a ... cow's hide where the hairs, having different directions, meet and form a projecting ridge, supposed to be occasioned by the animals licking themselves.” — Brochett: Glossary of North—Country Words.

Coward (anciently written culvard) is either from the French, couard, originally written culvert, from culver (a pigeon), pigeon—livered being still a common expression for a coward; or else from the Latin, culum vertere, to turn tail (Spanish, cobarde; Portuguese, covarde; Italian, codardo, “a coward,” Latin, cauda, “a tail"). A beast cowarded, in heraldry, is one drawn with its coue or tail between its legs. The allusion is to the practice of beasts, who sneak off in this manner when they are cowed.

Cowper

Called “Author of The Task,” from his principal poem. (1731—1800.)

Cowper Law

a corruption of Cupar, etc., is trying a man after execution. Similar expressions are Jedwood, Jeddart, and Jedburgh justice. Cowper justice had its rise from a baron—baile in Coupar—Angus, before heritable jurisdictions were abolished. (See Lydford Law.)

“Cowper Law, as we say in Scotland — hang a man first, and then judge him.” — Lord de Ros: Tower of London.

Coxcomb

An empty—headed, vain person. The ancient licensed jesters were so called because they wore a cock's comb in their caps.

“Coxcombs, an ever empty race,

Are trumpets of their own disgrace.”

Gay: Fables, xix.

“Let me hire him too; here's my coxcomb.”

Shakespeare: King Lear,

i. 4.

The Prince of Coxcombs.

Charles Joseph, Prince de Ligne. (1535—1614.) Richard II. of England is sometimes called the Coxcomb. (1366, 1377—1400.) Henri III. of France was called le Mignon, which means pretty well the same thing. (1551, 1574—1589.)

Coxeyites

(3 syl.). Followers of Mr. ["General"] Coxey, of the United States, who induced 50,000 labourers from sundry states “to march” to Washington to overawe the Government into giving employment to the unemployed. The word is now employed to express labour processions and masses organised to force concessions to workmen.

Coxswain

Kog is Norwegian for a cockboat; Welsh, cwch; Italian, cocca, etc.; and swain, Anglo—Saxon for a servant, superintendent, or bailiff. (See Cockboat.)

Coyne and Livery

Food and entertainment for soldiers, and forage for their horses, exacted by an army from the people whose lands they passed through, or from towns where they rested on their march.

Coystril

Coystrel, or Kestrel.. A degenerate hawk; hence, a paltry fellow. Holinshed says, “costerels or bearers of the arms of barons or knights” (vol. i. p. 162); and again, “women, lackeys, and costerels are considered as the unwarlike attendants on an army” (vol. iii. 272). Each of the life—guards of Henry VIII. had an attendant, called a coystrel or coystril. Some think the word is a corruption of costerel, which they derive from the Latin coterellus (a peasant); but if not a corruption of kestrel, I should derive it from costrel (a small wooden bottle used by labourers in harvest time).”Vasa quædom quæ costrelli vocantur.”(Matthew Paris.)

“He's a coward and a coystril that will not drink to my niece.” — Shakespeare: Twelfth Night,

i.3.

Cozen

To cheat. (Armoric, Couczyein; Russian, kosnodei; Arabic, gausa; Ethiopic, chasawa; our chouse.)

“I think it no sin To cozen him that would unjustly win.” Shakespeare: All's Well that Ends Well, iv.2.

Crab

(A). An ill—tempered fellow; sour as a crab—apple.

To catch a crab,

in rowing. (See Catch A Crab.)

Crab—cart

The carapace of a crab. So called because it is used very commonly by children for a toy—cart.

Crack

as a crack man, a first—rate fellow; a crack hand at cards, a first—rate player; a crack article, an excellent one, i.e. an article cracked up or boasted about. This is the Latin crepo, to crack or boast about. Hence Lucretius ii. 1168,”crepas antiquum genus.”

“Indeed, la! `tis a noble child; a crack, madam.” Shakespeare: Coriolanus, i.3.

A gude crack.

A good talker.

“To be a gude crack ... was essential to the trade of a `puir body' of the more esteemed class.” — Sir W. Scott: The Autiquary (Introduction).

In a crack.

Instantly. In a snap of the fingers, crepitu digitorum (in a crack of the fingers). (French, craquer.)

“Une allusion au bruit de l'ongle contre la dent que les Orieutaux du moyen âme touchaient du doight quand ils voulaient affirmer solennellement une chose.” Hence —

Sire, bien vous croi seur les Dieux;

Mais asses vous querroie mieux

Se vous l'ongle hurties an dent.”

Theatre Francois de Moyen Age, p. 167.

Crack—brained

Eccentric; slightly mad. Another form is “A crack—skull.”

Crack a Bottle

— i.e. drink one. The allusion is to the mischievous pranks of the drunken frolics of times gone by, when the bottles and glasses were broken during the bout. Miss Oldbuck says, in reference to the same custom, “We never were glass—breakers in this house, Mr. Lovel” (Antiquary); meaning they were not bottle—crackers, or given to drunken orgies. (See Crush.)

“Dear Tom, this brown jug that now foams with mild ale,

From which I now drink to sweet Nan of the Vale,

Was once Toby Filpot's, a thirsty old soul

As e'er cracked a bottle, or fathomed a bowl.”

O'Keefe: Poor Soldier.

Crack a Crib

(To). To break into a house as a thief. (See Crib .)

Crack Up a Person

(To). To praise him highly. (See Crack .)

Cracked

Made a bankrupt. A play on “rupt,” which is from the Latin rumpo, to break.

Cracked Pipkins

Cracked pipkins are discovered by their sound. Ignorance is betrayed by speech.

“They bid you talk — my honest song

Bids you for ever hold your tongue;

Silence with some is wisdom most profound —

Cracked pipkins are discovered by the sound.”

Peter Pindar: Lord B. and his Motions.

Cracker

So called from the noise it makes when it goes off.

Cracknells

(from the French craquelin). A hard, brittle cake.

Cradle—land

The same as “borough English,” under which lands descend to the youngest son. By Gavelkind, land passes to all sons in equal proportions.

If the father has no son, then (in cradle—land tenures) the youngest daughter is sole heiress. If neither wife, son, nor daughter, the youngest brother inherits; if no brother, the youngest sister is heir; if neither brother nor yet sister, then the youngest next of kin.

Craft

(A). A trade (Anglo—Saxon, cræft). A craftsman is a mechanic. A handicraft is manual skill, i.e. mechanical skill. And leechcraft is skill in medicine. (Anglo—Saxon læce—cræft; læce, a doctor.)

Craft (A). A general term for a vessel employed in loading and unloading ships.

Small craft.

Such vessels as schooners, sloops, cutters, and so on. A ship—builder was at one time the prince of craftsmen, and his vessels were work of craft emphatically.

Craft

Cunning, or skill in a bad sense. Hence Witchcraft, the art or cunning of a witch.

Craigmillar Castle

So called from Henry de Craigmillar, who built the castle in the twelfth century.

Crakys of War

Cannons were so called in the reign of Edward III.

Cram

To tell what is not true. A crammer, an untruth. The allusion is to stuffing a person with useless rubbish.

Crambe bis Cocta

["cabbage boiled twice"]. A subject hacked out. Juvenal says, “Occidit miseros crambe repetita magistros” (vii. 155), alluding to the Greek proverb “Dis krambe thanatos.”

“There was a disadvantage in treading this Border district, for it had been already ransacked by the author himself, as well as by others; and, unless presented under a new light, was likely to afford ground to the objection of Crambe bis cocta.” — Sir W. Scott: The Monastery

(Introduction).

Crambo

Repetition. So called from a game which consists in some one setting a line which another is to rhyme to, but no one word of the first line must occur in the second.

Dumb crambo.

Pantomime of a word in rhyme to a given word. Thus if “cat” is the given word, the pantomimists would act Bat, Fat, Hat, Mat, Pat, Rat, Sat, etc., till the word acted is guessed.

Crampart

(King). The king who made a wooden horse which would travel 100 miles an hour. (Alkmaar: Reynard the Fox, 1498.)

Swifter than Crampart's horse.

Quick as lightning; quick as thought. (See above.)

Cramp—ring

To scour the crampring. To be put into fetters; to be imprisoned. The allusion is obvious.

“There's no muckle hazard o' scouring the cramp—ring.” — Sir W. Scott: Guy Mannering, chap. xxiii.

Crane

means long—shanks. (Welsh, gar, “the shanks,” whence our gaiter and garter.) Garan is the long—shanked bird, contracted into g'ran, crane; heron is another form of the same word.

Crank

An Abram man (q.v.). So called from the German krank (sickly), whence cranky, “idiotic, foolish, full of whims,” and cranks (simulated sickness). These beggars were called cranks because they pretended madness and sickness to excite compassion.

Crannock

An Irish measure which, in the days of Edward II., contained either eight or sixteen pecks.

“Crannocus continebit xvj pecks. Crannoco continente octo pecks.” — Exchequer of Ireland (Rec.).

Crapaud

or Johnny Crapaud. A Frenchman; so called from the device of the ancient kings of France, “three toads erect, saltant.” (Guillim's Display of Heraldrie, 1611.) Nostradamus, in the sixteenth century, called the French “crapauds.”

Les anciens crapauds prenderont Sara

(Nostradamus). Sara is the word Aras reversed, and when the French

under Louis XIV. took Aras from the Spaniards, this verse was quoted as a prophecy.

Crape ... Lawn

A saint in crape is twice a saint in lawn. (Pope: Ep. to Cobham, 136.) Crape (a sort of bombazine, or alpaca) is the stuff of which cheap clerical gowns used to be made, and here means one of the lower clergy; “lawn” refers to the lawn sleeves of a bishop, and here means a prelate. A good curate is all very well, but the same goodness in a bishop is exalted as something noteworthy.

Cravat'

A corruption of Crabat or Croät. It was introduced into France by some French officers on their return from Germany in 1636. The Croäts, who guarded the Turkish frontiers of Austria, and acted as scouts on the flanks of the army, wore linen round their necks, tied in front, and the officers wore muslin or silk. When France organised a regiment on the model of the Croäts, these linen neckcloths were imitated, and the regiment was called “The Royal Cravat.”

The Bonny Cravat.

A public—house sign at Woodchurch, Kent; a corruption of La bonne corvette. Woodchurch was noted for its smuggling proclivities, and the “Bonnie Cravat” was a smuggler's hostelry.

To wear a hempen cravat.

To be hanged.

Craven

means “your mercy is craved.” It was usual in former times to decide controversies by an appeal to battle. The combatants fought with bâtons, and if the accused could either kill his adversary or maintain the fight till sundown, he was acquitted. If he wished to call off, he cried out “Craven!” and was held infamous, while the defendant was advanced to honour. (Blackstone.)

Crawley

Crooked as Crawley (or) Crawley brook, a river in Bedfordshire. That part called the brook, which runs into the Ouse, is so crooked that a boat would have to go eighty miles in order to make a progress direct of eighteen.(Fuller: Worthies.)

Crayon

(Geoffrey). The nom de plume under which Washington Irving published The Sketch—Book. (1820.)

Creaking Doors hang the Longest

“Un pot fêlé dure plus qu'un neuf.” “Tout se qui branle ne chet pas” (tumbles not). Delicate persons often outlive the more robust. Those who have some personal affliction, like the gout, often live longer than those who have no such vent.

Create. Make

God created the heavens and the earth (Gen. i.1.) (Hebrew, carah: Greek.) God made the firmament ... (Gen.

i.7.) (Greek). God made the sun and moon ... (Gen. i.16.) God created the great fishes ... (Gen. i 21.) God made the terrestrial animals ... (Gen. i.25.) God created man and made him “God— like” ... (Gen. i.27.) God said “Let us make man in our own image” (verse 26), and so God created man in His image (verse 27).

Chap. ii. 3. He rested from all the works which He had created and made. Chap. ii. 4. He made the earth and the heavens; He also created them.

Chap. ii. 22. He made woman, but created man.

Most certainly create does not of necessity mean to make out of nothing, as fishes were “created” from water, and man was created from “earth.”

Creature

(The). Whisky or other spirits. A contracted form of “Creature—comfort.”

“When he chanced to have taken an overdose of the creature.” — Sir W. Scott: Guy Mannering, chap. xliv.

A drop of the creature.

A little whisky. The Irish call it “a drop of the crater.”

Creature—comforts

Food and other things necessary for the comfort of the body. Man being supposed to consist of body and soul, the body is the creature, but the soul is the “vital spark of heavenly flame.”

“Mr. Squeers had been seeking in creature comforts [brandy and water] temporary forgetfulness of his unpleasant situation.” — Dickens: Nicholas Nickleby.

Credat Judæus

or Credat Judæus Apella. Tell that to the Marines. That may do for Apella, but I don't believe a word of it. Who this Apella was, nobody knows. (Horace: 1 Satires, v. line 100.)

Cicero mentions a person of this name in Ad Atticum (12, ep. 19); but see Ducange.

Credence Table

The table near the altar on which the bread and wine are deposited before they are consecrated. In former times food was placed on a credence—table to be tasted previously to its being set before the guests. This was done to assure the guests that the meat was not poisoned. The Italian credenzare means to taste meats placed on the credenza. (Italian, la credenza, a shelf or buffet; Greek, kreas, food.)

Credit Foncier

(French). A company licensed to borrow money for city and other improvements connected with estates. A board of guardians may form such a company, and their security would be the parish rates. The money borrowed is repaid by instalments with interest. The word foncier means “landed,” as impôt foncier (land—tax), bien foncier (landed property), and so on.

Credit Mobilier

(French). A company licensed to take in hand all sorts of trading enterprises, such as railways, and to carry on the business of stock—jobbers. The word mobilier means personal property, general stock, as bien mobilier (personal chattels), mobilier vif et mort (live and dead stock).

Crekenpit

A fictitious river near Husterloe, according to the invention of Master Reynard, who calls on the Hare to attest the fact. (Reynard the Fox.)

Cremona

An organ stop, a corruption of the Italian cormorne, which is the German krummhorn, an organ stop of eight feet pitch; so called from a wind—instrument made of wood, and bent outwards in a circular arc (krummhorn, crooked horn).

Cremonas

Violins of the greatest excellence; so called from Cremona, where for many years lived some makers of them who have gained a world—wide notoriety, such as Andrea Amati and Antonio his son, Antonius Stradivarius his pupil, and Giuseppe Guarnerius the pupil of Stradivarius. Cremona has long since lost its reputation for this manufacture.

“In silvis viva silui; canora jam mortua cano.”

A motto on a Cremona.

Speechless, alive, I heard the feathered throng;

Now, being dead, I emulate their song. E. C. B.

Creole

(2 syl.). A descendant of white people born in Mexico, South America, and the West Indies. (Spanish criado, a servant; diminutive criadillo, contracted into creollo, creole.) (See Mulatto.)

Creole dialects.

The various jargons spoken by the West India slaves.

Crepidam

Supra crepidam. Talking about subjects above one's metier, meddling and muddling matters of which you know little or nothing. (See Cobbler.)

Crescent Tradition says that “Philip, the father of Alexander, meeting with great difficulties in the siege of Byzantium, set the workmen to undermine the walls, but a crescent moon discovered the design, which miscarried; consequently the Byzantines erected a statue to Diana, and the crescent became the symbol of the state.”

Another legend is that Othman, the Sultan, saw in a vision a crescent moon, which kept increasing till its horns extended from east to west, and he adopted the crescent of his dream for his standard, adding the motto, “Donec repleat orbem.“

Crescent City

(The). New Orleans, in Louisiana, U.S.

Crescit

Crescit sub pondere Virtus (Virtue thrives best in adversity). The allusion is to the palm—tree, which grows better when pressed by an incumbent weight.

Many plants grow the better for being pressed, as grass, which is wonderfully improved by being rolled frequently with a heavy roller, and by being trodden down by sheep.

Cressell'e

(2 syl.). A wooden rattle used formerly in the Romish Church during Passion week, instead of bells, to give notice of Divine worship. Supposed to represent the rattling in the throat of Christ while hanging on the cross.

Cresset

A beacon—light; properly “a little cross.” So called because originally it was surmounted by a little cross. (French, croisette. )

Cressida

daughter of Calchas the Grecian priest, was beloved by Troilus, one of the sons of Priam. They vowed eternal fidelity to each other, and as pledges of their vow Troïlus gave the maiden a sleeve, and Cressid gave the Trojan prince a glove. Scarce had the vow been made when an exchange of prisoners was agreed to. Diomed gave up three Trojan princes, and was to receive Cressid in lieu thereof. Cressid vowed to remain constant, and Troïlus swore to rescue her. She was led off to the Grecian's tent, and soon gave all her affections to Diomed — nay, even bade him wear the sleeve that Troilus had given her in token of his love.

“As false

As air, as water, wind, or sandy earth,

As fox to lamb, as wolf to heifer's calf,

Pard to the hind, or step—dame to her son; `Yea,' let them say, to stick the heart of false—hood, `As false as Cressid.”'

Shakespeare: Troilus and Cressida,

iii. 2.

Cresswell

(Madame). A woman of infamous character who bequeathed 10 for a funeral sermon, in which nothing ill should be said of her. The Duke of Buckingham wrote the sermon, which was as follows: “All I shall say of her is this — she was born well, she married well, lived well, and died well; for she was born at Shad—well, married to Cress—well, lived at Clerken—well, and died in Bride—well.”

Cressy

(Battle of). Won by Edward III. and the Black Prince over Philippe VI. of France, August 26, 1346.

“Cressy was lost by kickshaws and soup meagre.” Fenton: Prol. to Southern's Spartan Dame.

Crestfallen

Dispirited. The allusion is to fighting cocks, whose crest falls in defeat and rises rigid and of a deep red colour in victory.

“Shall I seem crest—fallen in my father's sight?” Shakespeare: Richard II., i.1.

Crete Hound of Crete. A blood—hound.

“Coupe le gorge, that's the word. I thee defy again, O hound of Crete.”

Shakespeare: Henry V.,

ii. 1.

The Infamy of Crete.

The Minotaur.

“There lay stretched

The infamy of Crete, detested brood

Of the feigned heifer.”

Dante: Hell,

xii. (Cary's translation).

Creticus

Metellus, the Roman general, was so called because he conquered Crete (Candia).

Cretinism

Mental imbecility accompanied by goître. So called from the Crétins of the Alps. The word is a corruption of Christian (Chrétien ), because, being baptised, and only idiots, they were “washed from original sin,” and incapable of actual sin. Similarly, idiots are called innocents. (French crétin, crétinisme.)

Crex

White bullace. (Dutch, kriecke, cherry; Latin, cerasum.)

Crib

(A). Slang for a house or dwelling, as a “Stocking Crib" (i.e. a hosiery), a “Thimble Crib” (i.e. a silversmith's). Crib is an ox — stall. (Anglo—Saxon, crib, a stall, a bed, etc.)

“Where no oxen are, the crib is clean.” — Prov. xiv. 4.

A child's crib

is a child's bed. (See preceding column.)

Crib

(A). A petty theft; a literal translation of some foreign work, stealthily employed to save trouble.

“We are glad to turn from the choruses of Æschylus, or the odes of Horace, confected in English verse by some petty scholar, to the original text, and the homely help of a school boy's crib.” —Balzac's Shorter Stories: Prefatory Notice, p.16.

Crib

To steal small articles. (Saxon, crybb; Irish, grib; our grab, grapple, grip, gripe, etc.)

Cricket

The diminutive of the Anglo—Saxon cric, a staff or crutch. In the Bodleian library is a MS. (1344) picture of a monk bowling a ball to another monk, who is about to strike it with a cric. In the field are other monks. There are no wickets, but the batsman stands before a hole, and the art of the game was either to get the ball into the hole, or to catch it.

Perhaps the earliest mention of the word “crickett” is 1593. John Derrick, gent., tells us when he attended the “free school of Guldeforde, he and his fellowes did runne and play there at crickett and other plaies.” It was a Wykehamist game in the days of Elizabeth.

A single stump was placed in the seventeenth century at each hole to point out the place to bowlers and fielders. In 1700 two stumps were used 24 inches apart and 12 inches high, with long bails atop.

A middle stump was added by the Hambledon Club in 1775, and the height of the stumps was raised to 22 inches.

In 1814 they were made 26 inches, and in 1817 they were reduced to 22 inches the present height. The length of run is 22 yards.

The first cricket club was Hambledon, which practically broke up in 1791, but existed in name till 1825.

Crikey A profane oath; a perverted form of the word Christ.

Crillon

Where wert thou, Crillon? Crillon, surnamed the Brace, in his old age went to church, and listened intently to the story of the Crucifixion. In the middle of the narrative he grew excited, and, unable to contain himself, cried out, “Ou étais — tu, Crillon? ” (What were you about, Crillon, to allow of such things as these?).

N.B. Louis de Berton des Balbes de Crillon was one of the greatest captains of the sixteenth century. Born in Provence 1541, died 1615.

Henri IV., after the battle of Argives (1589), wrote to Crillon the following letter: “Prend—toi, brave Crillon, nous avons vaincu á Arques, et tu n'y etais pas. ' The first and last part of this letter have become proverbial.

Crimen læsæ Majestatis

(Latin). High treason.

Crimp

A decoy; a man or woman that is on the look—out to decoy the unwary. It is more properly applied to an agent for supplying ships with sailors, but these agents are generally in league with public—houses and private lodging—houses of low character, into which they decoy the sailors and relieve them of their money under one pretence or another. (Welsh, crimpiaw, to squeeze or pinch; Norwegian, krympe, a sponge.)

Crimp of Death

(A). A thief—catcher. A crimp is a decoy, especially of soldiers and sailors. (See above.)

“Here lie three crimps of death, knocked down by Fate,

Of justice the staunch blood—hounds, too, so keen.” Peter Pindar: Epitaph on Townsend, Macmanus, and Jealous.

Cringle

(Tom). An excellent sailor character in the naval story by Michael Scott, called Tom Cringle's Log, first published in Blackwood's Magazine.

Cripple

A battered or bent sixpence; so called because it is hard to make it go.

Cripplegate

St. Giles is the patron saint of cripples and beggars, and was himself a cripple. Churches dedicated to this saint are, therefore, in the suburbs of large towns, as St. Giles of London, Norwich, Cambridge, Salisbury, etc. Cripplegate, London, was so called before the Conquest from the number of cripples who resorted thither to beg. (Stowe. )

Criss—cross Row

(Christ—cross row). The A B C horn—book, containing the alphabet and nine digits. The most ancient of these infant—school books had the letters arranged in the form of a Latin cross, with A at the top and Z at the bottom; but afterwards the letters were arranged in lines, and a + was placed at the beginning to remind the learner that “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”

“Mortals ne'er shall know

More than contained of old the Chris'—cross row.” Tickell: The Horn—Book.

Crishna

An incarnate deity of perfect beauty. King Canza, being informed that a child of the family of Devaci would overturn his throne, gave orders to destroy all the male infants that were born. When Crishna was born, his brother conveyed him secretly to the house of a shepherd king; but Canza discovered his retreat, and sent the monster Kâkshas to poison him. The tale says the infant child sucked the monster to death, and so escaped. As he grew up, his beauty was so dïvine that all the princesses of Hindustan fell in love with him, and even to the present hour he is the Apollo of India and the “idol of women.” His images are always painted a deep azure colour. (Sir W. Jones.) (See Rama.)

Crisis properly means the “ability to judge.” Hippocrates said that all diseases had their periods, when the humours of the body ebbed and flowed like the tide of the sea. These tidal days he called critical days, and the tide itself a crisis, because it was on these days the physician could determine whether the disorder was taking a good or a bad turn. The seventh and all its multiples were critical days of a favourable character. (Greek, krino, to judge or determine.)

Crispin

A shoemaker. St. Crispin was a shoemaker, and was therefore chosen for the patron saint of the craft. It is said that two brothers, Crispin and Crispian, born in Rome, went to Soissons, in France (A.D. 303), to propagate the Christian religion, and maintained themselves wholly by making and mending shoes. Probably the tale is fabulous, for crepis is Greek for a shoe, Latin crepid—a, and St. Crepis or Crepid became Crepin and Crespin.

St. Crispin's Day.

October 25th, the day of the battle of Agincourt. Shakespeare makes Crispin Crispian one person, and not two brothers. Hence Henry V. says to his soldiers —

“And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by ...

But we in it shall be remembered.”

Shakespeare: Henry V., iv. 3.

St. Crispin's holiday.

Every Monday, with those who begin the working week on Tuesday; a no—work day with shoemakers. (See Crispin.)

St. Crispin's lance.

A shoemaker's awl. In French, “Lance de St. Crépin.” Crispin is the patron saint of shoemakers.

The French argot for a leather purse is une crépine.

Criterion

A standard to judge by. (Greek, krino, to judge.)

Critic

A judge; an arbiter. (Greek, krino, to judge.)

Critic.

A captious, malignant critic is called a Zoïlus (q. v.)

“ `And what of this new book the whole world makes such a rout about?' `Oh, it is out of all plumb, my lord; quite an irregular thing! not one of the angles at the four corners is a right angle. I had my rule and compasses in my pocket.' `Excellent critic!'

“ `And for the epic poem your lordship bade me look at, upon taking the length, breadth, height, and depth of it, and trying them at home upon an exact scale of Bossu's [Bossut's], 'tis out, my lord, in every one of its dimensions.' `Admirable connoisseur!' ” — Sterne: Tristram Shandy, vol. iii. chap. xii.

The abbé Charles Bossut (1730—1814) was a noted mathematician and geometer.

Prince of critics.

Aristarchos, of Byzantium, who compiled the rhapsodies of Homer. (Second century B.C.) Stop—watch critics.

“ `And how did Garrick speak the soliloquy last night?' `Oh, against all rule, my lord, most ungrammatically. Betwixt the substantive and the adjective, which should agree together in number, case, and gender, he made a breach, thus — stopping as if the point wanted settling; and betwixt the nominative case, which, your lordship knows, should govern the verb, he suspended his voice in the epilogue a dozen times, three seconds and three—fifths by a stop—watch, my lord, each time.' `Admirable grammarian!' `But in suspending his voice was the sense suspended likewise? Did no expression of attitude or countenance fill up the chasm? Was the eye silent? Did you narrowly look?' `I looked only at the stop—watch, my lord.'

`Excellent observer!”' — Sterne: Tristram Shandy, vol. iii. chap. xii.

Croaker (2 syl.). A raven, so called from its croak; one who takes a desponding view of things. Goldsmith, in his Good—natured Man, has a character so named.

Croakumshire

Northumberland is so called from the peculiar croaking of the natives in speaking. This is especially observable in Newcastle and Morpeth, where the people are said to be born with a burr in their throats, which prevents their giving effect to the letter r.

Croc mitaine

(A). A fire—eater; one always ready to quarrel and fight. (See Croquemitaine.)

Crocodile

(3 syl.). A symbol of deity among the Egyptians, because it is the only aquatic animal, says Plutarch, which has its eyes covered with a thin transparent membrane, by reason of which it sees and is not seen; so God sees all, Himself not being seen. To this he subsequently adds another reason, saying, “The Egyptians worship God symbolically in the crocodile, that being the only animal without a tongue, like the Divine Logos, which standeth not in need of speech.” (De Iside et Osiride, vol. ii. p. 381.)

Achilles Tatius says, “The number of its teeth equals the number of days in a year.” Another tradition is, that during the seven days held sacred to Apis, the crocodile will harm no one.

Crocodile

(King). A king who devours his people, or at least their substance. Browne, in his Travels, tells us that there is a king crocodile, as there is a queen bee. The king crocodile has no tail.

Crocodile's Eye

Hieroglyphic for the morning.

Crocodile's Tears

Hypocritical tears. The tale is, that crocodiles moan and sigh like a person in deep distress, to allare travellers to the spot, and even shed tears over their prey while in the act of devouring it.

“As the mournful crocodile

With sorrow snares relenting passengers.”

Shakespeare: 2 Henry VI., iii. 1.

Crocum in Ciliciam ferre

To carry coals to Newcastle. As Cilicia abounds with saffron, to send it there would be needless and extravagant excess. For similar phrases, see Alcinoo Poma Dare, Noctuas Athenas, Coals.

Croesus

Rich as Croesus. Croesus, King of Lydia, was so rich and powerful that all the wise men of Greece were drawn to his court, and his name became proverbial for wealth. (B.C. 560—546.) (See Gyges.)

Cromeruach'

Chief idol of the Irish before the preaching of St. Patrick. It was a gold or silver image surrounded by twelve little brazen ones.

Cromlech

A large stone resting on two or more others, like a table. (Welsh, crom, bent; llech, a flat stone.) Weyland Smith's cave (Berkshire), Trevethy stone (Cornwall), Kit's Coty House (Kent). Irby and Mangles saw twenty—seven structures just like these on the banks of the Jordan; at Plas Newydd (Anglesey) are two cromlechs: in Cornwall they are numeròus; so are they in Wales; some few are found in Ireland, as the

“killing—stone” in Louth. In Brittany, Denmark, Germany, and some other parts of Europe, cromlechs are to be found.

Cromwell

in the part of “Tactus.” (See Tactus .)

Crone

properly speaking, means a ewe whose teeth are worn out; but metaphorically it means any toothless old beldam. (Irish, criona, old; allied to the Greek geron, an old man.)

“Take up the bastard; take `t up, I say; give `t to thy crone.” — Shakespeare: Winter's Tale, ii.

3.

Cronian Sea

The north polar sea. Pliny says, “A Thule unius diei navigatione mare concretum, a nonnullis cronium appellatur. ” (Natural History, iv. 16.)

“As when two polar winds blowing adverse

Upon the Cronian sea.”

Milton: Paradise Lost,

x. 290.

Crony

A familiar friend. An old crony is an intimate of times gone by. Probably crone with the diminutive ie for endearment, and equivalent to “dear old fellow,” “dear old boy.” (See Crone.)

Crook in the Lot

There is a crook in the lot of everyone. There is vexation bound up in every person's lot of life, a skeleton in the cupboard of every house. A crook in a stick is a bend, a part where the stick does not run straight, hence a “shepherd's crook.” When lots were drawn by bits of stick, it was desirable to get sticks which were smooth and straight; but it is very hard to find one without a crook, knot, or some other defect. Boston has a book entitled The Crook in the Lot.

Crooked as Crawley

(See Crawley .)

Crooked Sixpence

(A). Said to bring luck. (See Money .)

Crooked Stick

(A). A self—willed fellow who will neither lead nor drive, neither be led nor driven. (See Crook.)

Crop Up

(or) Out. To rise out of, to appear at the surface. A mining term. Strata which rise to the surface are said to crop out. We also say, such and such a subject crops up from time to time — i.e. rises to the surface; such and such a thing crops out of what you were saying — i.e. is apropos thereof.

Cropper

He came a cropper. He fell head over heels. To get a cropper. To get a bad fall. “Neck and crop” means altogether, and to “come a cropper” is to come to the ground neck and crop.

Croquemitaine

[croak—mit—tain ], the bogie raised by fear. The romance so called, in three parts. The first relates the bloody tournament at Fransac, between the champions of the Moorish King Marsillus and the paladins of Charlemagne. The second is the Siege of Saragossa by Charlemagne. The third is the allegory of Fear—Fortress. The epilogue is the disaster at Roncesvallës. The author is M. l'Epine. There is an English version by Tom Hood, illustrated by Gustave Doré (1867). (See Fear—Fortress, Mitaine, etc.)

Croquet

A game played with a sort of bandy stick. The crook was superseded by a kind of mallet. Du Cange gives “Croque, croquebois, croquet, bâton armé d'un croc, ou qui est recourbé” (vol. vii. p. 115). The art of the game is to strike your balls through very small hoops arranged in a given order.

Crore (A), in the East Indies, means a hundred lacs of rupees, equal nominally, in round numbers, to a million sterling. (Pronounce cror, Hindustanee karor.)

Cross

The cross is said to have been made of four sorts of wood (palm, cedar, olive, and cypress), to signify the four quarters of the globe.

“Ligna crucis palma, cedrus, cupressus,oliva.”

We are accustomed to consider the sign of the cross as wholly a Christian symbol, originating with the crucifixion of our Redeemer. This is quite erroneous. In ancient Carthage it was used for ornamental purposes. Runic crosses were set up by the Scandinavians as boundary marks, and were erected over the graves of kings and heroes. Cicero tells us (De Divinatione, ii. 27, and 80, 81) that the augur's staff with which they marked out the heaven was a cross. The ancient Egyptians employed the same as a sacred symbol, and we see on Greek sculptures, etc., a cake with a cross; two such buns were discovered at Herculaneum.

It was a sacred symbol among the Aztecs long before the landing of Cortes. (Malinche. In Cozumel it was an object of worship; in Tabasco it symbolised the god of rain; in Palinque (the Palmyra of America) it is sculptured on the walls with a child held up adoring it.

“The cross is not only a Christian symbol, it was also a Mexican symbol. It was one of the emblems of Quetzalcoatl, as lord of the four cardinal points, and the four winds that blow therefrom.” — Fiske: Discovery of America, vol. ii. chap. viii. p. 250.)

Cross

(in heraldry). There are twelve crosses in heraldry, called (1) the ordinary cross; (2) the cross humetté, or couped; (3) the cross urdé, or pointed; (4) the cross potent; (5) the cross crosslet; (6) the cross botonné, or treflé; (7) the cross moline; (8) the cross potence; (9) the cross fleury; (10) the cross patê; (11) the Maltese cross (or eight—pointed cross); (12) the cross cleché and fitché. Some heraldic writers enumerate 285 different kinds of crosses.

Cross

(a mystic emblem) may be reduced to these four:

The Greek cross

, found on Assyrian tablets, Egyptian and Persian monuments, and on Etruscan pottery. The crux decussata , generally called St. Andrew's cross. Quite common in ancient sculpture.

The Latin cross

, or “crux immissa.” This symbol is also found on coins, monuments, and medals, long before the Christian era.

The tau cross

, or “crux commissa.” Very ancient indeed, and supposed to be a phallic emblem. The tau cross with a handle is common to several Egyptian deities, as Isis, Osiris, etc.; and is the emblem of immortality and life generally.

Everyone must bear his own cross.

His own burden or troubles. The allusion is to the law that the person condemned to be crucified was to carry his cross to the place of execution.

Get on the cross.

Get into bad ways; not go straight.

“It's hard lines to think a fellow must grow up and get on the cross in spite of himself, and come to the gallow's foot at last,whether he likes it or not.” — Boldrewood: Robbery Under Arms, chap. viii.

The judgment of the cross.

An ordeal instituted in the reign of Charlemagne. The plaintiff and defendant were required to cross their arms upon their breast, and he who could hold out the longest gained the suit.

On the cross.

Not “on the square,” not straightforward. To get anything “on the cross” is to get it unfairly or surreptitiously.

See Rosicrucians.

Cross (To).

Cross it off or out.

Cancel it by running your pen across it. To cancel (q.v.) means to mark it with lattice lines.

Cross

ill—tempered, is the Anglo—Saxon crous.

“Azeyn [against] hem was he kene and crous.”

Cursor Mundi.

Cross Buns

(See Buns .)

Cross—grained

Patchy, ill—tempered, self—willed. Wood must be worked with the grain; when the grain crosses we get a knot or curling, which is hard to work uniform.

Cross—legged Knights

indicate that the person so represented died in the Christian faith. As crusaders were supposed so to do, they were generally represented on their tombs with crossed legs.

“Sometimes the figure on the tomb of a knight has his legs crossed at the ankles, this meant that the knight went one crusade. If the legs are crossed at the knees, he went twice; if at the thighs he went three times. ” — Ditchfield: Our Villages, 1889.

Cross Man

(A). Not straightforward; ungain; not honest.

“The storekeepers know who are their best customers, the square people or the cross ones.” — Boldrewood: Robbery Under Arms, chap. xvii.

Cross—patch

A disagreeable, ill—tempered person, male or female. Patch means a fool or gossip; so called from his parti—coloured or patched dress. A cross—patch is an ill—tempered fool or gossip. Patch, meaning

“fellow,” is common enough; half a dozen examples occur in Shakespeare, as a “scurvy patch,” a “soldier's patch,” “What patch is made our porter?” “a crew of patches,” etc.

“Cross—patch, draw the latch,

Sit by the fire and spin;

Take a cup, and drink it up,

Then call your neighbours in.

Old Nursery Rhyme.

Cross—roads

All (except suicides) who were excluded from holy rites were piously buried at the foot of the cross erected on the public road, as the place next in sanctity to consecrated ground. Suicides were ignominiously buried on the highway, with a stake driven through their body.

Cross and Ball

so universally marked on Egyptian figures, is a circle and the letter T. The circle signifies the eternal preserver of the world, and the T is the monogram of Thoth, the Egyptian Mercury, meaning wisdom. The coronation orb is a sphere or ball surmounted by a cross, an emblem of empire introduced in representations of our Saviour. In this case the cross stands above the ball, to signify that the spiritual power is above the temporal.

Cross and Pile

Money; pitch and toss. Hilaire le Gai tells us that some of the ancient French coins had a cross, and others a column, on the reverse; the column was called a pile, from which comes our word “pillar,” and the phrase “pile—driving.” Scaliger says that some of the old French coins had a ship on the reverse, the arms of Paris, and that pile means “a ship,” whence our word “pilot.”

“A man may now justifiably throw up cross and pile for his opinions.” — Locke: Human Understanding.

Cross or pile. Heads or tails. The French say pile ou face. The “face” or cross was the obverse of the coin, the “pile” was the reverse; but at a later period the cross was transferred to the reverse, as in our florins, and the obverse bore a “head” or “poll.”

“Marriage is worse than cross I win, pile you lose.” Shadwell: Epsom Wells.

Cross nor pile. I have neither cross nor pile. Not a penny in the world. The French phrase is, “N'avoir ni croix ni pile ” (to have neither one sort of coin nor another).

“Whacum had neither cross nor pile.” Butler: Hudibras, part ii. 3.

Cross as a Bear

or Cross as a bear with a sore head.

Cross as the Tongs

The reference is to tongs which open like a pair of scissors.

Cross as Two Sticks

The reference is to the cross .

Crossing the Hand

Fortune—tellers of the gipsy race always bid their dupe to “cross their hand with a bit of silver.” This, they say, is for luck. Of course, the sign of the cross warded off witches and all other evil spirits, and, as fortune—telling belongs to the black arts, the palm is signed with a cross to keep off the wiles of the devil. “You need fear no evil, though I am a fortune—teller, if by the sign of the cross you exorcise the evil spirit.”

Crossing the Line

— i.e. the equator.

Crotalum

A sort of castanet,rattled in dancing. Aristophanes calls a great talker krotalon (a clack).

Crotchet

A whim; a fancy; a twist of the mind, like the crotch or crome of a stick. (See Crook.)

“The duke hath crotchets in him.”

Shakespeare: Measure for Measure,

iii. 2.

Crotona's Sage

Pythagoras. So called because at Crotona he established his first and chief school of philosophy. Such success followed his teaching that the whole aspect of the town became more moral and decorous in a marvellously short time. About B. C. 540.

Crouchback

(See Red Rose .)

Crouchmas

from the Invention of the Cross to St. Helen's Day (May 3rd to August 18th). Not Christ—mas, but Cross—mas. Rogation Sunday is called Crouchmas Sunday, and Rogation week is called Crouchmas.

“From bull—cow fast,

Till Crouchmas be past” [i.e. August 18th].

Tusser: May Remembrances.

Crow

As the crow flies. The shortest route between two given places. The crow flies straight to its point of destination. Called the bee—line in America.

Crow.

(See Raven.)

I must pluck a crow with you; I have a crow to pick with you.

I am displeased with you, and must call you to account. I have a small complaint to make against you. In Howell's proverbs (1659) we find the following, “I

have a goose to pluck with you,” used in the same sense; and Chaucer has the phrase “Pull a finch, ” but means thereby to cheat or filch. Children of distinction among the Greeks and Romans had birds for their amusement, and in their boyish quarrels used to pluck or pull the feathers out of each other's pets. Tyndarus, in his Captives, alludes to this, but instances it with a lapwing. In hieroglyphics a crow symbolises contention, discord, strife.

“If a crow help us in, sirrah, we'll pluck a crow together.” — Shakespeare: Comedy of Errors, iii. 1.

“If not, resolve before we go,

That you and I must pull a crow.”
Butler: Hudibras, part ii. 2.

Crow over One

(To), is to exult over a vanquished or abased person. The allusion is to cocks, who always crow when they have vanquished an adversary.

Crowbar

An iron with a crook, used for leverage. (Anglo—Saxon, cruc.)

“Science is as far removed from brute force as this sword from a crowbar.” — Bulwer—Lytton: Leila, book ii. chap. i. p.33.

Crowd

or Crouth. A species of fiddle with six or more strings. The last noted player on this instrument was John Morgan, who died 1720. (Welsh, crwth.)

“O sweet consent, between a crowd and a Jew's harp!”Lyly.

Crowdero

One of the rabble leaders encountered by Hudibras at a bear—baiting. The original of this character was one Jackson or Jephson, a milliner, who lived in the New Exchange, Strand. He lost a leg in the service of the Roundheads, and was reduced to the necessity of fiddling from alehouse to alehouse for his daily bread. The word means fiddler. (See above, Crowd.)

Crown

In heraldry nine crowns are recognised: The oriental, the triumphal or imperial, the diadem, the obsidional crown, the civic, the crown vallery, the mural crown, the naval, and the crown celestial.

The blockade crown

(corona obsidionalis), presented by the Romans to the general who liberated a beleaguered army. This was made of grass and wild flowers gathered from the spot.

A camp crown

was given by the Romans to him who first forced his way into the enemy's camp. It was made of gold, and decorated with palisades.

A civic crown

was presented to him who preserved the life of a civis or Roman citizen in battle. This crown was made of oak leaves, and bore the inscription, H.O.C.S. — i.e. hostem occidit, civem servavit (a foe he slew, a citizen saved).

A mural crown

was given by the Romans to that man who first scaled the wall of a besieged town. It was made of gold and decorated with battlements.

A naval crown

was by the Romans given to him who won a naval victory. It was made of gold, and decorated with the beaks of ships.

An olive crown

was by the Romans given to those who distinguished themselves in battle in some way not specially mentioned in other clauses.

An ovation crown (corona ovalis

) was by the Romans given to the general who vanquished pirates or any despised enemy. It was made of myrtle.

A triumphal crown

was by the Romans given to the general who obtained a triumph. It was made of laurel or bay leaves. Sometimes a massive gold crown was given to a victorious general. (See Laurel.)

The iron crown of Lombardy

is the crown of the ancient Longobardic kings. It is now at Monza, in Italy.

Henry of Luxembourg and succeeding kings were crowned with it. Napoleon I. put it on his head with his own hands. It is a thin fillet of iron, said to be hammered from a nail of the true cross, covered with a gold circle, enamelled with jewels, etc.

Crown Glass

is window glass blown into a crown or hollow globe. It is flattened before it is fit for use.

Crown Office

(The). A department belonging to the Court of Queen's Bench. There are three Crown officers appointed by the Lord Chief Justice — viz. (1) Queen's Coroner and Attorney; (2) the Master; and (3) the Assistant Master. The offices are held during good behaviour.

Crown of the East

— i.e. Antioch, capital of Syria, which consisted of four walled cities, encompassed by a common rampart, that “enrounded them like a coronet.” It was also surnamed “the beautiful.”

Crowns

(worn by heathen deities):

APOLLO wore a crown of laurels. BACCHUS, of grapes or ivy. CERES, of blades of wheat. COMUS, of roses. CYBELÊ, of pine leaves. FLORA, of flowers. FORTUNE, of fir—slips. THE GRACES, of olive—leaves.

HERCULES, of poplar—leaves. HYMEN, of roses. JUNO, of quince—leaves. JUPITER, of oak—leaves. THE LARÊS, of rosemary. MERCURY, of ivy, olive—leaves, or mulberries. MINERVA, of olive—leaves. THE MUSES, of flowers. PAN, of pine—leaves. PLUTO, of cypress. POMONA, of fruits. SATURN, of vine—leaves. VENUS, of myrtle or roses.

Crowner

Coroner — i.e. an officer of the Crown.

“The crowner hath sat on her, and finds it Christian burial.” — Shakespeare: Hamlet, v. 1.

Crow's—Nest

(The), in a Greenlander's galley, is a small room constructed of staves, something like an empty cask. It is fitted up with seats and other conveniences, and here the person on watch continues for two hours looking out for whales. The whale generally announces his approach by a “blowing,” which may in favourable circumstances be heard several miles off.

Crowquill

(Alfred). Alfred Henry Forrester (1805—1872).

Croysado

The Great Croysado. General Lord Fairfax. (Hudibras.)

Crozier

or Crosier. An archbishop's staff terminates in a floriated cross, while a bishop's crook has a curved, brackenlike head. A bishop turns his crook outwards, to denote his wider authority; an abbot (whose crook is the same as a bishop's) carries it turned inwards, to show that his jurisdiction is limited to his own inmates. When walking with a bishop an abbot covers his crook with a veil hanging from the knob, to show that his authority is veiled in the presence of his superior.

Crucial

A crucial test. A very severe and undeniable one. The allusion is to a fancy of Lord Bacon's, who said that two different diseases or sciences might run parallel for a time, but would ultimately cross each other: thus, the plague might for a time resemble other diseases, but when the bubo or boil appeared, the plague would assume its specific character. Hence the phrase instantia crucis (a crucial or unmistakable symptom), a crucial experiment, a crucial example, a crucial question, etc.

Crude Forms

in grammar. The roots or essential letters of words. The words are crude or unfinished. Thus am — is the crude form of the verb amo; bon — of the adjective bonus; and domin — of the noun dominus.

Cruel

(The). Pedro, King of Castile (1334, 1350—1369).

Pedro I. of Portugal; also called le Justicier (1320, 1357—1367).

Cruel

(now Crewel) Garters. Garters made of worsted or yarn.

“Ha ! ha ! look, he wears cruel garters.”

Shakespeare: King Lear,

ii. 4.

“Wearing of silk, why art thou so cruel?”

Woman's a Weathercock

(1612).

Crummy

That's crummy, that's jolly good. She's a crummy woman, a fine handsome woman. Crummy means fat or fleshy. The crummy part of bread is the fleshy or main part. The opposite of “crusty” = ill—tempered.

Crump

“Don't you wish you may get it, Mrs. Crump? ” Grose says Mrs. Crump, a farmer's wife, was invited to dine with Lady Coventry, who was very deaf. Mrs. Crump wanted some beer, but, awed by the purple and plush, said, in a half—whisper, “I wish I had some beer, now.” Mr. Flunkey, conscious that his mistress could not hear, replied in the same aside, “Don't you wish you may get it?” At this the farmer's wife rose from table and helped herself. Lady Coventry, of course, demanded the reason, and the anecdote soon became a standing joke.

Crusades

(2 syl.). Holy wars in which the warriors wore a cross, and fought, nominally at least, for the honour of the cross. Each nation had its special colour, which, says Matthew Paris (i. 446), was red for France; white for England; green for Flanders; for Italy it was blue or azure; for Spain, gules; for Scotland, a St. Andrew's cross; for the Knights Templars, red on white.

The seven Crusades.

(1) 1096—1100. Preached up by Peter the Hermit. Led by Godfrey of Bouillon, who took Jerusalem. As a result of this crusade, Geoffrey of Bouillon became the virtual king of Jerusalem.

(2) 1147—1149. At the instigation of St. Bernard. Led by Louis VII. and the Emperor Conrad. To secure the union of Europe.

(3) 1189—1193. Led by Richard Lionheart. For knightly distinction. This was against Saladin or

Salah—Eddin.

(4) 1202—1204. Led by Baldwin of Flanders and the doge. To glorify the Venetians.

(5) 1217. Led by John of Brienne, titular King of Jerusalem. To suit his own purpose.

(6) 1228—1229. Led by Frederick II. As a result, Palestine was ceded to Frederick (Kaiser of Germany), who was crowned king of Jerusalem.

(7) 1248—1254 and (8) 1268—1270. To satisfy the religious scruples of Louis IX.

Crush

To crush a bottle — i.e. drink one. Cf. Milton's crush the sweet poison. The idea is that of crushing the grapes. Shakespeare has also burst a bottle in the same sense (Induction of Taming the Shrew). (See Crack.)

“Come and crush a cup of wine.”

Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet,

i. 2.

To crush a fly on a wheel.

To crack a nut with a steam—hammer; to employ power far too valuable for the purpose to be accomplished. The wheel referred to is the rack. (See Break A Butterfly.)

Crush—room

(The) of an opera or theatre. A room provided for ladies where they can wait till their carriages are called. Called crush because the room is not only crowded, but all crush towards the door, hoping each call will be that of their own carriage. “Mrs. X.'s carriage stops the way,” “Lord X.'s carriage,” etc.

Crusoe

(A). A solitary man; the only inhabitant of a place. The tale of Defoe is well known, which describes Robinson Crusoe as cast on a desert island, where he employs the most admirable ingenuity in providing for his daily wants.

“Whence creeping forth, to Duty's call he yields,

And strolls the Crusoe of the lonely fields.”

Bloomfield: Farmer's Boy.

Crust

The upper crust (of society). The aristocracy; the upper ten—thousand.

Crusted Port

When port is first bottled its fermentation is not complete; in time it precipitates argol on the sides of the bottle, where it forms a crust. Crusted port, therefore, is port which has completed its fermentation.

The “crust” is composed of argol, tartrate of lime, and colouring matter, thus making the wine more ethereal in quality and lighter in colour.

Crusty

Ill—tempered, apt to take offence. This is formed from the old word crous, cross, peevish.

“Azeyn [against] hem was he kene ane crous,

And said, `Goth out my Fader hous.' “

Cursor Mundi.

Crutched Friars

is the Latin cruciati (crossed) — i.e. having a cross embroidered on their dress. They were of the Trinitarian order.

Crux

(A). A knotty point, a difficulty. Instantia crucis means a crucial test, or the point where two similar diseases crossed and showed a special feature. It does not refer to the cross, an instrument of punishment; but to the crossing of two lines, called also a node or knot; hence a trouble or difficulty. Qua te mala crux agitat? (Plautus); What evil cross distresses you? — i.e. what difficulty, what trouble are you under?

Crux Ansata

The tau cross with a loop or handle at the top. (See Cross.)

Crux Decussata

A St. Andrew's cross

“Crux decussata est in qua duo ligna directa et æquabilia inter se obliquantur, cujus formam refert litera X quæ, ut ait Isidorus (Orig, 1, iii.) `in figura crucem et in numero decem

demonstrat.' Hæc vulgo Andreana vocatur, quod vetus traditio sit in hac S. Antream fuisse necatum.” — Gretser: De Cruce, book i. p. 2.

Crux Pectoralis

The cross which bishops of the Church of Rome suspend over their breast.

“Crucem cum pretioso ligno vel cum reliquis Sanctorum ante pectus portare suspensum ad collum, hoc est quod vocant encolpium [or crux Pectoralis].” — See Ducange, vol.iii. p. 302, col. 2, article ENCOLPIUM.

Cry

Great cry and little wool. This is derived from the ancient mystery of David and Abigail, in which Nabal is represented as shearing his sheep, and the Devil, who is made to attend the churl, imitates the act by “shearing a hog.” Originally, the proverb ran thus, “Great cry and little wool, as the Devil said when he sheared the hogs.” N.B. — Butler alters the proverb into “All cry and no wool.”

Cry of Animals

(The). (See Animals .)

Cry

(To).

To cry over spilt milk.

To fret about some loss which can never be repaired.

Cry Cave

To). To ask mercy; to throw up the sponge; to confess oneself beaten. (Latin, caveo.) (See Cave In)

Cry Havock!

No quarter. In a tract entitled The Office of the Constable and Mareschall in the Tyme of Werre (contained in the Black Book of the Admiralty), one of the chapters is, “The peyne of hym that crieth havock, and of them that followeth him” — “Item si quis inventus fuerit qui clamorem inceperit qui vocatur havok. “

“Cry Havock, and let slip the dogs of war.”

Shakespeare: Julius Cæsar,

iii. 1

Cry Quits

(See Quit .)

Cry Vinegar

(To). In French, Crier Vinaigre. The shout of sportsmen when a hare is caught. He cries “Vinegar !” he has caught the hare; metaphorically it means, he has won success. “C'étoit, dit le Duchat, la coutume en Languedoc, entre les chasseurs, de s'écrier l'un à l'autre `Vinaigre,' dès qu'ils avaient tiré un lièvre, parceque la vraie sauce de cet animal est le vinaigre. “

Crier au Vinaigre

has quite another meaning. It is the reproof to a landlord who serves his customers with bad wine. In a figurative sense it means Crier au Voleur.

Cry Wolf

(See Wolf .)

Crystal Hills

On the coast of the Caspian, near Badku, is a mountain which sparkles like diamonds, from the sea—glass and crystals with which it abounds.

Crystalline

(3 syl.). The Crystalline sphere. According to Ptolemy, between the “primum mobile” and the firmament or sphere of the fixed stars comes the crystalline sphere, which oscillates or has a shimmering motion that interferes with the regular motion of the stars.

“They pass the planets seven, and pass the `fixed'

And that crystalline sphere, whose balance weighs The trepidation talked (of).”

Milton: Paradise Lost,

iii.

Cub An ill—mannered lout. The cub of a bear is said to have no shape until its dam has licked it into form.

“A bear's a savage beast, of all

Most ugly and unnatural;

Whelped without form until the dam

Has licked it into shape and frame.”

Butler: Hudibras, i. 3.

Cuba

The Roman deity who kept guard over infants in their cribs and sent them to sleep. Verb cubo, to lie down in bed.

Cube

A faultless cube. A truly good man; a regular brick. (See Brick.)

O g wz alhqwz agaqoz kai teragwuoz aueu yogou — Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics, i. 11, sec. 11.

Cucking—stool

(The) or Choking—stool, for ducking scolds, is not connected with choke (to stifle), but the French choquer; hence the archaic verb cuck (to throw), and one still in use, chuck (chuck—farthing). The cucking—stool is the stool which is chucked or thrown into the water.

“Now, if one cucking—stool was for each scold,

Some towns, I fear, would not their numbers hold.” Poor Robin (1746).

Cuckold

(See Actæon .)

Cuckold King

(The). Mark of Cornwall, whose wife Yseult intrigued with Sir Tristram, one of the Knights of the Round Table.

Cuckold's Point

A spot on the riverside near Deptford. So called from a tradition that King John made there successful love to a labourer's wife.

Cuckoo

A cuckold. The cuckoo occupies the nest and eats the eggs of other birds; and Dr. Johnson says “it was usual to alarm a husband at the approach of an adulterer by calling out `Cuckoo,' which by mistake was applied in time to the person warned.” Green calls the cuckoo “the cuckold's quirister” (Quip for an Upstart Courtier, 1620). This is an instance of how words get in time perverted from their original meaning. The Romans used to call an adulterer a “cuckoo,” as “Te cuculum uxor ex lustris rapit ” (Plautus: Asinaria, v. 3), and the allusion was simple and correct; but Dr. Johnson's explanation will hardly satisfy anyone for the modern perversion of the word.

“The cuckoo, then, on every tree,

Mocks married men; for thus sings he,

Cuckoo!

Cuckoo! cuckoo! O word of fear,

Unpleasing to a married ear!”

Shakespeare: Love's Labour's Lost, v. 2.

Cuckoo

(A). A watch or clock. The French have the same slang word coucou for a watch or clock. Of course, the word is derived from the German cuckoo—clocks, which, instead of striking the hour, cry cuckoo.

Cuckoo Oats and Woodcock Hay

Cuckoo oats and woodcock hay make a farmer run away. If the spring is so backward that oats cannot be sown till the cuckoo is heard (i.e. April), or if the autumn is so wet that the aftermath of hay cannot be got in till woodcock shooting (middle of November), the farmer must be a great sufferer.

Cuckoo—Spit

“Frog—Spit,” or “Froth—Spit.” The spume which forms the uidus of an insect called the Cicada Spumaria, or, more strictly speaking, the Cercopis Spumaria (one of the three divisions of the Cicadariæ). This spume is found on lavender—bushes, rosemary, fly—catch, and some other plants. Like the cochineal, the cicada spumaria exudes a foam for its own warmth, and for protection during its transition state. The word

“cuckoo” in this case means spring or cuckoo—time.

Cucumber Time The dull season in the tailoring trade. The Germans call it Die saure Gurken Zeit (pickled gherkin time). Hence the expression Tailors are vegetarians, because they live on “cucumber” when without work, and on “cabbage” when in full employ. (Notes and Queries.)

Cuddy

An ass; a dolt. A gipsy term, from the Persian gudda and the Hindustanee ghudda (an ass).

“Hast got thy breakfast, brother cuddy?”

D. Wingate.

Cudgel One's Brains

(To). To make a painful effort to remember or understand something. The idea is from taking a stick to beat a dull boy under the notion that dulness is the result of temper or inattention.

“Cudgel thy brains no more about it; for our dull ass will not mend his place with beating.” — Shakespeare: Hamlet, v. 1.

Cudgels

To take up the cudgels. To maintain an argument or position. To fight, as with a cudgel, for one's own way.

“For some reason he did not feel as hot to take up the cudgels for Almira with his mother.” —

M. E. Wilkins: A Modern Dragon.

Cue

(1 syl.). The tail of a sentence (French, queue), the catch—word which indicates when another actor is to speak; a hint; the state of a person's temper, as “So—and—so is in a good cue (or) bad cue.”

“When my cue comes, call me, and I will answer.” — Shakespeare: Midsummer Night's Dream, iv. 1.

To give the cue.

To give the hint. (See above.)

Cuffy

A negro; both a generic word and proper name.

“Sambo and Cuffey expand under every sky.” — Mrs. Beecher Stowe: Uncle Tom's Cabin.

Cui bono?

Who is benefited thereby? To whom is it a gain? The more usual meaning attached to the words is, What good will it do? For what good purpose? It was the question of Judge Cassius. (See Cicero: Pro Milone, 12, sec. 32.)

“Cato, that great and grave philosopher, did commonly demand, when any new project was propounded unto him, cui bono, what good will ensue in case the same is effected?” — Fuller: Worthies (The Design, i.).

Cuirass

Sir Arthur's cuirass was “carved of one emerald, centred in a sun of silver rays, that lightened as he breathed.” (Tennyson: Elaine.)

Cuishes

or Cuisses (2 syl.). Armour for the thighs. (French, cuisse, the thigh.)

“Soon o'er his thighs he placed the cuishes bright.” Jerusalem Delivered, book xi.

“His cuisses on his thighs, gallantly armed.” Shakespeare: 1 Henry IV., iv. 1.

Cul de Sac (French). A blind alley, or alley blocked up at one end like a sack. Figuratively, an argument, etc., that leads to nothing.

Culdees

A religious order of Ireland and Scotland, said to have been founded in the sixth century by St. Columba. So called from the Gaelic cylle—dee (a house of cells) or ceilede (servants of God, ceile, a servant). Giraldus Cambrensis, going to the Latin for its etymology, according to a custom unhappily not yet extinct, derives it from colo—deus (to worship God).

Cullis

A very fine and strong broth, well strained, and much used for invalids. (French, coulis, from couler, to strain.)

Cully

A fop, a fool, a dupe. A contracted form of cullion, a despicable creature (Italian, coglione). Shakespeare uses the word two or three times, as “Away, base cullions!” (2 Henry VI., i. 3), and again in Taming of the Shrew, iv. 2 — “And makes a god of such a cullion.” (Compare GULL.)

“You base cullion, you.”

Ben Jonson: Every Man in his Humour,

iii. 2.

Culminate

(3 syl.). Come to a crisis. The passage of a celestial body over the meridian at the upper transit is called its culmination. (Latin, culmen, the top.)

Culross Girdles

The thin plate of iron used in Scotland for the manufacture of oaten cakes is called a “girdle,” for which Culross was long celebrated.

“Locks and bars, plough—graith and barrow—teeth! and why not grates and fireprongs, and Culross girdles?” — Scott: Fair Maid of Perth, chap. ii.

Culver

Pigeon. (Old English, colver; Latin, columba; hence culver—house, a dove—cote.)

“On liquid wing,

The sounding culver shoots.”

Thomson: Spring 452.

Culverin

properly means a serpent (Latin, colubrinus, the coluber), but is applied to a long, slender piece of artillery employed in the sixteenth century to carry balls to a great distance. Queen Elizabeth's “Pocket Pistol” in Dover Castle is a culverin.

Culverkeys

The keys or flowers of the culver or columba, i.e. columbine. (Anglo—Saxon culfre, a dove.)

Cum Grano Salis

With its grain of salt; there is a grain of wheat in the bushel of chaff, and we must make the proper abatement.

Cum Hoc, Propter Hoc

Because two or more events occur consecutively or simultaneously, one is not necessarily the outcome of the other. Sequence of events is not always the result of cause and effect. The swallows come to England in the spring, but do not bring the spring.

“[Free trade and revival of trade] says Lord Penzance, came simultaneously, but, he adds, `There is no more dangerous form of reasoning than the cum hoc, propter hoc. ' ” — Nineteenth Century, April, 1886.,

Cumberland Poet

(The). William Wordsworth, born at Cockermouth. (1770—1850.)

Cummer A gammer, gudewife, old woman. A variety of gammer which is grande—mère (our grandmother), as gaffer is grand—père or grandfather. It occurs scores of times in Scott's novels.

Cunctator

[the delayer ]. Quintus Fabius Maximus, the Roman general who baffled Hannibal by avoiding direct engagements, and wearing him out by marches, countermarches, and skirmishes from a distance. This was the policy by which Duguesclin forced the English to abandon their possessions in France in the reign of Charles V. (le Sage). (See Fabian.)

Cuneiform Letters

Letters like wedges (Latin, cuneus, a wedge). These sort of letters occur in old Persian and Babylonian inscriptions. They are sometimes called Arrow—headed characters, and those found at Babylon are called nail—headed. This species of writing is the most ancient of which we have any knowledge; and was first really deciphered by Grotefend in 1802.

Cunning Man

or Woman. A fortune—teller, one who professes to discover stolen goods. (Anglo—Saxon, cunnan, to know.)

Cuno

The ranger, father of Agatha, in Weber's opera of Der Freischtütz.

Cunobelin's Gold Mines

Caverns in the chalk beds of Little Thurrock, Essex; so called from the tradition that King Cunobelin hid in them his gold. They are sometimes called Dane—holes, because they were used as lurking—places by the Norsemen.

Cunstance

A model of Resignation, daughter of the Emperor of Rome. The Sultan of Syria, in order to have her for his wife, renounced his religion and turned Christian; but the Sultan's mother murdered him, and turned Cunstance adrift on a raft. After a time the raft stranded on a rock near Northumberland, and the constable rescued Cunstance, and took her home, where she converted his wife, Hermegild. A young lord fell in love with her; but, his suit being rejected, he murdered Hermegild, and laid the charge of murder against Cunstance. King Ella adjudged the cause, and Cunstance being proved innocent, he married her. While Ella was in Scotland, Cunstance was confined with a boy, named Maurice; and Ella's mother, angry with Cunstance for the introduction of the Christian religion, put her on a raft adrift with her baby boy. They were accidentally found by a senator, and taken to Rome. Ella, having discovered that his mother had turned his wife and child adrift, put her to death, and went to Rome in pilgrimage to atone for his crime. Here he fell in with his wife and son. Maurice succeeded his grandfather as Emperor of Rome, and at the death of Ella, Cunstance returned to her native land. (Chaucer: The Man of Lawes Tale.)

Cuntur

A bird worshipped by the ancient Peruvians. It is generally called the “condor,” and by the Arabians the “roc.”

Cup

A deadly cup. Referring to the ancient practice of putting persons to death by poison, as Socrates was put to death by the Athenians.

“In the hand of the Lord there is a cup [a deadly cup], the dregs thereof all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out and drink them.” — Psalm lxxv. 8.

Let this cup pass from me.

Let this trouble or affliction be taken away, that I may not be compelled to undergo it. The allusion is to the Jewish practice of assigning to guests a certain portion of wine — as, indeed, was the custom in England at the close of the eighteenth century and the first quarter of the nineteenth. This cup is “full of the wine of God's fury,” let me not be compelled to drink it.

Many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip.

(See Ancaeus.) My [or his] cup runs over. My blessings overflow. Here cup signifies portion or blessing.

“My cup runneth over ... goodness and mercy follow me all the days of my life.” — Psalm

xxiii. 5, 6.

We must drink the cup.

We must bear the burden awarded to us, the sorrow which falls to our lot. The allusion is to the words of our Lord in the garden of Gethsemanë(Matt. xxvi. 39; also xx. 22). One way of putting criminals to death in ancient times was by poison; Socrates had hemlock to drink. In allusion to this it is said that Jesus Christ tasted death for every man (Heb. ii. 9).

Cup in the university of Cambridge, means a mixture of strong ale with spice and a lemon, served up hot in a silver cup. Sometimes a roasted orange takes the place of a lemon. If wine is added, the cup is called bishop; if brandy is added, the beverage is called cardinal. (See BISHOP.)

Cup Tosser

A juggler (French, joueur de gobelet). The old symbol for a juggler was a goblet. The phrase and symbol are derived from the practice of jugglers who toss in the air, twist on a stick, and play all sorts of tricks with goblets or cups.

Cup of Vows

(The). It used to be customary at feasts to drink from cups of mead, and vow to perform some great deed worthy of the song of a skald. There were four cups: one to Odin, for victory; one to Frey, for a good year; one to Niörd, for peace; and one to Bragi, for celebration of the dead in poetry.

Cups

He was in his cups. Intoxicated. (Latin, inter pocula, inter vina.) (Horace: 3 Odes, vi. 20.)

Cupar

He that will to Cupar maun to Cupar. He that will have his own way, must have it even to his injury. The reference is to the Cistercian monastery, founded here by Malcolm IV.

Cupar Justice

Same as “Jedburgh Justice,” hang first and try afterwards. Abingdon Law is another phrase. It is said that Major—General Brown, of Abingdon, in the Commonwealth, first hanged his prisoners and then tried them.

Cupboard Love

Love from interested motives. The allusion is to the love of children to some indulgent person who gives them something nice from her cupboard.

“Cupboard love is seldom true.” — Poor Robin.

Cupid

The god of love, and son of Venus. According to fable he wets with blood the grindstone on which he sharpens his arrows.

“Ferus et Cupido

Semper ardentes acuens sagittas.'

Horace: 2 Odes, viii. 14, 15.

The best statues of this little god are “Cupid Sleeping,” in Albano (Rome); “Cupid playing with a Swan,” in the Capitol: “Cupid mounted on a Tiger,” (Negroni); and “Cupid stringing his Bow,” in the Louvre (Paris). Raphael's painting of Cupid is in the Farnesina (Rome).

Cupid and Psyche

An exquisite episode in the Golden Ass of Apuleius. It is an allegory representing the progress of the soul to perfection. Mrs. Tighe has a poem on the same subject; and Molière a drama entitled Psyche. (See Morris, Earthly Paradise [May].)

Cupid's Golden Arrow

Virtuous love. “Cupid's leaden arrow,” sensual passion.

“Deque sagittifera promsit duo tela pharetra

Diversorum operum; fugat hoc, facit illud amorem. Quod facit auratum est, et cuspide fulget acuta—, Quod fugat obtusum est, et habet sub arundine plumbum.' Ovid: Tale of Apollo and Daphnë.

“I swear to thee by Cupid's strongest bow;

By his best arrow with the golden head

By that which knitteth souls and prospers love.”

Shakespeare Midsummer Night's Dream.

Cupidon

(Le jeune). Count d'Orsay was so called by Lord Byron (1798—1852). The Count's father was styled Le beau d'Orsay.

Cur

A fawning, mean—spirited fellow, a crop—tailed dog (Latin, curtus, crop—tailed. French, court; our curt). According to forest laws, a man who had no right to the privilege of the chase was obliged to cut off the tail of his dog. Hence, a degenerate dog or man is called a cur.

“What would you have, you curs,

That like nor peace nor war?”

Shakespeare: Coriolanus, i. 1.

Curate

(See Clerical Titles .)

Cure de Meudon

— i.e. Rabelais, who was first a monk, then a leech, then prebend of St. Maur, and lastly curé of Meudon. (1483—1653.)

Curetes

(3 syl). A mythical people of Crete, to whom the infant Zeus or Jupiter was entrusted by his mother Rhea. By clashing their shields they drowned the cries of the infant, to prevent its father (Cronos) from finding the place where the babe was hid.

Curfew Bell

The bell rung in the reigns of William I. and II. at sunset, to give notice to their subjects that they were to put out their fires and candles (French, couvre feu, cover—fire). The Klokans in Abo, even to the present day, traverse the towns crying the “go—to—bed time.” Those abroad are told to “make haste home,” and those at home to “put out their fires.” Abolished, as a police regulation, by Henry I.

“The curfew tolls the knell of parting day.” Gray: Elegy.

Curmudgeon

(3 syl.). A grasping, miserly churl. Dr. Johnson gives the derivation of this word thus, “coeur mechant, unknown correspondent.” Dr. Ash, in his dictionary, says, “coeur, unknown; merchant, correspondent,” a blunder only paralleled by the schoolboy translation of the Greek, me genoito, by mh (God) geuoito (forbid) (Luke xx. 6).

Currant

A corruption of Corinth, hence called by Juvenal Corinthiaca uvae.

Current

The drift of the current is the rate per hour at which the current runs.

The setting of the current

is that point of the compass towards which the waters of the current run.

Currente Calamo

(Latin). Offhand; without premeditation; written off at once, without making a rough copy first.

Currer Bell

The nom de plume of Charlotte Brontë.

Curry Favour

The French courir, to hunt after, to seek, as courir une charge, courir un bénéfice, to sue for a living; courir les tables, to go a spunging. Similarly, courir les faveurs, to sue for, court, or seek, favours.

Curse

or Cuss. Not worth a curse. I don't care a curse (or cuss). Here “curse” is a corruption of cerse or kerse. Similarly, the Latin nihil [nihilum ] is ne hilum, not [worth] the black eye of a bean. Other phrases are

“not a straw,” “not a pin,” “not a rap,” “not a dam,” “not a bit,” “not a jot,” “not a pin's point,” “not a button.” (Anglo—Saxon, cerse, cress; German, Kirsche, a cherry.)

“Wisdom and witt nowe is not worthe a kerse.”

Robert Langeland: Piers Ploughman.

Curse of Scotland

The nine of diamonds. The two most plausible suggestions are these: (1) The nine of diamonds in the game of Pope Joan is called the Pope, the Antichrist of the Scotch reformers. (2) In the game of comette, introduced by Queen Mary, it is the great winning card, and the game was the curse of Scotland because it was the ruin of so many families.

Other suggestions are these. (3) The word “curse” is a corruption of cross, and the nine of diamonds is so arranged as to form a St. Andrew's Cross; but as the nine of hearts would do as well, this explanation must be abandoned. (4) Some say it was the card on which the “Butcher Duke” wrote his cruel order after the Battle of Culloden; but the term must have been in vogue at the period, as the ladies nicknamed Justice—Clerk Ormistone “The Nine of Diamonds” (1715). (5). Similarly, we must reject the suggestion that it refers to the arms of Dalrymple, Earl of Stair — viz. or, on a saltire azure, nine lozenges of the first. The earl was justly held in abhorrence for the massacre of Glencoe; so also was Colonel Packer, who attended Charles I. on the scaffold, and had for his arms “gules a cross lozengy or.”

Grose says of the nine of diamonds: “Diamonds ... imply royalty ... and every ninth King of Scotland has been observed for many ages to be a tyrant and a curse to the country.” — Tour Thro' Scotland, 1789.

It is a pity that Grose does not give the names of these kings. Malcolm III. was assassinated in 1046 by Macbeth, William was taken prisoner by Henry II. (died 1214), James I. was assassinated in 1437.

Curses

Curses, like chickens, come home to roost. Curses fall on the head of the curser, as chickens which stray during the day return to their roost at night.

Cursing by Bell, Book, and Candle

is reading the anathema in the church, then closing the Bible, tolling the bell, and extinguishing all the candles, saying “Fiat, fiat! Do—to (close) the Book, quench the candles, ring the bell. Amen, amen.”

Cursitor

(Latin, clericus de cursu). Formerly a clerk of the course; a chancery clerk, who made out original writs for the beat, course, or part of the county allotted him. A Newgate solicitor was called a cursitor in depreciation of his office.

Curst

Curst cows have curt horns. Angry men cannot do all the mischief they wish. Curst means “angry” or “fierce,” and curt is “short,” as curtmantle, curt—hose. The Latin proverb is, “Dat Deus immiti cornua curta bovi. “

“You are called plain Kate,

And bonny Kate, and sometimes Kate the curst.” Shakespeare: Taming of the Shrew, ii. 1.

Curtail

To cut short. (French, court tailler, to short cut, whence the old French courtault.)

Curtain

(The). In fortification, the line of rampart which joins together the flanks of two “bastions” (q.v.).

Curtain

To ring down the curtain. To bring a matter to an end. A theatrical term. When the act or play is over, the bell rings and the green curtain comes down.

“A few more matters of routine will be accomplished, and then the curtain will be rung down on the Session of 1891.” — Newspaper Paragraph, July 27th, 1891.

Curtain Lecture

The nagging of a wife after her husband is in bed. The lectures of Mrs. Caudle in Punch are first—rate caricatures of these “small cattle.”

“Besides what endless brawls by wives are bred,

The curtain lecture makes a mournful bed.”

Dryden.

Curtal Friar

A friar who served as an attendant at the gate of a monastery court. As a curtal dog was not privileged to hunt or course, so a curtal friar virtually meant a worldly—minded one.

“Some do call me the curtal Friar of Fountain Dale; others again call me in jest the Abbot of Fountain Abbey; others still again call me simply Friar Tuck.” — Howard Pyle: The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, ii. p. 141.

Curtana

The sword of Edward the Confessor, which, having no point, was the emblem of mercy. The royal sword of England was so called to the reign of Henry III.

“But when Curtana will not do the deed,

You lay the pointless clergy—weapon by,

And to the laws, your sword of justice, fly.”

Dryden: Hind and Panther, part ii. 419—21.

Curthose

(2 syl.). Robert II., Duc de Normandie (1087—1134).

Curtis'e

(2 syl.). The little hound in the tale of Reynard the Fox, by Heinrich von Alkman (1498). (High German, kurz; French, courte, short or small.)

Curtmantle

The surname of Henry II. He introduced the Anjou mantle, which was shorter than the robe worn by his predecessors. (1133, 1154—1189.) (See Caracalla.)

Curule Chair

Properly a chariot chair, an ornamental camp—stool made of ivory placed by the Romans in a chariot for the chief magistrate when he went to attend the council. As dictators, consuls, praetors, censors, and the chief ediles occupied such a chair, they were termed curule magistrates or curules. Horace calls the chair curule ebur (1 Epist., vi. 53).

Curzon Street

(London). Named after the ground landlord, George August Curzon, third Viscount Howe.

Cussedness

Ungainliness; perversity, an evil temper; malice prepense. Halliwell gives cuss = surly.

“The turkey—cock is just as likely as not to trample on the young turkeys and smash them, or to split their skulls by a savage dig of his powerful beak. Whether this is `cussedness' pure and simple ... has not been satisfactorily determined” — Daily News, December 22nd, 1885.

Custard

A slap on the hand with a ferula. The word should be custid, unless a play is meant. (Latin, custis, a club or stick.)

Custard Coffin

(See Coffin .)

Customer

A man or acquaintance. A rum customer is one better left alone, as he is likely to show fight if interfered with. A shop term. (See Card.)

“Here be many of her old customers.”

Shakespeare: Measure for Measure,

iv. 3.

Custos Rotulorum

(keeper of the rolls). The chief civil officer of a county, to whose custody are committed the records or rolls of the sessions.

Cut

To renounce acquaintance. There are four sorts of cut — (1) The cut direct is to stare an acquaintance in the face and pretend not to know him. (2) The cut indirect, to look another way, and pretend not to see him.

(3) The cut sublime, to admire the top of some tall edifice or the clouds of heaven till the person cut has

passed by. (4) The cut infernal, to stoop and adjust your boots till the party has gone past. There is a very remarkable Scripture illustration of the word cut, meaning to renounce: “Jehovah took a staff and cut it asunder, in token that He would break His covenant with His people; and He cut another staff asunder, in token that He would break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel" (Zech. xi, 7—14).

Cut

Cut and come again. Take a cut from the joint, and come for another if you like. To cut the ground from under one (or from under his feet). To leave an adversary no ground to stand on, by disproving all his arguments.

He has cut his eye—teeth.

He is wide awake, he is a knowing one. The eye—teeth are the canine teeth, just under the eyes, and the phrase means he can bite as well as bark. Of course, the play is on the word “eye,” and those who have cut their eye—teeth are wide awake.

Cut your wisdom teeth.

Wisdom teeth are those at the extreme end of the jaws, which do not make their appearance till persons have come to years of discretion. When persons say or do silly things, the remark is made to them that “they have not yet cut their wisdom teeth,” or reached the years of discretion.

Cut the knot.

Break through an obstacle. The reference is to the Gordian knot (q.v.) shown to Alexander, with the assurance that whoever loosed it would be made ruler of all Asia, whereupon the Macedonian cut it in two with his sword, and claimed to have fulfilled the prophecy.

I must cut my stick — i.e.

leave. The Irish usually cut a shillelah before they start on an expedition. Punch gives the following witty derivation: — “Pilgrims on leaving the Holy Land used to cut a palm—stick, to prove that they had really been to the Holy Sepulchre. So brother Francis would say to brother Paul, `Where is brother Benedict?' `Oh (says Paul), he has cut his stick!' — i.e. he is on his way home.”

I'll cut your comb for you.

Take your conceit down. The allusion is to the practice of cutting the combs of capons.

He'll cut up well.

He is rich, and his property will cut into good slices.

Cut Blocks with a Razor

(To). To do something astounding by insignificant means; to do something more eccentric than inexpedient. According to Dean Swift, to “make pincushions of sunbeams.” The tale is that Accius, or Attus Navius, a Roman augur, opposed the king Tarquin the Elder, who wished to double the number of senators. Tarquin, to throw ridicule on the angur, sneered at his pretensions of augury, and asked him if he could do what was then in his thoughts. “Undoubtedly,” replied Navius; and Tarquin with a laugh, said, “Why, I was thinking whether I could cut through this whetstone with a razor.” “Cut boldly,” cried Navius, and the whetstone was cleft in two. This story forms the subject of one of Bon Gaultier's ballads, and Goldsmith refers to it in his Retaliation:

“In short, `twas his [Burke's] fate, unemployed or in place, sir,

To eat mutton cold, and cut blocks with a razor”

Cut neither Nails nor Hair at Sea

Petronius says, “Non licere cuiquam mortalium in nave neque ungues neque capillos deponere, nisi cum pelago ventus irascitur.” The cuttings of the nails and hair were votive offerings to Proserpine, and it would excite the jealousy of Neptune to make offerings to another in his own special kingdom.

Cut Off with a Shilling

Disinherited. Blackstone tells us that the Romans set aside those testaments which passed by the natural heirs unnoticed; but if any legacy was left, no matter how small, it proved the testator's intention. English law has no such provision, but the notion at one time prevailed that the name of the heir should appear in the will; and if he was bequeathed “a shilling,” that the testator had not forgotten him, but disinherited him intentionally.

Cut out

Left in the lurch; superseded. In cards, when there are too many for a game (say whist), it is customary for the players to cut out after a [rubber], in order that another player may have a turn. This is done by the players cutting the cards on the table, and the lowest turn—up gives place to the new hand, who

“supersedes” him, or takes his place.

It does not refer to cutting out a ship from an enemy's port.

He is cut out for a sailor.

His natural propensities are suited for the vocation. The allusion is to cutting out cloth, etc., for specific purposes.

Cut your Coat according to your Cloth

Stretch your arm no farther than your sleeve will reach.

“Little barks must keep near shore,

Larger ones may venture more.”

French:

“Selon ta bourse nourris ta bouche.” “Selon le pain il faut le couteau.” “Fou est, qui plus dèpense que sa rente ne vaut.”

Italian:

“Noi facciamo la spese secondo l'entrata.” Latin: “Ex quovis ligno non fit Mercurius.” “Parvum parva decent” (Horace). “Messe tenus propria vive” (Persius). “Cui multum est piperis, etiam oleribus immiscet.” “Sumptus censum ne superat” (Plautus). “Si non possis quod velis, velis id quod possis.” “Ne te quæiveris extra” (Horace).

Cut a Dash

Make a show. Cut is the French couper, better seen in the noun coup, as a grand coup, a coup de maltre (a masterly stroke), so “to cut” means to make a masterly coup, to do something to be looked at and talked about. Dashing means striking — i.e. showy, as a “dashing fellow,” a “dashing equipage.” To cut a dash is to get one's self looked at and talked about for a showy or striking appearance.

Cut and Dry

Already prepared. “He had a speech all cut and dry.” The allusion is to timber cut, dry, and fit for use.

“Sets of phrases, cut and dry,

Evermore thy tongue supply.” Swift.

Cut and Run

Be off as quickly as possible. A sea phrase, meaning cut your cable and run before the wind.

Cut Away

Be off at once. This is a French phrase, couper (cut away) — i.e. to break through the enemy's ranks by cutting them down with your swords.

Cut Capers

(To). To act in an unusual manner.

“The quietest fellows are forced to fight for their status quo, and sometimes to cut capers like the rest.” — LeFanu: The House in the Churchyard, p. 143.

To cut capers

(in dancing) is to spring upwards, and rapidly interlace one foot with the other. Cut your capers! Be off with you!

I'll make him cut his capers, i.e.

rue his conduct.

Cut it Short

(See Audley .)

Cut of his Jib

The contour or expression of his face. This is a sailor's phrase. The cut of a jib or foresail of a ship indicates her character. Thus, a sailor says of a suspicious vessel, he “does not like the cut of her jib.”

Cut Short

is to shorten. “Cut short all intermission” (Macbeth, iv. 3). To cut it short means to bring to an end what you are doing or saying.

His life was cut short.

He died prematurely. The allusion is to Atropos, one of the three Parcæ cutting the thread of life span by her sister Clotho.

Cut up Rough

(To). To be disagreeable or quarrelsome about anything.

Cuthbert

St. Cuthbert's beads. Joints of the articulated stems of encrinites, used for rosaries. St. Cuthbert was a Scotch monk of the sixth century, and may be termed the St. Patrick of Great Britain. He is said to sit at night on a rock in Holy Island, and to use the opposite rock as his anvil while he forges the entrochites

(entrokites). (See Bead.)

“On a rock of Lindisfarn

St. Cuthbert sits, and toils to frame

The sea—born beads that bear his name.”

Scott: Marmion.

St. Cuthbert's Stone. A granite rock in Cumberland. St. Cuthbert's Well. A spring of water close by St. Cuthbert's Stone.

Cuthbert Bede

A nom de plume of the Rev Edward Bradley, author of Verdant Green. (1827—1889.)

Cutler's Poetry

Mere jingles or rhymes. Knives had, at one time, a distich inscribed on the blade by means of aqua fortis.

“Whose posy was

For all the world like cutler's poetry

Upon a kuife.”

Shakespeare: Merchant of Venice,

v 1.

Cutpurse

Now called “pickpocket.” The two words are of historical value. When purses were worn suspended from a girdle, thieves cut the string by which the purse was attached; but when pockets were adopted, and purses were no longer hung on the girdle, the thief was no longer a cutpurse, but became a pickpocket.

“To have an open ear, a quick eye, and a nimble hand, is necessary for a cutpurse.” — Shakespeare: Winter's Tale, iv 3.

Cutter's Law

Not to see a fellow want while we have cash in our purse. Cutter's law means the law of purse—cutters, robbers, brigands, and highwaymen.

“I must put you in cash with some of your old uncle's broad—pieces. This is cutter's law; we must not see a pretty fellow want, if we have cash ourselves.” — Sir W. Scott: Old Mortality, chap ix

Cuttle

Captain Cuttle. An eccentric, kind—hearted sailor, simple as a child, credulous of every tale, and generous as the sun. He is immortalised by the motto selected by Notes and Queries, “When found make a note of.” (Dickens: Dombey and Son.)

“Unfortunately, I neglected Captain Cuttle's advice, and am now unable to find it.' — W H Husk: Notes and Queries.

Cutty

Scotch for short, as a cutty pipe, cutty sark. (A diminutive of curt.)

Cutty Pipe

A short clay pipe. Scotch, cutty (short), as cutty spoons, cutty sark, a cutty (little girl), etc., a cutty gun (a pop—gun).

Cutty Stool

A small stool on which offenders were placed in the Scotch church when they were about to receive a public rebuke.

Cwt

is C wt. — i.e. C. centum, wt. weight, meaning hundred—weight. (See Dwt.)

Cyanean Rocks

(The). The Symplegades at the entrance of the Euxine Sea. Said to close together when a vessel attempted to sail between them, and thus crush it to pieces. Cyanean means dark, and Symplegades means dashers together.

“Here are those hard rocks of trap, of a greenish—blue,coloured with copper, and hence called the Cyanean.” —Olivier

Cycle

A period or series of events or numbers which recur everlastingly in precisely the same order.

Cycle of the moon,

called “Meton's Cycle,” from Meton, who discovered it, is a period of nineteen years, at the expiration of which time the phases of the moon repeat themselves on the same days as they did nineteen years previously. (See Callipic Period.)

Cycle of the sun.

A period of twenty—eight years, at the expiration of which time the Sunday letters recur and proceed in the same order as they did twenty—eight years previously. In other words, the days of the month fall again on the same days of the week.

The Platonic cycle

or great year is that space of time which elapses before all the stars and constellations return to any given state. Tycho Brahët calculated this period at 25,816 years, and Riccioli at 25,920.

Cyclic Poets

Inferior epic poets. On the death of Homer a host of minstrels caught the contagion of his poems, and wrote continuations, illustrations, or additions thereto. These poets were called cyclic because they

confined themselves to the cycle of the Trojan war. The chief were Agias, Arctinos, Eugamon, Lesches, and Strasinos.

“Besides the Homeric poems, the Greeks of this age possessed those of the poets named Cyclic as they sang a traditional cycle of events ” — Keightley: Greece, part i chap.xiv. p. 150.

Cyclopædia

The living cyclopædia. Longinus, so called for his extensive information. (213—273.)

Cyclopean

Huge, massive, like the Cyclops of classic mythology.

Cyclopean Masonry

The old Pelasgic ruins of Greece, Asia Minor, and Italy, such as the Gallery of Tiryns, the Gate of Lyons, the Treasury of Athens, and the Tombs of Phoroneus (3 syl.) and Danaos. They are said to have been the work of the Cyclops. They are huge blocks fitted together without mortar, with marvellous nicety.

Cyclops

One of a group of giants with only one eye, and that in the centre of their forehead, whose business it was to forge iron for Vulcan. They were probably Pelasgians, who worked in quarries, and attached a lantern to their forehead to give them light underground. The lantern was their one eye as big as the full moon. (Greek, “circular—eye.”) (See Arimaspians)

“Roused with the sound, the mighty family

Of one—eyed brothers hasten to the shore,

And gather round the bellowing Polypheme.”

Addison: Milton Imitated.

Cyllaros

according to Virgil, was the celebrated horse of Pollux (Geor., iii. 90), but, according to Ovid, it was Castor's steed (Met., xii. 408).

“He, O Castor, was a courser worthy thee ...

Coal—black his colour, but like jet it shone:

His legs and flowing tail were white alone.”

Dryden: Ovid's Metamorphose, xii.

Cymbeline

(See Imogen, Zineura .)

Cymochles

A man of prodigious might, brother of Pyrochles, son of Malice (Acrates) and Despite, and husband of Acrasia, the enchantress. He sets out to encounter Sir Guyen, but is ferried over the idle lake by Wantonness (Phæ'dria), and forgets himself; he is slain by King Arthur (canto viii.). The word means, “one who seeks glory in troubles.” (Spenser: Faërie Queene, ii. 5.)

Cymodoce

(4 syl.). A sea nymph and companion of Venus. (Virgil: Georgic, iv. 338; and again, Æneid, v. 826.) The word means “wave—receiving.”

The Garden of Cymodoce.

Sark, one of the Channel islands. It is the title of a poem by Swinburne, 1880.

Cynægiros

It is said that when the Persians were pushing off from shore after the battle of Marathon, Cynægiros, the brother of Æschylos, the poet, seized one of their ships with his right hand, which was instantly lopped off; he then grasped it with his left, which was cut off also; lastly, he seized hold of it with his teeth and lost his head. (See Benbow)

Cynic

A snarling, churlish person, like a cynic. The cynics were so called because Antisthenes held his school in the gymnasium called Cynosarges, set apart for those who were not of pure Athenian blood. Cynosarges means white dog, and was so called because a white dog once carried away part of a victim which Diomeos was offering to Hercules. The sect was often called the Dog—sect; and the effigy over Diogenes' pillar was a dog, with this inscription:

“Say, dog, I pray, what guard you in that tomb?”

“A dog.” — “His name?” — “Diogenes.” — “From far?”

“Sinope” — “What! who made a tub his home?”

“The same; now dead, amongst the stars a star.”

E.C.B.

Cynic Tub

(The). The tub from which Diogenes lectured. Similarly we speak of the “Porch,” that is, the Porch Poecile, meaning Stoic philosophy; the “Garden,” meaning Epicurean philosophy; the “Academy,” meaning Platonic philosophy; the “Colonnade,” meaning Aristotelian philosophy.

“[They] fetch their doctrines from the Cynic tub.”

Milton: Comus,

line 708.

Cynics

The chief were Antisthenes of Athens (the founder), Diogenes, Onesicritos, Monimos, Crates and his wife Hipparchia, Metrocles, Menippos, and Menedemos the madman.

Cynosure

(3 syl.). The polar star; the observed of all observers. Greek for dog's tail, and applied to the constellation called Ursa Minor. As seamen guide their ships by the north star, and observe it well, the word “cynosure” is used for whatever attracts attention, as “The cynosure of neighbouring eyes” (Milton), especially for guidance in some doubtful matter, as —

“Richmond was the cynosure on which all Northern eyes were fixed [in the American war].”

— The Times.

Cynthia

The moon; a surname of Artemis or Diana. The Roman Diana, who represented the moon, was called Cynthia from Mount Cynthus, where she was born.

“And from embattled clouds emerging slow,

Cynthia came riding on her silver car.”

Beattie: Minstrel.

Cynthia

Pope, speaking of the inconstant character of woman, “matter too soft a lasting mark to bear,” says —

“Come, then, the colours and the ground prepare!

Dip in the rainbow, trick her off in air;

Choose a firm cloud, before it fall, and in it

Catch, ere she change, the Cynthia of the minute.” Epistle ii. 17—20.

Cypress

(The) is a funeral tree, and was dedicated by the Romans to Pluto, because when once cut it never grows again.

“Cypresse garlands are of great account at funeralls amongst the gentiler sort, but rosemary and bayes are used by the commons both at funeralls and weddings. They are plants which fade not a good while after they are gathered ... and intimate that the remembrance of the present solemnity might not dye presently.” — Coles: Introduction to the Knowledge of Plants.

The magic cypress branch. In the opera of Roberto il Diavolo, after the “dance of love,” in which Helena seduces the duke, he removes the cypress branch, which has the power of imparting to him whatever he wishes. With this he enters the palace of Isabella, princess of Sicily, and transfixes the princess and her attendants in a magic sleep, but afterwards relenting, he breaks the branch, and is dragged away by the guards.

Cyprian Brass

or “æs Cyprium,” copper. Pliny (book xxxiv. c. ii.) says, “in Cypro enim prima æris inventio fuit.”

Cypriote

A native of Cyprus; the dialect spoken on the island; pertaining or special to Cyprus.