Slang and its Analogues Past and Present.

A Dictionary, Historical and Comparative, of the Heterodox Speech of all Classes of Society for more than Three Hundred Years.

WITH SYNONYMS IN ENGLISH, FRENCH, GERMAN, ITALIAN, ETC.

COMPILED AND EDITED BY
JOHN S. FARMER and W. E. HENLEY.

VOL. III.—Fla. to Hyps.
PRINTED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY.
MDCCCXCIII.

[[1]]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1851–61. H. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, vol. I., p. 269. A [[2]]tremendous black doll bought for a flag (fourpence) of a retired rag-merchant.

2. (common).—An apron; hence a badge of office or trade; cf., Flag-flasher. Equivalents are Belly-cheat and Fig-leaf.

1851–61. H. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, vol. I., p. 232 (List of patterer’s words), s.v.

1872. Dundee Advertiser, 20 April; ‘Report of Meeting of Domestic Servants.’ It was contended that they were compelled to wear what was generally known as a flag.

1887. W. E. Henley, Villon’s Straight Tip. Suppose you try a different tack, And on the square you flash your flag.

3. (obsolete).—A jade.

1539. David Lyndsay, Thrie Estaitis. Works [Ed. Laing, 1879], ii. 109. Ane fistand flag.

4. (common).—The menstrual cloth. Variants are bandage; clout; danger-signal; diaper; double clout (Durfey); gentleman’s pleasure garden padlock; periodicity rag; the red rag; sanitary towel; window-curtain.

The Flag (or Danger-Signal) is up = “The Captain’s at home” (Grose), i.e., the menstrual flux is on.

English Synonyms.—To have domestic afflictions, or the D.A.’s; to have the flowers (q.v.); to have one’s grandmother, or little friend, or auntie, with one; to have them (or it) on; to be in a state of ‘no thoroughfare’; to have the red rag on; to be road-making; to have the street up for repairs; to be at Number One, London; to have ‘the gate locked and the key lost.’

French Synonyms.—Avoir ses cardinales (literally, to have one’s reds); avoir les histoires; avoir les affaires (common); avoir ses anglais (in allusion to the scarlet of English soldiers); broyer des tomates (= tomato-crushing); avoir son marquis (Cotgrave); avoir les fleurs rouges; avoir sa chemise tachée (Cotgrave); voir Sophie; avoir les ordinaires.

Italian Synonyms.—Marchese (Florio), marchesano (= menses. Michel says, Art. marque = a month, a woman. “Il ne saurait être douteux que ce nom ne soit venu à cette division de l’année, de l’infirmité périodique qu’ont les marques, ou femmes, lors que la Lune, pour tenir sa diette et vaquer à ses purifications menstruelles, fait marquer les logis feminins par son fourrier, lequel pour escusson n’a que son impression rouge”).

To Fly the Flag, verb. phr. (tailors’).—To post a notice that ‘hands’ are wanted. See also Fly the Flag, post.

Flag of Defiance, subs. phr. (old nautical).—A drunken roysterer. For synonyms, see Elbow-crooker.

To hang out the flag of defiance (or bloody flag), verb. phr.—To be continuously drunk. [An allusion to the ‘crimson face’ (Cotgrave) and the pugnacity of certain terms of inebriety.] For synonyms, see rinks.

1690. B. E., New Dict. of the Canting Crew, s.v. The flag of defiance is out (among the Tarrs) the Fellow’s Face is very Red, and he is Drunk.

1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue, s.v.

Flag-flasher, subs. (common).—One sporting a badge or other ensign of office (cap, apron, uniform, [[3]]etc.) when off duty.—Cf., Flag, sense 2.

Flag-about, subs. (old).—A strumpet. [From Flag, a paving-stone]. For synonyms, see Barrack-hack and Tart.

Flag-Flying.—See Flag.

Flag of Distress, subs. phr. (common).—1. A card announcing ‘lodgings,’ or ‘board and lodgings.’ Hence, any overt sign of poverty.

2. (common).—A flying shirt-tail; in America, a letter in the post-office (q.v.).

Flagger, subs. (common).—A street-walker. For synonyms, see Barrack-hack and Tart.

1865. Daily Paper, ‘Police Report.’ She wasn’t a low sort at all—she wasn’t a Flagger, as we call it. So I replies, ‘I am well, thankee; and am happy to say I feel as such.’

Flags, subs. (common).—Linen drying and flying in the wind. For synonyms, see Snow.

Flag Unfurled, subs. phr. (rhyming).—A man of the world.

Flag-Wagging, subs. (military).—Flag-signal drill.

Flam, subs. (colloquial).—Nonsense (for synonyms, see Gammon); humbug; flattery; or, a lie: as a regular flam (for synonyms, see Whopper). Cf. FLim-flam.

1598. Florio, A Worlde of Wordes, [Cf., Flim-flam.]

1647. Beaumont and Fletcher, Humourous Lieutenant, iv., 1. With some new flam or other, nothing to the matter.

1664. Butler, Hudibras, pt. II., ch. iii., p. 29. A flam more senseless than the roguery of old aruspicey and aug’ry.

1742–4. Roger North, Lives of the Norths, ch. i., p. 368. They must have known his Lordship better and not have ventured such flams at him.

1760. Foote, Minor, Act II. Had the flam been fact, your behaviour was natural enough.

1762. Foote, Liar, bk. II., ch. ii. Can’t you discern that this flam of Sir James Elliot’s is a mere fetch to favour his retreat?

1830. Sir E. B. Lytton, Paul Clifford, p. 298 (ed. 1854). Harry … told you as ow it was all a flam about the child in the bundle!

1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends (ed. 1862), p. 325. No trick nor flam, but your real Schiedam.

1849. C. Kingsley, Alton Locke, ch. ii. And their pockets full they crams by their patriotic flams, And then swear ’tis for the good of the nation.

1850. D. Jerrold, The Catspaw, Act II. Though the story of that scoundrel Coolcard, Augustus Coolcard—and I was never before deceived—never—is a flam—all a flam.

1870. London Figaro, 22 Sept. Is not your boasted power a flam?

1887. W. E. Henley, Villon’s Good Night. You flymy titters fond of flam.

2. (old).—A single stroke on the drum.—[Grose, 1785.]

Adj. (old).—False.

1692. Sprat, Relation of Young’s Contrivance (Harl. Misc. vi. 224). To amuse him the more in his search, she addeth a flam story that she had got his hand by corrupting one of the letter-carriers in London.

Verb (colloquial).—1. To take in; to flatter; to lie; to foist or fob off. flamming = lying. [[4]]

1658. Rowley and Ford, &c., Witch of Edm., ii., 2. Was this your cunning? and then flam me off with an old witch, two wives, and Winnifride.

1688. Shadwell, Sq. of Alsatia, II. in wks. (1720) iv. 41. Does he think to flam me with a lye?

1830. S. Warren, Diary of a Late Physician, ch. v. But I’ll show him whether or not I, for one of them, am to be jeered and flammed with impunity.

1835. Marryat, Jacob Faithful, ch. xxviii. How she did flam that poor old Domine.

(American University).—To affect, or prefer, female society; to Grouse (q.v.). [A corruption of flame (q.v.)]. See Molrowing.

Flambustious, adj. (American).—Showy; gaudy; pleasant.

1868. Putnam’s Magazine. We will have a flambustious time. [Cf., Shakspeare (1608), Antony and Cleopatra, iii., 11. Let’s have one other gaudy night.]

Flamdoodle, subs. (American).—Nonsense; vain boasting. Probably a variant of flapdoodle (q.v.).

1888. New York Sun. We wasn’t goin’ to have any high falutin’ flamdoodle business over him.

Flame, subs. (colloquial).—1. A sweetheart; a mistress in keeping. Old flame = an old lover; a cast-off mistress. Also (2) a venereal disease.

b. 1664. d. 1721. Mathew Prior [in Palgrave’s “Golden Treasury of Songs and Lyrics,” ed. 1885]. Euphelia serves to grace my measure, but Chloe is my real flame.

1757. Foote, Author, Act I. Let’s see, Mr. and Mrs. Cadwallader, and your flame, the sister, as I live.

1846–8. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, ch. xiv. On this Rebecca instantly stated that Amelia was engaged to be married to a Lieutenant Osborne, a very old flame.

1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, or Rogue’s Lexicon, s.v.

Flamer, subs. (colloquial).—A man, woman, thing, or incident above the common. [Literally conspicuous to flaming point, i.e., as a light in the dark]. For synonyms, see Stunner.

1840. H. Cockton, Valentine Vox, ch. ii. Concocting a criticism on the evening’s performance, which certainly was, according to the signor’s own acknowledgment, a regular flamer.

Flames, subs. (old).—A red-haired person. Cf., Carrots and Ginger.

1823. Jon Bee, Dict. of the Turf, etc., p. 79. Who should I fling my precious ogles upon but flames—she as lived at the ‘Blue Posts.’

Flaming, ppl. adj. (colloquial).—Conspicuous; ardent; stunning (q.v.). For synonyms, see A 1 and Fizzing.

1738. Swift, Polite Conv., Dialogue II. Lord Sparkish. My Lady Smart, your ladyship has a very fine scarf. Lady Smart. Yes, my lord, it will make a flaming figure in a country church.

1776. Rubrick, The Spleen, ii. I’ll send a flaming paragraph of their wedding to all the newspapers.

1872. Besant and Rice. Ready Money Mortiboy, ch. xxx. He called one of the children, and sent her for a bill. She presently returned with a flaming poster.

Flanderkin, subs. (old).—See quot.

1690. B. E., New Dict. of the Canting Crew, s.v. A very large fat man or horse; also natives of that country.

Flanders Fortunes, subs. phr. (old).—Of small substance.—B. E., New Dict. of the Canting Crew (1690).

Flanders Pieces, subs. phr. (old).—See quot.

1690. B. E., New Dict. of the Canting Crew. Flanders pieces, pictures that look fair at a distance, but coarser near at hand. [[5]]

Flank, verb (common).—1. To crack a whip; also, to hit a mark with the lash of one.

1830. Sir E. B. Lytton, Paul Clifford (ed. 1854), p. 18. He then, taking up a driving whip, flanked a fly from the opposite wall.

1833. ‘An Anglo-sapphic Ode’ (Whibley, Cap and Gown, p. 136). Kicks up a row, gets drunk, or flanks a tandem whip out of window.

2. (colloquial).—To deliver—a blow or a retort; to push; to hustle; to quoit (Shakspeare). Fr., flanquer: as in flanquer à la porte, and Je lui at flanqué un fameux coup de pied au cul!

A Plate of Thin Flank, subs. phr. (common).—A ‘sixpenny cut’ off the joint. See N. Twill in Fancy Too Late for Dinner.

To Flank the whole bottle, verb. phr. (American soldiers’).—To dodge, i.e., to outflank, to achieve by strategy. For synonyms, see Stick.

1871. De Vere, Americanisms, p. 286. When the men wished to escape the attention of pickets and guards by slipping past them, they said they flanked them; drill, and detail, and every irksome duty was flanked, when it could be avoided by some cunning trick. Soon, however, honesty itself was thus treated, and the poor farmer was flanked out of his pig and his poultry, and not infrequently even the comrade out of his pipe and tobacco, if not his rations. The height of strategy was employed in these various flank manœuvres, when the Commissary could be made to surrender some of his whiskey, and thus it came about, in the South at least, that to flank the whole bottle was a phrase expressive of superlative cunning and brilliant success.

Flanker, subs. (common).—A blow; a retort; a kick. Cf., Flank, sense 1.

Flankey, subs. (common).—The posteriors. For synonyms, see Blind Cheeks and Monocular Eyeglass.

1848. Duncombe, Sinks of London, s.v.

Flannel. See Hot Flannel.

Flannels. To get one’s flannels, verb. phr. (schools’).—To get a place in the school football or cricket teams, or in the boats. Cf., ‘to get one’s colours,’ or ‘one’s blue.’

Flap, subs. (thieves’).—1. Sheet-lead used for roofing. Fr., doussin; noir. Cf., Bluey.

2. (old).—A blow.

1539. David Lyndsay, Thrie Estaitis. Works [Laing, 1879], ii. 73. And to begin the play, tak thair ane flap.

Verb (thieves’).—1. To rob; to swindle. For synonyms, see Prig and Stick.

2. (common).—To pay; ‘to fork out.’ Cf., Flap the Dimmock.

3. (venery).—To possess a woman. For synonyms, see Greens and Ride.

To Flap a Jay, verb. phr. (thieves’).—To swindle a greenhorn; to sell a pup (q.v.).

1885. Daily Telegraph, Aug. 18th, p. 3., col. 1. He and three others of the ‘division’ had ‘cut up’ £70 between them, obtained by flapping a jay, which, rendered into intelligible English, means plundering a simple-minded person.

To Flap the Dimmock, verb. phr. (common).—To pay. [From Flap, a verb of motion + Dimmock = money]. Cf., Flap.

Flapdoodle, subs. (colloquial).—1. Transparent nonsense; “kid.” [[6]]

Also Flamdoodle and Flam-sauce, or Flap-sauce. For synonyms, see Gammon.

1833. Marryat, Peter Simple, ch. xxviii. ‘It’s my opinion, Peter, that the gentleman has eaten no small quantity of flapdoodle in his lifetime.’ ‘What’s that, O’Brien,’ replied I. ‘Why, Peter, it’s the stuff they feed fools on.’

1861. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxford. I shall talk to our regimental doctors about it, and get put through a course of fools’ diet—flapdoodle they call it, what fools are fed on.

1884. S. L. Clemens (‘Mark Twain’), Huck. Finn, xxv., 247. A speech, all full of tears and flapdoodle about its being a sore trial for him and his poor brother to lose the diseased [deceased].

2. (venery).—The penis. (Urquhart). For synonyms, see Creamstick and Prick.

To talk Flapdoodle, verb. phr. (American).—To brag; to talk nonsense.

1888. Daily Inter-Ocean, Mar. 2. Possibly rich men will turn from sharp dealing, from debauchery, from flapdoodle fashion to a common-sense recognition of a situation, which clearly shows that wealth is no longer what it used to be—autocratic, absolute, the ruler of all else.

Flapdoodler, subs. (American).—A braggart agitator; one that makes the eagle squeal (q.v.).

Flap-dragon, subs. (old).—The pox or clap (q.v.). For synonyms, see Ladies’ Fever.

1690. B. E., New Dict. of the Canting Crew, s.v. Flapdragon, a clap or pox.

Verb. (old).—To gulp down hastily, as in the game of flap-dragon.

1604. Shakspeare, Winter’s Tale, Act III., Sc. 3. But, to make an end of the ship: to see how the sea flap-dragoned it!

Flapman, subs. (prison).—A convict promoted for good behaviour to first or second class.

Flapper, subs. (common).—1. The hand; also flapper-shaker. For synonyms, see Daddle and Mauley.

1833. Marryat, Peter Simple, ch. vii. My Dear Mr. Simple, extend your flapper to me for I’m delighted to see you.

1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, or Rogues’ Lexicon, s.v.

1866. London Miscellany, May 19, p. 235. ‘There’s my flapper on the strength of it.’ Guy shook hands with the eccentric stranger heartily.

2. (common).—A little girl. [Also a fledgling wild duck.]

3. (venery).—A very young prostitute; cf., sense 2.

4. (common).—A dustman’s or coal-heaver’s hat; a fantail (q.v.).

5. (in. pl.).—Very long-pointed shoes worn by ‘nigger’ minstrels.

6. (venery).—The penis. (For synonyms, see Creamstick and Prick).

7. (colloquial).—A parasite; a remembrancer. (Cf. Swift, Gulliver, ‘Laputa.’)

Flapper-shaking, subs. (common).—Hand-shaking.

1853. Bradley (‘Cuthbert Bede’), Verdant Green, pt. II., ch. iv. Wondering whether … if the joining palms in a circus was the customary flapper-shaking before ‘toeing the scratch’ for business.

Flap-sauce. See Flapdoodle. [[7]]

Flare, subs. (nautical).—1. Primarily a stylish craft; hence, by implication, anything out of the common. For synonyms, see Stunner.

2. (colloquial).—A row; a dispute; a ‘drunk’; or spree. Cf., flare-up.

Verb. (thieves’).—1. Specifically to whisk out; hence, to steal actively, lightly, or delicately.

1850. Lloyd’s Weekly, 3 Feb. Low Lodging Houses of London. B. tried his pocket saying, ‘I’ll show you how to do a hankerchief; but the baker looked round and B. stopped; and just after that I flared it (whisked the handerchief out); and that’s the first I did.’

1851–61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, I., 457. Just after that I flared it (a handerchief).

2. (common).—To swagger; to go with a bounce.

1841. Leman Rede, Sixteen-String Jack, ii., 3. Crissy Odsbuds, I’ll on with my duds, And over the water we’ll flare.

All of a flare, adv. phr. (thieves’).—Bunglingly.

1839. Brandon, Poverty, Mendicity, and Crime, p. 113. Some of the girls at Milberry’s pick pockets at night: while one talks to the man, the other robs him; but they are not dextrous, they pull it out all of a flare.

Flaring, adj. and adv. (colloquial).—Excessive: e.g., a flaring lie; flaring drunk; a flaring whore; see Flaming.

Flare-up (or -Out), subs. (popular). An orgie; a fight; an outburst of temper. Also a spree.

1838. Haliburton, Clockmaker, 2 Ser. ch. x. Some of our young citizens … got into a flare-up with a party of boatmen that lives in the Mississippi; a desperate row it was too.

1847. Punch, vol. XIII., p. 148, Address at the Opening of a Casino. In for flare-up and frolic let us go, And polk it on the fast fantastic toe.

1851. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, I., p. 160. These (hot eel) dealers generally trade on their own capital; but when some have been having a flare-up, and have ‘broke down for stock’ to use the words of my informant, they borrow £1 and pay it back in a week or a fortnight.

1879. Justin M’Carthy, Donna Quixote, ch. xvii. Paulina had a hard struggle many a time to keep down her temper, and not to have what she would have called a flare-out.

English Synonyms.—Barney; batter; bean-feast; beano; breakdown; burst; booze (specifically a drinking-bout); caper; devil’s delight; dust; fanteague; fight; flare; flats-yad (back slang); fly; gig; hay-bag; hell’s delight; high jinks; hooping up; hop; jagg; jamboree; jump; jun-ketting; lark; drive; randan; on the tiles; on the fly; painting the town (American); rampage; razzle-dazzle; reeraw; ructions; shake; shine; spree; sky-wannocking; tear; tear up; toot.

French Synonyms.—La nocerie (popular: une noce à tout casser; or, une noce de bâtons de chaise = a grand jollification); faire des crêpes (= to have a rare spree); badouiller (popular: especially applied to drinking bouts).

Italian Synonym.—Far festa alle campane.

Spanish Synonyms.—Trapisonda (a drunken revel); holgueta.

Verb (common).—To fly into a passion.

1849. Mahoney, Rel. Father Prout, I., 319. ‘Vert-Vert, the Parrot.’ Forth like a Congreave rocket burst, And storm’d and swore, flared up, and curs’d. [[8]]

1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, ch. xii. He was in the ‘Cave of Harmony,’ he says, that night you flared up about Captain Costigan.

1871. Daily Telegraph, 8 June, ‘Paris in Convalescence.’ On this he flared up like a Commune conflagration, and cried out, ‘Shame, in the name of religion, art, and history!’

Flash, subs. (old).—1. The vulgar tongue; the lingo of thieves and their associates. To patter flash = to talk in thieves’ lingo. [The derivation of Flash, like that of French argot, is entirely speculative. It has, however, been generally referred to a district called Flash (the primary signification as a place name is not clear), between Buxton Leek and Macclesfield: there lived many chapmen who, says Dr. Aiken (“Description of Country round Manchester”), ‘were known as flash-men … using a sort of slang or cant dialect.’]

1718. Hitchin. The Regulator of Thieves, etc., with Account of flash words, etc. (Title).

1781. G. Parker, View of Society, II., 69. Jigger, being cant or flash for door.

1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial, p. 25. With respect to that peculiar language called flash, or St. Jiles’ Greek, etc.

1830. Sir E. B. Lytton, Paul Clifford, ch. viii. Here a tall gentleman marched up to him, and addressed him in a certain language, which might be called the freemasonry of flash.

1839. Harrison Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard (1889), p. 12. ‘What does he say?’ roared the long drover. ‘He says he don’t understand flash,’ replied the lady in gentleman’s attire.

1843–4. Hood, Miss Kilmansegg. His cheeks no longer drew the cash. Because, as his comrades explain’d in flash, He had overdrawn his badger.

1827. Maginn, Vidocq’s Song. Pattered in flash like a covey knowing.

1864. Athenæum, 29 Oct. The northern village of ill-repute, and bearing that name (flash) gave to felonious high-flying the term flash.

1884. Hawley Smart, From Post to Finish, p. 278. Why, when the late Lord Lytton wrote Pelham it was brought against him that ‘his knowledge of flash was evidently purely superficial.’ Flash, my sister, is merely recondite slang or thieves’ argot.

English Analogues.—Back Slang or Kacab-Genals (the main principle consists in roughly pronouncing the word backwards, as erif for fire, dab for bad, etc.: the practice exists in most languages); Cant (q.v.); Centre Slang (the central vowel is made the initial letter, vowels and consonants being added at pleasure); Gammy (North country: mainly composed of Gypsy words); Gibberish (formed by inserting a consonant between each syllable of a word, the result being the F, G, H, M or S gibberish, according to the letter used: thus, “goming mout tom-daym,” or “gosings outs tos-days?” = going out to-day?); jargon; the Green Lingo (French thieves’); Marrowskying or Hospital Greek (manufactured by transferring the initial letters of words; plenty of rain thus becomes renty of plain: the ‘Gower St. dialect’ of Albert Smith, Mr. Ledbury); Pedlar’s French (old cant: Florio, 1598; Cotgrave, 1612); Rhyming Slang (q.v.); Slang (q.v.); St. Giles’ Greek (last century for Slang as distinguished from Cant); Thieves’ Latin; the Vulgar Tongue; Yob-gab (q.v.); Notions (q.v.); Ziph (q.v.).

French and other Analogues.—Argot or arguche; la langue verte (properly gamesters’); le langage soudardant (soldiers’ [[9]]lingo); le jars; le jargon jobelin; (Cotgrave, Dictionarie, 1611. Jargon = ‘Gibridge, fustian language, Pedlar’s French, a barbarous jangling’); le langage de l’artis; langage en lem (formed by prefixing “l” and adding the syllable “em,” preceded by the first letter of the word); thus “main” becomes “lainmem.” A similar mode of dealing with words of more than one syllable is to replace the first consonant by the letter “l,” the word being followed by its first syllable preceded by “du”; thus, “jaquette” becomes “laqueite du jaq,” or if “m” be used as a key-letter, “maquette du jaq” etc.; le javanais—here the syllable “av” is interpolated; e.g., “jave l’avai vavu javeudavi” = (je l’ai vu jeudi). German.—Rothwalsch (from Roter = beggar or vagabond + walsch = foreign); Gaunersprache (= thieves’ lingo). Italian.—Lingua gerga (abbreviated into gerga; Florio, 1598 ‘gergo = Pedlar’s French, fustian, or roguish language, gibbrish’); lingua franca (Levantine: the source of some English slang); lingua furbesca. Dutch.—Bargoens. Spanish.—Germania (the Gypsies were supposed to have come from Germany); jeriganza. Portuguese.—Calaõ (Zincali or Calo = Gypsy).

2. Hence, at one period, especially during the Regency days, the idiom of the man about town, of Tom and Jerrydom.

1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial, p. xxix. To the cultivation in our times, of the Science of Pugilism, the flash language is indebted for a considerable addition to its treasures.

1823. Jon Bee, Dict. of the Turf, etc. They were invariably thieves and gamblers who used flash formerly; but other kinds of persons, now-a-day, who may be rippishly inclined, adopt similar terms and phrases, to evince their uppishness in the affairs of life. These gentlemen also consider all terms of art and of science as flash; … of course, those words and sayings which are appropriate to the turf, the ring, and field sports, are equally considered as flash by them, and the word has been applied (too generally we allow), to all this species of quid pro quo lingo.

3. (old).—See quot. and cf., with a Shaksperian gloss of flash = a burst of wit or merriment.

1748. T. Dyche, Dict. (5th ed.), flash (s.), also a boast, brag, or great pretence made by a spendthrift, quack, or pretender to more art or knowledge than he really has.

4. (old).—A showy swindler. (e.g., the Sir Petronel Flash of quot.); a blustering vulgarian.

1605. Marston, Jonson, and Chapman, Eastward Hoe! iv. 1. ‘Sir Petronel Flash, I am sorry to see such flashes come from a gentleman of your quality.’

1632. Shirley, Love in a Maze, i., 2. The town is full of these vainglorious flashes.

5. (old).—A peruke or perriwig.

1690. B. E., New Dict. of the Canting Crew, s.v.

1785. Grose, Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. Rum flash, a fine long wig. Queer flash, a miserable weather-beaten caxon.

6. (common).—A portion; a drink; or go (q.v.). Cf., Flash of Lightning, sense 1.

Adj. (common).—1. Relating to thieves, their habits, customs, devices, lingo, etc.

1782. Geo. Parker, Humorous Sketches, p. 34. No more like a kiddy he’ll roll the flash song. [[10]]

1830. Lytton, Paul Clifford, ‘Long Ned’s Song.’ And rarely have the gentry flash, In sprucer clothes been seen.

1837. Dickens, Oliver Twist, ch. viii. I suppose you don’t know what a beak is, my flash com-pan-i-on.

1857. Snowden, Mag. Assistant, 3rd ed., p. 448. I have seen Cheeks (a flash name for an accomplice).

1863. C. Reade, Hard Cash, II., 244. He used some flash words, and they were shown into a public room.

1864. Cornhill Magazine, ii., 336. In the following verse, taken from a pet flash song, you have a comic specimen of this sort of guilty chivalry.

2. (thieves’).—Knowing; expert; showy. Cf., down, fly, wide-awake, etc. Hence (popularly), by a simple transition, vulgarly counterfeit, showily shoddy: possibly the best understood meanings of the word in latter-day English. To put one flash to anything = to put him on his guard; to inform.

1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial, p. 19. Another philosopher, Seneca, has shown himself equally flash on the subject.

1835. Dickens, Sketches by Boz, p. 17. Laying aside the knowing look, and flash air, with which he had repeated the previous anecdote.

1836. Marryat, Japhet, etc., ch. lvii. He considered me as … a flash pickpocket rusticating until some hue and cry was over.

1839. W. H. Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard, p. 138 (ed. 1840). ‘Awake! to be sure I am, my flash cove,’ replied Sheppard.

1865. M. E. Braddon, Henry Dunbar, ch. v. He … took out the little packet of bank-notes. ‘I suppose you can understand these,’ he said. The languid youth … looked dubiously at his customer. ‘I can understand as they might be flash uns,’ he remarked, significantly.

1888. C. D. Warner, Their Pilgrimage, p. 157. The flash riders or horsebreakers, always called ‘broncho busters,’ can perform really marvellous feats.

3. (originally thieves’, now general).—Vulgar, or blackguardly; showy; applied to one aping his betters. Hence (in Australia), vain glorious or swaggering. The idea conveyed is always one of vulgarity or showy blackguardism.

1830. Sir E. B. Lytton, Paul Clifford (ed. 1854), p. 21. A person of great notoriety among that portion of the élite which emphatically entitles itself flash.

1861. A. Trollope, Framley Parsonage, ch. ix. If the dear friendship of this flash Member of Parliament did not represent that value, what else did do so?

1880. G. R. Sims, Three Brass Balls, Pledge xi. The speaker was one of the flash young gentlemen who haunt suburban billiard-rooms, who carry chalk in their pockets, and call the marker ‘Jack.’

4. (common).—In a set style. Also used substantively.

1819. Vaux, Flash Dict., p. 173. s.v. A person who affects any peculiar habit, as swearing, dressing in a particular manner, taking snuff, etc., merely to be taken notice of is said to do it out of flash.

1828. The English Spy. vol. I., p. 189. The man upon that half-starved nag Is an Ex S——ff, a strange wag, Half-flash and half a clown.

1851. Mayhew, Lon. Lab. and Lon. Poor, I., p. 36. They all of them (coster lads) delight in dressing flash as they call it.… They try to dress like the men, with large pockets in their cord jackets, and plenty of them. Their trousers, too, must fit tight at the knee, and their boots they like as good as possible. A good ‘kingsman,’ a plush skull-cap, and a seam down the trousers are the great points of ambition with the coster boys.

[Hence, in combination, Flash-case, crib, drum, house, ken, or panny (see Flash-ken); flash-cove (q.v.); flash-dispensary (American = a boarding house), especially a swell brothel; flash-gentry (= the swell mob or higher class of thieves); flash-girl, -moll, -mollisher, -piece or -woman (= a showy prostitute); flash-jig (costers’ = a favourite dance); flash-kiddy (= a dandy); flash-lingo, or song (= [[11]]‘patter,’ or a song interlarded with cant words and phrases); flash-man (q.v.); flash-note (= a spurious bank-note); flash-rider (American, see broncho-buster); flash toggery (= smart clothes); flash vessel (= a gaudy looking, but undisciplined ship)].

1821. Egan, Tom and Jerry, [1890,] p. 58. The rusticity of Jerry was fast wearing off … and he bid fair, etc. … to chaff with the flash mollishers.

1834. Ainsworth, Rookwood, p. 273 Soon then I mounted in Swell St. High, And sported my flashiest toggery.

1851–61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, I., p. 14. The other dances are jigs—flash jigs—hornpipes in fetters—a dance rendered popular by the success of the noted Jack Sheppard.

Verb (common).—1. To show; to expose.

[Among combinations may be mentioned, to flash one’s ivories = to show one’s teeth, to grin (Grose); to flash the hash = to vomit (Grose); to flash the dickey = to show the shirt front; to flash the dibs = to show or spend one’s money; to flash a fawney = to wear a ring; to flash one’s gab = to talk, to swagger, to brag; to flash the bubs = to expose the paps; to flash the muzzle (q.v.); to flash one’s ticker = to air one’s watch; to flash the drag = to wear women’s clothes for immoral purposes; to flash the white grin = see grin; to flash it (q.v.), or to flash one’s meat (cf., meat-flasher); to flash a bit (q.v.); to flash the flag = to sport an apron; to flash the wedge = to ‘fence’ the swag, etc.]

1812. Vaux, Flash Dict. Don’t flash your sticks, don’t expose your pistols.

1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial, p. 2. His lordship, as usual, that very great dab At the flowers of rhet’ric, is flashing his gab.

1823. Jon Bee, Dict. of the Turf, etc. He flashed the blunt, made a show of money to dazzle the spectators.

1825. E. Kent, Modern Flash Dict. Flashing his ivory, shew his teeth.

1834. W. H. Ainsworth, Rookwood, (ed. 1864), p. 176.

1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends. ‘The Dead Drummer.’ When trav’lling, don’t flash your notes or your cash Before other people—it’s foolish and rash.

1887. W. E. Henley, Villon’s Good-Night. Likewise you molls that flash your bubs, For swells to spot and stand you sam.

1887. W. E. Henley, Straight Tip. Go crying croaks, or flash the drag.

To flash a bit, verbal phr. (venery).—To show up; to permit examination; ‘to spread’ (q.v.); to behave indecently. Said of women only.

To flash it, or to flash one’s meat.—To expose the person. [Hence meat-flasher] (q.v.). Said usually of men.

To flash the muzzle (old).—To produce a pistol.

c. 1823. Ballad (quoted in Don Juan xi.). On the high toby spice flash the muzzle In spite of each gallows old scout.

To flash it about, or to cut a flash or dash, verbal phr. (common).—To make a display; to live conspicuously and extravagantly.

1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. iii., p. 220. He flashed it about a good deal for a long time, going from one place to another. Sometimes he was a lord, at others an earl.

To go flashing it, verb. phr. (venery).—To have sexual intercourse. For synonyms, see Greens and Ride.

Flash-Case (or -Crib, -House, -Drum, -Ken, -Panny, etc.).—1. A house frequented by thieves, as a tavern, lodging-house, fence (q.v.).

1690. B. E., New Dict. of the Canting Crew. Flash-ken, c., a house where thieves use, and are connived at.

1785. Grose, Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v.

1821. D. Haggart, Life, ‘Glossary,’ p. 172. Flash-kain, a house for receiving [[12]]stolen goods. [Haggart’s spelling, being that of the respectable Edinburgh lawyer who took down his ‘confessions’ is generally misleading and inaccurate.]

1828. Smeeton, Doings in London, p. 39. It is a game in very great vogue among the macers, who congregate nightly at the flash-houses.

1830. Lytton, Paul Clifford, p. 50 (ed. 1854). There is one Peggy Lobkins who keeps a public house, a sort of flash-ken called ‘The Mug’ in Thames Court.

1839. Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard (ed. 1840), p. 271. I’ve been to all the flash-cases in town, and can hear nothing of him or his wives.… Ibid, p. 135. ‘The Black Lion!’ echoed Terence, ‘I know the house well; by the same token that it’s a flash-crib.’

2. (common).—A brothel; a haunt of loose women.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum (Flash song quoted under flash-panneys). Next for his favourite mot the kiddey looks about, And if she’s in a flash-panny he swears he’ll have her out; So he fences all his togs to buy her duds, and then He frisks his master’s lob to take her from the bawdy ken.

1830. Lytton, Paul Clifford, ch. xvi. (ed. 1840). You know how little I frequent flash-houses.

1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends (ed. 1862), p. 380. Those troublesome swells, Who come from the play-houses, flash-kens, and hells.

1840. Macaulay, Essays: ‘Lord Clive.’ The lowest wretches that the company’s crimps could pick up in the flash-houses of London.

1852. Bristed, Upper Ten Thousand, p. 34. That is Mary Black who keeps the greatest flash house in Leonard Street.

Flash-Cove (also Flash-Companion), subs. (common).—A thief; a sharper; a fence (q.v.).

1825. E. Kent, Modern Flash Dict. Flash-cove, the keeper of a place for the reception of stolen goods.

1839. H. Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard (1889), p. 60.—‘Awake! To be sure I am, my flash-cove!’ replied Sheppard.

Flash-Man, subs. (old).—Primarily a man talking flash (see quots., 1823 and 1862); hence, a rogue, a thief, the landlord of a flash-case (q.v.). Also a fancy-joseph (for synonyms, see Fancy-man). In America, a person with no visible means of support, but living in style and ‘showing up’ well.

1789. Geo. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 141. A flashman is one who lives on the hackneyed prostitution of an unfortunate woman of the town.

1823. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, II., 1. Soon one is floored upon the ground. While loud her flashman cries, ‘Arise, my ladybird, arise!’

1823. Jon Bee, Dict. of the Turf, etc., p. 80. Derived from his language, and this again has its appellation (’tis suggested) from the first flash-men being highwaymen, that then generally abounded (circa 1770). He is the favorite, or protector of a prostitute, whose flash-man he is; and she is called inversely, his flash-woman.

c. 1833. Broadside Ballad. My flash-man has gone to sea.

1849. New South Wales, Past, Present, and Future, ch. i., p. 14. This man was known to Mr. Day to be what is termed a flash-man; and, seeing his own imminent danger, he instantly spoke to him and called him a cowardly rascal, and offered to give him shot for shot, while he was re-loading.

1859. H. Kingsley, Geoffrey Hamlyn, ch. v. You’re playing a dangerous game, my flashman.

1862. Smiles, Lives of the Engineers, vol. I., pt. 5, ch. i., p. 307. Those articles were sold throughout the country by pedestrian hawkers, most of whom lived in the wild country called the flash, from a hamlet of that name situated between Buxton, Leek, and Macclesfield.… Travelling about from fair to fair, and using a cant or slang dialect, they became generally known as flash-men, and the name still survives (to which may be added: They paid, at first, ready money, but when they had established a credit, paid in promissory notes which were rarely honored.) [[13]]

a. 1873. Lyra Flagitiosa. [Quoted in Hotten.] My flash man’s in quod, And I’m the gal that’s willin’, So I’ll turn out to-night, And earn an honest shillin’.

Flash of Lightning, subs. phr. (old).—1. A glass of gin; a dram of neat spirit. See Go and Drinks. Latterly, an ‘American drink.’ See quot. 1862.

1789. Geo. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 164, s.v.

1821. P. Egan, Tom and Jerry (ed. 1890), p. 79. I have not exactly recovered from the severe effects of the repeated flashes of lightning and strong claps of thunder, with which I had to encounter last night.

1823. Jon Bee, Dict. of the Turf (quoted in). But ere they homeward pik’d it, A flash of lightning was sarv’d round to every one as lik’d it.

1830. Lytton, Paul Clifford, (ed. 1854), p. 141. The thunders of eloquence being hushed, flashes of lightning, or, as the vulgar say, ‘glasses of gin’ gleamed about.

1851–61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, i., p. 168. The stimulant of a flash of lightning … for so a dram of neat spirit was then called.

1862. E. MacDermott, Popular Guide to International Exhibition, 1862, p. 185. In the vestibule of each refreshment room there is an American bar, where visitors may indulge in … gum-ticklers, eye-openers, flashes of lightning … and a variety of similar beverages.

2. (nautical). The gold braid on an officer’s cap.

Flash in the Pan, subs. phr. (venery).—Connection without emission. Cf. Dry-Bob (q.v.). Also verbally.

1719. Durfey, Pills, v., 340. Still hawking, still baulking, You flash in the pan.

Flashy, adj., and Flashily, or Flashly, adv. (old: now colloquial). Empty; showy; tawdry; insipid.

1637. Milton, Lycidas, 123. Their lean and flashy songs Grate on their scrannel pipes of wretched straw.

1693. Congreve, Old Batchelor, Act I., sc. iv. It is oftentimes too late with some of you young, termagant, flashy sinners.

1719. Durfey, Pills, etc., ii., 12. A flashy town beau.

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary, (5th ed.) Flashy (a), vain, bragging, boasting, foolish, empty; also anything waterish and unsavoury.

1755. The World, No. 149. Whose melodious voices give every syllable (not of a lean and flashy, but of a fat and plump song) its just emphasis.

1830. Lytton, Paul Clifford, p. 13, (ed. 1854). Vy it be … the gemman vot payed you so flashly.

1857. Song in Ducange Anglicus, The Vulgar Tongue, p. 42. Your fogle you must flashly tie.

1863. Speke, Journal of the Discovery of the Nile, p. 154. Flashily dressed in coloured cloths and a turban, he sat down in one of our chairs.

1864. Braddon, Henry Dunbar, ch. v. But he evinced no bad taste in the selection of a costume. He chose no gaudy colours, or flashily cut vestments.

1873. Cassell’s Magazine, Jan., p. 246, col. 2. They are rather prone to dress flashily, and wear, when in full fig, no end of jewellery.

1874. Mortimer Collins, Frances, ch. xvii. That wild set of people Captain Heath picked up with—members of Parliament and flashy young women—all driving four horses, I don’t know where.

1882. Century Magazine, xxvi., 295. As stones, they were cheap and flashy.

Flash-Tail, subs. (common).—A prostitute.—See Tail.

1868. Temple Bar, xxiv., p. 538–9. Picking-up Moll … a flashtail? a prostitute who goes about the streets at nights trying to pick up toffs.

Flasher, subs. (old).—A high-flyer; a fop; a pretender to wit. For synonyms, see Dandy. Also (quot. 2), a Bonnet (q.v.).

1779. D’Arblay, Diary, etc. (1876). vol. I., p. 185. They are reckoned the flashers of the place, yet everybody laughs at them for their airs, affectations, and tonish graces and impertinences. [[14]]

1880. Derbyshire Gatherer, p. 128. Long before this date (circa 1800) the cant name of flasher was applied to the man who sat by the table in the gambling-house to swear how many times he had seen lucky gamesters break the bank.

Flashery, subs. (old).—Inferior, or vulgar, elegance, dash, distinction, display.

Flash-yad, subs. (back-slang).—A day’s enjoyment. For synonyms, see Flare-up.

Flashy Blade or Spark, subs. phr. (old).—A dandy (q.v.); now a cheap and noisy swell, whether male or female; Cf., Flasher.

1719. Durfey, Pills, etc., vi., 104. In youth a nauseous flashy fop, in elder days a bore.

1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial, p. 40. For though all know that flashy spark, etc.

Flat, subs. (colloquial).—1. A greenhorn; noddy; gull. For synonyms, see Buffle and Cabbage-head; also Sammy-soft.

1762. Goldsmith, Life of Nash, in wks. p. 546 (Globe). Why, if you think me a dab I will get this strange gentleman, or this, pointing to the flat. Done! cries the sailor, but you shall not tell him.

1789. Geo. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 142. Who are continually looking out for flats, in order to do them upon the broads, that is, cards.

1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial, p. 59. Poor Johnny Raw, what madness could impel, So rum a flat to face so prime a swell.

1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends. ‘Misadventures at Margate.’ He’s been upon the mill, And cos he gammons all the flats we calls him Veepin Bill.

1841. Lytton, Night and Morning, bk. II., ch. ix. ‘Did he pay you for her?’ ‘Why, to be sure, he gave me a cheque on Coutt’s.’ ‘And you took it? My eyes? what a flat.’

1847. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, ch. xiv. I won two hundred of him at the Cocoa-tree. He play, the young flat!

1847. Punch, vol. XIII., p. 148. It mayn’t precisely please the moral flat. You won’t find fault with it, kind friends, for that.

1848. Thackeray, The Book of Snobs, ch. x. When he does play he always contrives to get hold of a good flat.