WITH SYNONYMS IN ENGLISH, FRENCH, GERMAN, ITALIAN, ETC. (continued 13)

Humphrey, subs. (American thieves’).—A coat with pocket holes but no pockets.—Matsell.

To dine with Duke Humphrey. See Dine, Sir Thomas Gresham, and Knights.

1592. Nashe, Pierce Penilesse [Grosart], ii., 18. I … retired me to Paules, to seeke my dinner with Duke Humfrey.

1843. Moncrieff, The Scamps of London, i., 1. Dines oftener with Duke Humphrey than anybody else, I believe.

Humpty-dumpty, subs. (colloquial).—1. A short and thick-set person; a grundy (q.v.); a hunch-back. For synonyms, see Forty Guts.

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

2. (old).—See quot. 1690.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Humptey Dumptey, Ale boild with Brandy.

1698. M. Sorbière’s Journey to London in the Year 1698, p. 135, quoted in Notes and Queries, 6 S., xii., 167. He answer’d me that he had a thousand such sort of liquors, as Humtie Dumtie, Three Threads.…

1786. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.

1837. Disraeli, Venetia, i., 14. As for the beverage they drank humpty-dumpty, which is ale boiled with brandy.

Adj. and adv. (colloquial).—Short and thick; all of a heap; all together.

Hum-strum, subs. (old).—See quot.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Humstrum, a musical instrument made of a mopstick, a bladder, and some pack-thread, thence also called bladder and string, and hurdy gurdy; it is played on like a violin, which is sometimes ludicrously called a humstrum; sometimes instead of a bladder, a tin canister is used.

Hunch, verb. (old: now colloquial).—To jostle; to shove; to squeeze. For synonyms, see Ramp.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Hunch, to justle, or thrust.

1712. Arbuthnot, Hist. of John Bull, Pt. III., App., ch. iii. Then Jack’s friends began to hunch and push one another.

1738. Swift, Polite Convers., Dial. 1. I was hunched up in a hackney-coach with three country acquaintance.

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

1847. Porter, Quarter Race, etc., p. 163. I hadn’t fairly got to sleep before the old ’oman hunched me.

Hung. See Well-hung.

To be hung up, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To come to a standstill; to be in a fix.

1891. Fun, 10 June, p. 237. ‘Ah! by Bendigo, I forgot! Grimmy’s hung up!’ ‘What, Grimmy? Never!’

Hungarian, subs. (Old Cant).—1. A hungry man; a rare pecker (q.v.).

1608. Dodsley, Merry Devil of Edmonton [Old Plays, v. 267]. Away, I have knights and colonels at my house, and must tend the hungarians.

1632. Lupton, London [‘Harl. Misc.’], ix., 314. The middle aile [of St. Paul’s] is much frequented at noon with a company of hungarians, not walking so much for recreation as need.

2. (Old Cant).—A freebooter.

1608. Merry Devil of Edmonton [Dodsley, Old Plays, v. 285]. Come, ye Hungarian pilchers, we are once more come under the zona torrida of the forest.

1893. National Observer, ‘Spoliation,’ ix., 357. But, after all, it is only another note in the gamut of spoliation, whereof Mr. Gladstone’s hungarians (a good old word that!) would have the mastery.

Hunk. To be (or get) hunk or all hunk, verb. phr. (American).—1. To hit a mark; to achieve an object; to be safe. Also (2) to scheme. [From Dutch honk = goal or home.]

1847. Darley, Drama in Pokerville, p. 50. I’ll allow you’re just hunk this time.

1893. Detroit Free Press, June 23, ‘He Threatens to go back,’ p. 3. I propose to have some of it, or I’ll get hunk.

Hunker (or Old Hunker), subs. (American).—In New York (1844) a Conservative Democrat, as opposed to the Young Democracy or Barn-Burners (q.v.). Hence, an anti-progressive in politics.

Hunks, subs. (old).—A miser; a mean, sordid fellow; a curmudgeon. For synonyms, see Snide.

1602. Dekker, Satiro-Mastix, in Wks. (1873), i., 201. Blun. Nay prethee deare Tucca, come you shall shake—Tuc. Not hands with great Hunkes there, not hands, but Ile shake the gull-groper out of his tan’d skinne.

1602. Campion, English Poesy (Works, Bullen, 1889, p. 247). But it drinks up all: that hunks detestable.

1647–80. Rochester, Wks.; p. 11. There was an old coveteous hunks in the neighbourhood, who had notwithstanding his age, got a very pretty young wife.

1677. Wycherley, Plain Dealer, v., 2. Make a very pretty show in the world, let me tell you; nay, a better than your close hunks.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Hunks, a covetous Creature, a miserable Wretch.

1712. Spectator, No. 264. Irus has … given all the intimations he skilfully could of being a close hunks with money.

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

1837. Marryat, Snarley-yow, ch. 12. So while they cut their raw salt junks, With dainties you’ll be cramm’d. Here’s once for all my mind, old hunks, Port Admiral, you be dammed!

1839. Buckstone, Brother Tom (Dick’s ed., p. 15). One calls him an old hunks, another a selfish brute.

1840. Dickens, Old Curiosity Shop, ch. vii., p. 35. That you become the sole inheritor of the wealth of this rich old hunks.

1846. Melville, Moby Dick, 75 (ed. 1892). Bildad, I am sorry to say, had the reputation of being an incorrigible old hunks.

1857. A. Trollope, Three Clerks, ch. iii. I am sure he is a cross old hunks, though Mamma says he’s not.

1893. Theodore Martin, Roman Elegies, ii. (Goethe Society Trans., 1891–2, p. 72). Joys that he stints not his gold like the close hunxes of Rome.

Hunky, adj. (American).—Good; jolly; a general superlative. Also Hunkidorum.

d. 1867. Browne, ‘Artemus Ward,’ The Shakers (Railway ed.), p. 43. ‘Hunky boy! Go it my gay and festive cuss!’

1873. Justin McCarthy, Fair Saxon, ch. xxxviii. The guard dies, but never surrenders! Fine, isn’t it? But the hunky-boy that said that surrendered all the same.

1888. Texas Siftings, 20 Oct. Robert is all hunky, but he had a mighty close call the week before last.

Hunt, verb. (old).—To decoy a pigeon (q.v.) to the tables. Hence hunting = card-sharping. Flat-catching (q.v.).

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Hunting (c.), decoying or drawing others into Play.

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

To hunt for soft spots, verb. phr. (American).—To make oneself comfortable; to seek one’s ease.

1888. San Francisco Weekly Examiner, 22 Mar. It was demnition hot, and I commenced to hunt for soft spots in my saddle.

To hunt grass, verb. phr. (pugilists’).—To be knocked down; to be grassed (q.v.). Also, to be puzzled; to be dumfoundered.

1869. Clemens [Mark Twain], Innocents at Home, ch. ii. I hunt grass every time.

To hunt leather, verb. phr. (cricketers’).—To field at cricket.

1892. Cassell’s Sat. Jour., 21 Sep. p. 13, c. 2. For nearly ten years I earned a living—and a good one—by ‘wielding the willow’ and hunting the leather.

To hunt the dummy, verb. phr. (thieves’).—To steal pocket books.

1878. Charles Hindley, Life and Times of James Catnach, p. 171. (Chorus)—Speak to the tattler, bag the swag, And finely hunt the dummy.

To hunt the squirrel, verb. phr. (old).—See quot.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Hunting the Squirrel, an amusement practised by post boys, and stage coachmen, which consists in following a one-horse chaise, and driving it before them, passing close to it so as to brush the wheel, and by other means terrifying any woman, or person that may be in it. A man whose turn comes for him to drink, before he has emptied his former glass, is said to be hunted.

In, or out of, the hunt, adv. phr. (colloquial).—Having a chance, or none; in or out of the swim (q.v.). Admitted to, or outside, a circle or society.

Hunt-about, subs. (colloquial).—1. A prying gossip.

2. (common).—A walking whore.

Hunt-counter, subs. (old).—A beggar.

1623. Shakspeare, 2 Henry IV., i., 2. You hunt-counter, hence! Avaunt!

Hunters. Pitching the hunters, verb. phr. (costermongers’). See quot.

1851–61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, i., 390. Pitching the hunters is the three sticks a penny, with the snuff-boxes stuck upon sticks; if you throw your stick, and they fall out of the hole, you are entitled to what you knock off.

1876. Hindley, Cheap Jack, p. 235. When … there was no cattle jobbing to be done, he would pitch the hunters, that is, put up the ‘three sticks a penny’ business.

Hurly-Burly, subs. (old: now colloquial).—A commotion; a bustle; an uproar.

c. 1509–1547. Lusty Juventus (Dodsley), [Old Plays, 4th ed., 1874, ii., 85]. What a hurly-burly is here! Smick smack, and all this gear!

1539. Tavernier, Garden of Wysdom, E. ii. verso. Thys kynge [Gelo] on a tyme exacted money of hys comons, whome when he perceuyed in a hurly burly for the same, and ready to make an insurrection, he thus sodaynly appeased.

1542. Udall, Apophthegms of Erasmus [1877], p. 115. the meaning of the Philosophier was, that princes for the ambition of honour, rule and dominion, being in continuall strife, and hurlee burlee, are in very deede persons full of miserie and wo.

1551. More, Utopia, (Pitt Press ed., 1884, i., 52, 5). Whereby so many nations for his sake should be broughte into a troublesome hurlei-burley.

1567. Fenton, Tragical Dicsourses, f. 104. They heard a great noyse and hurleyburley in the street of the Guard and chief officers of the Watch.

1592. Nashe, Pierce Penilesse (Grosart, Works, ii., 53). Not trouble our peaceable Paradise with their private hurlie-burlies about strumpets.

1599. Nashe, Lenten Stuffe (Grosart, Works, v., 293). Put them in feare where no feare is, and make a hurlie-burlie in the realm.

1606. Shakspeare, Macbeth, i., 1. When the hurley-burley’s done, When the battle’s lost and won.

1619. T. North’s Diall of Princes (1557), corrected, p. 703, c. 1. Two or three dayes before you shall see such resort of persons, such hurly burly, such flying this way, such sending that way, some occupyed in telling the cookes how many sorts of meates they will have.…

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.

1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.

1771. Smollett, Humphrey Clinker (ed. 1890, p. 185). As for the lawyer he waited below till the hurly-burly was over, and then he stole softly to his own chamber.

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

1811. J. and H. Smith, Horace in London, pp. 18–25, Ode ii., ‘Hurly-burly’ (Title).

1886. Max Adeler, Out of the Hurly-Burly. Title.

1893. St. James’s Gazette, xxvii., 4076, p. 4. While all London was making holiday, Paris was engaged in a hurly-burly of a very different kind.

Hurra’s-nest, subs. (nautical).—The utmost confusion; everything topsy-turvy. For synonyms, see Sixes and Sevens.

1840. R. H. Dana, Two Years Before the Mast, ch. ii. Everything was pitched about in grand confusion. There was a complete hurrah’s nest, as the sailors say, ‘everything on top and nothing at hand.’

1869. Mrs. Stowe, Old Townsfolks, ch. iv. You’ve got our clock all to pieces, and have been keeping up a perfect hurrah’s nest in our kitchen for three days. Do either put that clock together or let it alone.

Hurrah in Hell. Not to care a single hurrah in hell, verb. phr. (American).—To be absolutely indifferent.

1893. Harold Frederic, National Observer, IX., 1 Apr., p. 493, col. 2. I don’t care a single hurrah in sheol.

Hurry, subs. (musical).—A quick passage on the violin, or a roll on the drum, leading to a climax in the representation.

1835. Dickens, Sketches by Boz, p. 66. The wrongful heir comes in to two bars of quick music (technically called a hurry).

Hurry-curry, subs. (obsolete).—See quot.

1599. Nashe, Lenten Stuffe (Grosart, Works, v. 267). The … was so in his humps upon it … that he had thought to have tumbled his hurrie currie, or … can, into the sea.

Hurry-durry, adj. (old).—Rough; boisterous; impatient of counsel or control.

1677. Wycherley, Plain Dealer, i., 1. ’Tis a hurrydurry blade.

Hurrygraph, subs. (American).—A hastily written letter.

1861. Independent, 31 July. I must close this hurrygraph, which I have no time to review.

Hurry-whore, subs. (old).—A walking strumpet.

1630. Taylor, Wks. And I doe wish with all my heart, that the superfluous number of all our hyreling hackney carryknaves, and hurry-whores, with their makers and maintainers, were there, where they might never want continuall imployment.

Husband’s-boat, subs. (common).—The Saturday boat to Margate during the summer season.

c. 1867. Vance, Broadside Ballad. ‘The Husband’s Boat.’

1887. Murray, in New Eng. Dict., Pt. III., p. 956, c. 3. Waiting at Margate Pier for the husband’s boat on Saturday afternoon.

Husband’s-supper. To warm the husband’s supper, verb. phr. (common).—To sit before the fire with lifted skirts. Fr., faire chapelle.

Husband’s-tea, subs. (common).—Weak tea; water bewitched (q.v.).

Hush, verb. (old).—To kill.—Grose.

Hush-money, subs. (old: now recognised).—Money paid for silence, to quash a case, or stay a witness; a bribe; blackmail.

1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 26. I expect hush-money to be regularly sent for every folly or vice any one commits in this whole town.

1713. Guardian, No. 26. A poor chambermaid has sent in ten shillings out of her hush-money, to expiate her guilt of being in her mistress’s secret.

1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5th Ed.), s.v.

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

1852. Dickens, Bleak House, ch. xxxvii. To allow Ada to be made a bribe and hush-money of, is not the way to bring it out.

1884. Spectator, p. 530. They were disappointed of their hush-money, but he gave them an easy revenge.

Hush-shop (or -crib), subs. (common).—An unlicensed tavern.

1872. Globe, 18 Sep. At Barrow-in-Furness the new Licensing Act has had the effect of calling numerous hush shops into existence.

Husky, subs. (Winchester College).—Gooseberry fool with the husks in it, obsolete. [Notions.]

1870. Mansfield, School Life, p. 145. There were two kinds [Gooseberry fool] Husky and non-husky.

Adj. (American).—Stout; well built.

Husky-lour, subs. (Old Cant).—A guinea; a job (q.v.). For synonyms, see Canary.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew., s.v.

1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.

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

Hussy, subs. (colloquial).—A corruption of housewife (q.v.).

Hustle, verb. (venery).—1. To copulate. For synonyms, see Greens and Ride.

2. (American).—To bestir oneself; to go to work with vigour and energy. Also to hustle around.

Hustler, subs. (American).—An active, busy man or woman. A hummer (q.v.); a rustler (q.v.).

1890. Harold Frederic, Lawton Girl. A whimsical query as to whether this calamitous boy had also been named Benjamin Franklin crossed his confused mind, and then … whether the child if so named, would be a hustler or not.

Hutch, subs. (common).—A place of residence or employment; one’s diggings (q.v.).

Hutter. See Hatter.

Huxter, subs. (common).—Money. Also Hoxter. For synonyms, see Actual and Gilt.

c. 186(?). Broadside Ballad. These seven long years I’ve been serving, and Seven I’ve got for to stay, All for meeting a bloke down our alley And a-taking his huxters away.

Huzzy (or Huzzie), subs. (old).—A case of needles, pins, scissors, bodkins, etc.; a housewife’s companion.

Hymeneal-Sweets, subs. (venery).—Copulation.

1604. Marston, Malcontent, i., 3. True to her sheetes, nay, diets strong his blood, To give her height of hymeneall sweetes.

Hypernese, subs. (Winchester College).—See quot. Ziph (q.v.).

1864. The Press, 12 Nov. p. 1098. This dialect of school cryptoëpy was known in our youth as Hypernese. When spoken fast it defies an outsider’s curiosity. If two consonants commence a syllable, the former is dropped, and W substituted: thus breeches would be wareechepes. If P commences a syllable, G is interpolated: thus penny would be pegennepy.… That Ziph and its cognate languages are well known beyond the boundaries of Winchester is certain. Bishop Wilkins described it, without mentioning it as a novelty, a couple of centuries ago.

Hyphenated American, subs. (American).—A naturalised citizen, as German-Americans, Irish-Americans, and the like. [Nortons.]

Hypocrite, subs. (American).—A pillow slip or ‘sham.’

Hypogastric-cranny, subs. (venery).—The female pudendum.—Urquhart. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.

Hyps (or Hypo), subs. (old).—The Blue Devils (q.v.).

1710. Swift, Tatler, No. 230. Will Hazard has got the hipps, having lost to the tune of five hund’rd pound.

1729. Swift, Poems (Chalmers, English Poets, 1810, xi., 486). And the doctor was plaguily down in the hips.

1738. Swift’s Polite Conversation, Dial. 1. Her ladyship was plaguily bamb’d; I warrant it put her into the hipps.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.

1830. C. Lamb, Pawnbroker’s Daughter, i., 2. The drops so like to tears did drip, They gave my infant nerves the hyp.

1854. Haliburton, Americans at Home, i., 176. The old man would give up to the hypo, and keep his bed for weeks. During this time, he wouldn’t say a word, but ‘I’m not long for this world.’

End of Vol. III.

LONDON HARRISON AND SONS, PRINTERS, ST. MARTIN’S LANE.