Dictionary of Americanisms, by John Russell Bartlett. (NY: Bartlett and Welford, 1848)
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HORSE-FOOT. (Genus, polyphemus. Lamarck.) The common name of a crustacea, found in our waters from Massachusetts to Virginia. In form it much resembles a horse's hoof. Also called Horse-shoe.
HOSS. (A corruption of the word horse.) A man remarkable for his strength, courage, etc. A vulgarism peculiar to the West.
"Well, old fellow, you're a hoss!" is a Western expression, which has grown into a truism as regards Judge Allen, and a finer specimen of a Western judge "aint no whar," for besides being a sound jurist, he is a great wag; etc.
Hoss Allen is powerful popular, and the "bar" hunters admire his free and easy manners, and consider him one of the people--none of your stuck-up imported chaps from the dandy States, but a genuine Westerner--in short, a hoss!--Robb, Squatter Life, p. 70.
HOUSEN, as the plural of house. This old form is still used by the illiterate in the interior of New England, as also in the State of New York. It is provincial in various parts of England.
That day at housen so she stopped She was behind for dinner.--Essex Dialect, p.14.
It is enacted by the court and authoritie thereof, that henceforth no person or persons shall permit any meetings of the Quakers to bee in his house or housing.--Plymouth Colony Laws, 1661.
HOUSEN--STUFF. Household furniture.
On the first day of May, at 1w o'clock, if the tenant isn't out, an officer goes and puts him into the street, neck and heels, with his wife and children and all his housen-stuff.--Maj. Downing, May-day in N. Y. p. 30.
HOUSE-WARMlNG. A feast, or merry-making, upon going into a new house.--Johnson.
HOVE. (Ang. Sax. hof, pret. of heafan, to heave.) This old preterite is much used by illiterate persons in the United States.
HOW? for what? Used chiefly in New England, like the French comment? in asking for the repetition of something not understood.
HOW-COME? Rapidly pronounced huc-cum, in Virginia. Doubtless an English phrase, brought over by the original
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settlers, and propagated even among the negro slaves. The meaning is, How did what you tell me happen? How came it?
HOWSOMEVER, for Howsoever. Not peculiar to America.
HUB. The nave of a wheel; a solid piece of timber in which the spokes are inserted.--Webster. The word is also provincial in England.
HUBBY. Applied to rough roads, particularly when frozen; as, the road is hubby. In the Craven Dialect of England the word hobbly is applied to rough or stony roads.
HUBBUB. A shout; a tumult; a riot.--Grose. Todd's Johnson.
An universal hubbub wild Of stunning sounds, and voices all confus'd, Borne through the hollow dark, assaults his ear With loudest vehemence.--Milton, Paradise Lost.
People pursued the business with all contempt of the government: and in the hubbub of the first day there appeared nobody of name or reckoning, but the actors were really of the dregs of the people.--Clarendon.
Agreed for all the whole inhabitants to combine to assist any man in the pursuit of any party delinquent; but if any man raise a hubbub, and there be no just cause for the same, then for the party that raised the hubbub to satisfy men for their time lost in it.--Staples, Annals of Providence, R. I.
The King was sorry he couldn't ask Mr. Slick to dine with him; for the Queen was very busy, as it was white-washing day, and they was all in a hubbub.--Sam Slick, 3d ser. ch. 7.
HUCKABUCK. Coarse table linen. Scottish, hagabag.
And serve him with the best we can afford.--Ramsay's Poems.
HUCKLEBERRY. The common whortleberry.
HUCKLEBERRY ABOVE THE PERSIMMON. A Southern phrase.
The way he and his companions used to destroy the beasts of the forests, was huckleberry above the persimmon of any native in the country.--Thorpe, Backwoods, p. 166.
HUFFED. Offended.
Jason insisted that the young lady was huffed, as he called it, and that she had thus refused to take the money merely because she was thus offended.--Cooper, Satanstoe, Vol. I. p. 81.
HUGE PAWS. A nickname given to the working-men of the Loco Foco party in New York.
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The huge paws ought to have another meeting at Tammany Hall before they make their nominations.--N. Y. Herald, Oct. 7, 1846.
HULL. A vulgar pronunciation of the word whole very common in New England.
HUMBLE PIE. To make one eat humble pie, is to make him lower his tone, and be submissive. Forby notices this among the proverbs of Norfolk, England.
HUMBUG. An imposition; a hoax. And as a verb, to impose upon; to deceive. A low word.--Worcester.
"There is a word very much in vogue with the people of taste and fashion, which, though it has not even the 'penumbra' of a meaning, yet makes up the sum total of the wit, sense, and judgment of the aforesaid people of taste and fashion! 'This piece will prove a confounded humbug upon the nation; These theatrical managers humbug the town damnably!' Humbug is neither an English word, nor a derivative from any other language. It is indeed a blackguard sound, made use of by most people of distinction! It is a fine make-weight in conversation, and some great men deceive themselves so egregiously as to think they mean something by it!"--Student, Vol. II. (1751.)
Humbugging is held the most ancient profession.
'Twixt nations and parties, and state politicians,
Prim shop-keepers, jobbers, smooth lawyers, physicians:
Of worth and of wisdom the trial and test
Is--mark ye, my friends!--who shall humbug the best.--Brookes.
Truly as a people we are easily humbugged, enormously bamboozled.--N. Y. Com. Adv.
HUMDRUM. Dull; dronish; stupid; heavy.-- Todd's Johnson.
I was talking with an old humdrum fellow, and, before I had heard his story out, was called away by business.--Addison, Whig Examiner, No. 3
HUMLY or HUMBLY, for homely.
HUMPTY-DUMPTY. Short and broad; as, He's a humpty-dumpty fellow.--Craven Glossary.
HUMS AND HAHS. A familiar expression applied to one who hesitates in speaking. 'None of your hums and hahs!' that is, be decisive, do not hesitate. The expression is common in England.
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That shames the whiteness of his hand,
Whose mincing dialect abounds
With hums and hahs, and half form'd sounds.--Lloyd, Epistle.
I know'd well enough that warn't what he sent for me for, by the way he humm'd and hawed when he began.--Sam Slick in England, ch. 20.
HUNK. A large piece or slice; a big lump. Ex. 'A great hunk of bread and cheese.' It is a variation of the word hunch, which is used in England in precisely the same manner. See Grose and Moor's glossaries.
HUNK. (Dutch, honk.) A goal, or place of refuge. A word much used by New York boys in their play.
OLD HUNKER. See Barnburners.
HURLY-BURLY. A noise, or tumult; bustle; confusion.--Nares's Glossary.
And to thintent the easier, to bleave his enemy's eyes with suspicion of fearfulness, he bade that they should remove with more noise and hurly-burly, than the custom of the Romans was to do.--Udal, Luke, ch. 21.
HURRA'S NEST. A state of confusion.
"Now just look at you, Mr. Jones! I declare! it gives me a chill to see you go to a drawer. What do you want? Tell me! and I will get it for you."
Mrs. Jones springs to the side of her husband, who has gone to the bureau for something, and pushes him away.
"There now! Just look at the hurra's nest you have made! What do you want, Mr. Jones?"--Arthur's Ladies' Magazine.
HURRICANE. (W. Ind. urican.) This word does not appear in any English dictionary before 1720, when Phillips notices it, as a word denoting "a violent storm of wind, which often happens in Jamaica, and other parts of the W. Indies, making very great havoc and overthrow of trees, houses, etc." Other dictionaries of a later period describe it as a violent wind in the W. Indies. It is the Carib name for a high wind, such as is described by Phillips, and was, doubtless, carried by seamen to Europe, whence it became introduced into various languages.
I shall next speak of hurricanes. These are violent storms, raging chiefly among the Caribee Islands; though by relation Jamaica has of late years been much annoyed by them. They are expected in July, August, or September.--Dampier, Voyages, Vol. II. ch. 6.
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HURRYMENT. Hurry. Used in the Southern States.
Somehow in my hurryment I drapt my pan, jest like I did when I heard Old Blaze squeel.--Chron. of Pineville, p. 174.
HURRY UP THE CAKES, i.e. Be quick; look alive. This phrase, which has lately got into vogue, originated in the common New York eating-houses, where it is the custom for the waiters to bawl out the name of each dish as fast as ordered, that the person who serves up may get it ready without delay, and where the order, 'Hurry up them cakes,' &c., is frequently heard.
HUSKING. The act of stripping off husks from Indian corn. In New England it is the custom for farmers to invite their friends to assist them in this task. The ceremonies on these occasions are well described by Joel Barlow, in his poem on Hasty Pudding:
For now, the cow-house fill'd, the harvest home,
Th' invited neighbors to the Husking come;
A frolic scene, where work, and mirth, and play,
Unite their charms, to chase the hours away.
* * * * *
The laws of husking every wight can tell;
And sure no laws he ever keeps so well:
For each red ear a gen'ral kiss he gains,
With each smut ear, she smuts the luckless swains;
But when to some sweet maid a prize is cast,
Red as her lips, and taper as her waist,
She walks around, and culls one favor'd beau,
Who leaps, the luscious tribute to bestow.
Various the sport, as are the wits and brains
Of well-pleas'd lasses and contending swains;
Till the vast mound of corn is swept away,
And he that gains the last ear, wins the day.--Canto 3.
He talked of a turkey-hunt, a husking-bee, thanksgiving ball, racing, and a variety of things.--Margaret, p. 48.
HYST. (Corruption of hoist.) A violent fall. Ex. 'His foot slipped, and he got a hyst.' Mr. J. C. Neal thus discourses on this word: A fall, for instance, is indeterminate. It may be an easy slip down--a gentle visitation of mother earth; but a hyst is a rapid, forcible performance, which may be done either backward or forward, but of necessity
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with such violence as to knock the breath out of the body, or it is unworthy of the noble appellation of hyst. It is an apt, but figurative mode of expression, and it is often carried still further; for people sometimes say, "Lower him up, and hyst him down."--Charcoal Sketches.
I can't see the ground, and every dark night am sure to get a hyst--either a forrerd hyst or a backerd hyst, or some sort of a hyst, but more backerds than forrerds.--J. C. Neal, Sketches.
I.
I DAD! An exclamation used in the Western States.
"I dad! if I didn't snatch up Ruff and kiss him." Here the emotion of the old man made a pause.--Carlton, The New Purchase, Vol. I. p. 179.
IF SO BE AS HOW. A vulgar expression used by uneducated people in the interior parts of this country and in England.
Ill. The common abbreviation for Illinois.
ILLY. A word occasionally used by writers of an inferior class, who do not seem to perceive that ill is itself an adverb, without the termination ly.
TO IMPROVE. To occupy; to make use of, employ.--Pickering's Vocab. "This word," says Mr. Pickering, "in the first sense, is in constant use in all parts of New England; but in the second sense (when applied to persons, as in the following example,) it is not so common."
In action of trespass against several defendants, the plaintiffs may, after issue is closed, strike out any of them for the purpose of improving them as witnesses.--Swift's System of the Colony Laws of Connecticut, Vol. II.
Dr. Franklin, in a letter to Dr. Webster, dated Dec. 26th, 1789, has the following remarks: "When I left New England in the year 1723, this word had never been used among us, as far as I know, but in the sense of ameliorated or made better, except once, in a very old book of Dr. Mather's, entitled Remarkable Providences."
Ann Cole, a person of serious piety, living in Hartford, in 1662, was taken with very strange fits, whereon her tongue was improved by a demon, to express things unknown to herself.-- Cotton Mather, Magnalia, Book VI.
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IMPROVEMENT. The part of a discourse intended to enforce and apply the doctrines, is called the improvement.--Webster.
The conclusion is termed, somewhat inaccurately, making an improvement of the whole. The author, we presume, means, deducing from the whole what may contribute to the general improvement.--British Critic. Vol. I. p. 379.
IMPROVEMENTS. Valuable additions or meliorations; as buildings, clearings, drains, fences on a farm.--Webster.
IMMEDIATELY, for as soon as. Ex. 'The deer fell dead immediately they shot him.'
IMMIGRANT. A person that removes into a country for the purpose of a permanent residence.-- Webster.
IMMIGRATION. (Lat. immigratio.) The passing or removing into a country for the purpose of a permanent residence.--Webster. An entering or passing into a place.--Todd. Knowles. Richardson.
The immigrations of the Arabians into Europe, and the Crusades, produced numberless accounts, partly true and partly fabulous, of the wonders seen in Eastern countries.--Warton's Hist. Eng. Poetry, Vol. I.
Immigration has doubtless been a prolific source of multiplying words.--Hamilton, Nugæ Literariæ, p. 381.
Mr. Pickering, in his Vocabulary, observes that this word, as well as immigrant, and the verb to immigrate, were first used in this country by Dr. Belknap, in his History of New Hampshire, who gives his reasons for their use. Immigrant is original with Dr. B.; but the others have long been used by good English authors, though of course less frequently than by American writers, who have more need of them.
Ind. The common abbreviation for Indiana.
INDIAN BED. An Indian bed of clams is made by setting a number of clams together on the ground with the hinge uppermost, and then kindling over them a fire of brushwood, which is kept burning till they are thoroughly roasted. This is the best way of roasting clams, and is often practised by picnic parties.
INDIAN FILE. Single file; the usual way in which the Indians traverse the woods or march to battle, one following after and treading in the footsteps of the other.
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INDIAN GIVER. When an Indian gives anything, he expects an equivalent in return, or that the same thing may be given back to him. This term is applied by children in New York and the vicinity to a child who, after having given away a thing, wishes to have it back again.
INDIAN MEAL. Meal made from Indian corn.
INFLUENTIAL. Having influence.--Pickering, Vocabulary.
Persons who are strangers to the influential motives of the day.--Marshall, Life of Washington, Vol. V. p. 380.
This word has been called an Americanism; but such is not the case. "I once," said Canning to Mr. Rush, "had a skirmish about language with him, (Mr. Pinckney, of Maryland, our ambassador,) but he worsted me. I said there was no such word as influential, except in America; but he convinced me that it was originally carried over from Eng land." Lord Stafford has remarked, that it was so good a word, they ought to bring it back. "Yes," said Mr. Canning, "it is a very good word, and I know no reason why it should have remained in America, but that we lost the thing."--Rush, Mem. of a Res. at London, p. 260.
I take the following examples from Richardson:
And now our overshadow'd souls (to whose beauties stars were foils) may be exactly emblem'd by those crusted globes, whose influential emissions are intercepted by the interposal of the benighting element, while the purer essence is imprisoned within the narrow compass of a centre.--Glanville.
Thy influential vigor reinspires
This feeble frame, dispels the shade of death,
And bids me throw myself on God in prayer.--Thomson, Sickness.
IN FOR IT. Engaged in a thing from which there is no retreating.
But you're up on your legs, and you're in for it now.--O. W. Holmes, Poems, p. 144.
TO INHEAVEN. A word invented by the Boston transcendentalists.
The one circumflows and inheavens us. The infinite Father bears us in his bosom, shepherd and flock.--Margaret, p.412.
J.
TO JAB. To strike or thrust with a knife; as, 'he jabbed a knife into me.'
JACKASSABLE. At a call for a meeting of citizens to repair a corduroy road in Michigan, the Niles Advertiser winds up with the following stanza:
Should turn out and gravel it;
For now it's not passable,
Nor even jackassable.
Compare Boatable.
JAG. A small load.--Forby. Webster.
As there was very little money in the country, the bank bought a good jag on't in Europe.--Maj. Downing's Letters, p. 168.
JAIL BIRD. A prisoner; one who has been confined in prison.--Webster.
JAW. In low language, gross abuse.--Johnson.
TO JAW. To scold; to clamor; to abuse grossly.--Todd.
He never heard freedom of speech afore, that feller, I guess, unless it was somebody ajawin' of him.--Sam Slick in England, ch. 20.
TO JEOPARDIZE. To expose to loss or injury.--Webster. This verb is often seen in the debates of Congress, as they are reported in the newspapers. It is, doubtless, a corruption of the ancient verb to jeopard, as deputize is of depute.--Pickering. This word is much used in the United States, and less frequently in England.
The profound respect for the cause of truth which led Mr. Tooke not to jeopardize its interests by any hasty assumption of its name and pretensions for a discovery yet incomplete, constitutes one of his surest holds upon posterity.--London Athenæum, March 18, 1848.
JERKED MEAT. Beef and other kinds of fresh meat dried in the open air without salt. In Lower Canada and Newfoundland, fish are dried in the same manner.
In genuine Western style they welcomed me with their dough biscuits and jerked venison.--Carlton's New Purchase, Vol. II. p. 238.
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THE JIG IS UP, i. e. the game is up; it is all over with me.
The time was when I could cut pigeon wings, and perform the double shuffle with precision and activity; but those days are over now--the jig is up.--Kendall's Santa Fé Expedition, Vol. I. p. 62.
JIMINY. By Jiminy! An exclamation. Originally, gemini, or the Castor and Pollux of ancient mythology; names by which the old Romans used to swear.
JIMSON. (Strammonium datura.) The popular name of a poisonous weed which grows at the West and South. It bears beautiful flowers, but has a nauseous smell. In the villages on the margins of the Western rivers it is a great annoyance. Its name Jimson is supposed to be a corruption of Jamestown, the place whence it is said to have been brought. It is used in medicine in spasmodic asthma.--Flint's Mississippi Valley.
JOBBER. In the United States this word is applied to wholesale merchants, who operate between the importer and retailer. Importers usually sell only by the package. The jobber buys by the package and sells by the piece. The retailer buys of the jobber, and sells in smaller quantities. In England the word is used in an analogous sense, as of one who buys and sells stocks.
There have been at times a good deal of jealousy and dissension between the jobbers and auctioneers. They are in some measure rivals. Both sell to the retail dealer; and the jobbers complain that the auctioneer injures their business by selling as low to the country and retail merchant as to them.--Perils of Pearl Street, p. 102.
JOLLIFICATION. A scene of festivity or merriment. Used only in familiar language.
Mr. Tolfrey's narrative of salmon and trout fishing, and otter shooting, with private theatricals, and endless jollifications, come before us in a startling contrast to the received ideas of collonial service.--Lond. Spectator.
I have been already twice to the top of Vesuvius: the first time we had a jollification near the crater--our dinner being entirely cooked in one of the fumaroli.--Letters from Naples. London Athenæum, Dec. 6, 1745.
It was determined to commemorate our safe deliverance by a special jollification.--Carlton, The New Purchase, Vol. I. p. 204.
JOSEPH. A very old-fashioned riding coat for women, scarcely now to be seen or heard of--Forby's Vocabulary.
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A garment made of Scotch plaid, for an outside coat or habit, was worn in New England about the year 1830, called a Joseph, by some a Josey.
Olivia was drawn as an Amazon, sitting upon a bank of flowers, dressed in a green Joseph.--Goldsmith, Vicar of Wakefield.
NOT BY A JUGFULL, i. e. on no consideration; on no account.
Downingville is as sweet as a rose. But 'taint so in New York, not by a jug full.--Maj. Downing, May-day in New York.
TO JUMP AT. To embrace with eagerness; as, 'I made him an offer, and he jumped at it.'
JUMPER. A couple of hickory poles so bent that the runners and shafts are of the same piece, with a crate placed on four props, complete this primitive species of sledge; and when the crate is filled with hay, and the driver well wrapped in a buffalo robe, the "turn out" is about as comfortable a one as a man could wish.--Hoffman, Winter in the West, p. 200.
JUNK-BOTTLE. The ordinary black glass porter-bottle.
JUST NOW. Lately; now; presently; immediately. This very common phrase
is, perhaps, most generally used in the western counties.--Halliwell.
The word is used in the same senses among ourselves. Thus, many persons
say, 'I was there just now,' i. e. a short time ago; and also, 'I
will be there just now,' i. e. presently. This last use, however, is
not regarded as correct.
K.
KATYDID. (Platyphyllum concavum.) The popular name of a species of grasshopper so called from its peculiar note.
KEDGE. Brisk; in good health and spirits. Ex. 'How do you do to-day?' I am pretty kedge. It is used only in a few of the country towns of New England.--Pickering. Provincial in England.
TO KEEL OVER. A nautical term; to capsize or upset, and metaphorically applied to a sudden prostration.
As it seems pretty evident that the sovereigns of Europe, instead of oc-
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KEEP. Food; subsistence; keeping. In a letter to his brother, Bishop Heber, speaking of Bishops' College costing so much, says:
Besides it has turned out so expensive in the monthly bills and necessary keep of its inmates, that my resources, &c.--Vol. II. p. 319.
The cottager either purchased hay for the keep [of the cow], or paid for her run in the straw-yard.--Edinburgh Review, Vol. LXI. p. 245.
TO KEEP. The phrase to keep shop is often shortened into to keep; as, 'Where do you keep now?' i. e. where is your place of business. Also, in the sense of dwelling, which use of the word is provincial in the eastern counties of England.
TO KEEP A STIFF UPPER LIP, is to continue firm, unmoved.
My friend, said he, don't cry for spilt milk; keep a stiff upper lip; all will come out right enough yet.--Knickerbocker Magazine, VoL XXV.
Tut, tut, Major; keep a stiff upper lip, and you'll bring him this time.--Chron. of Pineville, p. 160.
TO KEEP COMPANY. To court. A common term in the interior parts of New England, applied to a man whose visits to a lady are frequent, with the intention of gaining her hand. He keeps company with her,' i. e. he is courting her, or 'They are keeping company,' i. e. are courting.
A young tailoress got a verdict against Mr. B--, a steady farmer who "kept company" with her some months, and appointed a day for the wedding. [But subsequently changed his mind.]--N. Y. Com. Adv.
TO KEEP IT UP. To prolong a debauch. 'He kept it up finely last night;' a metaphor drawn from a game of shuttlecock.--Grose, Slang Dictionary.
KEEPING-ROOM. A common sitting-room; the parlor in New England. The term is chiefly used in the interior, although it may sometimes be heard in the sea-port towns. The same
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expression is used in Norfolk, England, for the "general sitting room of the family, or common parlor."--Forby's Norf. Glos.
KEEP THE POT A BOILING, i. e. Don't let the game flag. A common expression among young people, when they are anxious to carry on their gambols with spirit.--Brockett's North County Words.
KETTLE OF FISH. When a person has been perplexed in his affairs in general, or in any particular business, he is said to have made a pretty kettle of fish of it.--Grose, Slang Dict. The same phrase is used in America in colloquial language.
What a pretty kettle of fish we shall have to fry some of these days a looking after Uncle Sam's fortune.--Crockett.
KIBLINGS. Parts of small fish used by fishermen for bait on the banks of Newfoundland.
KICK. To kick up a row. To create a disturbance; the same as to kick up a dust.
Mr. Polk admitted Santa Anna, because he knew him to be capable of fighting nothing hut chickens, and to kick up a row in Mexico, and disconcert government measures.--Mr. Bedinger, Speech in House of Rep.
TO KICK. To jilt. Ex. 'Miss A has kicked the Hon. Mr. B, and sent him off with a flea in his ear.' Confined to the South.
KID. A large box in fishing vessels into which fish are thrown as they are caught. In New England.
TO KILL. To do anything to kill, is a common vulgarism, and means to do it to the uttermost; to carry it to the fullest extent; as, 'He drives to kill;' 'She dances to kill.'
KILLDEER. (Charadrius vociferus.) A small bird of the plover kind; so called from its peculiar note.
KILLHAG. (Indian.) A wooden trap, used by the hunters in Maine.
KILLING. Dangerous; heart-breaking.
He had broken a brace of female hearts.--Hood's Miss Kilmansegg.
There was a pleasant, playful breeze that sported with the well curled locks of first-water dandies [on New Years Day], and gave them a certain négligé appearance, which must have been really killing 'in my lady's chamber or drawing-room.'--N. Y. Commercial Advertiser, Jan. 2, 1844.
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The dandies forgot to oil their moustaches, or waste killing looks on unthinking shop girls whom they met, &c.--Boston Times, Nov. 13, 1845.
KILTER. (Danish kilter, to gird.) 'To be not in kilter,' or, 'to be out of kilter,' is to be out of order; not ready; not in good condition.
If the organs of prayer are out of kilter, how can we pray?--Barrow's Sermons, Vol. I. p. 71.
KIND OF, KIND O', KINDER. In a manner, as it were. A sort of qualifying expression; as, 'She made game on it kind o'.'--Forby.
Thogenes was asked in a kind of scorn, what was the matter that philosophers haunted rich men, and not rich men philosophers?--Bacon.
It kinder seemed to me that something could be done, and they let me take the colt.--Margaret, p. 325.
A kinder notion jist then began to get into my head.--Maj. Downing.
At that the landlord and officer looked kinder thunderstruck.--Downing.
KINDLERS. Small pieces of wood for kindling a fire; kindling-wood.
Put some kindlers under the pot, and then you may go.--Margaret, p. 6.
KINK. An accidental knot or sudden twist in a rope, thread, &c.; and, figuratively, an idea, a notion.
It is useless to persuade him to go, for he has taken a kink in his head that he will not."-- Carlton, The New Purchase.
I went down to Macon to the examination, whar I got a heap of new kink.--Maj. Jones's Courtship, p. 20.
KINNIKINNICK. An Indian word for a composition of dried leaves and bark prepared for smoking, used in the Western States in place of tobacco. A little tobacco is sometimes mixed with it to give it a flavor.
KITE FLYING. An expression well known to mercantile men of limited means, or who are short of cash. It is a combination between two persons, neither of whom has any funds in bank, to exchange each other's checks, which may be deposited in lieu of money, taking good care to make their bank accounts good before their checks are presented for payment. Kite flying is also practised by mercantile houses or persons in different cities. A house in Boston draws on a house in New York at 60 days or more, and gets its bill
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discounted. The New York house, in return, meets its acceptance by re-drawing on the Boston house. Immerse sums of money are often raised in this manner--in fact, furnishing a capital for both houses to transact their business with.
Flying the kite is rather a perilous adventure, and subjects a man to a risk of detection. One who values his credit as a sound and fair dealer would by no means hazard it.--Perils of Pearl Street, p. 82.
KNOB. In Kentucky, round hills or knolls are called knobs.
Approaching Galena, the country becomes still more broken and rocky, until at last a few short hills, here called knobs, indicate our approach to Fever River.--Hoffman, Winter in the West, p. 303.
KNOCKED INTO A COCKED HAT. Knocked out of shape; spoiled; ruined. The allusion or metaphor seems to be that of the hat of some unlucky wight, which, by a violent blow, has been knocked into a sort of flattened, three-cornered shape, resembling an old-fashioned cocked hat.
In consequence of a severe storm of rain and a freshet that followed, some time during the winter of 1842, the mails were behind several days and no news was received. In speaking of the storm, the New York Commercial Advertiser states that they were unable to give any news, for, owing to the storm and freshet, the mails were all knocked into a cocked hat. A London paper, in quoting news from America, observed that a singular occurrence had taken place, which had kept back the usual supply of news from New York, as it appeared that the mails were knocked into a cocked hat--a most extraordinary circumstance, the meaning of which it was wholly out of their power to define.
A tall, slatternly looking woman, wearing a dingy, old silk bonnet, which was knocked into a cocked hat, appeared yesterday before the Recorder.--New Orleans Picayune.
At a Repeal meeting in New York, Mr. Locke was proceeding to speak the influence this party would have, when he was interrupted by a gang of rowdies, who, with the design of disturbing the meeting, cried out, "Three cheers for O'Connell--three cheers for Repeal--and three groans for Slavery." The six cheers for O'Connell and Repeal were given, but by the time they came to the groans for slavery, they found themselves all knocked into a cocked hat.--New York Paper.
Between three and four thousand persons were assembled at the Broad-
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Sometimes the dog would get hold of the coon, like he was a going to swallow him whole, and smash him all into a cocked hat.--Maj. Jones's Court.
One of the omnibuses here, run full tilt right against a cart, and knocked everything into a kind of cocked hat.--Maj. Downing, May-day in N. Y.
TO KNOCK DOWN. A word used at auctions. 'This article is knocked down to you, sir;' meaning, that you are the purchaser. The phrase, 'A knock--down argument,' is an argument that completely overthrows one's adversary.
When I have conversed with a slaveholder--and I assure you I have done so very frequently--the only 'knock-down' argument is, "They are better off than your poor whites at the North."--Letter from N. O.--Trib.
TO KNOCK ROUND. To go about.
I'm going to New York and Boston, and all about thar, and spend the summer until pickin' time, knockin' round in them big cities, 'mong them people what's so monstrous smart, and religious, and refined, and see if I can't pick up some ideas worth rememberin'.--Maj. Jones's Sketches.
TO KNOCK UNDER. A common expression to denote that one yields or submits.--Johnson.
For ten times ten, and that's a hunder,
I hae been made to gaze and wonder,
When frae Parnassus thou did'st thunder,
Wi' wit and skill,
Wherefore I'll soberly knock under,
And quat my quill.--Allan Ramsay, Poems.
Says General J--, 'Major, I reckon I can drink more Saratoga water than you.' 'I'll bet a York shillin' of that,' says I. 'Done,' says he; and down he went to the spring with a pitcher. I got a bucket, and down I went to the spring. As soon as he saw me, he smashed his pitcher in a minit. Says he, 'Major, I knock under.'--Maj. Downing's Letters, p. 36.
TO KNOCK UP. To wear out with fatigue.--Halliwell.
It is the constant labour, unvaried by the least relaxation, which knocks me up, and prevents me getting back my strength.--Lord Sydenham, Mem.
We care not for anything but shelter and food for our horses, which are nearly knocked up.--Hoffman, Winter in the West, Let. 36.
KNOW-NOTHING. Utterly ignorant. Ex. 'A poor know-
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nothing creature, i. e. one exceedingly ignorant.--Norfolk Glossary. This word is common in New England.
KONCKS or CONKS. Wreckers are so called, familiarly, at Key West, and the place they inhabit, Koncktown.
KOOL SLAA. (Dutch.) Cabbage salad. Many persons who affect accuracy, but do not know the origin of the term, pronounce the first syllable as if it were the English word cold.
Ky. The abbreviation used for Kentucky.
L.
La. The abbreviation for Louisiana.
LADIES' TRACES. (Neottia tortillis.) The popular name in the Southern States for an herb.--Williams's Florida.
LAKE LAWYER. (Genus, amia. Linnæus.) The Western Mud-fish. It is found in Lakes Erie and Ontario, where it is known by the name of Dog-fish. Dr. Kirtland says, it is also called the lake lawyer, from its "ferocious looks and voracious habits."
TO LAM. (Belg. lamen.) To beat soundly; to drub. Colloquial in some of the Northern States. It is provincial in Yorkshire, England.--Willan's Glossary.
Quoth he, I would beat her and lam her weel.--Rejected Addresses.
LAMB'S QUARFER. (Chenopodium authelminticum.) The popular name of an herb at the South.--Williams's Florida.
LAMPER-EEL. The lamprey. A common name for lampreys in New England. It is provincial in England and Scotland.--Forby.
LAND-LOPER.}
LAND-LUBBER.} (Dutch, landlooper.) A vagrant; one who strolls about
the country.--Bailey's Dict. Applied by sailors to landsmen by way
of ridicule.
Such travellers as these may be termed land-lopers, as the Dutchman saith, rather than travellers.--Howell's Foreign Travel, (1642.)
He never thought how much easier it was for one of these land-lopers to make a city in the woods on paper, than to be at the trouble of cutting the timber all down.--A Week in Wall Street, p. 119.
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LANDSLIDE.}
LANDSLIP.} A portion of a hill or mountain, which slips or slides
down; or the sliding down of a considerable tract of land from a mountain.
They are common in Switzerland.--Webster. Johnson does not give
either of these words; which with us convey the same meaning. A remarkable
landslip took place in the city of Troy a few years since, which
swept away many houses and caused the death of some ten or fifteen
persons.
There is not an appearance in all nature, that so much astonished our aneestors, as these landslips.--Goldsmith, Hist. of the Earth.
LASSO. (Spanish.) A long rope or cord, with a noose, for the purpose of catching wild horses or buffaloes on the Western prairies.
TO LATHER. To beat.--Wilbraham's Glossary.
LAVE. (French, lève.) A term in common use among the hunters and mountaineers of the Western prairies and Rocky Mountains.
"Lave, ho! Lave! Prairies on fire! Quick--catch up! catch up!" This startling announcement instantly brought every man to his feet.--Scenes in the Rocky Mountains, p. 34.
LATHY. Thin; slender like a lath.
LATISH. Rather late.
Last evening, in returning home at a latish hour, we crossed over the lot just after the pistol had been fired.--N. Y. Commercial Advertiser.
LAWYER. (Himantonus. Black-necked Stilt. Audubon, Ornith.) A small bird which lives on our shores; known also by the names of Tilt, and Longshanks. The origin of the first-mentioned name is not known.--Nat. Hist. of New York.
LAY. Terms or conditions of a bargain; price. Ex. 'I bought the articles at a good lay;' 'He bought his goods on the same lay that I did mine.' A low word, used in New England.--Pickering. Probably a contraction for outlay, i. e. expenditure.
LAY. A word used colloquially in New York and New England in relation to labor or contracts performed upon shares; as, when a man ships for a whaling voyage, he agrees for a certain lay, i. e. a share of the proceeds of the voyage.
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TO LAY. To make a bet, or wager. Mr. Davis notices this word as of frequent occurrence.
I'll lay you, he has got drunk again and has lost himself in the woods.--Travels in the United States in 1797.
TO LAY, for to lie. A vulgar error equally common in England and in the United States.
LAY-OVERS FOR MEDDLERS. A reply to a troublesome question on the part of a child, in answer to 'What's that?.' A turn-over is a little pie made of one round cake of dough, doubled and joined at the edges, in which stewed apples are inclosed. Similar cakes were sold in England; and Grose suggests that they may also have been filled with medlars, a fruit resembling the apple; and that hence may have arisen the reply. The expression is noticed in Moor's Suffolk Glossary. I have never heard it except in New York.
TO LAZE.}
TO LAZY.} To live idly; to be idle.--Todd.
The hands and feet mutinied against the belly; they knew no reason why the one should be lazing, and pampering itself with the fruit of the others' labor.--L'Estrange.
Dr. Webster calls this a vulgar word. It is common in the familiar language of New England.
I have work on hand that must be done. What do you do lazing about here like a mud turtle nine days after it is killed?--Margaret, p. 30.
LEAN-TO. A pent-house. An addition made to a house behind, or at the end of it, chiefly for domestic offices, of one story or more, lower than the main building, and the roof of it leaning against the wall of the house.--Forby's Norfolk Glossary. The word is used in New England, where it is commonly pronounced linter.--Pickering.
COW-LEASE. A right of pasturage for a cow, in a common pasture. Used in some towns of New England.--Pickering's Vocabulary. Provincial in the West of England.--Grose's Glossary.
TO LEGISLATE. To make laws for a community.--Todd. This now common and very useful word is of recent adoption by English lexicographers. It is not in the dictionaries of Johnson or Sheridan, or in Mason's supplement to Johnson.
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Entick's Dictionary, of 1795, is the earliest one in which it is to be found.
LEG BAIL. To give leg bail, is to run away.--Grose.
Sae weel's he'd fley the student's a',
Whan they were skelpin at the ba';
They took leg bail and ran awa'
Wi' pith an'speed.--Fergusson's Poems, 2. 10.
LEGGINGS. (Commonly written and pronounced leggins.) Indian gaiters; also worn by the white hunters and trappers of the West.
How piquantly do these trim and beaded leggings peep from under that simple dress of black, as its tall nut-brown wearer moves through the graceful mazes of the dance.--Hoffman, Winter in the West, p. 239.
LENGTHY. Having length; long; not brief; tiresomely long. Applied often to dissertations or discourses; as, 'a lengthy oration,' 'a lengthy speech.'--Worcester.
This word was once very common among us, both in writing and in the language of conversation; but it has been so much ridiculed by Americans as well as Englishmen, that in writing it is now generally avoided. Mr. Webster has admitted it into his dictionary; but (as need hardly be remarked) it is not in any of the English ones. It is applied by us, as Mr. Webster justly observes, chiefly to writings or discourses. Thus we say, a lengthy pamphlet, a lengthy sermon, &c. The English would say, a long or (in the more familiar style) a longish sermon. It may be here remarked, by the way, that they make much more use of the termination ish than we do; but this is only in the language of conversation.--Pickering.
Mr. Pickering has many other interesting remarks on this word, for which I refer the reader to his work. The word has been gradually forcing its way into general use since the time in which he wrote; and that too in England is well as in America. Thus Mr. Rush, in relating a conversation which he had in London, observes: "Lord Harrowby spoke of words that had obtained a sanction in the United States, in the condemnation of which he could not join; as, for example, lengthy, which imported, he said, what was tedious as well as long--an idea that no other English word
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seemed to convey as well.--Residence in London, p. 294. The Penny Cyclopedia remarks on it to the same effect, and even disputes its American origin.
A writer in the Boston Daily Advertiser, under the signature of W. X., says, that he has met with the word lengthy in the London Times, and the Liverpool Chronicle, in Blackwood's Magazine, and the Saturday Magazine, in the British Critic, Quarterly Review, Monthly Review, Eclectic Review, Westminster and Foreign Quarterly Reviews; in the writings of Dr. Dibdin, Bishop Jebb, Lord Byron, Coleridge, &c. &c. If the English are indebted to American genius for the invention of this precious word, they have made some improvements upon it, which they may boast of, for ought that is known to the contrary, as their own. Granby, an English author, uses the word lengthiness, which is a regularly formed noun from lengthy. Campbell uses the word lengthily. In his "Letters from the South," he says:
I could discourse lengthily on the names of Jugurtha, Juba, Syphax, &c.
The hair of the head is bound lengthily behind.
Here follow a few examples from English and American writers, out of the many that present themselves:
Murray has sent or will send a double copy of the Bride and Giaour; in the last one some lengthy additions; pray accept them according to the old custom.--Lord Byron's Letter to Dr. Clarke, Dec. 13, 1813.
All this excitement was created by two lengthy paragraphs in the Times.--London Athenæum, July 12, 1844, p. 697.
Chalmers's Political Annals, in treating of South Carolina--is by no means as lengthy as Mr. Hewitt's History.--Drayton's South Carolina.
I did not mean to have been so lengthy when I began.--Jefferson, Writ.
I forget whether Mr. Sibthorpe has mentioned, in any of his numerous and lengthy episles, this circumstance.--Mrs. Clavers's Forest Life.
TO LET ON. To mention; to disclose; to betray a knowledge or consciousness of anything. 'He never let on,' i. e. he never told me. This expression is often heard among the illiterate, and is not confined to any particular section of the United States. It is also used in the North of England and in Scotland.
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'Tween you and me, else fear a kittle cast.--Ramsay, The Gentle Shep.
The tears were runnin' out of my eyes, but I didn't want to let on for fear it would make her feel bad.--Maj. Jones's Courtship, p. 84.
TO LET DRIVE; to let fly; to let slip. To discharge; let loose a blow with the fist, a stone, a bullet from a gun, &c. Also in a metaphorical sense; as, 'He let fly at him a volley of abuse.'
With dreadful strokes let drive at him so sore.--Spenser.
[My gun] was already loaded, and ready to let slip at them.--Sam Slick.
TO LET OUT. To begin a story or narrative. A Western expression.
Tom squared himself for a yarn, wet his lips with a little corn juice, took a small strip of Missouri weed, and let out.--Robb, Squatter Life.
LET UP. A let up is a release; a relief. An expression borrowed from pugilists.
There was no let up in the stock market to day, and the differences paid on the maturing contracts were very large.--N. Y. Tribune.
DEAD LETTER. A writing or precept without any authority or force; a letter left in a post office and not called for.--Worcester.
LEVEE. (French.) The time of rising; the concourse of persons who visit a prince or great personage in the morning.--Johnson.
Such as are troubled with the disease of levee-hunting, and are forced to seek their bread every morning at the chamber-doors of great men.--Addison, Spectator, No. 547.
This word has been curiously perverted by us from its original signification, so as to mean an evening (!) party or assembly at the house of a great or wealthy person; as, 'the President's levee.'
LEVEE. (French.) An embankment on the side of a river, to confine it within its natural channel. The lower part of Louisiana, which has been formed by encroachments from the sea, is subject to be inundated by the Mississippi and its various branches, for a distance of more than 300 miles. In order to protect the rich lands on these rivers, mounds ure thrown up, of clay, cypress logs, and green turf, sometimes to the
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height of 15 feet, with a breadth of 30 feet at the base. These, in the language of that part of the country, are called levees. They extend for hundreds of miles; and when the rivers are full, cultivated fields covered with rich crops, and studded with villages, are seen lying far below the river courses.--Encyclopedia Americana.
The great feature of New Orleans is the Levee. Extending for about five miles in length, and an average of two hundred feet in width, on the west bank of this river, which here runs to the north-east, it is made the great dépôt not only for the products of the vast country bordering on the Mississippi, and its navigable tributaries, but also of every foreign port, by means of about five hundred steamboats on the one hand, and every variety of sea-craft on the other, which are at all times to be seen in great numbers along the entire length, discharging and receiving their cargoes. To the business man it is one of the most interesting scenes in the world, and for the "calculating" man here are found the "items" from which an estimate may be formed of the rapid growth and vast resources of the "Great West." Who but a "native" can see the approach of a steamer laden with forty-six hundred and odd bales of cotton, and witness casks of sugar, molasses and tobacco by the thousand, together with the boxes and bales of merchandise from every clime which here accumulate, and not wonder whence all this is received and whither it is to go?--Cor. of N. Y. Tribune.
LEVY. Elevenpence. In the State of Pennsylvania, the eighth part of a dollar, or twelve and a half cents. Sometimes called an elevenpenny bit.--See Federal Currency.
LICIT. Lawful.--Todd, Webster. This word was criticised in the Monthly Anthology, (1804, p. 54,) in a review of the "Miscellaneous Works of David Humphreys, Esq." The reviewers say, "There is no such word as licit, and we cannot allow the author, respectable as he is, to coin language."--Pickering. It is now found in all the later English dictionaries.
LICK. A blow. Common in vulgar language both in England and the United States.
He turned upon me as round as a chafed boar, and gave me a lick across the face.--Dryden.
When he committed all these tricks
For which he well deserved his licks,
With red-coats he did intermix.--Forbes's Domini Despos'd, p. 28.
My head was a singin' with the licks, when she told me how he had
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We have had the first lick at him; and that, the General says, is the best part of the battle.--Jack Downing's Letters, p. 103.
Tom Sellers was cavortin' round Molly like a young buffalo--he was puttin' in the biggest kind a licks in the way of courtin'.--Robb, Squat. Life.
LICK, or SALT LICK. In America, a place where the beasts of the forest lick for salt at salt springs. Webster. "A salt spring is called a lick, from the earth about them being furrowed out in a most curious manner, by the buffalo and deer, which lick the earth on account of the saline particles with which it is impregnated."--Imlay's Topog. Description of the Western Territory of N. America.
TO LICK. To beat. Common, as a colloquial expression, in many parts of England.--Todd. To lick, a lick, a licking, are common words in speech, though not in writing.--Richardson. These remarks apply with perfect accuracy to this country.
While their thin sides the rider licks.--Maro, p. 24.
What side are you on? "Well, I am for Jackson," says I. "Mister, what makes you for Jackson?" "Why," says I, "he licked the British at New Orleans, and paid off the national debt."--Crockett, Tour, p. 141.
"Don't put Spriggins in," said a ragged youth, "he's a high flyer! he licked Kneeland last winter, 'cause he said he warn't no gentleman."--Mrs. Clavers's Forest Life, Vol. II. p. 39.
Boys! behave! or if you must fight, don't let those who have offices lick those who haven't.--N. Y. Tribune to Evening Post.
LICKING. A flogging; a beating.
Come over here, you rascal, swim over the mill dam, and if I don't give you the biggest lickin' you ever had.--Crockett, Tour, p. 195.
I promised when I catched him to give him a licking, and I was very much afeard I'd have to break the peace.--Neal, Charcoal Sketches.
TO PUT THE LICKS IN, is to run very fast. A Northern phrase. Also in speaking of a ship sailing, we bear the phrase, 'She is going a pretty good lick,' that is, sailing at a rapid rate.
LICKSPITTLE. A mean parasite; one who will stoop to any dirty work.--Grose.
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We saw men that had grown gray in the service of their country, hurled from their station, to make way for lickspittles and yelpers.--Crockett.
LIE. A lie out of whole cloth, is an utter falsehood.
In the second place, we are authorized by these gentlemen to say that the statement is in itself utterly false--"a lie," as one of the commissioners wished us to say, "out of whole cloth."--N. Y. Commercial Advertiser.
LIEF, or LIEVE. (Sax. leof, past part. of luftan, to love.) Willingly; gladly.--Johnson. This word was formerly in good repute, and was used by well-known writers. It is now a common word, but only used in familiar speech, either in England or America.
Or them dislodge, all were they lief or loth.--Spenser, Fairy Queen.
I would as lief the town crier spoke my lines.--Shakspeare, Hamlet.
She, good soul, had as lief see a toad, a very toad, as see him.--Ibid. Romeo and Juliet, II. 5.
LIFE PRESERVER. An air-tight apparatus made of India rubber cloth for preserving the lives of persons in case of shipwreck.
LIFT. Used by the farmers in some parts of New England to signify a sort of gate without hinges.--Pickering's Vocabulary. This word is also used in Norfolk, England. Mr. Forby calls it "a sort of coarse rough gate of sawn wood, not hung, but driven into the ground by pointed stakes, like a hurdle, used for the same purposes of sub-dividing lands, stopping gaps in fences, &c. and deriving its name from the necessity of lifting it up for the purpose of passing through. In Suffolk, a lift differs from a gate, in having the projecting ends of the back and lower bar let into mortice holes in the posts, into and out of which it must be lifted."--Norfolk Glossary.
LIG. A fish hook with lead cast around its upper part in order to sink it. Maine.
LIGHT, adj. To make light of; to treat as of little consequence; to disregard.-- Webster.
LIGHT, n. To stand in one's own light. To be the means of preventing one's own good, or frustrating one's own purposes.--Webster.
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TO LIGHT ON. To fall on; to come to by chance; to happen to find.--Webster.
As in the tides of people once up, there want not stirring winds to make them more rough; so this people did light upon two ringleaders.--Bacon.
As wily reynard walked the streets at night,
On a tragedian's mask he chanced to light.
Turning it o'er, he muttered with disdain,
How vast a head is here without a brain!--Addison.
LIKE, for as. As in the phrase, 'like I do,' for as I do. Not peculiar to America.
Each Indian carfied a great Square piece of whale's blubber, with a hole in the middle, through which they put their heads, like the Guachos do through their cloaks.--Darwin's Journal of a Naturalist, ch. 10.
As soon as the post office was open, I looked over the miscellany like I always do, afore I let anybody take it.--Maj. Jones's Courtship.
LIKELY. That may be liked; that may please; handsome. In the United States, as a colloquial term, respectable; worthy of esteem; sensible.-- Worcester.
Mr. Webster has the following remarks on this word "The use of likely (for such as may be liked; pleasing; as, a likely man,) is not obsolete, nor is it vulgar. But the English and their descendants differ in the application. The English apply the word to external appearance, and with them likely is equivalent to handsome, well- formed; as, a likely man, a likely horse. In America, the word is usually applied to the endowments of the mind, or to pleasing accomplishments. With us, a likely man, is a man of good character and talents, or of good disposition or accomplishments, that render him pleasing or respectable."
LIMITS. The extent of the liberties of a prison.--Webster. Called, also, jail liberties.
LIMSY. Weak; flexible. New England.--Webster.
LINER. The ships belonging to the regular lines of London, Liverpool, or Havre packets, are called liners, to distinguish them from transient ships sailing to the same ports.
TO LINE BEES, is to track wild bees to their homes in the woods. One who follows this occupation is called a bee hunter.
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At killing every wild animal of the woods or prairies, at fishing, or at lining bees, the best hunters acknowledged his supremacy.--Kendall.
LINGO. (Portuguese.) Language; tongue; speech. A low cant word.--Johnson.
LINKS. Sausages. Used in the interior of New England. It is now common in the sea-port towns to say, "links of sausages," meaning the links into which they are tied up. In some parts of England, sausages are called links, and a number of them a "latch of links."--Forby's Norf. Glossary.
LINSEY WOOLSEY. (A corruption of linen and wool.) Stuff made of linen and wool mixed; light or coarse stuff.--Todd's Johnson. This article is now extensively manufactured in New England; and, among merchants, it is called linseys. The word appears to be a very old one.
He gave them coats of linsey woolsey; for, said he, that is good and warm for winter, and good and light for summer.--Bp. of Chichester, Ser.
LIQUOR. Many and very singular names have been given to the various compounds or mixtures of spirituous liquors and wines, served up in fashionable bar-rooms in the United States. The following list is taken from one advertisement:
Plain mint julep. I. O. U. Milk punch. Fancy do. Tippe na Pecco. Cherry do. Mixed do. Moral suasion. Peach do. Peach do. Vox populi. Jewett's fancy. Pineapple do. Ne plus ultra. Deacon. Claret do. Shambro. Exchange. Capped do. Virginia fancy. Stone wall. Strawberry do. Knickerbocker. Sifter. Arrack do. Smasher. Soda punch. Racehorse do. Floater. Slingflip. Sherry cobbler. Pig and whistle. Cocktail. Rochelle do. Citronella Jam. Apple-jack. Arrack do. Egg nog. Chain-lightning. Peach do. Sargent. Phlegm-cutter. Claret do. Silver top. Switchel-flip. Tip and Ty. Poor man's punch. Ching-ching. Fiscal agent. Arrack do. Tog. Veto. Iced do. Ropee. Slip ticket. Spiced punch. Porteree. Polk and Dallas. Epicure's do. &c. &c.
IN LIQUOR. Intoxicated; drunk.
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TO LIQUOR, or TO LIQUOR UP. To take a dram; or, as We more frequently say, to take a drink.
He was the first to break silence, and jumping up, asked all to liquor before going to bed.--Porter's Tales of the South-west, p. 31.
Arter lickerin and cussin a spell, we took a bee line for Skylake. Going along we lickered freely.--Ibid. p. 131.
"The child must be named Margaret." "No! Mary," replied the father, "in honor of my esteemed wife. Besides, that's a Bible name, and we can't liquor up on Margaret."--Margaret, p. 89.
LISTER. One who makes a list or roll.--Webster. This word is used in Connecticut, and is applied to those who make out lists or returns of cattle or other property. I have never heard the word used elsewhere.
LIT, past tense and part. of to light. Often used by the illiterate.
LOAFER. A vagabond; an idle lounger. This peculiarly American word has been gradually growing into extensive use during the last twenty years. It was applied in the first place to the vagrants of our large towns, in which sense it is equivalent to the lazzarone of Naples or the lepero of Mexico. It is now, however, frequently applied in conversation and in the newspapers to idlers in general; and seems to have lost somewhat of its original vulgarity. The Philadelphia Vade Mecum has the following remarks upon it:
"This is a new word, and, as yet, being but a colt, or a chrysalis, is regarded as a slang epithet. It is, however, a good word, one much needed in the language, and will, in time, establish itself in the most refined dictionaries. It will mount into good society, and be uttered by aristocratic lips; for it is the only word designating the most important species of the genus idler--the most important, because the most annoying branch of that family.
"The loafer is not exclusively, as some suppose him, a ragged step-and-corner lounger, who sleeps in the sun, and 'hooks' sugar on the whaff. On the contrary, the propensity to loaf is confined to no rank in life; all conditions are, more or less, troubled with it. Like squinting, the king and the beggar may be equally afflicted with the imperfec-
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tion. There be your well-dressed monied loafer, as well as your loafer who is nightly taken by the watch.
"He is that kind of a man, who, having nothing to do, or being unwilling to do anything, cannot keep his tediousness to himself, and therefore bestows it all upon others, not when they are at leisure for conversational recreation, but when business presses, and they would look black upon the intrusion of a sweetheart or a three-day wife. He is the drag-chain upon industry, and yet so far different from the drag-chain, that he hitches to the wheel when the pull is up hill. Loving the excitement of busy scenes, yet too lazy to be an actor in them, where men are busiest, there, too, is to be found the pure, unadulterated loafer, sprawling about as the hound sprawls before the fire in every body's way, and tripping up every body's heels. In the store, he sits upon the counter, swinging his useless legs, and gaping vacantly at the movements around him. In the office, he effectually checks necessary conversavion among those who do not wish their business bruited to the world, turns over papers which he has no right to touch, and squints at contents which he bas no right to know. In the counting-house, he perches on a stool, interrupts difficult calculations with chat as idle as himself, follows the bustling clerk to the storehouse, pouches the genuine Havana, quaffs nectar from proof-glasses, and makes himself free of the good things which belong to others."
TO LOAF. To lounge; to idle away one's time. The verb is of still more recent origin than the noun.
The Senate has loafed away the week in very gentlemanly style.--N. Y. Com. Advertiser, Dec. 1845.
One night Mr. Dobbs came home from his loafing place--for he loafs of an evening like the generality of people.--Neal's Charcoal Sketches.
TO LOAN. To lend. This verb is inserted by Todd on the authority of Huloet (1552) and Langley (1664), and noted "not now in use." It is, however, much used in this country, though rarely in England.--Worcester.
LOAN OFFICE. A public office in which loans of money are negotiated for the public, or in which the accounts of loans are kept and the interest paid to the lenders.--Webster.