Part VI

. And monkey faces, yawns, and stammers, Delude the pious dames and gammers To think their mumbling guides precation So full of heavenly inspiration.

1842. Tennyson, The Goose. Ran Gaffer, stumbled gammer.

Gamming, subs. (nautical).—A whaleman’s term for the visits paid by crews to each other at sea.

1884. G. A. Sala, in Illus. Lon. News, July 19, p. 51, c. 2. When two or more American whalers meet in mid-ocean, and there are no whales in sight, it is customary to tack topsails and exchange visits. This social intercourse the whalemen call gamming ... I cannot help fancying that ‘gam’ is in greater probability an abbreviation of the Danish ‘gammen,’ sport, or that it has something to do with the nautical ‘gammoning,’ the lasting by which the bowsprit is bound firmly down to the cutwater.

1890. Century, Aug. To gam means to gossip. The word occurs again and again in the log-books of the old whalers.

Gammon, subs. (colloquial).—1. Nonsense; humbug; deceit. Sometimes gammon and spinach. No gammon = no error, no lies.

[Skeat says from Mid. Eng. Gamen = a game; but R. Sherwood (Eng. Dict., 1660), gives ‘a beggar or seller of gammons of Bacon; and in Cotgrave (1611), jambonnier = a beggar, also a seller of bacon, or gammons of bacon.’]

c. 1363. Chester Plays, i. 102. This gammon shall begin.

1781. G. Parker, View of Society, I. 208. I thought myself pretty much a master of gammon, but the Billingsgate eloquence of Mrs. P. ... exceeded me.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v. Gamon. What rum gamon the old file pitched to the flat.

1823. Mod. Flash Dict. gammon—Falsehood and bombast.

1823–45. Hood, Poems (ed. 1846), vi., p. 96, Behold yon servitor of God and Mammon, Who, binding up his Bible with his ledger, Blends Gospel texts with trading gammon.

1836. Dickens, Pickwick, ch. xxvii. Lord bless their little hearts, they thinks its all right, and don’t know no better, but they’re the wictims o’ gammon, Samivel, they’re the wictims o’ gammon.

1837. Barham, I. L., Blasphemer’s Warning. When each tries to humbug his dear Royal Brother, in Hopes by such gammon to take one another in.

1839. Comic Almanack, Jan. But if you wish to save your bacon, Give us less gammon.

1849. Dickens, David Copperfield, ch. xxii., p. 199. ‘Oh, my goodness, how polite we are!’ exclaimed Miss Mowcher.... ‘What a world of gammon and spinnage it is!’

1890. Hume Nisbet, Bail Up! p. 92. I’m real grit and no gammon.

2. (thieves’).—A confederate whose duty is to engage the attention of a victim during robbery; a bonnet (q.v.) or cover (q.v.).

Verb (colloquial).—1. To humbug: to deceive; to take in with fibs; to kid (q.v.).

1700. Step to the Bath, quoted in Ashton’s Soc. Life in Reign of Queen Anne, v. ii., p. 111. We went to the Groom Porter’s ... there was Palming, Hodging, Loaded Dice, Levant, and gammoning, with all the Speed imaginable.

1823. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, ii., 6. Vile I can get fifteen bob a day by gammoning a maim, the devil may vork for me.

1825. Buckstone, The Bear Hunters, ii. There! that’s just the way she gammons me at home.

1836. M. Scott, Tom Cringle’s Log, ch. ii. Why, my lad, we shall see to-morrow morning; but you gammons so bad about the rhino that we must prove you a bit; so Kate, my dear,—to the pretty girl who had let me in.

1836. Dickens, Pickwick, ch. xiii. So then they pours him out a glass o’ wine, and gammons him about his driving, and gets him into a reg’lar good humour.

1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends, ‘Misadventures at Margate.’ And ’cause he gammons so the flats, ve calls him Veeping Bill!

1840. Hood, Tale of a Trumpet. Lord Bacon couldn’t have gammoned her better.

1890. Hume Nisbet, Bail Up! p. 70. Oh, don’t try to gammon me, you cunning young school-miss.

English Synonyms.—To bam; to bamblustercate; to bamboozle; to bambosh; to barney; to be on the job; to best; to bilk; to blarney; to blow; to bosh; to bounce; to cob; to cod; to cog; to chaff; to come over (or the artful, or Paddy, or the old soldier over) one; to cram; to do; to do brown; to doctor; to do Taffy; to fake the kidment; to flare up; to flam; to flummox; to get at (round, or to windward of) one; to gild the pill; to give a cock’s egg; to gravel; to gull; to haze; to jimmify; to jaw; to jockey; to jolly; to kid; to make believe the moon is made of green cheese (Cotgrave); to mogue; to palm off on; to pickle; to plant; to plum; to poke bogey (or fun) at; to promoss; to put the kibosh on; to put in the chair, cart, or basket; to pull the leg; to queer; to quiz; to roast; to roorback; to run a bluff, or the shenanigan; to sell; to send for pigeon’s milk; to sit upon; to send for oil of strappum, etc.; to shave; to slum, or slumguzzle; to smoke; to snack; to soap, soft soap, sawder, or soft sawder; to spoof; to stick; to stall; to string, or get on a string; to stuff; to sawdust, or get on sawdust and treacle; to suck; to suck up; to sugar; to swap off; to take a rise out of; to rot; to tommy-rot; to take in, or down; to take to town; to take to the fair; to tip the traveller; to try it on; to throw dust in the eyes; to throw a tub to a whale; to pepper; to throw pepper in the eyes; to use the pepper box; to whiffle; to work the poppycock racket (Irish-American). [Note.—Many of the foregoing are used substantively, e.g., a bam, a barney, a sell, bambosh = nonsense; deceit; a hoax, etc.]

French Synonyms.—Donner un pont à faucher (also, thieves’ = to lay a trap); dindonner (popular: from dindon = a gull, a gobbler); battre à la Parisienne (thieves’: = to cheat; to come the cockney); se ficher de la fiole, or de la bobine, de quelqu’un (popular: to get on with it, i.e., to try to fool); envoyer chercher le parapluie de l’escouade (military: parapluie de l’escouade = the squad’s umbrella: to send on a fool’s errand; cf., to send for pigeon’s milk, etc.); la faire à quelqu’un (popular); faucher (thieves’ = to best); enfoncer (familiar: to let in: also to surpass); cabasser (popular); monter des couleurs, le Job, or un schtosse (= to do up brown); faire le coup, or monter le coup, à quelqu’un (popular: = to take a rise); bouffer la botte (military: = to sell (q.v.) or bilk, as a woman refusing congress after receiving the socket-money (q.v.) in advance); bouler (popular: also to whop (q.v.)); être l’autre (popular: = to get left (q.v.)); mettre dans le sac (thieves’: = to bag, i.e., to trap); coller or poser un lapin (popular: = to make a hare of (q.v.); also more generally, to bilk (q.v.)); emblémer (thieves’: = to stick); faire voir le tour (popular: = to show how it’s done; connaitre le tour = to know the game); faire la queue à quelqu’un (popular: = to pull one’s leg); tirer la carotte (thieves’); canarder (popular: = to bring down); empaler (popular: = to stick); passer des curettes (popular: = to befool); monter une gaffe (popular: gaffe = a joke, a hoax); jobarder (popular: job = simpleton, and is the same as jobelin); mener en bateau un pante pour le refaire (thieves’: = to take a man on); monter un bateau (popular); promener quelqu’un (popular: cf., to take to town); compter des mistoufles (fam.: mistoufle = a scurvy trick); gourrer (popular: = to bosh); affluer (from flouer = to cheat, to diddle); rouster (popular and thieves’); affûter (thieves’ = to run down, also to make unlawful profits); bouler (popular); juiffer (popular = to Jew); pigeonner (popular to pluck a pigeon (q.v.)); flancher (popular = to kid (q.v.)); faire la barbe (popular = to shave (q.v.)); monter or hisser un gandin (thieves’ = literally to hoist a swell); fourrer or mettre dedans (popular = to take in and do for); planter un chou (fam.); être marron (popular); interver dans les vannes (= to let oneself be sucked-up); monter un godan à quelqu’un (popular); griller quelqu’un (popular = to cuckold); passer en lunette (popular); goujonner (i.e., to hook like a gudgeon); fourguer (thieves’ = also to fence (q.v.)); pousser une blague (popular = to cram); paqueliner (thieves’); se baucher (thieves’); balancer (popular).

German Synonyms.—Zinkennen an Almoni peloni (= to send one after Cheeks the Marine [q.v.]. Almoni and peloni are used mockingly in combination and also singly for a non-existent person); anbeulen (= to fool); jemanden arbeiten (= to haze, to cram); bekaspern, or bekaschpern, or beschwatzen (= to fool: from Heb. kosaw = to cheat).

Spanish Synonyms.—Disparar (= also to talk nonsense; to blunder); hacer á uno su dominguillo, or hacer su dominguillo de uno (colloquial: dominguillo = a figure made of straw and used at bull fights to enrage the bulls); freirsela á alguno (freir = to fry: to deceive: Cf., to roast, or have one on toast); pegar una tostada á alguno (= to put one on toast: more generally to play a practical joke); echar de baranda (= to embroider (q.v.)); bola (subs. = humbug; a hoax); borrufalla (subs. = bombast); chicolear (= to jest in gallantry); engatusar (= to rob, or hurt; also to trick without intention); candonguear (also = to jeer); abrir á chasco (also to jeer); encantar (= to enchant).

Italian Synonyms. Ganezzarre; dar la stolfa; traversare (cf., to come over); scamuffare (= to disguise oneself).

2. (thieves’).—To act as bonnet (q.v.) or cover (q.v.) to a thief.

Intj. (colloquial).—Nonsense; Skittles! (q.v.).

1827. R. B. Peake, Comfortable Lodgings, i., 3. Sir H. (aside). Gammon!

1836. M. Scott, Tom Cringle’s Log, ch. vii. Gammon, tell that to the marines: you’re a spy, messmate.

1854. Thackeray, The Rose and the Ring, p. 100. Ha! said the king, you dare to say gammon to your sovereign.

1861. A. Trollope, Framley Parsonage, ch. iv. Gammon, said Mr. Gowerby; and as he said it he looked with a kind of derisive smile into the clergyman’s face.

Gammon and Patter, subs. phr. (thieves’).—1. (old).—The language used by thieves; 2. (modern).—A meeting; a palaver. (q.v.). 3. Commonplace talk of any kind.

1789. Geo. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 150. Gammon and Patter is the language of cant, spoke among themselves: when one of them speaks well, another says he gammons well.

1811. Lex. Bal. s.v. Gammon and Patter. Commonplace talk of any kind.

To give (or keep) in gammon. verb. phr. (thieves’).—To engage a person’s attention while a confederate is robbing him.

1719. Capt. Alex. Smith, Thieves’ Grammar, s.v.

1821. Haggart, Life, p. 51. Bagrie called the woman of the house, kept her in gammon in the back room, while I returned and brought off the till. Ibid., p. 68. I whidded to the Doctor and he gave me gammon.

To Gammon Lushy (or queer, etc.). verb. phr. (thieves’).—To feign drunkenness, sickness, etc.

To Gammon the Twelve. verb. phr. (thieves’).—To deceive the jury.

1819. Vaux, Life. A man who has been tried by a criminal court and by a plausible defence has induced the jury to acquit him, or to banish the capital part of the charge and so to save his life, is said by his associates to have gammoned the twelve in prime twig, alluding to the number of jurymen.

Gammoner, subs. (old).—1. One who gammons (q.v.); a nonsense-monger. Fr., bonisseur de loffitudes; blagueur; mangeur de frimes.

1823. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry i. Fly to the gammoners, and awake to everything that’s going on.

2. (thieves’).—A confederate who covers the action of his chief; a bonnet, a cover, a stall, all which see.

1821. Haggart, Life, p. 66. The Doctor played the part of the gammoner so well that I made my escape without being observed.

Gammy, subs. (tramps’).—1. Cant.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Do you stoll the gammy? Do you understand cant?

2. (common).—A nickname for a lameter; a Hopping Jesus; (q.v.).

3. (Australian).—A fool.

1892. Hume Nisbet, Bushranger’s Sweetheart, p. 191. Well, of all the gammies you are the gammiest, Slowboy, to go and string yourself to a woman, when you might have had the pick of Melbourne.

Adj. (tramps’).—1. Bad; impossible. Applied to householders of whom it is known that nothing can be got. See Beggars’ Marks. Gammy-vial = a town in which the police will not allow unlicensed hawking. (Vial = Fr., Ville).

1839. Brandon, Poverty, Mendicity, and Crime, Glossary, s.v.

1851–61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab., i., 466. No villages that are in any way gammy are ever mentioned in these papers. Ibid., i., 404. These are left by one of the school at the houses of the gentry, a mark being placed on the door post of such as are bone or gammy, in order to inform the rest of ‘the school’ where to call, and what houses to avoid.

2. Forged; false; spurious: as a gammy-moneker = a forged signature; gammy-lour = counterfeit money, etc.

1839. Brandon, Poverty, Mendicity, and Crime, s.v.

1857. Snowden, Mag. Assistant (3rd. ed.), p. 445. Spurious medicine, gammy stuff, bad coin, gammy lower, p. 446.

1889. C. T. Clarkson and J. Hall Richardson, Police, p. 321. Bad money (coin).... Gammy lower.

3. (theatrical).—Old; ugly.

4. (common).—Same as Game, sense 3: e.g., a gammy arm = an arm in dock. Gammy-eyed = blind; sore-eyed; or afflicted with ecchymosis in the region of the eyes. Gammy-leg = a lame leg. Also (subs.) a term of derision for the halt and the maimed.

Gamp, subs. (common).—1. A monthly nurse; a fingersmith (q.v.). [After Mrs. Sarah Gamp, a character in Martin Chuzzlewit (1843).] Also applied to a fussy and gossiping busybody.

1864. Sun, 28 Dec. A regular gamp ... a fat old dowdy of a monthly nurse.

1868. Brewer, Phr. and Fab. (quoted from Daily Telegraph). Mr. Gathorne Hardy is to look after the gamps and Harrises of the Strand.

2. (common).—An umbrella; specifically, one large and loosely-tied; a lettuce (q.v.). [The original Sarah always carried one of this said pattern.] Sometimes a Sarah Gamp. For synonyms, see Rain-napper.

1870. Lond. Figaro, 15 June. Though—shattered, baggy, shivered gamp!

1883. G. R. Sims, Life Boat. He donned his goloshes and shouldered his gamp.

1890. Daily Chron., 5 Mar. Sainte-Beuve insisted that though he was prepared to stand fire he was under no obligation to catch cold, and with his gamp over his head he exchanged four shots with his adversary.

1892 Ally Sloper, 2 Apr., p. 106, c. 3. I never had a brand new tile, a glossy silk or swagger brown, But I left home without a gamp, And rain or hail or snow came down.

3. (journalists’).—The Standard.

Adj. (common).—Bulging. Also Gampish.

1864. Derby Day, p. 18. I wasn’t joking, there is an air of long-suffering about you, as if you had been mortifying the flesh by carrying a gampish umbrella up Piccadilly, and back again.

1881. Mac. Mag., Nov., p. 62. Grasping his gamp umbrella at the middle.

Gamut, subs. (artists’).—Tone; general scheme; swim (q.v.). Thus in the gamut = a picture, a detail, or a shade of colour, in tone with its environment.

Gan (also Gane), subs. (old).—The mouth. [A.S., ganian = to yawn.] Occasionally = throat, lip. For synonyms, see Potato-trap.

1512–13. Douglas, Virgil, 250, 29. To behald his ouglie ene twane, His teribill vissage, and his grislie gane.

1567. Harman, Caveat (1814), p. 64. Gan, a mouth.

1610. Rowland, Martin Mark-all, p. 38. (H. Club’s Rept., 1874). Gan, a mouth. Ibid. A gere peck in thy gan.

1656. Broome, A Jovial Crew, Act ii. This bowse is better than rombowse, it sets the gan a giggling.

1671. R. Head, English Rogue, Pt. I., ch. v., p. 49. (1874.) Gan, a lip.

1690. B. E., Cant. Crew. Ganns, the lips.

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

1881. New York Slang Dict., s.v.

Gander, subs. (colloquial).—A married man; in America one not living with his wife; a grass-widower (q.v.).

Verb. (old).—To ramble; to waddle (as a goose). Also, to go in quest of women; to grouse (q.v.).

1859. H. Kingsley, Geoff. Hamblyn, ch. x. Nell might come gandering back in one of her tantrums.

1861. H. Kingsley, Ravenshoe, ch. xlvii. She gandered upstairs to the dressing-room again.

Gone Gander.—See Gone Coon.

To see how the gander hops, verb. phr. (American.)—To watch events. A variant of To see how the cat jumps.

1847. Porter, Big Bear, p. 96. Seein’ how the gander hopped I jumped up and hollered, Git out, Tromp, you old raskel!

What’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, phr. (common).—A plea for consistency.

Gander-month, subs. (common).—The month after confinement; when a certain license (or so it was held) is excusable in the male. Also Gander-moon, the husband at such a period being called a Gander-mooner. Cf., Buck-hutch and Goose-month.

1617. Middleton, A Faire Quarrell, iv., 4. Wondering gander-mooners.

1653. Brome, English Moor in Fiue New Playes. I’le keep her at the least this gander-month, while my fair wife lies-in.

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

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.

Gander-party, subs. (common).—A gathering of men; a stag-party (q.v.); also Bull-dance, Gander-gang, etc. Cf., Hen-party = an assembly of women.

Gander-pulling. See Goose-riding.

Gander’s Wool, subs. phr. (common.)—Feathers.

Gang, subs. (old: now recognised).—A troop; a company.

1639–61. Rump, i., 228. ‘The Scotch War.’ With his gay gang of Blue-caps all. Ibid., ii., 104, ‘The Gang; or, the Nine Worthies, etc.’

1690. B. E., Cant. Crew, s.v. Gang, an ill knot or crew of thieves, pickpockets or miscreants; also a society of porters under a regulation.

1704. Cibber, Careless Husband, i., 1. Sir C. Who was that other? More. One of Lord Foppington’s gang.

1754. Fielding, Jonathan Wild, bk. i., c. 14. What then have I to do in the pursuit of greatness, but to employ a gang, and to make the use of this gang centre in myself? Idem. bk. iii., c. 14. But in an illegal society or gang, as this of ours, it is otherwise.

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

1859. Matsell, Vocabulum. Gang, company, squad, mob.

Ganger, subs. (old: now recognised).—An overseer or foreman of a gang of workmen; one who superintends. For synonyms, see Governor.

1851–61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab., ii., 487. The ganger, or head of the working gang, who receives his orders from the inspector, and directs the men accordingly.

1884. Cornhill Mag., June, p. 614, The mother and boy do the work, while the father constitutes himself contractor for and ganger over their labour.

Ganymede, subs. (old).—1. A sodomist. For synonyms, see Usher.

1598. Florio, Worlde of Wordes. Catamito, a ganimed, an ingle, a boie hired to sinne against nature. [And in Cotgrave (1611) under Ganymedes; Any boy that’s loved for carnal abuse, an Ingle.]

1598. Marston, Satyres, ii. But Ho! What ganimede is it doth grace The gallant’s heels.

2. (popular).—A pot-boy (i.e., a cup-bearer). The masculine of hebe (q.v.).

1659. Florio-Torriano, Vocabolario. Mescitore, a skinker or filler of wine; also a mingler, a ganimede.

1841. Punch I., p. 101, c. 1. Lo! Ganymede appears with a foaming tankard of ale.

Gaol-bird, subs. (old: now recognised).—A person who has been often in gaol; an incorrigible rogue. Fr., un chevronné. For synonyms, see Wrong ’Un.

1680. Hist. of Edward II., p. 146. It is the piety and the true valour of an army, which gives them heart and victory; which how it can be expected out of ruffians and gaol-birds, I leave to your consideration.

1701. Defoe, True Born Englishman,