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Cremorne Gardens. Laid out on the site of the mansion and grounds of Thomas Dawson, Lord Cremorne.
Creole State. Louisiana. In New Orleans particularly a Creole is a native of French extraction.
Crescent City. New Orleans, built in the form of a crescent.
Crimea. From the Kimri or Cymri who settled in the peninsula.
Cripplegate. From the city gate around which gathered cripples begging for alms, the neighbouring church being dedicated to St Giles, their patron.
Crokers. Potatoes, because first raised in Croker’s Field at Youghal, Ireland.
Cromwell Road. From the mansion and grounds of Richard Cromwell, son of the Lord Protector.
Crop Clubs. Clubs formed to evade Mr Pitt’s tax on hair powder. The Times thus noticed one of the earliest in its issue of 14th April 1795: “A numerous Club has been formed in Lambeth called the ‘Crop Club,’ every member of which is obliged to have his hair docked as close as the Duke of Bridgewater’s old bay horses. This assemblage is instituted for the purpose of opposing, or rather evading, the tax on powdered heads.”
Cross Keys. A common i
70Crowd. Theatrical slang for members of a company collectively.
Crow over him. A cock always crows over a vanquished opponent in a fight.
Crutched Friars. Friars of the Holy Trinity, so called from the embroidered cross on their habits (Latin, cruciati, crossed). Their London house was located in the thoroughfare named after them.
Cuba. The native name of the island when Columbus discovered it.
Cully. A slang term applied to a man, mate, or companion. Its origin is the Romany cuddy, from the Persian gudda, an ass.
Cumberland. The land of the Cymri.
Cupboard. See “Dresser.”
Curaçoa. A liqueur first prepared at the West Indian island of the same name.
Currants. First brought from Corinth.
Cursitor Street. From the Cursitors’ Office that stood here. The Cursitors were clerks of Chancery, but anciently choristers, just as the Lord Chancellor himself was an ecclesiastic.
Curtain Road. From the “Curtain Theatre,” where Ben Jonson’s “Every Man in his Humour” was put on the stage.
Curzon Street. From George Augustus Curzon, created Viscount Howe, the ground landlord.
Cuspidor. The American term for a spittoon, derived from the Spanish escupidor, a spitter.
Cut me to the Quick. The quick of one’s fingers when cut into is most alive or sensitive to pain. See “Quicksilver.”
Cutpurse. A thief who, in days before pockets came into vogue, had no difficulty in cutting the strings with which a purse was suspended from the girdle.
71Cut the Line. A printer’s expression for knocking off work. Formerly compositors finished the line they were composing; nowadays Trades Unionism has made them so particular that they leave off in the middle of a line on the first stroke of the bell.
Cypress. A tree introduced to Western Europe from the island of Cyprus.
Cyprus. From kupras, the Greek name for a herb which grew on the island in profusion.
D
Dachshund. German for “badger-dog.”
Daffodil. An English corruption of the French d’Asphodel.
Dagonet. The pseudonym of Mr George R. Sims in The Referee, after the jester at the Court of King Arthur.
Daguerreotype. An early process of photography discovered by L. J. M. Daguerre.
Dahlgreen Gun. After its inventor, an officer in the United States Navy.
Dahlia. Introduced to Europe from Mexico in 1784 by Andrew Dahl, the Swedish botanist.
Daisy. From the Anglo-Saxon dæges eye, or “day’s eye,” on account of its sunlike appearance.
Dakota. From the Dacoits, a tribe of Indians found there.
Dale Road. From the residence of Canon Dale, poet, and Vicar of St Pancras.
Dalmatian. A species of dog bred in Dalmatia.
Dalston. The town in the dale when the north of London was more or less wooded.
Damage. See “What’s the Damage?”
Damascenes. From Damascus, famous for its plums.
Damascus. From the Arabic name of the city, Dimiskesh-Shâm.
72Damascus Blade. From Damascus, a city world famous for the temper of its sword blades.
Damask. First made at Damascus in Syria.
Damask Rose. Introduced to Europe from Damascus.
Damassin. A Damask cloth interwoven with flowers of gold or silver.
Dame School. The old name for a girls’ school taught by a spinster or dame.
Damsons. Properly Damascenes, from Damascus.
Dancing Chancellor. Sir Christopher Hatton so pleased Queen Elizabeth by his dancing at a Court masque that she made him a Knight of the Garter; subsequently he became Lord Chancellor of England.
Dandelion. A corruption of the French dent de lion, from its fancied resemblance to a lion’s tooth.
Dandy. From the French dandin, silly fellow, ni
Dantzic. Expresses the town settled by the Danes.
Danvers Street. From Danvers House, in which resided Sir John Danvers, to whom the introduction of the Italian style of horticulture in England was due.
Darbies. A pair of handcuffs, in allusion to Darby and Joan, who were inseparable.
Dardanelles. After the city on the Asiatic side founded by Dardanus, the ancestor of Priam, the last king of Troy.
Dark and Bloody Ground. Kentucky, the great battle-ground of the Indians and white settlers, as also that of the savage tribes amongst themselves.
Darmstadt. The stadt, or town, on the Darm.
Dartford. From the Saxon Darentford, the fort on the Darent.
Dartmoor. The moor in which the River Dart takes its rise.
Dartmouth. On the estuary of the River Dart.
73Dauphin. The title borne by the eldest son of the King of France until 1830, from the armorial device of a delphinus, or dolphin.
Davenport. After the original maker.
Davies Street. After Mary Davies, heiress of the manor of Ebury, Pimlico.
Davis Strait. After the navigator who discovered it.
Davy Jones’s Locker. Properly “Duffy Jonah’s Locker.” Duffy is the ghost of the West Indian Negroes; Jonah, the prophet cast into the sea; and “locker,” the ordinary seaman’s chest.
D. D. Cellars. See “Dirty Dick’s.”
Dead as a Door Nail. The reflection that, if a man were to be knocked on the head as often as is the “nail” on which a door knocker rests, he would have very little life left in him, easily accounts for this saying.
Dead Beat. Prostrate from fatigue, incapable of further exertion. Also the name of an American drink of whisky and ginger-soda after a hard night’s carousal.
Deadheads. In America persons who enjoy the right of travelling on a railway system at the public expense; in this country actors and pseudo “professionals,” who pass into places of amusement without paying. The origin of the term is as follows:–More than sixty years ago all the principal avenues of the city of Delaware converged to a toll gate at the entrance to the Elmwood Cemetery Road. The cemetery having been laid out long prior to the construction of the plank road beyond the toll gate, funerals were allowed to pass through the latter toll free. One day as Dr Price, a well-known physician, stopped to pay his toll he observed to the gatekeeper: “Considering the benevolent character of the profession to which I have the honour to belong, I think you ought to let me pass toll free.” “No, no, doctor,” the man replied; “we can’t afford that. You send too many deadheads through here as it is!” The story travelled, and the term “Deadheads” became fixed.
74Dead Reckoning. Calculating a ship’s whereabouts at sea from the log-book without aid from the celestial bodies.
Dead Sea. Traditionally on the site of the city of Sodom. Its waters are highly saline, and no fish are found in them.
Dean Street. After Bishop Compton, who, before he became Dean of the Savoy Chapel, held the living of St A
Dean’s Yard. Affords access to the residence of the Dean of Westminster, which, with the cloisters, belonged to the abbots prior to the Reformation.
Death or Glory Men. The 17th Lancers, from their badge, a Death’s head superposed on the words “Or Glory.”
De Beauvoir Town. From the manorial residence of the De Beauvoirs.
Deccan. From the Sanskrit Dakshina, the south, being that portion of Hindustan south of the Vindhya Mountains.
December. The tenth month of the Roman Calendar when the year was reckoned from March.
Decemvir. One of the ten legislators of Rome appointed to draw up a code of laws.
Decoration Day. 30th May, observed in the United States for decorating the graves of the soldiers who fell in the struggle between the North and South.
Deemster. See “Doomster.”
Dehaley Street. From the residence of the Dehaleys.
Delaware. After the Governor of Virginia, Thomas West, Lord Delaware, who died on board his vessel while visiting the bay in 1610.
Del Salviati. The assumed name of the famous Italian painter Francesco Rossi, in compliment to his patron, Cardinal Salviati, who was born in the same year as himself.
Demijohn. A corruption of Damaghan, in Persia, a town anciently famous for its glass-ware.
75Democracy. From the Greek demos, people, and kratein, to rule. Government by the people.
Denbigh. From Dinbach, the Celtic for “a little fort.”
Denmark. Properly Danmark, the mark or boundary of the land of the Danes.
Depot. The American term for a railway station.
Deptford. The deep ford over the Ravensbourne.
Derby. Saxon for “deer village.” The Derby stakes at Epsom were founded by Edward Smith Stanley, Earl of Derby, in 1780.
Derrick. The old name for a gibbet and now for a high crane. So called after a seventeenth-century hangman at Tyburn.
Derry Down. The opening words of the Druidical chorus as they proceeded to the sacred grove to gather mistletoe at the winter solstice. Derry is Celtic for “grove.”
Dessborough Place. From Dessbrowe House, in which resided the brother-in-law of Oliver Cromwell.
Detroit. French for “strait.”
Deuteronomy. A Greek word signifying the second giving of the Law by Moses.
Devereaux Court. See “Essex Street.”
Devil’s Sonata. One of Tartini’s most celebrated compositions. He dreamt that the Evil One appeared to him playing a sonata on the violin. At its conclusion his visitor asked: “Tartini, canst thou play this?” Awaking with his mind still full of the grotesque music, Tartini played it over, and then recorded it permanently on paper.
Devil to Pay. When money was lost by unsuccessful litigation it passed into the hands of lawyers, who were thought to spend it where they spent much of their time–viz. at the Devil Tavern in Fleet Street. The money, therefore, went to the Devil.
76Devizes. From the Latin Devisæ, denoting the point where the old Roman road passed into the district of the Celts.
Devon. After a Celtic tribe, the Damnonii.
Devonshire House. The town house of the Duke of Devonshire.
Devonshire Square. From the mansion of William Cavendish, Earl of Devonshire, who died here in 1628.
Diamond King. The late Mr Alfred Beit, the South African financier, whose wealth rivalled that of the Rothschilds.
Dickey. A shirt front, which often has to do duty for a clean shirt. So called from the German decken, to hide.
Diddler. A schemer, an artful dodger. After Jeremy Diddler, the chief character in the old farce, “Raising the Wind.”