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Black Country. The name given to the great coalfield in the Midlands. It extends from Birmingham to Wolverhampton on one side and from Lyle Waste to West Bromwich on the other.
Black Friars. The Order of the Dominicans, so called from their habits. In the district of Blackfriars stood the great monastery.
Blackguards. A derisive nickname given originally to the scullions of the Royal Household, touching their grimy appearance, as contrasted with the spruceness of the Guards of Honour.
35Blackheath. A corruption of Bleak Heath.
Blackleg. After sporting men of a low type, who invariably wore black gaiters or top-boots.
Blackmail. Originally a tax or tribute paid to robbers or freebooters as a compromise for protection. “Black” implied the Gaelic for security, while mal was Anglo-Saxon for tribute.
Black Maria. Slang for a prison van. Many years ago a negress of powerful build and strength, named Maria Lee, kept a sailor’s lodging-house at Boston. Everyone dreaded her, and she so frequently assisted the police of that day to pin down a refractory prisoner before he could be manacled that “Send for Black Maria!” became quite a common exclamation among them. Hence the earliest vehicles for the conveyance of offenders against law and order, especially since they were painted black, were named after her.
Black Museum. The collection of criminal relics preserved at the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police at New Scotland Yard.
Black Prince. The sobriquet of Edward, Prince of Wales, son of Edward III., not because he wore black armour, as is generally supposed, but, according to Froissart, “by terror of his arms,” and again, Strutt, “for his martial deeds.”
Black Sea. From its many black rocks, which render navigation dangerous.
Blackwall. A corruption of Bleak Wall.
Black Watch. Soldiers first appointed to watch the Highlands of Scotland. They received the name from their black tartans.
Blandford Square. From Blandford, Dorsetshire, near Bryanstone, the seat of the great ground landlord, Viscount Portman.
Blankets. First made by the Brothers Blanket, of Bristol, in 1337.
36Blarney. Suave speeches intended only to gain time. When Cormack Macarthy was besieged by the English in Blarney Castle in 1662 he concluded an armistice, with the object of surrendering after a few days; but instead of doing so he sent out soft, evasive speeches, until Lord Carew and his soldiers were forced to admit that they had been duped. Hence the expression: “None of your Blarney.”
Blenheim Oranges. First cultivated at Blenheim, the seat of the Duke of Marlborough.
Blenheim Street. In compliment to the Duke of Marlborough after the battle of Blenheim.
Blind Man’s Buff. So called because if any one of those taking part in the game allowed the blind man to buff up against him he had to be blindfolded in his place.
Blood. See “Pe
Bloody. The addiction of the vulgar to the use of this adjective on all occasions has made it low and reprehensible. Anciently, however, it was employed in a most reverential sense, relative to the Blood of Christ–e.g. the “Bloody Sacrifice of the Mass.”
Bloody Assizes. Those held by Judge Jeffreys in 1685 for the punishment of all who had taken part in the Duke of Monmouth’s rebellion. Three hundred persons were executed, and more than a thousand transported to the plantations.
Bloody Butcher. The sobriquet of the Duke of Cumberland, son of George II., owing to his wholesale slaughter of the adherents of Prince Charles Stuart, the Young Pretender, after the battle of Culloden.
Bloody Eleventh. The 11th Foot, in memory of the terrible slaughter inflicted on this regiment at Salamanca.
Bloody Tower. Where the infant Princes were murdered at the order of their uncle, Richard, Duke of Glo’ster.
Bloomers. After Mrs A
37Bloomsbury. A corruption of “Lomesbury,” the name of a manor house and grounds which stood on the site of the present square. “Lomesbury village” sprang up around the ancient church of St Giles’s in-the-Fields.
Bluchers. After Field-Marshal von Blucher, who affected this style of military half-boot.
Blue. An indecent story is said to be “blue” because harlots in the ancient Bridewell, and in more modern houses of correction or penitentiaries, were habited in blue gowns.
Blue Boar. An i
Blue Grass State. Kentucky, from the character of the orchard grass in this fertile limestone region.
Blue Hen’s Chickens. A nickname for the people of Delaware. The Delaware State Journal thus accounts for its origin: “At the begi
Blue Law State. An old name for Co
Blue Noses. A nickname bestowed upon the Nova Scotians, from the species of potato which they produce and claim to be the best in the world.
Blue Peter. The flag hoisted at the mast head to give notice that a vessel is about to sail. Its name is a corruption of the French “Bleu Partir,” or blue departure signal.
Blue Pig. An i
Blue Stocking. From the famous club of literary ladies formed by Mrs Montague in 1840, at which Benjamin Stillingfleet, who habitually wore blue stockings, was a regular visitor. Blue stockings, therefore, became the recognised badge of membership. There was, however, such a club of ladies and gentlemen at Venice as far back as 1400, called Della Calza, from the colour of stockings worn.
Blunderbuss. A corruption of the Dutch donderbus, “thunder tube.”
Board of Green Cloth. The steward of the Royal Household presides over this so called court, which has a green cover on its table.
Boar’s Head. The sign of the ancient tavern in Eastcheap immortalised by Shakespeare. This, like all others of the same name, was derived from the heraldic device of the Gordons, the earliest of whom slew a boar that had long been a terror of the forest.
Bob Apple. A very old boyish pastime. Standing on tiptoe, with their hands behind them, they tried to catch in their mouths an apple as it swung to and fro at the end of a piece of string suspended from the ceiling. A variant of the same game consisted in lying across a form and plunging their heads into a large tub of water, at the bottom of which was the apple.
Bobby. The nickname of a policeman, after Sir Robert 39Peel, to whom the introduction of the modern police system was due.
Bobs. The popular nickname of Lord Roberts during the South African War. He is also called “Lord Bobs.”
Boer. Expresses the Dutch for a farmer. Synonymous with the English “boor,” an uncultivated fellow, a tiller of the soil.
Bogtrotter. An Irishman, from the ease with which he makes his way across the native bogs, in a ma
Bogus. In reporting a trial at law The Boston Courier in 1857 gave the following authoritative origin:–“The word Bogus is a corruption of the name of one Borghese, a very corrupt individual, who twenty years ago or more did a tremendous business in the way of supplying the great west, and portions of the south-west, with counterfeit bills and bills on fictitious banks. The western people fell into the habit of shortening the name of Borghese to that of Bogus, and his bills, as well as all others of like character, were universally styled by them ‘bogus currency.’” So that the word is really American.
Bohea. Tea of the poorest quality, grown in the hilly district of Wu-i; pronounced by the Chinese Vooy.
Bohemia. From the Bohii, the ancient inhabitants of the country.
Bohemian. One who leads a hand-to-mouth existence by literary or other precarious pursuits, who shuns the ordinary conventions of society, and aspires to that only of his fellows. The term originally meant a “Gipsy,” because the earliest nomadic people who overran Western Europe did so by way of Bohemia.
Boiled Shirt. An Americanism, originally from the western states, for a starched white shirt.
Bolivia. After General Simon Bolivar, surnamed “The Liberator of Peru.”
40Bologna. A settlement of the Boii, after whom the Romans called it Bononia.
Bomba. The sobriquet of Ferdinand, King of Naples, on account of his bombardment of Messina in 1848.
Bonanza State. Nevada, on account of its rich mines, styled Bonanza mines. Bonanza is Spanish for “prosperity.”
Bond Street (Old and New). Built on the land owned by Sir Thomas Bond, Comptroller of the Household of Charles I.
Bone of Contention. In allusion to two dogs fighting over a bone.
Bone-shaker. The original type of bicycle, with wooden wheels, of which the rims consisted of small curved pieces glued together. Compared with a modern machine it was anything but easy riding.
Boniface. The popular name for an i
Booking Office. In the old coaching days passengers had to book their seats for a stage journey several days in advance at an office in the i
Bookmaker. From the way in which he adjusts his clients’ bets, so that, ordinarily, he ca
Boot-jack. A wooden contrivance by which the wearer could help himself to take off his high-legged boots without the aid of a servant. Hence it was called a jack, which is the generic term for a man-servant or boy.
41Border Eagle State. Mississippi, on account of the Border Eagle in the arms of the state.
Bore. This name was first applied by the “Macaronies” to any person who disapproved of foppishness or dandyism. Nowadays it implies one whose conversation is uninteresting, and whose society becomes repugnant.
Borneo. A European application of the Sanskrit boorni, land.