Phrases and Names, Their Origins and Meanings. Trench H. Johnson
or living pictures thrown on a screen, so called from the Greek bios, life, and skopein, to view.
Birchin Lane. Properly Birchover Lane, after the name of the builder.
Birdcage Walk. From the Royal Aviary of the Restoration, located along the south wall of St. James’s Park.
Bird of Passage. A hotel phrase applied to a guest who arrives at stated seasons.
Bird’s Eye Tobacco. So called from the oval shape of the stalks when cut up with the leaf.
Birkbeck Institute. The premier Mechanics’ Institute, established by Dr. Birkbeck in 1824.
Birmingham. Called Bremenium by the Romans and Birmingeham in Domesday Book. This being so, it cannot be corrupted from “Broom-place town,” as some authors say.
Birrell. To write, speak, or do anything after the manner of Mr. Augustine Birrell, M.P., President of the Board of Education.
Birrelligion. A word coined by Dr. Casterelli, Roman Catholic Bishop of Salford, who, speaking on Mr. Birrell’s New Education Bill, said it was not one exactly of irreligion, but of Birrelligion, acceptable to no party or denomination.
Bishopsgate Street. From the ancient city gate rebuilt by Bishop Irkenwald, the son of King Offa, and repaired by Bishop William in the time of the Conqueror.
Biz. Theatrical slang for “business” or stage by-play.
Black Brunswickers. A celebrated regiment of seven hundred volunteers raised in Bohemia in 1809 by Frederick William, Duke of Brunswick, who took up arms against Napoleon because the latter had obstructed his succession to his father’s dukedom. Their uniform was black, in token of mourning for the deceased Duke. Finding they could not bear against the power of France, they enlisted in the English service. Thus it came to pass that the Black Brunswickers fought at the Battle of Waterloo, where their gallant leader met his death. Afterwards they were heard of no more.
Black Bull. An inn sign derived from the heraldic device of the House of Clare.
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.
Blackheath. 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.
Blarney. 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 “Penny Blood.”
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. Ann Bloomer of New York, who introduced the original nondescript style of “New Woman” in 1849.
Bloomsbury. 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 inn sign derived from the heraldic device of Richard III.
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 beginning of the Revolutionary War there lived in Sussex county of that colony a gentleman of fortune named Caldwell, who was a sportsman, and breeder of fine horses and game-cocks. His favourite axiom was that the character of the progeny depends more on the mother than on the father, and that the finest game-cocks depended on the hen rather than on the cock. His observation led him