Phrases and Names, Their Origins and Meanings. Trench H. Johnson
an overseer or master.
Boston. Short for St. Botolph’s Town. “The stump” of the church is seen from afar across the Boston Deeps.
Botany Bay. So called by Captain Cook on account of the variety of, to him, new plants found on its shores. This portion of New South Wales was the first British Convict Settlement; hence Botany Bay became a term synonymous with penal servitude.
Botolph Lane. From the church of St. Botolph, situated in it.
Bottle of Hay. A corruption of “bundle of hay,” from the French botte, a bundle, of which the word bottle expresses the diminutive.
Bottom Dollar. An Americanism for one’s last coin.
Bovril. An adaptation of bovis, ox, and vril, strength--the latter being a word coined by Lord Lytton in “The Coming Race.”
Bow. From the ancient stone bridge over the Lea, which was the first ever built in this country on a bow or arch.
Bow Church. Properly the church of St. Mary-le-Bow, Cheapside, the first in this country to be built on bows or arches.
Bowdlerise. In the year 1818 Thomas Bowdler brought out an expurgated edition of Shakespeare’s Plays; hence a “Bowdlerised Edition” of any work is one of which the original text has been unwarrantably tampered with.
Bowie Knife. After Colonel Jim Bowie, a famous fighter of the western states, who first armed himself with this weapon.
Bow Street. From its arc shape when first laid out.
Bow Street Runners. Primitive detectives sent out from their headquarters in Bow Street in highwayman days.
Bowyer Tower. Anciently the residence of the Tower bowyer or bowmaker. Here, according to tradition, the Duke of Clarence was drowned in a butt of “Malmsey.”
Boxing Day. See “Christmas-box.”
Box Office. At one time only the private boxes at a theatre could be booked in advance; hence the term.
Box the Compass. To be able to repeat all the thirty-two degrees or points of the mariner’s compass; a mental exercise all round the compass-box.
Boycott. To ostracise a man. This word came into use in 1881, after Captain Boycott of Lough Mark Farm, co. Mayo, was cut off from all social and commercial intercourse with his neighbours for the crime of being an Irish landlord.
Boy King. Edward VI., who ascended the throne of England in his tenth, and died in his sixteenth, year.
Boz. Under this nom de plume Charles Dickens published his earliest “Sketches” of London life and character in The Morning Chronicle. He has told us himself that this was the pet name of a younger brother, after Moses Primrose in “The Vicar of Wakefield.” The infantile members of the family pronounced the name “Bozes,” and at last shortened it into “Boz.”
Bradford. From the Anglo-Saxon Bradenford, “broad ford.”
Braggadocio. After Braggadochio, a boasting character in Spenser’s “Faery Queene.”
Brahma Fowl. Originally from the district of the Brahmapootra River in India. Pootra is Sanskrit for Son; hence the river name means “The Son of Brahma.”
Brandy. From the German Brantwein, burnt wine. A spirituous distillation from wine.
Brazenose College. The brazen nose on the college gate notwithstanding, this name was derived from the fact that here stood an ancient brasenhuis, or “brew-house.” Oxford has always been famous for the excellent quality of its beer.
Bravo. In Italy one who is always boasting of his courage and prowess; generally a hired assassinassassin.
Brazil. From braza, the name given by the Portuguese to the red dye-wood of the country.
Bread Street. Where the bakers had their stalls in connection with the Old Chepe, or market.
Break Bread. To accept hospitality. In the East bread is baked in the form of large cakes, which are broken, never cut with a knife. To break bread with a stranger ensures the latter personal protection as long as he remains under the roof of his host.
Breakfast. The morning meal, when the fast since the previous night’s supper is broken.
Break the Bank. Specifically at the gaming-tables of Monte Carlo. With extraordinary luck this may be done on occasion; but the winner’s triumph is short-lived since, the capital of the bank being unlimited, if he continues to play after fresh stores of gold have been produced, he must lose in the end.
Brecon. See “Brecknock.”
Brecknock. The capital (also called Brecon) of one of the shires of Wales, originally Breckineauc, after Brychan, a famous Welsh prince. Brecknock Road takes its name from Lord Camden, Earl of Brecknock, the ground landlord.
Breeches Bible. From the word “breeches” for “aprons” (Genesis iii. 7).
Brentford. The ford over the Brent.
Breviary. The name given to an abridgment of the daily prayers, for the use of priests, during the Seven Canonical Hours, made by Pope Gregory VII. in the eleventh century.
Brevier. The style of type originally employed in the composition of the Catholic “Breviary.”
Bridegroom. The word groom comes from the Gothic and Anglo-Saxon guma, man, allied to the Latin homo, man. It still expresses a man-servant who grooms or attends to his master’s horse.
Bride Lane. From the church of St. Bride or Bridget.
Bride of the Sea. Venice, in allusion to the ancient ceremony of “The Marriage of the Adriatic.”
Bridewell. The name anciently given to a female penitentiary, from the original establishment near the well of St. Bride or Bridget in the parish of Blackfriars. The name is preserved in Bridewell Police Station.
Brigadier. The commanding officer of a brigade.
Bridge. Twenty years ago two families at Great Dalby, Leicestershire, paid each other a visit on alternate nights, for a game of what they called Russian whist. Their way lay across a broken bridge, very dangerous after nightfall. “Thank goodness, it’s your bridge to-morrow night!” they were wont to exclaim on parting. This gave the name to the game itself.
Bridge of Sighs. The bridge forming a covered gallery over the Canal at Venice between the State prisons on the one hand and the palace of the Doges on the other. Prisoners were led to the latter to hear the death sentence pronounced, and thence to execution. No State prisoner was ever known to recross this bridge; hence its name.
Bridgewater Square. From the town house of the Earls of Bridgewater.
Brief. A brief summary of all the facts of a client’s case prepared by a solicitor for the instruction of counsel.
Bristol. Called by the Anglo-Saxons “Brightstow,” or pleasant, stockaded place.
Britain. This country was known to the Phœnicians