Bean Belly, subs. (old).—A nickname for a Leicestershire man; from a real or supposed fondness of the inhabitants of this county for beans.
Bean-feast, subs. (common).—An
annual feast given by employers
to their work-people.
The derivation is uncertain,
and, at present, their is little
evidence to go upon. Some
have suggested its origin in
the prominence of the bean
goose, or even beans at these
spreads; others refer it to the
French bien, good, i.e., a good
feast (by-the-bye, tailors call
all good feeds bean-feasts);
whilst others favour its derivation
from the modern English
bene, a request or solicitation,
from the custom of collecting
subscriptions to defray the
cost. All three suggestions are,
at the best, unsatisfactory, and
numerous objections crop up
at every turn to each of them.
An annual outing of this kind
is also called a wayzgoose
(q.v).
1882. Printing Times, 15 Feb., 26, 2. A bean-feast dinner served up at a country inn. [m.]
1884. Bath. Jour., 26 July, 6, 1. The annual grant of £20 for their bean-feast. [m.]
Bean-Feaster, subs. (common).—One who takes part in a beanfeast (q.v.).
1884. Cornh. Mag., Jan., 621. For the delectation of the bold bean-feasters. [m.]
Beano, subs. (printers').—The
same as bean-feast (q.v.).
Bean Traps, subs. (American
thieves').—A swell mobsman,
or stylish sharper. Beans (q.v.)
are five-dollar gold pieces, and
the insinuation is obvious. In
old English cant a bean meant
a guinea, probably from the
French biens, property.
Beany, adj. (common).—Full of
vigour; fresh, like a bean-fed
horse. Or, it may be an allusion
to the meaning of venery,
which Aristotle says was
attached to the word beans.
1852. Kingsley, in Life (1876), 1., 278. The very incongruity keeps one beany and jolly.
1870. Daily News, 27 July, 5. The horses . . . looked fresh and beany. [M.]
Bear, subs. (Stock Exchange).—Applied,
in the first instance,
to stock sold by jobbers for delivery
by a certain date on the
chance of prices falling in the
meantime, thus allowing the
seller to re-purchase at a profit.
The phrase was probably at first
'to sell the bear-skin,' the buyers
of such bargains being called
bear-skin jobbers (see quot.),
in allusion to the proverb, 'To
sell the bear's skin before one
has caught the bear.' So far,
the origin of the phrase seems
pretty clear; of the date of its introduction,
however, nothing is
known. It was a common term
in Stock Exchange circles, at the
time of the bursting of the
South Sea Bubble in 1720, but
it does not seem to have become
colloquial until much later. In
these transactions no stock was
passed, the 'difference' being
settled according to the quotation
of the day, as is the
practice now in securities dealt
with for 'the account.' At
present the term for such an
arrangement is time-bargain.
