Blarney, subs. (colloquial).—Blandishment; soft speech, or 'sawder'; gross flattery; 'gammon.' [From Castle Blarney in Ireland, in the wall of which, difficult of access, is placed a stone. Whoever is able to kiss this is said thereafter to be able to persuade to anything. Blarney is from bladh-ey, flowery island, and this may have some connection with the curious tradition. On the other hand, according to Brewer, Cormack Macarthy held the Castle of Blarney in 1602, and concluded an armistice with Carew, the lord president, on condition of surrendering the fort to the English garrison. Day after day his lordship looked for the fulfilment of the terms, but received nothing except protocols and soft speeches, till he became the laughing-stock of Elizabeth's ministers, and the dupe of the lord of Blarney.
1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. He has licked the blarney stone; he deals in the wonderful, or tips us the traveller.
1839. Lever, Harry Lorrequer, ch. xix. They were as cunning as foxes and could tell blarney from good sense.
c. 1876. Broadside Ballad, 'A nice young thing.'
Such a nice young thing, such a sweet young thing, Her name was Kate Carney, she came from Killarney, So full of her blarney, but fond of her Barney, Such a fair young thing, a rare young thing, And just for a lark she had dyed her hair dark, And they called her the Colleen Dhu.
1884. Ruskin, in Pall Mall Gazette, 17 Nov., p. 11, col. 2. It was bombastic English blarney—not Irish. [m.]
The French have baliverne and pelotage with the same meaning.
Verb.—1. To wheedle; to coax; to flatter grossly.
2. (American thieves'.)—Besides the English slang signification of 'to wheedle,' it also bears the secondary meaning, among the low and criminal classes of America, of 'to pick locks.'
Blart Out, verb (American,
? nonce word).—A corruption of
'blurt out'; to utter abruptly.
1835. Haliburton ('Sam Slick'), The Clockmaker, pref., p. v. It warn't the part of a gentleman for to go and pump me arter that fashion, and then go right off and blart it out in print. Ibid, ch. viii. And there are others again who blart right out whatever comes uppermost.
Blasé, adj. (common).—Used up;
exhausted with enjoyment; satiated.
[From French blaser,
of unknown derivation.] Its
extended colloquial use in England
is explained in second
quotation.
1823. Byron, Don Juan, ch. xii., st. 81. A little blasé—'tis not to be wondered At, that his heart had got a tougher rind, And though not vainer from his past success, No doubt his sensibilities were less.
1883. G. A. Sala, in Illustrated London News, March 10, p. 235, col. 3. There should be a chronology of slang. It is about forty years ago, I think, that the great popularity of a French farce called 'L'Homme Blasé' brought the word into colloquial use in England; indeed the first translation of the French piece (at the Princess's, Wright, the low comedian, playing the hero,) was called Blasé, with some sub-title that I forget. Subsequently another translation was produced, Charles Mathews playing the principal character. As a title for this version, we borrowed a slang term from the Americans, and 'L'Homme Blasé' became 'Used Up'!
Blast, verb (low).—To curse; to
damn. An expression of reprobation
and hatred. Used in
