death penalty was a common punishment, both many and curious. A horse foaled of an acorn, is obviously an allusion to the timber of which the triple tree (q.v.) was constructed. The widows of those who had suffered the extreme penalty of the law were termed hempen widows (q.v.); the children of such, or those likely to meet with death by hanging, hempseed (q.v.); and hempen fever (q.v.) represented the dread malady itself.
1760-61. Smollett, Sir L. Greaves, ch. viii. I believe as how 'tis no horse, but a devil incarnate; and yet I've been worse mounted, that I have--I'd like to have rid A HORSE THAT WAS FOALED OF AN acorn (i.e., he had nearly met with the fate of Absalom).
1827. Lytton, Pelham, ch. lxxxii. 'The cove ... is as pretty a Tyburn blossom as ever was brought up to ride a horse foaled by an acorn.'
1839. Harrison Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard [1889], p. 8. Tom Sheppard was always a close file, and would never tell whom he married. Of this I'm certain, however, she was much too good for him.... As to this little fellow ... he shall never mount a horse foaled by an acorn, if I can help it.
Acquaintance. To scrape acquaintance, verb. phr. (common).--To make acquaintance. Probably from 'bowing and scraping' to a person, in order to curry favor.
1698. Farquhar, Love and a Bottle [ed. 1711], p. 5, Lucinda. Pray good Cæsar, keep off your paws; no scraping acquaintance for Heaven's sake.
This phrase has a classical origin, an account of which from the pen of Dr. Doran, F.S.A., appears in the Gentleman's Magazine [N.S. xxxix. 230] in an article on 'The Masters of the Roman World during the Happiest Years of the Human Race.'
There is an anecdote connected with Hadrian and the custom of bathing, from which is derived the proverbial saying of scraping an acquaintance. The Emperor, entering a bath, saw an old soldier scraping himself with a tile. He recognised the man as a former comrade--his memory on such points never failed him--and, pitying his condition that he had nothing better than a tile for a flesh-brush, he ordered the veteran to be presented with a considerable sum of money, and a costly set of bathing garments. Thereupon all the old soldiers of the Imperial Army became as anxious to claim fellowship with the Emperor as the Kirkpatricks of Great Britain and Ireland are proudly eager to establish kinship with the Empress of the French. As Hadrian entered the bath the day after that on which he had rewarded his former comrade, he observed dozens of old soldiers scraping themselves with tiles. He understood the intent, but wittily evaded it. 'Scrape one another, gentlemen,' said he, 'you will not scrape acquaintance WITH ME!'
Acquisitive, subs. (American).--Plunder; booty; pickings. A noun formed from the adjective.
Acreocracy, subs. (common).--The landed interest. Possibly of American coinage [of simulated Greek formation, from English acre + Greek [Greek:kratéô], to hold sway or to govern]. Compare with democracy, mobocracy, aristocracy, etc.
1878. Hallberger's Illustrated Magazine, p. 622. The introduction of a plutocracy among the aristocracy and the acreocracy though it has tended somewhat to vulgarize our social institutions, etc.
Acres, subs. (theatrical)[**. P2]--A coward. From Bob Acres, in Sheridan's Rivals [1775]; here the character part is of a blusterer, one who talks big, but when put to the push, to use his own words, 'his courage always oozed out of his finger ends.' Cf., Abigail for a waiting maid; Samson for a
