Page:Farmer - Slang and its analogues past and present - Volume 1.pdf/406

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house); to the West Central (a punning allusion to the initials W.C. for water closet); to Mrs. Jones; to the chapel-of-ease; to Sir Harry; to the bog-house, rear, dunnock, coffee-shop; to see one's aunt; to crap; to go and sing 'sweet violets'; to go where the queen always goes on foot.

French Synonyms. Mousser (popular: literally to foam or effervesce); enterrer son colonel (Cf., to bury a Quaker); aller faire une ballade à la lune (i.e., 'to go and sing to the moon'; also ballade = stroll, walk, or lounge; likewise in French slang lune = posteriors); mouler un sénateur (popular); mouler une Venus (artists'); gazonner (literally to 'cover with turf'); aller au numero cent (a play upon the word sent); déponer (Michel thinks that though at first sight this word would seem to be directly derived from the Latin deponere, yet it really either comes from the old French ponant, signifying posteriors, or from the verb poner, used in the thirteenth century in the sense of pondre, i.e., to lay eggs); débourrer sa pipe (popular); défalquer (popular); tarter or tartir (popular and thieves': in Latin alvum deponere. Cf., Italian Fourbesque tartire); faire une moulure (moulure in architecture = moulding); aller quelque part (lit. to go somewhere); aller à ses affaires (lit. 'to go to one's business'); aller où le roi va à pied (i.e., to go where the king goes on foot. Cf., to go where the queen always goes on foot); filer (properly to spin); aller chez Jules (to go to Julius. Cf., to go and see one's aunt); ierchem (low: chier, a disguised obscenity, + em); flasquer (thieves'); touser (this word comes from tourtouse and signifies properly faire de la corde); faire corps neuf (properly to take a new lease of one's life); déposer une médaille de papier volant, or des Pays-Bas (obsolete); faire des cordes (des cordes = strings); mettre une lettre à la poste (lit. to go and post a letter); faire le grand (grand = an opprobrious epithet); faire une commission (to run an errand); fogner (popular); flaquer (popular: literally 'to dash' [water or any other liquid]); écrire à un Juif (literally to write to a Jew); déposer une pêche (popular); poser une pépin (popular: poser = to place or cast down; pépin, in botany a kernel or pip); poser un factionnaire (popular: factionnaire is properly a sentinel or sentry); poser une sentinelle (popular: with same meaning as foregoing); envoyer une depèche à Bismarck (popular: this may be a contemptuous usage of the German Chancellor's name, although in French slang couleur Bismarck = brown colour); aller où le roi n'envoie personne (lit. to go where the king sends no one); flaquader (flaque = excrement); fuser (properly to dissolve); gâcher du gros (popular); galipoter (another slang meaning of this word is 'to smear'); pousser son rond (popular); faire ronfler la chaire percée—Thomas—le bourrelet—la chaise percée (faire ronfler = to cause to or make snore, chaire = Bishop's throne, chaire percée = close-stool, and bourrelet = padded cushion with hole in centre, Thomas = bedroom chamber); aller voir Bernard (Cf., aller chez Jules); aller au