Greek, subs. (old).—1. Slang, or flash (q.v.); usually St. Giles' Greek (q.v.). Cf., Cant, Gibberish, etc.
2. (colloquial).—A card-sharper; a cheat.
1523. Roy and Barlow, Rede me and be not wrothe, p. 117 [ed. Arber, 1871]. In carde playinge he is a goode Greke And can skyll of post and glycke, Also a prayre of dyce to trolle.
1568. Satirical Poems, 'Scottish Text Soc.' [1889-91] i., 77. A cowle, a cowle, for such a greek were fittter far to wea're.
1598. Florio, A Worlde of Wordes. Grecheggiare . . . to play the Greek.
1602. Shakspeare, Troilus and Cressida, v. 6. Come, both you cogging Greeks; have at you both.
1819. Moore, Tom Crib, xxviii. Most of the cant phrases in Head's English Rogue, which was published, I believe, in 1666, would be intelligible to a Greek of the present day.
1823. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, ii., 5. Come lads, bustle about; play will begin—some of the pigeons are here already, the Greeks will not be long following.
1834. Ainsworth, Rookwood, bk. IV., ch. i. Jerry was a Greek by nature, and could land a flat as well as the best of them.
1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, ch. xxxvi. He was an adventurer, a pauper, a blackleg, a regular Greek.
1861. Once a Week, 25 May, p. 97. As the Greek places the packet [of cards] on the top of the other, he allows it to project the least bit in the world.
1884. Saturday Review, 16 Feb., p. 202. Without a confederate the now fashionable game of baccarat does not seem to offer many chances for the Greek.
3. (old).—An Irishman.
1823. Bee, Dict. of the Turf. Greek, s.v. Irishmen call themselves Greeks.
1851-61. H. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, Vol. i., p. 240. We had the Greeks (the lately arrived Irish) down upon us more than once.
1872. Standard, 3 Sept. 'Melbourne Correspondence.' The most noticeable point of comparison between the two Administrations is the presence or the absence of the Greek element from the Cabinet. Greek, as some of your readers are aware, is colonial slang for 'Irish.'
4. (thieves').—A gambler. Also a highwayman.
Merry Greek, subs. phr. (old).—A roysterer; a drunkard. Cotgrave. [In Latin, Graecare = to play the Greek—high-living and hard drinking.]
1602. Shakspeare, Troilus and Cressida, iv., 4. A woful Cressid 'mongst the merry Greeks.
Greek Fire, subs. phr. (thieves').—Bad
whiskey; Rotgut (q.v.).
1889. Clarkson and Richardson, Police, p. 321, s.v.
Greek Kalends, subs. phr.
(colloquial).—Never. To defer
anything to the Greek Kalends is
to put it off sine die. (The Greeks
used no kalends in their reckoning
of time.)
c. 1649. Drumm. of Hawth. Consid. Parlt., wks. (1711) 185. That gold, plate, and all silver, given to the mint-*house in these late troubles, shall be paid at the Greek Kalends.
1653. Urquhart, Rabelais, bk. I., ch. xx. The judgment or decree shall be given out and pronounced at the next Greek Calends, that is, never.
1823. Byron, Don Juan, c. xiii., st. 45. They and their bills, 'Arcadians both,' are left To the Greek Kalends of another session.
1825. Scott, Betrothed. Intro. Will you speak of your paltry prose doings in my presence, whose great historical poem, in twenty books, with notes in proportion, has been postponed ad Græcas Kalendas?
1872. O. W. Holmes, Poet Breakf. T. i., 18. His friends looked for it only on the Greek Calends, say on the 31st of April, when that should come round, if you would modernize the phrase.
