Patent Frenchman, subs. phr. (tailors').—An Irishman.
Patent-inside (or -outside),
subs. phr. (journalistic).—A newspaper
printed on the inside (or
outside) only, the unprinted space
being intended for local news,
advertisements, &c.
Patent Safeties (The), subs.
phr. (military).—The First Life
Guards. Also "The Cheeses";
"The Piccadilly Butchers"; and
"The Tin Bellies."
Pater-cove. See Patrico.
Paternoster, subs. (anglers').—A
fishing-line with hooks and
shot at regular intervals. [As
beads on a rosary.]
1849. C. Kingsley, Yeast, iii. Here's that paternoster as you gave me to rig up.
Devil's Paternoster, subs.
phr. (old).—A muttering or
grumbling; a profane expletive.
1383. Chaucer, Canterbury Tales (1856), 540. Grutche and murmure prively for veray despit; which wordes they call the divels Pater noster, though so be that the divel had never Pater noster but that lewed folke yeven it swiche a name.
1614. Terence in English [Nares]. What devills paternoster is this he is saying?
Ape's Paternoster. See Ape.
In a paternoster while, phr. (old).—Quickly; in a jiffey (q.v.). [While one could say a paternoster.]
1362. Langland, Piers Plowman, 3169. He pissed a potel In a paternoster while.
1422-1509. Paston Letters, i. 74. All . . . don . . . in a paternoster wyle.
1597. Langham, Garden of Health [Smythe-Palmer]. [A direction to boil onions] while one may say three paternosters.
[?]. Farindon, Sermons [Jackson, iv. 241]. Indeed, there is nothing sooner said, we may do it in a Pater-noster-while.
Pathic, subs. (old).—A pederast;
an ingle (q.v.): see Usher.
1603. Jonson, Sejanus, i. 2. The noted pathic of his time.
1748. Smollett, Roderick Random, li. His valet-de-chambre, who, it seems, had been the favourite pathic of his lord.
1750. Robertson, Poems, 56. Your pathick cannot boast an A—so fair as I.
Patience on a Monument, subs.
phr. (colloquial).—A long-suffering
person.
1892. Henley and Stevenson, Three Plays ['Beau Austin,' i. 2]. Dolly, I must insist on your eating a good breakfast: I cannot away with your pale cheeks and that Patience-on-a-Monument kind of look.
Patrico, subs. (Old Cant).—A
vagabond, or unfrocked priest;
a hedge-priest (q.v.): also
patriarck-co, patricove, pattering-cove
and pater-cove.
[Suggested derivations are: (1)
pater = father + cove = a man;
cf. patriarck-co; (2) patter
(or pattering) = talk + cove,
i.e., a patterer or mutterer of
paternosters = a priest.]—B. E.
(c.1696); Grose (1785).
1536. Copland, Spyttel-hous [Farmer, Musa Pedestris (1896), 1]. Teare the patryng coue in the darkeman cace Docked the dell.
1565. Awdeley, Vacabondes [E. E. T. S. (1896), 6]. A patriarke-co doth make marriages . . . untill death depart . . . after this sort: when they come to a dead horse or any dead catell, then they shake hands, and so depart every one of them a severall way.
1567. Harman, Caveat [E. E. T. S. (1896), 89]. There was a proude patrico and a nosegent, He tooke his Iockam in his Famble, and a wappinge he went.
1610. Rowlands, Martin Markall, 40 (H. Club's Repr. 1874), s.v.
