1700. Congreve, Way of the World, v. 1. I'll couple you; I'll baste you together, you and your Philander.
1709. Steele, Tatler. 10 May. Philander . . . the most skilful of all men in an address to women.
1749. Smollett, Gil Blas [Routledge], 113. Tired of waiting . . . she had gone back . . . and the happy moment of philandering was over, Ibid., 364. In a philandering tone of voice.
1800. Edgeworth, Castle Rackrent, 11. Sir Kit was too much taken up philandering to consider the law in this case.
1827. Lytton, Pelham, iii. Sir Lionell Garrett . . . the favourite of the old ladies, the Philander of the young.
1852. Thackeray, Esmond, 111, iv. 'Tis no question of sighing and philandering between a nobleman of his Grace's age and a girl who hath little of that softness in her nature.
1857. Kingsley, Two Years Ago, xix. A phenomenon which . . . perturbed . . . the spirits not only of the Oxford philanderers, but also those of Elsley Vavasour.
1870. Hall, Modern English, 275. Who in Queen Anne's time ever heard . . . of the verbs cede, olden, philander? This verb not impossibly did not see the light till after Mr. Thackeray (b. 1812) himself.
1876. Eliot, Deronda, xxv. You can't go philandering after her again for six weeks.
Philip, subs. (thieves').—A policeman:
see Beak.
Intj. (thieves').—A warning. Hence, Philiper = a thief's accomplice. [Who watches and cries Philip!]
Philip and Cheiney, subs. phr.
(old).—Any, and every one;
'Tom, Dick, and Harry' (q.v.).
1542. Udall, Apop. of Erasmus, 311. It was not his entent to bryng unto Sylla Philip and Cheiney, mo than a good meiny, but to bryng hable souldiours of manhood approued and well tried to his handes.
1557. Tusser, Good Husby. [E. E. D. S. (1878), 8]. Loiterers I kept so meanie, Both Philip, Hob, and Cheanie.
1563-4. Becon, Workes, iii. 276. Ye pray for Philip and Cheny more than a good meany.
Philippi. To meet at Philippi,
verb. phr. (old).—To keep an
appointment without fail. [Cf.
Julius Cæsar, iv. 3, where the
ghost of J.C. so delivers itself to
Brutus.]
1782. Cowley, Bold Stroke for a Husband, i. 1. Car. At seven, you say? Jul. Exactly. Car. I'll meet thee at Philippi!
Philistia, subs. (literary).—The
region of the unenlightened or
commonplace: specifically (Mathew
Arnold) the English
middle-class—'ignorant, narrow-minded,
and deficient in great
ideas.' Whence (generally) Philistine
= an unlettered barbarian
(q.v.); a person, male or
female, who has never read
Mathew Arnold. [Orig. German
students' = anybody not belonging
to a university.]
1857. Kingsley, Two Years Ago, x. Yet have Philistia and Fogeydom neither right nor reason to consider him a despicable or merely ludicrous person.
1886. McCarthy and Campbell-Praed, Rt. Hon., 1. iii. Aristocratic Philistia and Upper Bohemia.
1900. Kipling, Stalky & Co., 209. Vile bad form to turn your back on the audience! He's a Philistine—a Bopper—a Jebusite an' a Hivite?
1901. Daily Telegraph, 25 Ap., 8, 7. We . . . have always had a reputation on the Continent for an almost brutal vitality and vigour, combined with a Philistine deficiency in all matters concerning the delicate and the beautiful.
Philistine, subs. (old).—1. Generic
for a representative of authority:
a sheriff's officer, a bailiff, a
revenue officer, a watchman, and
(in pl.) the press-gang [Judges
xvi.].—B.E. (c. 1696); Grose
(1785); Bee (1823).
