1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue. s.v. Nokes; John-a-Nokes and Tom-a-Stiles, two honest peaceable gentlemen, repeatedly set together by the ears by lawyers of different denominations. Two fictitious names commonly used in law proceedings.
Noli-me-tangere, subs. phr.
(Scots').—1. The itch; the pox:
any disgusting contagious disease:
cf. scotch fiddle.
1626. Cockeram, Pt. 1. (2nd Ed.). Noli-me-tangere, The French disease.
1676. Coles, Eng. Dict. (1732) (Touch me not). . . . The French disease.
1728. Bailey, Eng. Dict., s.v.
1755. Johnson, Eng. Dict., s.v. Noli me tangere. A kind of cancerous swelling, exasperated by applications.
2. (old colloquial).—A repellant, person, attitude, or occurrence. Also as adj.—repellant, forbidding. [Lat. 'touch-me-not'.]
1591. Peele, Speeches, iii. [Works (1861) 579, 2]. Noli me tangere; I let go my hold and desire your majesty that you will hold yours.
c. 1630. R. Naunton, Frag. Reg. (1870) 18. He was wont to say of them that they were of the tribe of Dan, and were noli me tangere's.
1634. W. Wood, New England's Prosp., 22. The Porcupine is a small thing not unlike a Hedgehog; something bigger, who stands upon his guard and proclaims a noli me tangere, to man and beast that shall approach too neare him.
1692. Watson, Body of Div. (1858), 460. Herod could not brook to have his incest meddled with—that was a noli me tangere.
1791. C. Smith, Desmond, 1. 248 (1792). Every attempt at redress is silenced by the noli me tangere which our constitution has been made to say.
1806. Beresford, Miseries, 1. 219. Every dish, as it is brought in, carrying a noli me tangere on the face of it.
1817. Byron in Moore's Life (1875), 605. I used to think that I was a good deal of an Author in . . . noli me tangere.
1821. De Quincey, Confess. (1823,) 1. 29. A sort of Noli-me-tangere manner.
1828. Lytton, Pelham, iii. The noli me tangere of literary lions.
1832. Edin. Rev., lv. 520. Under less restraint from the noli me tangere etiquettes of conventional good breeding.
1877. Reade, Woman Hater, x. A trick of putting on noli me tangere faces amongst strangers.
Noll (or Nole), subs. (old).—The
head: see Crumpet.
c.1400. Arthur [E. E. T. S.], line 211. How darst now any wyse Azenst the Emperour nus aryse? And make kynge to be obey? nu art wood on the Nolle!
2. (old).—A simpleton.
1587. Higgins, Mir. for Mag. K. Chirinnus, 20 Brit. Bibl. (1814), iv. A drousy nole that lyes On drinke a sleepe so long, May pardon craue, although His tongue trip twifold wrong.
Old Noll, subs. (old).—See quot. 1696.
c.1696. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Nol Oliver. Old Nol, the late Vsurper, Cromwell.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
No-man's-land, subs. phr. (common).—Waste
ground; an unsettled
acreage; a barren or
broken stretch between two provinces
or kingdoms: cf. Tom
Tiddler's ground.
Nominate. See Poison.
Nommus. See Nammous.
Non-com, subs. (common).—A
non-commissioned officer.
1885. J. S. Winter, In Quarters, viii. Well-tipped quartermasters and their favourite tools among the non-coms.
Non-con, subs. phr. (old).—A
nonconformist: see quots. 1696
and 1823.
c.1696. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Non-con, one that don't conform to the Church of England.
