See Spank.
Spark, subs. (old).—1. A dandy: masc. or fem.: also sparkle; (2) a lover, and spec. (American) a sweetheart; and (3) a man or woman of pluck and parts. As verb. = to court, to gallant, e.g., to spark a girl, or to spark a girl home. Sparkish = (1) spirited: also sparkful and sparky; and (2) = showy, dandified, gay (B. E. and Grose).
1362. Langland, Piers Plowman [Skeat], C. xxi. 12. Sprakliche he lokede.
[?]. Robin Hood [Child, Ballads, v. 358]. Robbin Hood upon him set With his couragious sparkes.
1601. Jonson, Poetaster, i. 1. Thy son's a gallant spark, and must not be put out of a sudden.
1605. Camden, Remains, 'Languages.' Hitherto will our sparkefull youth laugh at their great grandfather's English.
1612. Chapman, Widow's Tears, i. I will wed thee To my great widdowes daughter and sole heire, The lovely sparke, the bright Laodice.
1632. Massinger [?], City Madam, iv. 2. Shew yourself city-sparks, and hang up money.
1633. Marmion, Antiquary, i. What pretty sparkle of humanity have we here?
d. 1643. Cartwright, Ordinary, iii. 5. Save you, boon sparks! Will't please you to admit me.
[?]. Bishop, Marrow of Astrology, 55. When Venus is ill-placed she inclines men to be . . . lustful, followers of wenches . . . a fantastic spark . . . coveting unlawful beds . . .; if a woman, very impudent in all her ways.
1654. Webster, Appius and Virginia [Dodsley, Old Plays (Hazlitt), iv. 112]. But stay: behold the peerless sparks, whereof my tongue did talk.
1662. Pepys, Diary, 7 Sep. Here I also saw Madame Castlemaine, and . . . the King's bastard, a most pretty sparke.
1675. Wycherley, Country Wife, iv. 2. I have been detained by a sparkish coxcomb.
1687. Brown, Works, I. 94, 'The Saints in an Uproar.' Those old-fashioned sparks yonder.
1692. Lestrange, Æsop [Century]. A daw, to be sparkish, trick'd himself up with all the gay feathers he could muster.
1693. Dryden, Love Triumph, Prol. 24. No double entendres, which you sparks allow, To make the ladies look—they know not how.
1709. Ward, Works, I. v. 6. Some Associate who . . . will very readily swear she is both a Whore and a Pick-*pocket, which terrible Accusation soon frights away her Spark. Ibid. (1711), Don Quixote, 10. The gay Damsel that is taught, By some loose Spark to know what's what.
1749. Fielding, Hist. Foundling, VIII. ii. I'd rather have the soldiers than officers; for nothing is ever good enough for those sparks.
1773. Goldsmith, She Stoops, &c., iii. Fly to your spark; he'll tell you more of the matter.
1777. Sheridan, School for Scandal, i. 2. Their worthy father . . . was . . . nearly as wild a spark.
1801. Dibdin, Il Bondocani, iii. 3. None of your wishy-washy sparks that mince their steps.
1820. Irving, Sketch Book, 432. A sure sign that his master was courting, or as it is termed sparking.
1832. Longstreet, Southern Sketches, 120. Some think I ought to get married, and two or three have tried to spark it with me.
1840. Barham, Ingoldsby Leg., 'St. Gengulphus.' A spruce young spark of a Learned Clerk Had called on his Lady, and stopped to tea.
1844. Thackeray, Barry Lyndon, i. The company of . . . two or three other young sparks of the town.
1846. Kirkland, West. Clearings, 16. That was the way young men cast sheep's eyes when they went a sparking.
1888. Eggleston, Graysons, xxxiii. The boys that do a good deal of sparking, and the girls that have a lot of beaux don't always get married first.
1897. Marshall, Pomes, 48. He found her at supper with some other sparks.
