1853. Sidney, Three Colonies of Australia (2nd edit.), 171. One of the first acts of the Legislative Assemblies created by the Australian Reform Bill of 1850 was to pass . . . acts levelled against Van Diemonian expirees.
1855. Howitt, Two Years in Victoria, i. 367. Unquestionably some of the Van Diemenian convicts.
1863. Victorian Hansard, 22 April, ix. 701. Mr. Houston looked upon the conduct of hon. gentlemen opposite as ranging from the extreme of vandemonianism to the extreme of nambypambyism.
1867. Cassell's Magazine, 440. 'I never wanted to leave England,' I have heard an old Vandemonian observe boastfully. 'I wasn't like one of these "Jemmy Grants" (cant term for 'emigrants'); I could always earn a good living; it was the Government as took and sent me out.'
Van John, subs. phr. (colloquial).—A
corruption of Vingt-et-un,
Vanner, subs. (trade).—A van
horse: cf. Busser, Cabber,
Wheeler, etc.
1888. Referee, 8 Ap. [Advt.]. Twenty-five Welsh cobs, cabbers, and vanners.
Vantage, subs. (old printers').—Good
paying work, fat (q.v.):
a spec. colloquial usage of a
recognised word.
Vantage-loaf, subs. phr. (old
colloquial).—The thirteenth loaf
in a baker's-dozen (q.v.).
Vapour, subs. (old colloquial).—1.
In pl. = bluster, ostentatious
or windy talk, swagger (q.v.).
[The Roaring Boys (q.v.) of
Elizabethan times, to provoke a
quarrel, were wont flatly and
swaggeringly to contradict everything
said, even that to which
a bully had previously assented
(see Jonson, Bartholomew Fair,
iv. 3).] Hence as verb = to boast,
swagger, bully, with such derivatives
as vapoured, vapourer,
vapourising, vapourise, etc.
Also (2), in the eighteenth century,
a fashionable term for airs (q.v.),
side (q.v.): spec. an exaggerated
affectation of 'nerves' or blues
(q.v.): also (3) whims, fancies,
maggots (q.v.), and as verb = to
fuss, fidget, make to do (q.v.).
1552. Strype, Eccles. Mem. A vapouring sort (which that nation was then much addicted to).
1570. Camden, Hist. Elizabeth. A ruffian, a riotous spendthrift and a notable vapourer.
1614. Jonson, Bartholomew Fair, ii. Nay, then, pardon me my vapour. I have a foolish vapour, gentlemen: Any man that does vapour me the ass—I do vapour him the lie. Ibid. (1630), New Inn, iii. 1. Pierce. He's Barst's protection. Fly. Fights and vapours for him.
1628. Ford, Lover's Melancholy, iv. 2. He vapours like a tinker, and struts like a juggler.
1641. Milton, Apology for Smectymnus. His designe was, if he could not refute them, yet at least with quips and snapping adagies to vapour them out.
1660-9. Pepys, Diary, ii. 331. My Lord Berkeley hath all along been . . . one that is the greatest vapourer in the world.
1706. Vanbrugh, Mistake, iv. 1. Here, take thy satin pincushion, with thy curious half hundred of pins in't, thou madest such a vapouring about yesterday.
1748. Richardson, Clarissa, ii. xcvii. You will not wonder that the vapourishness which has laid hold of my heart should rise to my pen.
1749. Whiston, Memoirs, 18. I was become so vapoured and timorous at home that I was ready to faint away if I did but go a few stones'-cast from our own house.
1751. Fielding, Amelia, iii. 7. A man had better be plagued with all the curses of Egypt than with a vapourish wife.
1759-67. Sterne, Tristram Shandy, ix. 3. The corporal gave a slight flourish with his stick—but not vapouringly.
