Heading
Family-plate, subs. (common).—Silver money. For synonyms, see Actual and Gilt.
Family-pound, subs. (common).—A
family grave.
Fam-lay, subs. (thieves').—Shop-lifting.
[From fam, a hand +
LAY, a performance.]
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, or Rogue's Lexicon, s.v.
Fam-snatchers, subs. (old).—Gloves.
Cf., Fambling-cheat.
c. 1824. Pierce Egan, Finish to Life in London. To Jerry Hawthorn, Esq., I resign my fam-snatchers, i.e., my gloves.
Fam-squeeze, subs. (old).—Strangulation.
Fam-struck, adj. and adv.
(thieves').—Baffled in ascertaining
the whereabouts of valuables on
the person of an intended victim;
also handcuffed.
Fan, subs. (thieves').—A waistcoat;
said by Hotten (1864) to
be a Houndsditch term, but
quoted in Matsell (1859) as
American.
English Synonyms.—Ben; benjie; M.B. waistcoat; Charley Prescot.
French Synonyms.—Un gilmont (thieves'); un georget (popular: = a breast-plate); un casimir (popular); une camisole (popular: properly, a kind of petticoat-bodice worn by women); un croisant (popular).
German Synonyms.—Brust-*malbisch; Kreuzspanne (Hanoverian); Nefesch (Ave-Lallement suggests identity with the Fischness of Zimmermann, a word said to be derived from the English 'fashion.' Probably, however, the true etymon is the Hebrew nephesch, in allusion to a waistcoat covering the chest and heart, the seat of life. German ladies call a scarf or shawl [which protects the same region] Seelen-*wärmer; i.e., a soul-warmer); Zwängerling ( = fitting closely to the body; cf., Weitling, Hanoverian Weitchen, the trousers = wide).
1857. Snowden, Mag. Assistant, 3rd ed., p. 444, s.v.
Verb (old).—1. To beat; to be-rate. For synonyms, see Baste and Tan.
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue. I fannd him sweetly, I beat him heartily.
1887. W. O. Tristram, in Eng. Ill. Mag., v., 228. The coachman now has recourse to all the dark arts of persuasion and the whip, fanning them, which, in the tongue of coachmen, is whipping them.
2. (thieves').—To feel; to handle (with a view to ascertain if a victim has anything valuable about his person). [Cf. Fam, of which it is possibly a corruption.] Also to steal from the person.
1851-1861. H. Mayhew, Lon. Lab. and Lon. Poor, IV., 319. Before Joe said anything to me, he had fanned the gentleman's pocket, i.e., had felt the pocket and knew there was a handkerchief.
Queen Anne's Fan.—See
Anne's Fan.
Fancy, subs. (old).—The fraternity
of pugilists: prize-fighting being
once regarded as THE FANCY
par excellence. Hence, by implication,
people who cultivate a
special hobby or taste. Cf.,
Fancy-bloke.
1818. P. Egan, Boxiana, vol. I., p. 355. The various gradations of the Fancy hither
