ABSTRACT
In the popular speech of all nations are found instances of a peculiar class of round-about expressions, in which the speaker avoids the regular word, but hints at it in a covert way by using some other word, generally a proper name, which bears a resemblance to it or is derived from it, really or seemingly. The proper name used may be that of a place or of a person; it may be a name of real existence or one made only for the sake of the punning allusion. Thus in Danish to express that a person after receiving a hearty welcome at one place was cold-shouldered by somebody else the people will say: “han kom fra Hjeriing til Kolding”, Hjerting and Kolding being two towns in Jutland the names of which resemble the words hjerte (heart) and kold (cold). A swell (Dan. flot) is often called en flottenheimer as if from some imaginary German place called Flottenheim; “der er Tomas i pungen” means that the purse is empty (tom), etc. A German to avoid the word “er ist borniert” will say “Borneo ist sein vaterland”; instead of kotzen he will say “Kotzebue’s werke studieren”, etc. According to Mérimée (Colomba) in Corsica “se vouer a sainte Nega, c’est nier tout de parti pris” (negare), and the same idea is expressed in French by “prendre le chemin de Niort”. These examples1 will be sufficient to show the reader the nature of the following collection, which makes no pretensions either to completeness or to scientific value. I have simply arranged alphabetically what I have found by chance reading or by turning over the leaves of not a few dictionaries, the only thing really original being perhaps the explanation of a passage in King Lear, s. v. jakes. I have made extensive use of the “Collection of local proverbs and popular superstitions” found at the end of F. Grose’s Provincial Glossary (2d ed. 1790), qnoted in the list as G., while Grose, Vulg., means the same author’s Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (2d ed. 1788, the edition of 1823 being also consulted). I have made no efforts to ascertain which of the expressions are still current and which are obsolete.
