ABSTRACT
IN the popular speech of many 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 simply for the sake of the punning allusion. The following list (I) gives those I have found in English by chance reading and by turning over the pages of dictionaries; the one that has been most fruitful for this purpose is F. Grose's Provincial Glossary (2nd ed. 1790), here quoted as 'Grose, Prov.\ while 'Grose, Vulg! means the same writer's Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (1785; I have also consulted the editions of 1788 and 1823).
