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Town. World English Historical Dictionary

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Town. World English Historical Dictionary Dictionary Biographies Literary Criticism Welcome Terms of Service ⧏ Previous Next ⧐ Bibliographic Record Farmer’s Slang & Its Analogues. 1890–1909, rev. 2022. Town subs. (old colloquial).—1.  London: e.g., ‘I go to (or leave) TOWN to-morrow’; ‘So-and-so is in TOWN: cf. LANE, HOUSE, ALLEY, etc.: whence MAN ABOUT TOWN (see PHRASES).

1   1601.  SHAKESPEARE, Henry VIII., The Prologue.                            As you are known The first and happiest hearers of the TOWN.

2   1607.  DEKKER and WEBSTER, Westward Ho! iii. 1. Ten. Why, I know not when he will come to TOWN. Mist Ten. He’s in TOWN; this night he sups at the Lion in Shoreditch.

3   1648.  Journals of the House of Commons, v. 545. That a Letter be directed to the Vice Admiral, to desire him to suffer Prince Philip, Brother to the Prince Elector, to come to TOWN, and visit his Brother.

4   1711.  ADDISON, The Spectator, No. 2, 2 March. A baronet … sir Roger de Coverley…. When he is in TOWN he lives in Soho-square.

5   c. 1825.  JENKINSON [DAVIES: Bp. Jenkinson of St. David’s (1825–40) offered a curate in his diocese a living, and desired him to come to town to be instituted. The curate expressed every willingness to obey the command, but added that his Lordship had omitted to mention the name of the town where his presence was required.]

6   2.  (university and schools’).—Townspeople, as distinguished from GOWN (q.v.) = the members of the University. [In early days Universities were subject to perpetual conflict—with the TOWN, the Jews, the Friars, and the Papal Court: see quot. 1853.] Also TOWNSMAN and (Cambridge) TOWNEE (or TOWNER): Ger. Philister. TOWN-LOUT (Rugby) = a scholar residing in the town with his parents, and TOWNEY (Christ’s Hospital) = (1) the antithesis of ‘housey,’ that is peculiar to the Hospital: whence (spec.) TOWNEYS = clothes more in accordance with modern taste for town wear than is the distinctive BLUE habit; also (2) a comrade from the same town or locality (army): Fr. pays.

7   1846.  Punch, x. 163. 1, ‘The Fight of the Crescent.’        For the gownsmen funk the TOWNSMEN,   And the TOWNSMEN funk the gown.

8   1853.  REV. E. BRADLEY (‘Cuthbert Bede’), The Adventures of Mr. Verdant Green, an Oxford Freshman, II. iii., Note. TOWN and Gown disturbances [date back to] 1238. They not unfrequently terminated fatally to some of the combatants: on St. Scholastica the Virgin, February 10th, 1345, several lives were lost on either side. Grostête, the Bishop [Lincoln], placed the townspeople under an interdict, [which lasted] till 1357, when the mayor and sixty of the chief burgesses were required every anniversary to attend St. Mary’s Church and offer up mass for the souls of the slain scholars, and individually present an offering of one penny at the high altar, besides a yearly fine of 100 marks to the University, with the penalty of an additional fine of the same sum for every omission in attending at St. Mary’s. This fell into abeyance at the Reformation. In 15 Eliz., however, the University claimed arrears, and it was decided that the town should continue the annual fine and penance, though the arrears were forgiven. The fine was yearly paid on the 10th of February until put an end to by Convocation in the year 1825.

9   1887.  The Blue, Nov. Mention is made of the time when a boy leaves the School. The consequent change of dress might be vulgarly expressed by ‘exchanging Houseys for TOWNEYS.’

10   1899.  A. HEYWOOD, A Guide to Oxford. TOWN and gown rows … nowadays … are happily unknown.

11   PHRASES, ETC.—TO COME TO TOWN = (1) to become common, and (2) to be born; ON THE TOWN = (1) getting a living by prostitution, thieving, or the like, and (2) in the swing of pleasure, dissipation, etc., London (see subs. 1) being regarded as the centre of national life; TO GO (or TAKE A TURN) ROUND THE TOWN = to seek amusement, spec. at night and by a round of ‘the halls’; A MAN (or WOMAN) OF THE TOWN = a person whose living, occupation, or taste is more or less connected with the shady or ‘fast’ side of life (GROSE); TO PAINT THE TOWN RED (see RED); IN TOWN (BEE) = in funds; OUT OF TOWN = hard up, penniless.

12   1593.  NASHE, Works (GROSART), ii. 283. [NASHE] I knew a MAN ABOUT TOWN.

13   1600.  MS., ‘The Newe Metamorphosis.’        This first was court-like, nowe ’tis COME TO TOWNE; ’Tis common growne with every country clowne.

14   1640–50.  HOWELL, Familiar Letters, ii. 89. [Howell calls himself] a YOUTH ABOUT THE TOWN.

15   1672.  WYCHERLEY, Love in a Wood, ii. 1. Ran. [A Man] may bring his bashful Wench, and not have her put out of Countenance by the impudent honest WOMEN OF THE TOWN.

16   1686–7.  AUBREY, Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme (1881), 163. The TOWNE is full of wanton wenches, and … (they say) scarce three honest women in the TOWN.

17   d. 1704.  T. BROWN, Dialogues of the Dead [Works, ii. 313]. I have been a MAN OF THE TOWN … and admitted into the family of the rakehellonians.

18   1766.  GOLDSMITH, The Vicar of Wakefield, xx. The lady was only a WOMAN OF THE TOWN, and the fellow her bully and a sharper.

19   1823.  BADCOCK (‘Jon Bee’), Dictionary of the Turf, etc., s.v. Highflyers—WOMEN OF THE TOWN, in keeping.

20   1823.  BYRON, Don Juan, xi. 17.        Poor Tom was once a KIDDY UPON TOWN,   A thorough varmint and a real swell.

21   1842.  P. EGAN, Captain Macheath, ‘Jack Flashman.’        Jack long was ON THE TOWN, a teazer; A spicy blade for wedge or sneezer; Could turn his fives to anything, Nap a reader, or filch a ring.

22   1900.  GRIFFITHS, Fast and Loose, xxii. He … aspired more and more to be thought a tip-top swell, a fashionable MAN ABOUT TOWN.

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