Slang and its analogues past and present, volume III (of 7)

2. (old).—The posteriors, or Western End (Marvell). Probably an abbreviation of fundament. For synonyms, see Blind Cheeks and Monocular Eye-glass.

1690. B. E., New Dict. of the Canting Crew. I’ll kick your fun, c., I’ll kick your arse.

1690. B. E., New Dict. of the Canting Crew. What do you fun me? Do you think to Sharp or Trick me? Ibid. He put the fun upon the cull, c., he sharp’d the Fellow. Ibid. I funn’d him, c., I was too hard for him; I outwitted or rook’d him.

To poke fun at, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To joke; to ridicule; to make a butt.

1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends, i., p. 280. O fie! Mister Noakes,—for shame, Mr. Noakes! To be poking your fun at us plain-dealing folks.

1855. Haliburton (‘Sam Slick’) Human Nature, p. 124. I thought you was pokin’ fun at me; for I am a poor ignorant farmer, and these people are always making game of me.

1865. Neal, Charcoal Sketches (in Bartlett). Jeames, if you don’t be quit poking fun at me, I’ll break your mouth, as sure as you sit there.

To have been making fun, verb. phr. (common).—Intoxicated. For synonyms, see Drinks and Screwed.

To have (or do) a bit of fun, verb. phr. (venery).—To procure or enjoy the sexual favour. For synonyms, see Greens.

Functior or Functure, subs. (Winchester College).—An iron bracket candlestick, used for the nightlight in college chambers. [The word, says Winchester Notions, looks like fulctura, an earlier form of fulture, meaning a prop or stay with phonetic change of l into n.]

1870. Mansfield, School Life at Winchester, p. 68. Beside the window yawned the great fireplace, with its dogs, on which rested the faggots and bars for the reception of the array of boilers. Above it was a rushlight, fixed in a circular iron pan fastened to a staple in the wall; it was called the functior.

Fundamental Features, subs. phr. (common).—The posteriors. For synonyms, see Blind Cheeks and Monocular Eye-glass.

1818. Moore, Fudge Family, ix., Aug. 21. O can we wonder, best of speechers, When Louis seated thus we see, That France’s ‘fundamental features’ Are much the same they used to be?

Funds, subs. (colloquial).—Finances; e.g. ‘my funds are very low.’ [87]

Funeral. It’s not my (or your) funeral, verb. phr. (American).—i.e., It is no business of mine, or yours. Fr., nib dans mes blots (= that is not my affair). Also used affirmatively.

1867. Mrs. Whitney, A Summer in Leslie Goldthwaite’s Life, p. 183. ‘It’s none of my funeral, I know, Sin Saxon,’ said Miss Craydocke. ‘I’m only an eleventh-hour helper; but I’ll come in for the holiday business … that’s more in my line.’

1871. De Vere, Americanisms, p. 239. This is none of your funeral is heard quite frequently as an indirect rebuke for intermeddling, with the ludicrous undercurrent of thought, that the troublesome meddler has no right to be crying at a strange man’s funeral.

1877. Hartford Times, 17 Oct. Senators Blaine and Barnum passed down to New York, en route to Washington, on Wednesday last, when Barnum asked Blaine how he liked the news from Ohio. ‘Oh, that isn’t my funeral, I want you to understand,’ replied the plucky Maine Senator.

1888. Missouri Republican, 8 Apr. After a lot of slides had been exhibited the audience howled for Miss Debar. It got so noisy that Mr. Marsh reluctantly exclaimed—‘Well, is this your funeral or mine?’

Fungus, subs. (old).—An old man.

Funk, subs. (old).—1. Tobacco smoke; also a powerful stink. Cf., Ger., funke; Walloon funki.

1690. B. E., New Dict. of the Canting Crew. What a funk here is! What a thick smoke. Smoak of Tobacco is here! Ibid. Here’s a damn’d funk, here’s a great stink.

2. (vulgar).—A state of fear; trepidation, nervousness, or cowardice; a stew (q.v.). Generally, with an intensitive, e.g., a ‘mortal,’ ‘awful,’ ‘bloody,’ ‘blue,’ or ‘pissing’ funk. Fr., la guenette; le flubart (thieves’); la frousse (also = diarrhœa). It., filo = thread.

1796. Wolcott, Pindarina, p. 59. If they find no brandy to get drunk, Their souls are in a miserable funk.

1837. Barham, I. L., Look at the Clock, ed. 1862, p. 39. Pryce, usually brimful of valour when drunk, Now experienced what schoolboys denominate funk.

1848. Ruxton, Life in the Far West, p. 9. The mules, which was a-snorting with funk and running before the Injuns … followed her right into the corral, and thar they was safe.

1850. Literary World (New York), 30 Nov. So my friend’s fault is timidity.… I grant, then, that the funk is sublime, which is a true and friendly admission.

1856. Thomas Hughes, Tom Brown’s School-days, p. 196. If I was going to be flogged next minute, I should be in a blue funk.

1859. Whitty, Political Portraits, p. 30. Lord Clarendon did not get through the business without these failures, which result from the intellectual process termed freely funk.

1861. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxford, ch. xxxvi. I was in a real blue funk and no mistake.

1870. London Figaro, 19 Oct. After the Fire. He was in a mortal funk, no doubt.

1871. Maxwell, in Life (1882), xvi., 382. Certainly χλωρὸν θéος is the Homeric for a blue funk.

1888. Cassell’s Saturday Journal, 29 Dec., p. 305. You’re always in a funk about nothing at all.

1882. F. Anstey, Vice Versâ, ch. v. Bosher said, ‘Let’s cut it,’ and he and Peebles bolted. (They were neither of them funks, of course, but they lost their heads.)

1720. Durfey, Wit and Mirth, vi., 303. With a sober dose Of coffee funks his nose.

1578. Grose, Vulg. Tongue. funk, to smoke, figuratively to smoke or stink through fear.

1823. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, ii., 2. Tom. But, I say, only see how confoundedly the dustman’s getting hold of Logic—we’ll funk him. (Tom and Jerry smoke Logic), Log. Oh, hang your cigars, I don’t like it; let’s have no funking.

1841. Punch, I., p. 172. Look here … isn’t it considerable clear they’re a all funking like burnt cayenne in a clay pipe, or couldn’t they have made a raise somehow to get a ship of their own, or borrow one to send after that caged-up coon of a Macleod.

1858. A. Mayhew, Paved with Gold, Bk. III., ch. vi., p. 294. Perhaps we’re only funking ourselves useless, and it mayn’t be the farm chaps at all.

3. (colloquial).—To fear; to hesitate; to shirk; and (among pugilists) to come it (q.v.).

1836. Smith, The Individual, ‘The Thieves’ Chaunt.’ But dearer to me Sue’s kisses far Than grunting peck or other grub are, And I never funk the lambskin men When I sits with her in the boozing ken.

1846. Punch, X., p. 163. But as yet no nose is bleeding, As yet no man is down; For the gownsmen funk the townsmen, And the townsmen funk the gown.

1848. J. R. Lowell, Biglow Papers. To funk right out o’ p’lit’cal strife ain’t thought to be the thing.

1873. M. Collins, Squire Silchester’s Whim, ch. xvii. Come along! don’t funk it, old fellow.

English Synonyms.—To come it; to lose one’s guts; to shit one’s breeches; to get the needle (athletic).

French Synonyms.—Paniquer (thieves’: Panique = sudden fright); blaguer (familiar: = to swagger: Il avait l’air de blaguer mais il n’était pas à la noce = he put on a lot of side, but he didn’t like it); avec la cœur en gargousse (sailors’ = with sinking heart); avoir une fluxion (popular: fluxion = inflammation); avoir la flemme (popular: also = to be idle); avoir le trac or trak (general); foirer (popular: foire = excrement); léziner (popular: also = to cheat).

1827. ‘Advice to Tommy,’ Every Night Book (by the author of ‘The Cigar’). Do not go out of your depth, unless you have available assistance at hand, in case you should funk.

1856. Hughes, Tom Brown’s School Days, ii., p. 5. He’s funking; go in Williams!

1857. Moncrieff, The Bashful Man, ii., 4. Ah! Gyp, hope I sha’n’t get plucked; funk confoundedly: no matter, I must put a bold face on it.

1857. Hood, Pen and Pencil Pictures, p. 144. I have seen him out with the governor’s hounds: he funked at the first hedge, and I never saw him again!

1863. Reade, Hard Cash, ii., p. 135. I told him I hadn’t a notion of what he meant! ‘O yes I did,’ he said, ‘Captain Dodd’s fourteen thousand pounds! It had passed through my hands.’ Then I began to funk again at his knowing that.… I was flustered, ye see.

1865. H. Kingsley, The Hillyars and the Burtons, ch. xxxiii. The sound of the table falling was the signal for a [89]rush of four men from the inner room, who had to use a vulgar expression, funked following the valiant scoundrel Sykes, but who now tried to make their escape, and found themselves hand to hand with the policemen.

1871. Morning Advertiser, 11 Sept. ‘Holy Abr’ham!’ mused he vauntingly, ‘shall British sailors funk, While tracts refresh their spirits, tea washes down their junk?’

1890. Pall Mall Gazette, 17 Oct. p. 2, col. 1. They wanted badly to get one steamer loaded and sent to New Zealand. The non-union men funked loading her on account of the union men.

1891. Licensed Vict. Gazette, 13 Feb. Smith’s friends thought he was funking, and shouted to Tom to go in and punch him.

5. (schoolboys’).—To move the hand forward unfairly in playing marbles; to fudge (q.v.).

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum. Funk, to use an unfair motion of the hand in plumping at taw.

1851–61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, i., p. 144. I’ve noticed them, too, playing at ring-taw, and one of their exclamations is ‘Knuckle down fair, and no funking.’

To funk the cobbler, verb. phr. (schoolboys’).—To smoke out a schoolmate: a trick performed with asafœtida and cotton stuffed into a hollow tube or cow’s horn; the cotton being lighted, the smoke is blown through the keyhole.

1698–1700. Ward, London Spy, Pt. IX., p. 197. We smoak’d the Beans almost as bad as unlucky schoolboys us’d to do the coblers, till they sneak’d off one by one, and left behind ’em more agreeable Company.

Funker, subs. (old).—1. A pipe; a cigar; a fire. [From funk = to smoke + er.]

1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, or Rogue’s Lexicon. Funkers, the very lowest order of thieves.

Funking-room, subs. (medical).—The room at the Royal College of Surgeons where the students collect on the last evening of their final during the addition of their marks, and whence each is summoned by an official announcing failure or success.

1841. Punch, I., p. 225, col. 2. On the top of a staircase he enters a room, wherein the partners of his misery are collected. It is a long, narrow apartment, commonly known as the funking-room.

Funkster, subs. (Winchester College).—A coward; one that funks (q.v.).

Funky, adj. (colloquial).—Nervous; frightened; timid.

1863. C. Reade, Hard Cash, I., 143. On his retiring with twenty-five, scored in eight minutes, the remaining Barkingtonians were less funky, and made some fair scores.

1876. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheapjack, p. 237. The second round commences with a little cautious sparring on both sides, the bouncing Elias looking very funky.

1891. Hume Nisbet, Bail Up! p. 51. ‘I’ll noy funky,’ returned the Chinaman impressively.

Funnel, subs. (common).—The throat. For synonyms, see Gutter Alley. [90]

1712. Blackmore, Creation, Bk. VI. Some the long funnel’s curious mouth extend, Through which the ingested meats with ease descend.

Funniment, subs. (colloquial).—1. A joke, either practical or verbal.

Funny, subs. (nautical).—A clinker-built, narrow boat for sculls.

1837. Barham, I. L., Sir Rupert the Fearless. Sprang up through the waves, popped him into his funny, Which some others already had half-filled with money.

1882. Field, 28 Jan. The only obtainable craft, besides funnies, pair-oars, and randans, were a couple of six-oars.

To feel funny, verb. phr. (common).—To be overtaken with (1) emotion, or (2) drink: e.g., to wax amorous, or get the flavour (q.v.); to begin to be the worse for liquor.

Funny Bit, subs. phr. (venery).—The female pudendum.

Funny Bone, subs. (popular).—The elbow, with the passage of the ulnar nerve connecting the two bones: the extremity of the humerus.

1837. Barham, I. L. (Blondie Jacke). They have pull’d you down flat on your back! And they smack, and they thwack, Till your funny bones crack, As if you were stretch’d on the rack.

1853. Thackeray, ‘Shabby Genteel Story,’ ch. ix. He had merely received a blow on that part which anatomists call the funny bone.

1870. Lowell Courier. Thanks for your kind condolence; I would write A merry rhyme in answer if I might; But then—confound the fall!—the very stone That broke my humerus hurt my funny bone!

Funny-man, subs. (common).—A circus clown. Also a joker in private life.

1851–61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor., III., p. 129. What I’ve earned as clown, or the funny man.

Fur, subs. (venery).—The pubic hair. For synonyms, see Fleece.

To have one’s fur out, verb. phr. (Winchester College).—To be angry. For synonyms, see Nab the rust.

Fur and Feathers, subs. phr. (sporting).—Generic for game.

Fur-below, subs. (venery).—The female pubic hair. For synonyms, see Fleece.

16(?). Old Catch. Adam caught Eve by the fur-below, And that’s the oldest catch I know.

Furioso, subs. (old).—A blusterer; Ital., furioso = raving.

1692. Hacket. Life of Archbishop Williams, ii., p. 218. A violent man and a furioso was deaf to all this.

English Synonyms.—Barker; blower; bobadil; bouncer; bulldozer (American); cacafogo; Captain Bounce; Captain Bluff; Captain Grand; Captain Hackam; cutter; fire-eater; hector; huff-cap; humguffin; gasser; gasman; mouth; mouth-almighty; pissfire; pump-thunder; ramper; roarer; ruffler; shitefire; slangwhanger; spitfire; swashbuckler; swasher; teazer; Timothy Tearcat.

French Synonyms.—Un avale-tout-cru (popular: = an eat-all-he-kills); un fendart or fendart [91](popular: = a cutter); un avaleur de charrettes fereés (popular); un mata (printers’: from matador = a bull-fighter); un bousineur (popular: bousin = uproar, shindy); un bourreau de crânes (military): = a scull-destroyer; un bœufier (popular: = an ugly customer); un mauvais gas (familiar: from garçon); un homme qui a l’air de vouloir tout avaler (familiar: a man who looks as though he’d swallow the world); un croquet (popular).

Spanish Synonyms.—Perdonavidas; fierabras (fiera = a wild beast); botarate; macareno cacafuoco (= a shitfire).

Furk, Ferk, Firk, verb. (Winchester College).—To expel; to send (as on a message); to drive away. Also to furk up and furk down. [Old English fercian, High German ferken, Middle English to lead or send away.]

Furmen, subs. (old).—Aldermen. From their fur-trimmed robes.

Furmity-faced, adj. phr. (old).—White-faced (furmity is described by Grose as ‘wheat boiled to a jelly’). To simper like a furmity kitten (Grose), see Simper.

Furnish, verb. (common).—To fill out; to improve in strength and appearance.

Furniture Picture, subs. phr. (artists’).—A ‘picture’ sold not as a piece of art but as a piece of upholstery, such things being turned out by the score, as pianos are, or three-legged stools; the worst and cheapest kind of potboiler (q.v.).

Furrow, subs. (venery). Also Cupid’s (or the One-ended) furrow, etc.—The female pudendum. For synonyms, see Monosyllable. To draw a straight furrow. See Draw.

To fail (or die) in the furrow, verb. phr. (venery).—To do a dry-bob (q.v.).

Furry Tail, subs. phr. (printers’).—A non-unionist; a rat (q.v.). Specifically, a workman accepting employment at less than ‘Society’ wages. Cf., Dung, Flint, etc.

Further. I’ll see you further first, phr. (colloquial).—A denial. I’ll sooner die first (q.v.).

1861–61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, i., p. 29. I gave a country lad 2d. to mind him (the donkey) in a green lane there. I wanted my own boy to do so, but he said, I’ll see you further first. A London boy hates being by himself in a lone country part. He’s afraid of being burked.

Fur Trade, subs. phr. (old).—Barristers.

1839. Reynolds, Pickwick Abroad, ch. xxvi. Let nobs in the fur trade hold their jaw, And let the jug be free.

Furze-Bush, subs. phr. (venery).—The female pubic hair. For synonyms, see fleece. [92]

Fussock, and Fussocks, subs. (old).—Opprobrious for a fat woman.

1690. B. E., New Dict. of the Canting Crew. Fussocks, a meer fussocks, a Lazy Fat-Arsed Wench, a fat fussocks, a Flusom, Fat, Strapping Woman.

Fust (or Fust out), verb. (American).—To end in smoke; to go to waste; to end in nothing. Cf., fizzle.

Fustian, subs. and adj. (old).—1. Bombast; bad rhetoric; sound without sense: bombastic; ranting. Now accepted.

1598. Shakspeare, 2 Henry IV., II., 4. Thrust him downstairs; I cannot endure such a fustian rascal.

1602. Shakspeare, Othello, II., 3. And discourse fustian with one’s own shadow.

1690. B. E., New Dict. of the Canting Crew. Fustian-verse, verse in words of lofty sound and humble sense.

1828–45. Hood, Poems, i., p. 105 (ed. 1846). The saints!—the bigots that in public spout, Spread phosphorous of zeal on scraps of fustian, And go like walking ‘Lucifers’ about These living bundles of combustion.

1834. W. H. Ainsworth, Rookwood, p. 51 (ed. 1864). I’m as dry as a sandbed. Famous wine this—beautiful tipple—better than all your red fustian. Ah, how poor Sir Piers used to like it!

Fustilarian, subs. (old).—A low fellow; a common scoundrel.

1598. Shakspeare, 2 Henry IV., II., 1. Away, you scullion! you rampallian! you fustilarian! I’ll tickle your catastrophe.

Fustilug (or Fustilugs), subs. (old).—A piece of grossness, male or female; a coarse and dirty Blowzalinda; a foul slut; a fat stinkard.

1690. B. E., New Dict. of the Canting Crew. Fustiluggs, a Fulsom, Beastly, Nasty Woman.

1739. Junius (quoted in Encly. Dict.). You may daily see such fustilugs walking in the streets, like so many tuns.

Futter, verb. (venery).—To copulate. Fr., foutre. [A coinage of Sir. R. Burton’s, who makes continual use of it in the Thousand Nights and a Night.] For synonyms, see Greens and Ride. Also to do a futter.

1885. Burton, Thousand Nights, II., 332. Eating and drinking and futtering for a year of full twelve months.

Future, to deal in futures, verb. phr. (Stock Exchange).—To speculate for a rise or fall.

1862. Globe, 1 Dec. He deals in futures, i.e., speculates in cotton with Stock Exchange folks, or speculates in securities.

Fuzz, verb. (old).—1. ‘To shuffle cards minutely; also to change the pack.’ [Grose.]

Fuzziness, subs. (old).—The condition of being in drink. Hence blurredness; incoherence; bewilderment.

Fuzzy, adj. (common).—1. Drunk. For synonyms, see Drinks and Screwed. Hence blurred (as a picture); tangled; incoherent or inconsequent.

1876. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 324. Her husband or any other man might have drunk six glasses, with no more hurt than just making him a little fuzzy.

2. (popular).—Rough; as in a fuzzy head; a fuzzy cloth; a fuzzy bit (= a full-grown wench); a fuzzy carpet; etc.

Fuzzy-wuzzy, subs. (military). A Soudanese tribesman.

1890. Rudyard Kipling, National Observer, 8 Mar., p. 438, col. 1. So ’ere’s to you Fuzzy-wuzzy And your ’ome in the Soudan, You’re a pore benighted ’eathen but a first-class fighting man; And ’ere’s to you Fuzzy-wuzzy with your ’ay-rick ’ead of ’air, You big, black bouncing beggar, for you bruk a British square.

Fye-buck, subs. (old).—A sixpence. For synonyms, see Bender.

1781. G. Parker, View of Society, II., 56. You give a shilling to buy a comb, for which he gives sixpence, so works you for another fye-buck.

1885. Household Words, 20 June, p. 155. ‘Buck’ is most likely a corruption of fye-buck, a slang name for sixpence, which is now almost, if not altogether, obsolete.

Fylche.—See Filch.

Fyst.—See Foist.