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Brewer's: Jay
(A). A wanton. “This jay of Italy ... hath betrayed him.” —Shakespeare: Othello, v. 2. Jay A plunger; one who spends his money recklessly; a simpleton. This is simply the letter J, the…Brewer's: Jess
(pl. Jesses). A short strap of leather tied about the legs of a hawk to hold it on the fist, Hence a bond of affection, etc. If I prove her haggard, Though that ber jesses were my dear…Brewer's: Caora
A river, on the banks of which are a people whose heads grow beneath their shoulders. Their eyes are in their shoulders, and their mouths in the middle of their breasts. (Hakluyt: Voyages…Brewer's: Coloquintida
or Colocynth. Bitterapple or colocynth. (Greek, kolokunthis.) “The food that to him now is luscious as locusts, shall be to him shortly as bitter as coloquintida.” —Shakespeare: Othello,…Brewer's: Ice-brook
A sword of ice-brook temper. Of the very best quality. The Spaniards used to plunge their swords and other weapons, while hot from the forge, into the brook Salo [Xalon], near Bilbilis, in…Brewer's: Ill-starred
Unlucky; fated to be unfortunate. Othello says of Desdemona, “O ill-starred wench!” Of course, the allusion is to the astrological dogma that the stars influence the fortunes of mankind. “…Brewer's: Demerit
has reversed its original meaning (Latin, demereo, to merit, to deserve). Hence Plautus, Demertas dare laudas (to accord due praise); Ovid, Numina culta demeruisse; Livy, dernerèri…Brewer's: Small Beer
“To suckle fools and chronicle small beer.” (Iago in the play of Othello, ii. 1.) He does not think small beer of himself. He has a very good opinion of number one. “To express her self-…Brewer's: Smelling Sin
Shakespeare says, “Do you smell a fault?” (King Lear, i. 1); and Iago says to Othello, “One may smell in this a will most rank.” Probably the smell of dogs may have something to do with…Brewer's: Hip! Hip! Hurrah!
Hip is said to be a notarica, composed of the initial letters of Hicrosolyma Est Perdita. Henri van Laun says, in Notes and Queries, that whenever the German knights headed a Jew-hunt in…Trending
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