am., university or competitive examination; Gent., gentleman; the High, High Street, Oxford; I.G., Inspector-General; Jocks., jockeys; J. P., Justice of the Peace; Mem., memorandum or member; Mods., moderations (university); N.C.O., Non-Commissioned Officer; Nem. Con., nemine contradicente; O.C., Old Cheltonian (Cheltenham College); Ox., Oxford music-hall; Pav., Pavilion music-hall; Photo, photograph; Pops., popular concerts; P.R., the prize ring; Pub., or public, public-house; Pug., pugilist; Q.C., Queen's Counsel; Q.M.G., Quarter-Master-General; Rad., radical; Rep., representative; Sov., sovereign; Spec., speculation; Specs., spectacles; S.U.O., Senior Under-Officer (R.M. Academy); Tec., detective; Tol or tol lol, tolerable; Tram., tram-car; Typo., typographer or printer; Varsity, university; Vet., veterinary surgeon; Vice, Vice-Chancellor.
- Cab and bus, which were originally slang, have by dint of usage succeeded in establishing themselves in the language. In the novels of Charles Dickens they had already acquired a certain archaic flavour.
Abdar (Anglo-Indian), a teetotaller. In Hindostanee abdar signifies a water-carrier.
Abdeli (Anglo-Indian), a hypocrite, a canting preacher, a fastidious or false zealot.
Aberdeen cutlets (popular), cured or dried haddocks, or "haddies," as the Scotch term them.
Abiding (vagrants), "my abiding," generally refers to a temporary resting or hiding place, secure from capture. Abiding-by, hiding within call.
Abel had no friends, and as he was not considered to have an abiding-place, his being missed from one spot only led to the conclusion that he had gone to another.—Mrs. Crowe: Lilly Dawson.
Abigail (society), a lady's maid. More properly one of an ill temper, or tyrannical to her mistress.
Tyrrill, on entering his apartment, found that it was not lighted, nor were the abigails of Mrs. Dods quite so alert as a waiter at Longs'.—Sir Walter Scott: St. Ronan's Well.
- Old English writers first employed it as a cant word for a termagant woman, and afterwards for a female bigamist. It seems probable that having originally received its present signification from Abigail, who called herself the handmaiden of David, the word became synonymous for a lady's maid, in the same way that Job and Samson came to be applied respectively to a model of patience and to a man of herculean strength. It was used by Beaumont and Fletcher as the name of a handmaiden in their comedy of the "Scornful Lady," and must have been further popularised by the maiden
