name Abigail Hill of Mrs. Masham, waiting-woman to Queen Anne. It appears to have been adopted by many authors.
Whereas they petition to be freed from any obligation to marry the chamber-maid, we can by no means assent to it; the Abigail, by immemorial custom, being a deodand, and belonging to holy Church.—Reply to Ladies' and Bachelors' Petition, 1694.
By coach to the king's play-house, and there saw "The Scornful Lady" well acted; Doll Common doing Abigail most excellently.—Pepys' Diary.
- There are many other instances of the names of characters of comedies or novels having been adopted to denote a whole class of individuals. Thus, an inn-keeper is called Boniface, from Farquhar's "Beaux' Stratagem." A Bob Acres, from Sheridan's "The Rivals," is synonymous with a coward. The French apply to a swindler the name of Robert Macaire, immortalised by Frédéric Lemaitre in his impersonation of the character in the melodrama "l'Auberge des Adrets"—Robert Macaire, by the bye, was the name of a notorious bandit. One of the creations of Balzac, in his "Comédie Humaine," l'lllustre Gaudissard, has provided an epithet for a commercial traveller; and the French use Abigail with the same signification as on this side of the Channel.
On vit paraître une superbe berline, forme anglaise, à quatre chevaux, remarquable surtout par deux très jolies abigaīls, qui étaient juchées sur le siège du cocher.—Brillat-Savarin: Physiologie du Goût.
- Dr. C. Mackay, alluding to the generally accepted derivation of the word, says, "This supposition may, or may not be correct; but it is curious to remark that in the ancient Breton and Gaelic language, abhagail signifies flippant, waspish, and snappish, which word is derived from abhag, a terrier, a snarling dog."
Abishag (thieves), the illegitimate child of a mother who has been seduced by a married man. In Hebrew it means the mother's error.
Walpole wrote—"I love David too well not to be jealous of an Abishag eight years old."—Leigh Hunt's Indicator.
Able-whackets (nautical), a popular sea-game with cards, wherein the loser is beaten over the palms of the hands with a handkerchief tightly twisted like a rope. It is very popular among sailors. French soldiers have a similar game, at least as regards the penalty, termed "foutro."—Vide Barrère's Argot and Slang.
Abnormity (vulgarism), "a bleeding abnormity," an opprobrious epithet applied to the treacherous and deceitful; a person of crooked ways, an informer, a deformed or humpbacked person. Abnormeth was formerly used in a similar sense.
