116
NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. m. FEB. 10, 1917.
from such words as " roadway." " Hall-
way," too, is tolerated, but our " railway "
is tabooed. The front garden of a small
house in a row or terrace is in the States a
" dooryard." A gasometer is a " gas-tank."
A market garden is a " truck-farm," and its
proprietor a " truck- raiser." There are
persons in New York, as in London, who hire
a dress suit when the occasion requires them
to keep up an appearance. But they call
it a " rented," not a " hired " suit. Why
people possessed by a passion for clipping
sentences should prefer " automobile " to
" motor," I do not know. Even the spelling
must be different, so pyjamas are " pajamas,"
vendor is " vender," and all words like
" centre " are spelt " center," &c.
PENRY LEWIS.
MR. THORNTON, at the penultimate refer- ence, says : "Canadians within the last thirty years have learned to ' talk American.' " It is difficult for Englishmen, even of the authority of MR. THORNTON, to realize that what is now the Province of Ontario was settled mainly from New York and Penn- sylvania, and that the American dialect, which was honestly come by, is rather a disappearing factor than a recent acquisition. There was very little British immigration into Canada before the days of steamships. The great influx from Britain was after 1845. No doubt a great many old British locutions subsist here which have dis- appeared at home, and I fancy that quite a number are surviving here which are no longer to be found in the American States from which they were brought.
AVERN PARDOE.
Legislative Library, Toronto.
The word " cracket," for a low wooden stool, is in common use on Tyneside. See Brockett's ' Glossary,' and Heslop, ' Northumberland, &c , Words ' ; the latter gives it as a stool without legs. In this town, however, it is made of an oblong piece of wood with a piece at right angles at each end, forming two feet to raise it from the floor. R. B R.
South Shields.
ENGLISH COLLOQUIAL SIMILES (12 S. iii. 27, 50, 77). (ii.) " As sick as a cushion." Is this a true simile ? I wou Ul suggest that it is an elliptical phrase meaning ' as sick as (to need) a cushion," the cushion being wanted to lie upon. This is an idiom which is quite common in ordinary conversation, though I have never seen it in a book. For instance, to some one who complains of
feeling unwell, the question may be put ::
" Are you as ill as bed ? " meaning " Are-
you as ill as (to go to) bed ? "
3. " As good as pie " is a phrase I have heard quite often, always with reference to good behaviour. I think it is to be found in J. C. Snaith's English novel of ' Araminta.'
8. " As true as a needle to the pole." Is ' The Antiquary,' by Sir Walter Scott, sufficiently modern ? An amusing use of the phrase will be found in chap. xiv.
17. " As lecherous as a monkey." Dante Gabriel Rossetti's picture ' Hesterna Rosa r represents two gamblers and their mistresses^ One of the women is overcome with shame and hides her face in her hands. The other- is brazen, and a baboon is placed beside her- to typify her sensuality.
M. H. DODDS.
Home House, Low Fell, Gateshead.
I once made a long list of these, in- cluding only such as I have actually heard and do not remember to have seen in print, but it has been mislaid. Here are a tew specimens that I remember :
1. As dead as Chelsea. Is this common ?
2. As dead as a hammer.
3. As deaf as a beetle (mallet).
4. As wick (quick) as fire.
5. As stiff as Tommy Harrison when his mother - couldn't bend him.
6. As rough as Hickling gorse. In Notts.
7. As long as my arm.
8. As full as my stocking. When the leg is in it, I suppose.
9. As sad as liver.
10. As mad as a tup. A shepherd's variant of " as mad as a bull."
11. As drunk as David's sow. ? King David, or; some local David.
12. To run at large, like Chapman's dog. Note,,, not a chapman's dog.
13. In and out, like a dog at a fair.
14. In and out, like a dog's hind leg.
15. To hang the lip like a motherless foal.
16. To go at a thing like a dog at a dead sheep -
17. As high as the steeple. -
18. As wet as litter.
19. As sour as whig.
20. As fat as a parson's horse.
21. As dark as a dog's mouth.
22. As scared as a rabbit.
23. As hoarse as a crow.
24. As cross as the tongs.
25. As easy as get out.
26. As bug (conceited) as a louse. 27- As bright as a new pin.
28. Like a guinea fiddler.
29. Like a yard of pump- water.
30. Like a donkey s gallop.
31. As thin as a rail.
32. As yellow as a guinea.
33. As long as a fiddle. Said of a face.
C. C. B.
