Chapter Appeal to the Country to Aquarians of A by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Apron This is a strange blunder. A napperon , converted into An apperon. "Napperon" is French for a napkin, from nappe (cloth in general). Halliwell, in his Archaic Dictionary, p. 571, gives Nappern (an apron) North.

Other examples of n attached to the following noun, or detached from it, are an adder for a nadder (Old English, noeddre); a newt for an ewt; a nag (Danish, ög); nuncle (Shakespeare), mine uncle; For the nonce (this once), where n is transferred from the preceding pronoun tha-n or the-n, i.e. this-n (accusative case after "for").

Apron-string Tenure (An). tenure held in virtue of one's wife.

Tied to his mother's apron-string, completely under his mother's thumb. Applied to a big boy or young man who is still under mother rule.

A propos de bottes (French). Turning to quite another subject; à propos de rien.

Aqua Regia [royal water ]. So called because it dissolves gold, the king of metals. It consists of one part of nitric acid, with from two to four of hydrochloric acid.

Aqua Tofana or Acqua Tofanica. A poisonous liquid much used in Italy in the seventeenth century by young wives who wanted to get rid of their husbands. It was invented by a woman named Tofana, who called it the Manna of St. Nicholas of Bari, from the widespread notion that an oil of miraculous efficacy flowed from the tomb of that saint. In Italian called also Aquella di Napoli.

Aqua Vitæ [water of life ]. Certain ardent spirits used by the alchemists. Ben Jonson terms a seller of ardent spirits an "aqua-vitæ man" (Alchemist, i. 1). The "elixir of life" was made from distilled spirits, which were thought to have the power of prolonging life. (See Eau de Vie.)

Aquarians A sect in the early Christian Church which insisted on the use of water instead of wine in the Lord's Supper.