Chapter Bambocciades to Banner of B by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Bambocciades to Banner

Bambocciades (4 syl.). Pictures of grotesque scenes in low life, such as country wakes, penny weddings, and so on. They are so called from the Italian word bamboccio (a cripple), a nickname given to Pieter van Laer, the first Dutch painter of such scenes, distinguished in Rome.

Bamboccio or Bamboche (See Michael Angelo des Bamboches.)

Bamboozle To cheat by cunning, or daze with tricks.

"The third refinement observable in the letter I send you, consists of the choice of certain words invented by some pretty fellows, such as banter, bamboozle ... and kidney ... some of which are now struggling for the vogue, and others are in possession of it." - Swift: The Tatler (Sept. 28, 1710).

To bamboozle into (doing something). To induce by trickery.

To bamboozle one out of something. To get something by trickery.

Bampton Lectures Founded by the Rev. John Bampton, canon of Salisbury. He left an estate to the university of Oxford, to pay for eight divinity lectures on given subjects, to be preached at Great St. Mary's, and printed afterwards.

Ban A proclamation of outlawry; a denunciation by the church (Anglo-saxon, ge-ban, a proclamation; verb, ge-bannan).

Marriage bans. (See Banns.)

To ban is to make a proclamation of outlawry. To banish is to proclaim a man an exile. (See Bandit.)

Lever le ban et l'arrière ban (French). To levy the ban was to call the king's vassals to active service; to levy the arrière ban was to levy the vassals of a suzerian or under-lord.

"Le mot ban, qui signifie bannière, se disait de l'appel fait par le seigneur à ses vassaux pour les convoquer sous son étendard. On distinguait le ban composé des vassaux immédiats, qui etaient convoqués par le roi luimême, et l'arrière ban , composé des vassaux convoqués par leurs suzerains." - Bouillet: Dictionnaire d'Histoire, etc.

Banagher (See under Beats .)

Banat A territory under a ban (lord), from the Illyrican word bojan, a lord. The Turks gave this title to the lords of frontier provinces - e.g. the Banat of Croatia, which now forms part of the kingdom of Hungary.

Banbury A Banbury-man - i.e. a Puritan (Ben Jonson); a bigot. From the reign of Elizabeth to that of Charles II. Banbury was noted for its number of Puritans and its religious "zeal."

As thin as Banbury cheese. In Jack Drum's Entertainment we read, "You are like a Banbury cheese, nothing but paring;" and Bardolph compares Slender to Banbury cheese (Merry Wives, i, 1). The Banbury cheese is a rich milk cheese about an inch in thickness.

Banco Sittings in Banco. Sittings of the Superior Court of Common Law in its own bench or court, and not in circuit, as a judge of Nisi Prius (q.v.). (Banc is Italian for "bench" or "seat of justice.")

So much banco - i.e. so much bank money, as distinguished from current coin. At Hamburg, etc., currency is inferior to "bank money." (Not money in the bank, but the fictitious value set on cash by bankers.)

Bancus Regius The king's or queen's bench. Bancus Communis, the bench of common pleas.

Bandana or Bandanna A pocket-handkerchief. It is an Indian word, properly applied to silk goods, but now restricted to cotton handkerchiefs having a dark ground of Turkey red or blue, with little white or yellow spots. (Hindû, bandhnu, a mode of dyeing.)