Chapter Chasidim to Cheeseparer of C by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Chasidim to Cheeseparer

Chasidim and Zadikim. After the Babylonish captivity the Jews were divided into two groups- those who accepted and those who rejected the Persian innovation. The former were called pietists (chasidim), and the latter uprights (zadikim).

Chasseurs de Vincennes (French). The Duke of Orleans' rifle corps; so called because they were garrisoned at Vincennes. (1835.)

Chat Nid d'une souris dans Voreille d'un chat. A mare's nest. This French phrase is the translation of a line in Wynkyn de Worde's Amusing Questions, printed in English in 1511. “Demand: What is that that never was and never will be? Response: A mouse's nest in a cat's ear.” (See Mare's Nest )

Chat de Beaugency (Le). Keeping the word of promise to the ear, but breaking it to the sense. The legend is this: An architect was employed to construct a bridge over the Loire, opposite Beaugency, but not being able to accomplish it, made a league with the devil to give his sable majesty the first living being which crossed the bridge. The devil supposed it would be the architect himself, but when the bridge was finished the man threw a cat forwards, and it ran over the bridge like a wild thing. The devil was furious, but a bargain's a bargain, and the “cat of Beaugency” became a proverb.

Chateaux en Espagne [Castles in Spain.] A castle in the air; something that exists only in the imagination. In Spain there are no châteaux. (See Castle )
   Château. Many wines are named after the manor on which the grapes are grown: as Château Lafitte, Château La Tour, Château Margaux, Château Rose (and Bordeaux), Château Yquem (a white Bordeaux), etc.

Chattelin's A fashionable coffee-house in the reign of Charles II.

“Met their servant coming to bring me to Chatelin's, the French house, in Covent Garden, and there with music and good company ... mighty merry till ten at night. The Duke of Monmouth and a great many blades were at Chatelin's, and I left them there.”- Pepys: Diary, April 22nd, 1668.

Chatterbox A talkative person. The Germans have Plaudertasche (chatterbag). Shakespeare speaks of the clack-dish. “His use was to put a ducat in her clack-dish” (Measure for Measure, iii. 2)- i.e. the box or dish used by beggars for collecting alms, which the holder clatters to attract attention. We find also chatter-basket in old writers, referring to the child's rattle.

Chatterhouse To go through the chatterhouse. Between the legs of one or more boys, set apart like an inverted A, who strike, with their hands or caps, the victim as he creeps through. Halliwell (Archaic Dict.) gives chat, a small twig, and chatter, to bruise; also chattocks, refuse wood left in making faggots. Probably, the boys used little twigs or sticks instead of caps or hands. And to go through chatterhouse means to get a trouncing or tunding. The pun between chatterhouse and charterhouse is obvious.

Chatterpie Same as chatterbox. The pie means the magpie. (Mag, to chatter.) (See Halliwell.)

Chaucer of Painting (The). Albert Dürer of Nurnberg (1471-1528). “The prince of artists.”

Chauvin A blind idolator of Napoleon the Great. The name is taken from Les Aides de Camp, by Bayard and Dumanoir, but was popularised in Charet's Conscrit Chauvin.
   Chauvinism. A blind idolatry of Napoleon the Great. Now it means a blind and pugnacious patriotism: a warlike spirit.

“Chauvin, patriote ardent, jusqu'à l'exagération. Allusion au nom d'un type de caricature populaire, comme le prouve cet exemple: 1820, époque ou un liberalism plus large commença à se moquer de ces éloges donnés aux conscrit Chauvin, fit justice de ces niaiseries de l'opinion.”- Lorédan Larchey: Dictionnaire de l'Argot Parisien, 1872.

Chawbacon (A). An uncouth rustic, supposed to eat no meat but bacon.
   I myself knew a most respectable day-labourer, who had saved up enough money to keep himself in old age, who told me he never saw or touched any meat in his cottage but bacon, except once a year, and that was on club-day (1879). He never ate rabbit, game, chicken, or duck.