Chapter Cockney School to Coins of C by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Cockney School to Coins

Cockney School Leigh Hunt, Hazlitt, Shelley, and Keats; so called by Lockhart. (1817.)

“If I may be permitted to have the honour of christening it, it may be henceforth referred to by the designation of the `Cockney School.' ”- Z. Blackwood's Magazine, Oct., 1817.

Cockpit of Europe Belgium is so called because it has been the site of more European battles than any other country; for example, Oudenarde, Ramillies, Fontenoy, Fleurus, Jemmapes, Ligny, Quatre Bras, Waterloo.

Cockshy (A ). A free fling or “shy” at something. The allusion is to the once popular Shrove-Tuesday sport of shying or casting stones or sticks at cocks. This sport is now superseded by pigeon-shooting, which is thought to be more aristocratic! but can hardly be deemed more humane.

Cockswain or COXSWAIN [cox'n ]. The swain or servant of the cock or boat, together with its crew. (Anglo-Saxon, swan or swein, a youth or servant, and cock, a boat.) (See Cockboat )

Cocktail The New York World, 1891, tells us that this is an Aztec word, and that “the liquor was discovered by a Toltec noble, who sent it to the king by the hand of his daughter Xochitl. The king fell in love with the maiden, drank the liquor, and called them xoc-tl, a name perpetuated by the word cocktail.
    Cocktail is an iced drink made of spirits mixed with bitters, sugar, and some aromatic flavouring. Champagne cocktail is champagne flavoured with Angostura bitters; soda cocktail is sodawater, sugar, and bitters.

“Did ye iver try a brandy cocktail, Cornel?”- Thackeray: The Newcomes, xiii.

Cocqcigrues At the coming of the Cocqcigrues. That good time coming, when every mystery shall be cleared up.

“ `That is one of the seven things,' said the fairy Bedonebyasyoudid, `I am forbidden to tell till the coming of the Cocqcigrues.' ”- C. Kingsley: The Water Babies, chap. vi.

Cocytus [Ko-kytus ]. One of the five rivers of hell. The word means the “river of lamentation.” The unburied were doomed to wander about its banks for 100 years. (Greek, koku'o, to weep.)

“Cocytus, named of lamentation loud
Heard on the rueful stream.”
Milton: Paradise Lost, ii. 579.

Codds Codgers. Thackeray says, “The Cistercian lads call the poor brethren of the Charterhouse codds, ” adding, “but I know not wherefore.” (Turkish, kodjah, an old man or woman.) We say “Well, old boy,” without referring to age.

“I say, do you know any of the old codds ...? Colonel Newcome is going to be a codd.”- Nineteenth Century, October, 1893, p. 589.

Codille (2 syl.). Triumph. A term in the game of Ombre. When one of the two opponents of Ombre has more tricks than Ombre, he is said to have won Codille, and takes all the stake that Ombre played for. Thus Belinda is said, in the Rape of the Lock, to have been “between the jaws of ruin and Codille.” She wins with the “king of hearts,” and she wins codille.

Codlin's your Friend, not Short (Dickens: Old Curiosity Shop, chap. xix.). Codlin had a shrewd suspicion that little Nell and her grandfather had absconded, and that a reward would be offered for their discovery. So he tried to bespeak the goodwill of the little girl in the hope of making something of it.

“None of the speakers has much to say in actual hostility to Lord Salisbury's speech, but they all harp upon the theory that Codlin is the friend, not Short.”- Newspaper paragraph, Oct. 13th, 1885.

Coehorns (2 syl.). Small howitzers of about 4 2/3 inches calibre; so called from Baron van Coehorn, of Holland.

Coenobites or Cenobites (3 syl.). Monks who live in common, in contradistinction to the hermits or anchorites. (Greek, koinosbios.)

Coeur de Lion    Richard I. of England; so called from the prodigies of personal valour performed by him in the Holy Land. (1157, 1189-1199.)
   Louis VIII. of France, more frequently called Le Lion. (1187, 1223- 1226.)
   Boleslas I. of Poland, also called “The Intrepid.” (960, 992-1025.)