Chapter Farmers to Father of F by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Farmers to Father

Farmers A farmer ought to make four rents in order to live: one for rent, one for labour, one for stock, and one for himself.

Farnese Bull [Far-na'-ze ]. A name given to a colossal group attributed to Apollonius and Tauriscus of Trallës, in Asia Minor. They belonged to the Rhodian school, and lived about B.C. 300. The group represents Dirce bound to the horns of a bull by Zethus and Amphion, for ill-using their mother. It was restored by Bianchi in 1546, and placed in the Farnese palace, in Italy.

Farnese Hercules [Far-na'-ze Hercu-lees ]. A name given to Glykon's copy of the famous statue of Lysippos, the Greek sculptor in the time of Alexander the Great. It represents the hero leaning on his club, with one hand on his back, as if he had just got possession of the apple of the Hesperides. Farnese is the name of a celebrated family in Italy, which became extinct in 1731.

"It struck me that an ironclad is to a wooden vessel what the Farnese Hercules is to the Apollo Belvidere. The Hercules is not without a beauty of its own." - The Times (Paris correspondent).

Faroese (3 syl.). Belonging to the Faroe Islands; a native of the islands.

Farrago A farrago of nonsense. A confused heap of nonsense. Farrago is properly a mixture of far (meal) with other ingredients for the use of cattle.

"Anquetil was derided ..., for having suffered a farrago of nonsense to be palmed off upon him by his Parsi teachers as the works of the sage Zoroaster." - Whitney: Oriental Studies (Avesta), chap. vi. p. 184.

Farringdon Ward (London). The aldermanry, etc., granted by John le Feure to William Farendon, citizen and goldsmith of London, in consideration of twenty marks given beforehand as a gersum to the said John le Feure. (1279.)

Farthing A fourth part. Penny pieces used to be divided into four parts, thus: (symbol). One of these quarters was a feor-thung or farthing, and two a halfpenny. (Anglo-Saxon, feor- thung.)
   I don't care for it a brass farthing. James II. debased all the coinage, and issued, amongst other worthless coins, brass pence, halfpence, and farthings.
    The feorthung was the fourth part of other coins. Thus, we read in the Grayfriar's Chronicle: -

"This yere the kynge made a newe quyne, as the nobylle, half-nobylle, and ferdyng-nobylle."

Farthingale (3 syl.). A sort of crinoline petticoat. The word means a "guard for modesty." (French, vertugarde, corrupted into verdingade, and then into farthingale.)

Faryndon Inn Serjeants' Inn, Chancery Lane, used to be so called.

Fascination means "slain or overcome by the eyes." The allusion is to the ancient notion of bewitching by the power of the eye. (Greek, baskaino, i.e. phaesi kaino, to kill with the eyes. See Valpy: Etymology of Greek Words, p. 23, col. 1; Latin, fascino.) (See Evil Eye.)

"None of the affections have been noted to fascinate and bewitch, but love and envy." - Bacon.

Fashion [fash'-un. ] In a fashion or after a fashion. "In a sort of a way;" as, "he spoke French in a fashion" (i.e. very badly). ("French of Stratford atte Bowe.")

Fashion of Speech (A). "Facon de parler" (q.v.); "Ratio loquendi!"

Fast Girl or Young Lady (A) is one who talks slang, assumes the airs of a knowing one, and has no respect for female delicacy and retirement. She is the ape of the fast young man.

Fast Man (A) is one who lives a continual round of "pleasure" so fast that he wears himself out.

Fast and Loose (To play). To run with the hare and hold with the hounds; to blow both hot and cold; to say one thing and do another. The allusion is to a cheating game practised at fairs. A belt is folded, and the player is asked to prick it with a skewer, so as to pin it fast to the table; having so done, the