Chapter Fribble to Frithiof of F by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Fribble to Frithiof

Fribble An effeminate coxcomb of weak nerves, in Garrick's farce of Miss in her Teens.

Friday is the Mahometan Sabbath. It was the day on which Adam was created and our Lord was crucified. The Sabeans consecrate it to Venus or Astarte. (See Frea.)
    Friday is Frig-daeg = dies Veneris, called in French Vendredi, which means the same thing. It was regarded by the Scandinavians as the luckiest day of the week. (See below, Friday, Unlucky.)
   Friday. Fairies and all the tribes of elves of every description, according to mediæval romance, are converted into hideous animals on Friday, and remain so till Monday. (See the romance of Guerino Meschino, and others.)
   Black Friday. (See Black.)
   Long Friday, Good Friday, long being a synonym of great. Thus Mrs. Quickly says, "'Tis a long loan for a poor lone woman to bear" (2 Henry IV. ii. 1), and the Scotch proverb, "Between you and the long day" - i.e. the great or judgment day. Good Friday in Danish is Langfiedag, and in Swedish Längfredag.

Friday A man Friday. A faithful and submissive attendant, ready to turn his hand to anything.
   My man Friday. The young savage found by Robinson Crusoe on a Friday, and kept as his servant and companion on the desert island.

Friday Street (London). The street of fishmongers who served Friday markets. (Stow.)

Friday and Columbus
Friday, August 3rd, 1492, Columbus started on his voyage of discovery.
Friday, October 12th, 1492, he first sighted land.
Friday, January 4th, 1493, he started on his return journey.
Friday, March 12th, 1493, he safely arrived at Palos.
Friday, November 22nd, 1493, he reached Hispaniola in his second expedition.
Friday, June 13th, 1494, he discovered the continent of America.

Friday and the United States
Friday, June 17th 1775, was fought the battle of Bunker's Hill.
Friday, July 17th, 1776, the motion was made by John Adams that the United States are and ought to be independent,
Friday, October 17th, 1777, Saratoga surrendered.
Friday, September 22nd, 1780, the treason of Arnold was exposed.

    To these Fridays should be added:
Friday, July 13th, 1866, the Great Eastern sailed from Valentia, and on Friday, July 27th, 1866, landed safely with the cable at Heart's Ease, Newfoundland.

Friday a Lucky Day Sir William Churchill says, "Friday is my lucky day. I was born, christened, married, and knighted on that day; and all my best accidents have befallen me on a Friday."
    In Scotland Friday is a choice day for weddings. Not so in England.
   He who laughs on Friday will weep on Sunday. Sorrow follows in the wake of joy. The line is taken from Racine's comedy of Les Plaideurs.

Friday, an Unlucky Day Because it was the day of our Lord's crucifixion; it is accordingly a fast-day in the Roman Catholic Church. Soames says, "Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit on a Friday, and died on a Friday." (Anglo-Saxon Church, p. 255.)

"But once on a Friday ('tis ever they say),
A day when misfortune is aptest to fall."
Saxe: Good Dog of Bretté, stanza 3.

    In Spain, Friday is held to be an unlucky day. So is it esteemed by Buddhists and Brahmins. The old Romans called it nefastus, from the utter overthrow of their army at Gallia Narbonensis. And in England the proverb is that a Friday moon brings foul weather.

Friend (A). The second in a duel, as "Name your friend," "Captain B. acted as his friend."

"Mr. Baillie was to have acted as Disraeli's friend, if there had been a duel between that statesman and Daniel O'Connell." - Newspaper paragraph (December, 1885).

   Better kinde frend than fremd kinde (motto of the Waterton family) means "better kind friend (i.e. neighbour) than a kinsman who dwells in foreign parts." Probably it is Prov. xxvii. 10, "Better is a neighbour that is near, than a brother far off." In which case fremd would be = stranger. Better a kind friend than a kinsman who is a stranger.