Chapter G to Galere of G by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

G to Galere

G This letter is the outline of a camel's head and neck. It is called in Hebrew gimel (a camel).

G.C.B. (See Bath .)

G.H.V.L. on the coin of William III. of the Netherlands is Groot Hertog Van Luxemburg (grand duke of Luxembourg).

G.O.M. The initial letters of Grand Old Man; so Mr. Gladstone was called during his premiership 1881- 1885. Lord Rosebery first used the expression 26th April, 1882, and the Right Hon. Sir William Harcourt repeated it, 18th October, the same year; since then it has become quite a synonym for the proper name.

Gab (g hard). The gift of the gab. Fluency of speech; or, rather, the gift of boasting. (French, gaber, to gasconade; Danish and Scotch, gab, the mouth; Gaelic gob; Irish, cab; whence our gap and gape, gabble and gobble. The gable of a house is its beak.)

"There was a good man named Job
Who lived in the land of Uz
He had a good gift of the gob,
The same thing happened us."
Book of Job, by Zach. Boyd.

"Thou art one of the knights of France, who hold it for glee and pastime to gab, as they term it, of exploits that are beyond human power." - Sir W. Scott: The Talisman, chap.ii.

Gabardine' (3 syl.). A Jewish coarse cloak. (Spanish, gavardina, a long coarse cloak.)

"You call me misbeliever, cut-throat dog,
And spit upon my Jewish gabardine."
Shakespeare: Merchant of Venice, i. 3.

Gabel', Gabelle (g hard). A salt-tax. A word applied in French history to the monopoly of salt. All the salt made in France had to be brought to the royal warehouses, and was there sold at a price fixed by the Government. The iniquity was that some provinces had to pay twice as much as others. Edward III. jokingly called this monopoly "King Philippe's Salic law." It was abolished in 1789. (German, gabe, a tax.)

Gaberlunzie or A gaberlunzie man (g hard). A mendicant; or; more strictly speaking, one of the king's bedesmen, who were licensed beggars. The word gaban is French for "a cloak with tight sleeves and a hood." Lunzie is a diminutive of laine (wool); so that gaberlunzie means "coarse woollen gown." These bedesmen were also called blue-gowns (q.v.), from the colour of their cloaks. (See above, Gabardine.)

Gabriel (g hard), in Jewish mythology, is the angel of death to the favoured people of God, the prince of fire and thunder, and the only angel that can speak Syriac and Chaldee. The Mahometans call him the chief of the four favoured angels, and the spirit of truth. In mediæval romance he is the second of the seven spirits that stand before the throne of God, and, as God's messenger, carries to heaven the prayers of men. (Jerusalem Delivered, book i.) The word means "power of God." Milton makes him chief of the angelic guards placed over Paradise.

"Betwixt these rocky pillars Gabriel sat,
Chief of the angelic guards."
Paradise Lost, iv. 549-550.

   Longfellow, in his Golden Legend, makes him the angel of the moon, and says he brings to man the gift of hope.

"I am the angel of the moon ...
Nearest the earth, it is my ray
That best illumines the midnight way.
I bring the gift of hope."
The Miracle Play, iii.

    It was Gabriel who (we are told in the Koran) took Mahomet to heaven on Al-borak (q.v.), and revealed to him his "prophetic lore." In the Old Testament Gabriel is said to have explained to Daniel certain visions; and in the New Testament it was Gabriel who announced to Zacharias the future birth of John the Baptist, and that afterwards appeared to Mary, the mother of Jesus. (Luke i. 26, etc.)
   Gabriel's horse. Haïzum.
   Gabriel's hounds, called also Gabble Ratchet. Wild geese. The noise of the bean-goose (anser segtum) in flight is like that of a pack of hounds in full cry. The legend is that they are the souls of unbaptised children wandering through the air till the Day of Judgment.