Chapter Giles of Antwerp to Gipsy of G by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Gimmer (g soft), or Jimmer, a jointed hinge. In Somersetshire, gimmace. We have also gemel. A gimmal is a double ring; hence gimmal-bit. (Shakespeare: Henry V., iv. 2.)

Gin Sling A drink made of gin and water, sweetened and flavoured. "Sling" = Collins, the inventor, contracted into c'lins, and perverted into slings.

Ginevra (g soft). The young Italian bride who hid in a trunk with a springlock. The lid fell upon her, and she was not discovered till the body had become a skeleton. (Rogers: Italy.)

"Be the cause what it might, from his offer she shrunk,
And Ginevra-like, shut herself up in a trunk."
Lowell.

Gingerbread The best used to be made at Grantham, and Grantham gingerbread was as much a locution as Everton toffy, or tuffy as we used to call it in the first half of the nineteenth century.
   To get the gilt off the gingerbread. To appropriate all the fun or profit and leave the caput mortuum behind. In the first half of the nineteenth century gingerbread cakes were profusely decorated with gold-leaf or Dutch-leaf, which looked like gold.

Gingerbread (g soft). Brummagem wares, showy but worthless. The allusion is to the gilt gingerbread toys sold at fairs.

Gingerbread Husbands Gingerbread cakes fashioned like men and gilt, commonly sold at fairs up to the middle of the nineteenth century.

Gingerly Cautiously, with faltering steps. The Scotch phrase, "gang that gate," and the Anglo-Saxon gangende (going), applied to an army looking out for ambuscades, would furnish the adverb gangendelic; Swedish, gingla, to go gently.

"Gingerly, as if treading upon eggs. Cuddie began to ascend the well-known pass." - Scott: Old Mortality, chap. xxv.

Gingham So called from Guingamp, a town in Brittany, where it was originally manufactured (Littré). A common playful equivalent of umbrella.

Ginnunga Gap The abyss between Niflheim (the region of fog) and Muspelheim (the region of heat). It existed before either land or sea, heaven or earth. (Scandinavian mythology.)

Giona (g soft). A leader of the Anabaptists, once a servant of Comte d'Oberthal, but discharged from his service for theft. In the rebellion headed by the Anabaptists, Giona took the Count prisoner, but John of Leyden set him free again. Giona, with the rest of the conspirators, betrayed their prophet king as soon as the Emperor arrived with his army. They entered the banquet room to arrest him, but perished in the flaming palace. (Meyerbeer: Le Prophète, an opera.)

Giotto Round as Giotto's O. An Italian proverb applied to a dull, stupid fellow. The Pope, wishing to obtain some art decorations, sent a messenger to obtain specimens of the chief artists of Italy. The messenger came to Giotto and delivered his message, whereupon the artist simply drew a circle with red paint. The messenger, in amazement, asked Giotto if that were all. Giotto replied, "Send it, and we shall see if his Holiness understands the hint." A specimen of genius about equal to a brick as a specimen of an edifice.

Giovanni (Don). A Spanish libertine. His valet, Leporello, says his master had "in Italy 700 mistresses, in Germany 800, in Turkey and France 91, in Spain 1,003." When "the measure of his iniquity was full," the ghost of the commandant whom he had slain came with a legion of "foul fiends," and carried him off to a "dreadful gulf that opened to devour him." (Mozart: Don Giovanni, Libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte.)

Gipsy (g soft). Said to be a corruption of Egyptian, and so called because in 1418 a band of them appeared in Europe, commanded by a leader named Duke Michael of "Little Egypt." Other appellations are:
   (2) Bohemians. So called by the French, because the first that ever arrived in their country came from Bohemia in 1427, and presented themselves before the gates of Paris. They were not allowed to