Chapter Gulistan to Gutter Lane of G by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Gulistan to Gutter Lane

Gulistan [garden of roses ]. The famous recueil of moral sentences by Saadi, the poet of Shiraz, who died 1291. (Persian, ghul, a rose, and tan, a region.)

Gull (rhymes with dull). A dupe, one easily cheated. (See Bejan.)

"The most notorious geck and gull
That e'er invention played on."
Shakespeare: Twelfth Night, v. 1.

Gulliver (Lemuel). The hero of the famous Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, by Lemuel Gulliver, first a Surgeon, and then a Captain of several Ships, i.e. to Lilliput, Brobdingnag, Laputa, and the Houyhnhnms (Whin-nims), written by Dr. Swift, Dean of St. Patrick's, Ireland.

Gulnare (2 syl.), afterwards called Kaled, queen of the harem, and fairest of all the slaves of Seyd [Seed ]. She was rescued from the flaming palace by Lord Conrad, the corsair, and when the corsair was imprisoned released him and murdered the Sultan. The two escaped to the Pirate's Isle; but when Conrad found that Medora, his betrothed, was dead, he and Gulnare left the island secretly, and none of the pirates ever knew where they went to. The rest of the tale of Gulnare is under the new name, Kaled (q.v.). (Byron: The Corsair.)

Gummed (1 syl.). He frets like gummed velvet or gummed taffety. Velvet and taffeta were sometimes stiffened with gum to make them "sit better," but, being very stiff, they fretted out quickly.

Gumption Wit to turn things to account, capacity. In Yorkshire we hear the phrase, "I canna gaum it" (understand it, make it out), and gaumtion is the capacity of understanding, etc. (Irish, gomsh, sense, cuteness.)

"Though his eyes were dazzled with the splendour of the place, faith he had gomsh enough not to let go his hold." - Dublin and London Magazine, 1825 (Loughleagh).

   Gumption. A nostrum much in request by painters in search of the supposed "lost medium" of the old masters, and to which their unapproachable excellence is ascribed. The medium is made of gum mastic and linseed-oil.

Gun (Welsh gwn, a gun.)
   CANNONS AND RIFLES.
   Armstrong gun. A wrought-iron cannon, usually breech-loading, having an iron-hooped steel inner tube. Designed by Sir William Armstrong in 1854, and officially tested in 1861.
   Enfield rifles. Invented by Pritchett at the Enfield factory, adopted in the English army 1852, and converted into Snider breech-loaders in 1866.
   Gatling gun. A machine gun with parallel barrels about a central axis, each having its own lock. Capable of being loaded and of discharging 1,000 shots a minute by turning a crank. Named from the inventor, Dr. R. J. Gatling.
   Krupp gun. A cannon of ingot steel, made at Krupp's works, at Essen, in Prussia.
   Lancaster gun. A cannon having a slightly elliptical twisted bore, and a conoid (2 syl.) projectile. Named from the inventor.
   Minié rifle. Invented in 1849, and adopted in the English army in 1851. Named after Claude Minié, a French officer. (1810-1879.)
   Snider rifle. Invented by Jacob Snider. A breech-loader adopted by the British Government in 1866.
   Whitworth gun. An English rifled firearm of hexagonal bore, and very rapid twist. Constructed in 1857. Its competitive trial with the Armstrong gun in 1864. Named after Sir Joseph Whitworth, the inventor (1803-1887).
   Woolwich infant (The). A British 35-ton rifled muzzle-loading cannon, having a steel tube hooped with wrought-iron coils. Constructed in 1870. (See Brown Bess, Mitrailleuse, etc.)

Gun A breech-loading gun. A gun loaded at the breech, which is then closed by a screw or wedge- block.
   Evening or sunset gun. A gun fired at sunset, or about 9 o'clock p.m.

Gun Cotton A highly explosive compound, prepared by saturating cotton with nitric and sulphuric acids.

Gun Money Money issued in Ireland by James II., made of old brass cannons.

Gun Room A room in the after-part of a lower gun-deck for the accommodation of junior officers.
   GUN PHRASES.
   He's a great gun. A man of note.
   Son of a gun. A jovial fellow.
   Sure as a gun. Quite certain. It is as certain to happen as a gun to go off if the trigger is pulled.