Chapter Left-handed Compliment to Lemnian Deed of L by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Left-handed Compliment to Lemnian Deed

Left-handed Compliment (A). A compliment which insinuates a reproach. (See below.)

Left-handed Marriage A morganatic marriage (q.v.). In these marriages the husband gives his left hand to the bride, instead of the right, when he says, “I take thee for my wedded wife.” George William, Duke of Zell, married Eleanora d'Esmiers in this way, and the lady took the name and title of Lady of Harburg; her daughter was Sophia Dorothe'a, the wife of George I.

Left-handed Oath (A). An oath not intended to be binding. (See above.)

Left in the Lurch Left to face a great perplexity. In cribbage a lurch is when a player has scored only thirty holes, while his opponent has made sixty-one, and thus won a double.

Leg (A), that is, a blackleg (q.v.).
    To make a leg, is to make a bow.

“The pursuivant smiled at their simplicitye,
And making many leggs, tooke their reward.”
The King and Miller of Mansfield.

Leg-bail A runaway. To give leg-bail, to cut and run.

Leg-bye (A), in cricket, is a run scored from a ball which has glanced off any part of a batsman's person except his hand.

Leg of Mutton School (The). So Eckhart called those authors who lauded their patrons in prose or verse, under the hope of gaining a commission, a living, or, at the very least, a dinner for their pains.

Legs On his legs. Mr. So-and-So is on his legs, has risen to make a speech.
   On its last legs. Moribund; obsolete; ready to fall out of cognisance.
   To set on his legs. So to provide for one that he is able to earn his living without further help.
   To stand on one's own legs. To be independent: to be earning one's own living. Of course, the allusion is to being nursed, and standing “alone.” (See Bottom.)

Legal Tender (A). The circulating medium of a nation, according to a standard fixed by the government of that nation. It may be in metal, in paper, or anything else that the government may choose to sanction. In England, at present (1895), the standard is a gold sovereign, guaranteed of a fixed purity. In some countries it is silver, and in some countries the two precious metals are made to bear a relative value, say twenty silver shillings (or their equivalents) shall equal in commercial value a gold sovereign. In Germany, before 1872, a very base silver was a legal tender, and in Ireland James II. made a farthing the legal tender represented by an English shilling, so that 5d. was really a legal tender for a sovereign. Of course, export and import trade would not be possible under such conditions.

Legem Pone Money paid down on the nail; ready money. The first of the psalms appointed to be read on the twenty-fifth morning of the month is entitled Legem pone, and March 25th is the great pay-day; in this way the phrase “Legem pone” became associated with cash down.

“In this there is nothing to be abated; all their speech is legem pone.”- Minshall: Essayes Prison, p. 26.

“They were all in our service for the legem pone. ”
Ozell: Rabelais.

Legend means simply “something to be read” as part of the divine service. The narratives of the lives of saints and martyrs were so termed from their being read, especially at matins, and after dinner in the refectories. Exaggeration and a love for the wonderful so predominated in these readings, that the word came to signify the untrue, or rather, an event based on tradition.

“A myth is a pure and absolute imagination; a legend has a basis of fact, but amplifies, a bridges, or modifies that basis at pleasure.”- Rawlinson: Historic Evidences, lecture i. p. 231, note 2.

Legend of a Coin is that which is written round the face of a coin. Thus, on a shilling, the legend is round the head of the reigning sovereign; as, “VICTORIA DEI GRATIA BRITT: REGINA F: D:” (or “BRITANNIAR: REG: F: D:). The words “ONE SHILLING” on the other side of the coin, written across it, we denominate the “inscription.”