Chapter Moly to Monkey Spoons of M by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Moly to Monkey Spoons

Moly Wild garlic, called sorcerer's garlic. There are many sorts, all of which flower in May, except “the sweet moly of Montpelier,” which blossoms in September. The most noted are “the great moly of Homer,” the Indian moly, the moly of Hungary, serpent's moly, the yellow moly, Spanish purple moly, Spanish silver-capped moly, and Dioscorides's moly. Pope describes it and its effects in one of his odes, and Milton refers to it in his Comus. (Greek, molu.)

“That moly
That Hermes once to wise Ulysses gave.”
Milton: Comus, 655-6.

Mome (French), says Cotgrave, is a Momus, find-fault, carping fellow. So called from Momus, the god of raillery.

“Or cessent donques les momes,
De mordre les escrits miens.”
J. du Bellay: A. P. de Ronsard.

Momiers (French, men of mummery). An Evangelical party of Switzerland, somewhat resembling our Methodists. They arose in 1818, and made way both in Germany and France.

Mommur The realm of O'beron. (Middle Age romance.)

Momus One who carps at everything. Momus, the sleepy god, was always railing and carping.
   Momus, being asked to pass judgment on the relative merits of Neptune, Vulcan, and Minerva, railed at them all. He said the horns of a bull ought to have been placed in the shoulders, where they would have been of much greater force; as for man, he said Jupiter ought to have made him with a window in his breast, whereby his real thoughts might be revealed. Hence Dr. Gray says that every unreasonable carper is called a “Momus.”

Momus's Lattice or Window. Momus blamed Vulcan because he did not set a window or lattice in the human breast for discerning secret thoughts.

“Were Momus' lattice in our breasts . . .” Byron: Werner, iii. 1.

Monaciello [little monk]. A sort of incubus in the mythology of Naples. It is described as a thick little man, dressed in a monk's garment and broad- brimmed hat. Those who will follow when he beckons will be led to a spot where treasure is concealed. Sometimes, however, it is his pleasure to pull the bed-clothes off, and sometimes to sit perched on a sleeper.

Monarchians A theological party of the third century, who maintained that God is one, immutable and primary. Their opponents turned upon them, and nicknamed them Patripassians (q.v.), saying that according to such a doctrine God the Father must have suffered on the cross.

Monarchy Fifth-monarchy men. Those who believed that the second coming of Christ was at hand, and that at His second coming He would establish the fifth universal monarchy. The five are these: the Assyrian, the Persian, the Macedonian, the Roman, and the Millennium.

Monday Pops A contraction of “Monday Populars,” meaning popular concerts for classical music, introduced at St. James's Hall by Mr. Arthur Chappell in 1858. There are Saturday Pops also.

Money Shortly after the Gallic invasion, Lucius Furius built a temple to Juno Moneta (the Monitress) on the spot where the house of Manlius Capitolinus stood. This spot of the Capitol was selected because Manlius was the first man alarmed by the cackling of the sacred geese. This temple was subsequently converted into a mint, and the “ases” there coined were called moneta.
    Juno is represented on medals with instruments of coinage, as the hammer, anvil, pincers, and die. (See Livy, vii. 28, and Cicero, De Divinitate, i. 15.)
   The oldest coin of Greece bore the impress of an ox. Hence a bribe for silence was said to be an “ox on the tongue.” Subsequently each province had its own impress:
   Athens, an owl (the bird of wisdom).
   Boeotia, Bacchus (the vineyard of Greece).
   Delphos, a dolphin.
   Macedonia, a buckler (from its love of war).
   Rhodes, the disc of the sun (the Colossus was an image to the sun).
   Rome had a different impress for each coin:
   For the As, the head of Janus on one side, and the prow of a ship on the reverse.
   The Semi-as, the head of Jupiter and the letter S.
   The Triens, the head of a woman (? Rome or Minerva) and four points to denote four ounces.
   The Quadrans, the head of Hercules and