Chapter Toad-eater to Tom of T by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Toad-eater to Tom

Toad-eater At the final overthrow of the Moors, the Castilians made them their servants, and their active habits and officious manners greatly pleased the proud and lazy Spaniards, who called them mi todita (my factotum). Hence a cringing officious dependent, who will do all sorts of dirty work for you, is called a todita or toad-eater.
   Pulteney's toad-eater. Henry Vane. So called by Walpole (1742).

Toady (See Toad-Eater. )

Toast A name given, to which guests are invited to drink in compliment. The name at one time was that of a lady. The word is taken from the toast which used at one time to be put into the tankard, and which still floats in the loving-cup, and also the cups called copus, bishop, and cardinal, at the Universities. Hence the lady named was the toast or savour of the wine- that which gave the draught piquancy and merit. The story goes that a certain beau, in the reign of Charles II., being at Bath, pledged a noted beauty in a glass of water taken from her bath; whereupon another roysterer cried out he would have nothing to do with the liquor, but would have the toast- i.e. the lady herself. (Rambler, No. 24.)

“Let the toast pass, drink to the lass.”- Sheridan: School for Scandal.

“Say, why are beauties praised and honoured most,
The wise man's passion and the vain man's toast.”
Pope: Rape of the Lock, canto i.

Tobit sleeping one night outside the wall of his courtyard, was blinded by sparrows “muting warm dung into his eyes.” His son Tobias was attacked on the Tigris by a fish, which leapt out of the water to assail him. Tobias married Sara, seven of whose betrothed lovers had been successively carried off by the evil spirit Asmodeus. Asmodeus was driven off by the angel Azarias, and, fleeing to the extremity of Egypt, was bound. Old Tobit was cured of his blindness by applying to his eyes the gall of the fish which had tried to devour his son. (Apocrypha: Book of Tobit.)

Toboso Dulcinea del Toboso. Don Quixote's lady. Sancho Panza says she was “a stout-built sturdy wench, who could pitch the bar as well as any young fellow in the parish.” The knight had been in love with her when he was simply a gentleman of the name of Quixada. She was then called Aldonza Lorenzo (daughter of Lorenzo Corchuelo and Aldonza Nogales); but when the gentleman became a don, he changed the style of address of the village damsel into one more befitting his new rank. (Cervantes: Don Quixote, bk. i. chap. i.)

“ `Sir,' said Don Quixote, `she is not a descendant of the ancient Caii, Curtii, and Scipios of Rome; nor of the modern Colonas and Orsini, nor of the Rebillas and Villanovas of Valencia; neither is she a descendant of the Palafoxes, Newcas, Rocabertis, Corellas, Lunas, Alagones, Ureas, Fozes, and Gurreas of Aragon: neither does the Lady Dulcinea descend from the Cerdas, Manriquez, Mendozas, and Guzmans of Castile; nor from the Alencastros, Pallas, and Menezës of Portugal; but she derives her origin from a family of Toboso, near Mancha' ” (bk. ii. chap. v.).

    In English the accent of Dulcinea is often on the second syllable, but in Spanish it is on the third.

“Ask you for whom my tears do flow so?
Why, for Dulcinea del Toboso.”
Don Quixote's Love-song.

Tobosian The rampant Manchegan lion shall be united to the white Tobosian dove. Literally, Don Quixote de la Mancha shall marry Dulcinea del Toboso. Metaphorically, “None but the brave deserve the fair.”

Toby (the dog), in Punchinello, wears a frill garnished with bells, to frighten away the devil from his master. This is a very old superstition. (See Passing Bell. )
   The Chinese and other nations make a great noise at death to scare away evil spirits. “Keening” is probably based on the same superstition.