AS NOTEWORTHY AS “SEE ALSO”

I WAS RESEARCHING “AS THE BISHOP SAID to the actress” only to find that SimanaitisSays had already cited this thought-provoking phrase. However, one source for it was Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase & Fable, which accompanies this phrase with four pages of constructions along the lines of “as easy as falling off a log.” Most of the descriptions tend toward as dry as dust, (to cite one of them), but several are worthy of tidbit-gleaning. Plus, you never know where you’ll end up following a Brewer’s citation.

Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase & Fable, 20th Edition, by Ebenezer Cobham Brewer, Chambers, 2019.

As Mad as a Hatter. I thought I knew all about this one from Lewis Carroll’s friends of Alice: “Mercurous nitrate,” Brewer’s says, “was used in the making of felt hats, and its effects can produce ST VITUS’ DANCE or lesser tremulous manifestations, hence the likely origin of the phrase.”

Cover of All Things Alice: The Wit, Wisdom, and Wonderland of Lewis Carroll, edited by Linda Sunshine, Clarkson Potter, 2004. Image from “Say Again in ‘Alice.’ ”

However, Brewer’s continues, “Carroll himself is said to have based his character of the name on one Theophilus Carter, a furniture dealer, who was known locally as ‘the Mad Hatter,’ partly because he wore a top hat and partly because of his eccentric notions. An example of the latter was his invention of an ‘alarm clock bed’ that woke the sleeper by tipping him onto the floor.”

St Vitus’ Dance. Also, of course, I’m compelled to see what Brewer’s has to say about ST VITUS’ DANCE (which, curiously, took some doing to find: It’s alphabetized next to VITUS, nowhere near ST nor SAINT).

Brewer’s describes, “In Germany in the 17th-century it was believed that good health for the year could be secured by anyone who danced before a statue of ST VITUS on his feast day, 15 June.”

Image from sheldongeneology.org

And immediately above this at VITUS: “A Sicilian youth who was martyred with Modestus, his tutor, and Crescentia, his nurse, during the Diocletian persecution, c. 303. He is sometimes regarded as the patron saint of dancers and comedians.” 

I’m thankful that Brewer’s spares us any further reference to this particular persecution. It sounds dreadful.

As Deaf as an Adder. Brewer’s describes, “ ‘Like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear; which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely’ (Psalm 58:4–5). In the East if a viper entered the house, the charmer was sent for to entice the snake and put it into a bag. According to tradition the viper tried to stop its ears when the charmer uttered his incantations, by putting one ear to the ground and twisting its tail into the other.”

As Thick as Two Short Planks. “Very obtuse,” Brewer’s says. “Two short planks laid together are twice as thick as one long one.” 

Uh, yes. “A few cards short of a full deck” comes to mind (though not to Brewer’s; I checked).

As Happy as Larry. Says Brewer’s: “Very happy. An Australian expression. It is suggested that the original Larry may have been Larry Foley (1847–1917), the noted boxer, but the word may actually relate to LARRIKIN.”

Larry Foley, Australian middleweight: twenty-one fights, 17 KOs, 1 loss, 3 draws. Image from sportspages.com.

Larrikin. Brewer’s: Larrikin is an “Australian term dating from the 19th century denoting a young ruffian or rowdy given to acts of hooliganism.” 

Hooligan. And, not surprisingly, of HOOLIGAN Brewer’s quotes from “Ernest Weekley, The Romance of Words, ch i (1922): The original Hooligans were a spirited Irish family of that name whose proceedings enlivened the drab monotony of life in Southwark towards the end of the 19th century.”

Well, isn’t this sorta putting a gloss on bad behavior?

As Drunk as Davy’s Sow. Brewer’s gets downright personal: “According to Francis Grose’s Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (1785), one David Lloyd, a Welshman who kept an alehouse at Hereford, had a sow with six legs, which was an object of great curiosity.” 

And Brewer’s thought Southwark was drab and monotonous?

“One day,” it says, “David’s wife, having indulged too freely, lay down in the sty to sleep, and a group came to see the sow. David led them to the sty saying as usual, ‘There is a sow for you! Did you ever see the like?’ One of the visitors replied: ‘Well, it is the drunkest sow I ever beheld.’ The woman was ever after called ‘Davy’s sow.’ ”

As noted earlier, you never know what you’ll learn from Brewer’s. ds

© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2024