Исторический английский фразеологический словарь

Dale Road. From the residence of Canon Dale, poet, and Vicar of St Pancras.

Dalmatian. A species of dog bred in Dalmatia.

Dalston. The town in the dale when the north of London was more or less wooded.

Damage. See “What’s the Damage?”

Damascenes. From Damascus, famous for its plums.

Damascus. From the Arabic name of the city, Dimiskesh-Sham.

72Damascus Blade. From Damascus, a city world famous for the temper of its sword blades.

Damask. First made at Damascus in Syria.

Damask Rose. Introduced to Europe from Damascus.

Damassin. A Damask cloth interwoven with flowers of gold or silver.

Dame School. The old name for a girls’ school taught by a spinster or dame.

Damsons. Properly Damascenes, from Damascus.

Dancing Chancellor. Sir Christopher Hatton so pleased Queen Elizabeth by his dancing at a Court masque that she made him a Knight of the Garter; subsequently he became Lord Chancellor of England.

Dandelion. A corruption of the French dent de lion, from its fancied resemblance to a lion’s tooth.

Dandy. From the French dandin, silly fellow, ninny.

Dantzic. Expresses the town settled by the Danes.

Danvers Street. From Danvers House, in which resided Sir John Danvers, to whom the introduction of the Italian style of horticulture in England was due.

Darbies. A pair of handcuffs, in allusion to Darby and Joan, who were inseparable.

Dardanelles. After the city on the Asiatic side founded by Dardanus, the ancestor of Priam, the last king of Troy.

Dark and Bloody Ground. Kentucky, the great battle-ground of the Indians and white settlers, as also that of the savage tribes amongst themselves.

Darmstadt. The stadt, or town, on the Darm.

Dartford. From the Saxon Darentford, the fort on the Darent.

Dartmoor. The moor in which the River Dart takes its rise.

Dartmouth. On the estuary of the River Dart.

73Dauphin. The title borne by the eldest son of the King of France until 1830, from the armorial device of a delphinus, or dolphin.

Davenport. After the original maker.

Davies Street. After Mary Davies, heiress of the manor of Ebury, Pimlico.

Davis Strait. After the navigator who discovered it.

Davy Jones’s Locker. Properly “Duffy Jonah’s Locker.” Duffy is the ghost of the West Indian Negroes; Jonah, the prophet cast into the sea; and “locker,” the ordinary seaman’s chest.

D. D. Cellars. See “Dirty Dick’s.”

Dead as a Door Nail. The reflection that, if a man were to be knocked on the head as often as is the “nail” on which a door knocker rests, he would have very little life left in him, easily accounts for this saying.

Dead Beat. Prostrate from fatigue, incapable of further exertion. Also the name of an American drink of whisky and ginger-soda after a hard night’s carousal.

Deadheads. In America persons who enjoy the right of travelling on a railway system at the public expense; in this country actors and pseudo “professionals,” who pass into places of amusement without paying. The origin of the term is as follows:–More than sixty years ago all the principal avenues of the city of Delaware converged to a toll gate at the entrance to the Elmwood Cemetery Road. The cemetery having been laid out long prior to the construction of the plank road beyond the toll gate, funerals were allowed to pass through the latter toll free. One day as Dr Price, a well-known physician, stopped to pay his toll he observed to the gatekeeper: “Considering the benevolent character of the profession to which I have the honour to belong, I think you ought to let me pass toll free.” “No, no, doctor,” the man replied; “we can’t afford that. You send too many deadheads through here as it is!” The story travelled, and the term “Deadheads” became fixed.

74Dead Reckoning. Calculating a ship’s whereabouts at sea from the log-book without aid from the celestial bodies.

Dead Sea. Traditionally on the site of the city of Sodom. Its waters are highly saline, and no fish are found in them.

Dean Street. After Bishop Compton, who, before he became Dean of the Savoy Chapel, held the living of St Anne’s, Soho.

Dean’s Yard. Affords access to the residence of the Dean of Westminster, which, with the cloisters, belonged to the abbots prior to the Reformation.

Death or Glory Men. The 17th Lancers, from their badge, a Death’s head superposed on the words “Or Glory.”

De Beauvoir Town. From the manorial residence of the De Beauvoirs.

Deccan. From the Sanskrit Dakshina, the south, being that portion of Hindustan south of the Vindhya Mountains.

December. The tenth month of the Roman Calendar when the year was reckoned from March.

Decemvir. One of the ten legislators of Rome appointed to draw up a code of laws.

Decoration Day. 30th May, observed in the United States for decorating the graves of the soldiers who fell in the struggle between the North and South.

Deemster. See “Doomster.”

Dehaley Street. From the residence of the Dehaleys.

Delaware. After the Governor of Virginia, Thomas West, Lord Delaware, who died on board his vessel while visiting the bay in 1610.

Del Salviati. The assumed name of the famous Italian painter Francesco Rossi, in compliment to his patron, Cardinal Salviati, who was born in the same year as himself.

Demijohn. A corruption of Damaghan, in Persia, a town anciently famous for its glass-ware.

75Democracy. From the Greek demos, people, and kratein, to rule. Government by the people.

Denbigh. From Dinbach, the Celtic for “a little fort.”

Denmark. Properly Danmark, the mark or boundary of the land of the Danes.

Depot. The American term for a railway station.

Deptford. The deep ford over the Ravensbourne.

Derby. Saxon for “deer village.” The Derby stakes at Epsom were founded by Edward Smith Stanley, Earl of Derby, in 1780.

Derrick. The old name for a gibbet and now for a high crane. So called after a seventeenth-century hangman at Tyburn.

Derry Down. The opening words of the Druidical chorus as they proceeded to the sacred grove to gather mistletoe at the winter solstice. Derry is Celtic for “grove.”

Dessborough Place. From Dessbrowe House, in which resided the brother-in-law of Oliver Cromwell.

Detroit. French for “strait.”

Deuteronomy. A Greek word signifying the second giving of the Law by Moses.

Devereaux Court. See “Essex Street.”

Devil’s Sonata. One of Tartini’s most celebrated compositions. He dreamt that the Evil One appeared to him playing a sonata on the violin. At its conclusion his visitor asked: “Tartini, canst thou play this?” Awaking with his mind still full of the grotesque music, Tartini played it over, and then recorded it permanently on paper.