"making streaks"
Joel S. Berson
Berson at ATT.NET
Mon Jun 18 16:45:59 UTC 2012
I take "quod will be his pass word" as meaning
"quod will be the word that identifies him"; that
is, the word on his (imagined) pass (identification document).
Joel
At 6/18/2012 11:22 AM, George Thompson wrote:
>[An overdressed pimp -- not that there has ever been any other kind --
>appears before a police justice to lodge a complaint against one of his
>whores; the judge sends him off, and he is razzed by the hangers-out in the
>court room as he leaves.]
>
>The way the fellow made streaks was truly laughable, and afforded capital
>fun to the spectators. If he infests the office again, quod will be his
>pass word.
>
> ...
>
>"Quod will be his pass word" is an odd expression. Evidently it means
>""quod" is the word that will gain him admission to the jail", which is to
>say, the next time the judge sees him, he will send him to jail on general
>principles. (As in the OED definition of "Password": "a selected word or
>phrase securing admission".) Are there other instances? Or parallels (X
>shall be his password)?
>
>* *
>
>OED, "quod":
>
>Prison, the state of imprisonment; (also) a prison. Freq. in *in qquod*.
>
>1699 B. E. *New Dict. Canting Crew*, *Quod*, Newgate; also any Prison,
>tho' for Debt.
>
>1752 H. Fielding *Amelia* I. i. iv. 30 There is not such a Pickpocket
>in the whole *Quad*.
>
>1795 in *Spirit of Public Jrnls.* (1801) IV. 226 Coming home, was cast
>in quod Till subjects paid his ransom.
>
>1848 Thackeray *Vanity Fair* liv. 487 She's..grudged me a hundred pound
>to get me out of quod.
>
>[I have 3 or 4 examples from NYC sources of the 1830s, the earliest 1830]
>
>
>
>OED, "Password":
>
> *1.* *a.* A selected word or phrase securing admission, recognition, etc.,
>when used by those to whom it is disclosed; (*Mil.*) a watchword, a parole.
>
>1799 Scott tr. Goethe *Goetz of Berlichingen* ii. iii. 69 George
>shall..force the fellow to give him the pass-word.
>
>1811 F. Plowden *Hist. Ireland 180110* II. iv. 443 The secret passages
>to the back of the throne were daily thronged by those, who had the *pass
>word* or private key.
>
>1855 T. B. Macaulay *Hist. Eng.* III. xv. 555 Ferguson..longed to be
>again the president of societies where none could enter without a pass-word.
>
>1890 âR. Boldrewoodâ *Colonial Reformer* (1891) 142 That fresh,
>unspoiled, girlish heart to which he alone had the password.
>
>GAT
>
>--
>George A. Thompson
>Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
>Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much since then.
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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