[Ads-l] "queer phiz," collocation before quiz

[Stephen Goranson]

Maybe relevant, supply brackets freely :

1748  "....what is called a queer phiz, occasioned by a long chin, an hook nose, and high cheek bones, rendered him on the whole a very fit subject for mirth and pleasantry."

1748 pic-nic OED

?1780 poz...quoz. OED

1780 1780 John Hope, Hope’s Curious and comic misellaneous works, started in his walks ... (HathiTrust) 261: But now it seems no longer odd;/For here thou say’st, my little quiz!/ (How could I read it in thy phiz?)

1783 "....a number of the Scholars [at Harrow] seeing that they were strangers, had gathered about them, calling them ludicrous names, such as bucks, bloods, and quizzes [quizzes in italics], which latter was explained by Mr. Bearcroft, as the cant word of the school for the year, being an abbreviation of the words [italic next two:] quere phizzes, and that the Defendants had pulled the hair of the Plaintiffs, spit upon them, and otherwise ill treated them..." Stamford Mercury, Thurs. June 19, 1783, p.3 col. 3

1795  "let us quiz/ His ugly phiz."

1797  queer phiz , The " wonder - wounded " multitude read Quiz !

1799 queer phiz

1802 "At length it was announced, that Pic-Nic, like Quoz, which was chalked some years ago on windows and doors, really meant nothing."pic-nic....Quoz." n Spirit of Public Journals (1803) vol. 6 197 OED (early claim of chalking a made-up word, later claimed for quiz)

1802 "...a very queer kind of quiz...so prim in his phiz." or 1800

1802 "Quiz is a kind of a sort of a word...A mixture of odd and queer..."

1802 " QUIZ . This cant word is frequently used as a substantive to describe a strange, out of the way character."

1807  queer phiz, ugliest Quiz

1813 "queer quiz!/ with psalm-singing phiz"

1822 queer phiz and idiot men

1823 queer phiz was such as might invite a quiz

1838 Sketches for Young Couples... by Quiz, Illustrated by Phiz. (When did Edward Caswall adopt the pen-name Quiz?)

1841 "Many years ago the favourite phrase (for, though but a monosyllable, it was a phrase in itself) was Quoz."C. Mackay, Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions vol. I. 325 OED
Stephen Goranson
Durham, NC

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