saracen’s head, you old

saracen’s head, you old
   ‘You hold your tongue, you old Saracen’s Head,’ says a military man to a colleague, in Thackeray’s The Newcomes. The man concerned presumably resembles the typical Turk shown on the innsign of a Saracen’s Head public house. ‘Saracen’ has the vague meaning of ‘Moslem’, and refers to the time of the Crusades. The vocative is unusual, but might well have been meaningful amongst a group of young men who regularly patronized public houses.

A dictionary of epithets and terms of address . . 2015.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать курсовую

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