limb, young

   In some English dialects, in former times, mischievous or wicked people were referred to as the devil’s limbs. By the seventeenth century it was therefore possible to refer to a mischievous child as a limb. The term is applied to Oliver Twist in Dickens’s novel of that name: ‘Now listen, you young limb.’ In Dandelion Dayst by Henry Williamson, occurs: Young limb, what do ee think he did now?’

   This is addressed to a young boy by a Devonshire woman. The expression appears to have crossed the Atlantic, since Miss Ophelia, in Uncle Tom’s Cabin, says to Topsy: ‘What are you doing there, you limb?’ The term is not used in modern times other than by elderly speakers.