1. A medicine whose effectiveness is unproved and whose ingredients are usually secret; a quack remedy.
2. A favorite but usually ineffective remedy for problems or evils.
http://www.answers.com/topic/nostrum
2. "It is a poet’s license to espouse the cause of vagabondage; statesmen stand by principle alone." (Lord Castlereagh quote)
wandering, roving; travelling about without any clear destination
http://www.wordreference.com/definition/vagabondage
3. "Your beau geste, my lord, we must admire, but a statesman I reply with coldness…" (Lord Castlereagh quote)
a graceful or magnanimous gesture or an ingratiating conciliatory gesture
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/beau+geste
4. "Turncoats and traitors! Scabs of master’s men! Blacklegs and varlets!" (John Wibley quote)
Chiefly British A worker who is opposed to trade unions; a scab.
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/blacklegs
Material wealth regarded as having an evil influence.
Riches, avarice, and worldly gain personified as a false god in the New Testament.
http://www.answers.com/topic/mammon
Unrighteousness
http://www.holyghostspeak.com/sermons_20.htm
6. "(sings) Ba, ba, black sheep!" (Chorus quote)As with many nursery rhymes attempts have been made to find origins and meanings for the rhyme. These include:
A description of the medieval 'Great' or 'Old Custom' wool tax of 1275, which survived until the fifteenth century. Contrary to some commentaries, this tax did not involve the collection of one third to the king, and one third to the church, but a less punitive sum of 6s 8d to the Crown per sack, about 5 per cent of the value. This theory also depends on the rhyme surviving unrecorded and even unmentioned in extant texts for hundreds of years.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baa,_Baa,_Black_Sheep
The scythe has connotations with Death. Thus a person using a scythe has connotations with death. It's a cheap way of making a character look dangerous and gothy.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.70517
8. "Now comes the day when Ure would lead us to the knackers’ yard." (Ned Lud quote)
A Knackerman is a person who collects Dead, Dying and Injured farm animals and Horses... If there were no knacker yards it would be left to big business to collect and dispose of these animals and that would put a huge burden on the taxpayer.
9. "The mill-owners set the Spanish fly on your breast;" (Beggar quote)
The Spanish fly is the emerald-green blister beetle, in Latin Cantharis vesicatoria or Lytta vesicatoria which is found in the southern parts of Europe. The body of the Spanish Fly is usually 15-22 mm long and 5-8 mm wide with a strong smell and a burning taste. The dried and crushed body of the Spanish Fly beetle was earlier used medically as a irritant and diuretic, but was also regarded as a potent aphrodisiac. Origins: The legend that Spanish fly (or cantharides, a substance made from dried beetle remains) is a powerful aphrodisiac has been around for hundreds of years. The substance Spanish Fly liquid irritates the urogenital tract and produces an itching sensation in sensitive membranes, a feeling that allegedly increases a woman's desire for intercourse.10. "A Moloch stands in Nottingham. Strike him down!" (John Wibley quote)
As the word Moloch means king, it is difficult in several places of the Old Testament to determine whether it should be considered as the proper name of a deity or as a simple appellative...The chief feature of Moloch's worship among the Jews seems to have been the sacrifice of children, and the usual expression for describing that sacrifice was "to pass through the fire", a rite carried out after the victims had been put to death.
No comments:
Post a Comment