J’pourrais pas vivr’ dans les salons!
E. du Bois, C’est Pitanchard.
The word violon itself signifies lock-up, on account of the window-bars of a cell being compared to the strings of that instrument. The lingo terms, “jouer de la harpe,” to be in prison, and “jouer du violon,” to file through the window-bars of a cell, seem to bear out this explanation. Some philologists, however, think that the stocks being termed psaltérion, “mettre au psaltérion,” to put in the stocks, became synonymous of to imprison, the expression being superseded in time by “mettre au violon” when that instrument itself superseded the psaltérion.
Violoné, adj. (thieves’), poor. A man who comes out of prison is generally “hard-up.”
Virolets, m. (obsolete), explained by quotation:—
Pour les testicules, les génitoires, les marques de virilité d’un homme.—Le Roux.
Vis, f. (familiar and popular), tortiller, or serrer la ——, to strangle. See [Refroidir].
Visage, m. (popular), à culotte, —— cousu, thin, spare man, “a scare crow;” —— de bois flotté, haggard face; —— de constipé, sour countenance; —— de campagne, or sans nez, the behind; —— à culotte, ugly face.
Viscope, f. (thieves’ and roughs’), cap, “tile.”
Vise-au-trèfle, m. (popular), apothecary, “squirt.”