A Dictionary of Slang, Cant, and Vulgar Words / Used at the Present Day in the Streets of London; the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge; the Houses of Parliament; the Dens of St. Giles; and the Palaces of St. James.

by John Camden Hotten

MY AUNT, a water-closet, or house of office.

MY LORD, a nickname given to a hunchback.

MY TULIP, a term of endearment used by the lower orders to persons and animals; “kim up, MY TULIP,” as the coster said to his donkey when thrashing him with an ash stick.

MY UNCLE, the pawnbroker,—generally used when any person questions the whereabouts of a domestic article, “Oh! only at MY UNCLE’S” is the reply. Up the spout has the same meaning.

NAB, to catch, to seize; “NAB the rust,” to take offence.—Ancient, fourteenth century.

NABOB, an Eastern prince, a retired Indian official,—hence a slang term for a capitalist.

NAIL, to steal, or capture; “paid on the NAIL,” i.e., ready money; NAILED, taken up, or caught—probably in allusion to the practice of NAILING bad money to the counter. We say “as dead as a DOOR-NAIL;”—why? Shakespere has the expression in Henry IV.—

“Falstaff. What! is the old king dead?

Pistol. As nail in door.”

A correspondent thinks the expression is only alliterative humour, and compares as “Flat as a Flounder,” “straight as a soldier,” &c.