Hangman’s wages, thirteenpence halfpenny.—Old. 17th century.
“’Sfoot, what a witty rogue was this to leave this fair thirteenpence halfpenny, and this old halter,” intimating aptly—
“Had the hangman met us there, by these presages
Here had been his work, and here his wages.”
The clothes of the culprit were also the hangman’s wages. See one of Lord Bacon’s aphorisms, beginning “A cursed page.”
Hang out, to reside,—in allusion to the ancient custom of hanging out signs.
Hang up, to rob with violence, to garrotte. Most likely from throttling associations in connexion with the practice of garrotting.
Hannah, “that’s the man as married HANNAH,” a Salopian phrase to express a matter begun or ended satisfactorily. Meaning actually, “that’s the thing.”
Hansel, or HANDSEL, the lucky money, or first money taken in the morning by a pedlar.—Cocker’s Dictionary, 1724. “Legs of mutton (street term for sheep’s trotters, or feet) two for a penny; who’ll give me a HANSEL? who’ll give me a HANSEL?” Hence, earnest money, first-fruits, &c. In Norfolk, HANSELLING a thing is using it for the first time, as wearing a new coat, taking seisin of it, as it were. Danish, HANDSEL; Anglo-Saxon, HANDSELEN.
Ha’porth o’ coppers, Habeas Corpus.—Legal slang.
Ha’porth o’ liveliness, the music at a low concert, or theatre. Also a dilatory person.