1892. Hume Nisbet, Bushranger’s Sweetheart, p. 2. My father died in harness.
Harp, interject. (Irish).—See quot.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Harp … harp is also the Irish expression for ‘woman’ or ‘tail,’ used in tossing up in Ireland, from Hibernia being represented with a harp, on the reverse of the copper coins of that country, for which reason it is in hoisting the copper, i.e., tossing up, sometimes likewise called music.
To harp on, verb. phr. (old, now recognised).—To dwell persistently and at any cost upon a subject.
1596. Nashe, Have with you to Saffron Walden. As if I had continually harped upon it in every tenth line of my book.
1596. Shakspeare, Hamlet, ii., 2. Still harping on my daughter.
1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Harp-upon a business, to insist on it.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1886. R. L. Stevenson, Kidnapped, p. 291. He was back harping on my proposal.
Harper, subs. (old).—A brass coin current in Ireland, temp. Elizabeth, value one penny. [From the Irish Harp figured upon it.]