Digger Indians. Tribes of the lowest class who live principally upon roots. They have never been known to hunt.
Diggings. A Bohemian term for “lodgings.” Not from the Californian gold diggings, as generally supposed, but from the Galena lead miners of Wisconsin, who called both their mines and their underground winter habitations “diggings.”
Dime. A ten-cent piece, from the French dixme, or dîme, tenth--i.e. of a dollar.
Dimity. First brought from Damietta, Egypt.
Dine with Duke Humphrey. An old saying of those who were fated to go dinnerless. When the “Good Duke Humphrey,” son of Henry IV., was buried at St Albans, a monument to his memory was to be erected in St Paul’s Cathedral. At that time, as for long afterwards, the nave of our national fane was a fashionable promenade. When the promenaders left for dinner, others who had no dinners to go to explained that they would stay behind in order to look for the Good Duke’s monument.
Dining-room Servant. An Americanism for waiter or male house servant.
Diorama. See “[Panorama].”
Dirty Dick’s. The noted tavern in Bishopgate, said to have been associated with Nathaniel Bentley, the miser, who never washed himself. As a matter of fact, Dirty Dick was an ironmonger in Leadenhall Street. After his death his effects were bought and exhibited at the Bishopgate tavern, together with his portrait as a sign.
Dirty Shirts. The 101st Foot, who were hotly engaged at the battle of Delhi in their shirt sleeves.
Dissenters. Synonymous with the Nonconformists. Those who dissented from the doctrines of the Church of England and those likewise who, at a later period, separated from the Presbyterian Church of Scotland.