Fogle—a handkerchief—properly and strictly a handkerchief with a bird’s eye pattern upon it. From the German vogel, a bird.
Gam—the leg. Liston has introduced this word upon the stage, when in Lubin Log he tells old Brown that he is “stiffish about the gams.” We have it either from the French jambe, or the Italian gamba.
Leary—cunning or wary. Correctly it ought to be written lehry. The derivation of it is the German lehre, learning or warning. The authorities for this word are not older than the time of James I.
Max—gin. Evidently from the Latin maximus, in reference to the strength and goodness of the liquor.
To nim—to take, snatch, or seize. It is used by Chaucer—“well of English undefiled.” It is derived from the Saxon niman, whence also the German nehmen, to take. We have it in the every-day adjective, nimble. The name of the corporal in Shakspeare’s Henry V. ought to be spelled Nim, and not Nym, (as the commentators ignorantly give it,) from his furtive propensity.
Pal—a companion. It is perhaps going too far to fetch this word from the Persian palaker, a comrade. It rather originates in the famous story told by Boccacio, Chaucer, Dryden, &c. &c. of the friendship of Palamon and Arcyte; pal being only a familiar abbreviation of Palamon, to denote an intimate friend.
To prig—to rob or steal. It is doubtful whether this word be originally Spanish or Italian. Preguntar in Spanish is to demand, and robbing on the highway is demanding money or life. Priega in Italian is a petition—a mode of committing theft without personal violence. In English the word to prig is now applied chiefly to picking pockets, owing to the degeneracy of modern rogues: a prig is a pick-pocket.
Sappy—foolish, weak. Clearly from the Latin sapio—lucus à non lucendo.
Seedy—shabby—worn out: a term used to indicate the decayed condition of one who has seen better days: it refers principally to the state of his apparel: thus a coat which has once been handsome, when it is old is called seedy, and the wearer is said to look seedy. It is only a corruption of the French ci-devant—formerly; with an ellipsis of the last syllable. It has no reference to running to seed, as is commonly supposed.
Spoony—silly or stupid—is used both as a substantive and as an adjective. Some have conjectured that it owes its origin to the wooden spoon at Cambridge, the lowest honour conferred by that university, the individual gaining it being entitled to no other, rather from his dulness than his ignorance. Its etymology is in fact to be found in the Italian word saponé, soap; and it is a well-known phrase that “a stupid fellow wants his brains washing with soap-suds.”