autem mort
English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]Noun
[edit]autem mort (plural autem morts)
- (archaic, thieves' cant) A married woman.
- 1556, Thomas Harman, A Caveat or Warning for Common Cursitors,:
- These Autem Mortes be maried wemen, as there be but a fewe: For Autem in their Language is a church, so shee is a wyfe maried at the church, and they be as chaste as a cowe I have, that goeth to bull euery moone, with what bull she careth not.
- 1641–42, Richard Brome, A Jovial Crew, or the Merry Beggars, act 2:
- The Autum-Mort finds better sport / In bowsing then in nigling.
- 1834, William Harrison Ainsworth, Rookwood:
- Morts, autem morts, walking morts, dells, doxies, kinching morts, and their coes, with all the shades and grades of the Canting Crew, were assembled.
- (idiomatic, archaic, thieves' cant) A female beggar with several children hired or borrowed to excite charity.
Synonyms
[edit]- (married woman): autem cackler
Hypernyms
[edit]- (beggar with children): beggar, see also Thesaurus:beggar
Related terms
[edit]- (married woman): autem cove (“married man”)
References
[edit]- [Francis] Grose [et al.] (1811) “Autem mort”, in Lexicon Balatronicum. A Dictionary of Buckish Slang, University Wit, and Pickpocket Eloquence. […], London: […] C. Chappell, […], →OCLC.
- [Francis Grose] (1788) “Autem mort”, in A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 2nd edition, London: […] S. Hooper, […], →OCLC.
- Albert Barrère and Charles G[odfrey] Leland, compilers and editors (1889–1890) “autem mort”, in A Dictionary of Slang, Jargon & Cant […], volume I (A–K), Edinburgh: […] The Ballantyne Press, →OCLC, page 54.
- John S[tephen] Farmer, compiler (1890) “autem mort”, in Slang and Its Analogues Past and Present. […], volume I, [London: […] Thomas Poulter and Sons] […], →OCLC, page 81.