haberdasher of pronouns
English
[edit]Noun
[edit]haberdasher of pronouns (plural haberdashers of pronouns)
- (obsolete slang) schoolmaster
- 1828, [Edward Bulwer-Lytton], chapter XVI, in Pelham; or, The Adventures of a Gentleman. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 104:
- When I first went to Paris, I took a French master, to perfect me in the Parisian pronunciation. This “Haberdasher of Pronouns” was a person of the name of Margot.
Further reading
[edit]- [Francis Grose] (1785) “Haberdasher of pronouns”, in A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, London: […] S. Hooper, […], →OCLC.