Cantering Through Cant (5)
The word “brothers” carries with it associations of camaraderie and kinship. Francis Grose, in his A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (1785), gives a set of examples of the use of brother as a collective noun.
A brother of the blade was a soldier, while a brother of the buskin was an actor and a brother of the bung a brewer. A brother of the gusset was a pimp and a brother of the quill an author. Naturally enough, a brother of the string was a fiddler and a brother of the whip a coachman. A brother starling was one who lies with the same woman, that is, builds in the same nest. I guess I am a brother starling, then.
We have heard a lot about bubbles this year but, according to Grose, the Bubble was ”the party cheated. Perhaps from his being like an air bubble, filled with words, which are only wind, instead of real property”. Not much has changed, perhaps.
