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From: "MICHAEL. CHAPPELL" <>
Subject: Re: [OLDWORDS] Yellow Belly...Random opinions from Google.com
Date: Sun, 9 Apr 2000 21:25:15 +0100


Dear List,

Many thanks for the exact, humorous and others, sent in by the unsigned
Faulkner.

Best wishes,
Mikey.






Old English term for cowardice -

Here is a relevant piece of research from an independent source:

Paul Dormer wrote in message <>...
>1. a. A name for a frog.
>1825 Houlston Tracts I. No. 28. 4 The Frenchman’s soupe-maigre and
>fricasseed yellow-bellies.
>18.. Nursery Rime, Yellow-belly, yellow-belly, come and have a swim.
>b. A native of the fens (in humorous allusion to a frog).
>1787 Grose Provincial Gloss. s.v. Lincolnshire, Yellow bellies. This
>is an
>appellation given to persons born in the Fens, who, it is jocularly
>said,
>have yellow bellies, like their eels.
>1796 Grose’s Dict. Vulgar T. (ed. 3), Yellow Belly, a native of the
>Fens
>of Lincolnshire: an allusion to the eels caught there.
>1846 J. Keegan Leg. & Poems (1907) 362, I would rather dig my
>daughter’s
>grave..than see her tied to Lanty Wolfe. or any other yellow belly of
>the
>County Wexford.
>1847 Halliwell, Yellow-belly, a person born in the fens of
>Lincolnshire.
>Linc.
>1982 Times 5 Oct. 4/5 The Lincolnshire ‘yellowbellies’ of
south
>Humberside..for generations have entertained a healthy disregard for
>Yorkshire ‘tykes’ on the north bank of the Humber.
>2. A kind of tortoise, or the tortoiseshell obtained from it.
>1843 Holtzapffel Turning I. 127 note, The Yellow Belly, which plates
>are
>very thin and yellow.
>1905 Times 15 Sept. 11/5 Tortoiseshell,..yellowbelly about 5s. dearer.
>3. (See quots.) derog.
>1842 New Orleans Crescent 16 Mar. (Extra) 1 God send that they bayonet
>every ‘yellow belly’ in the Mexican army.
>1845 [see copperhead 3].
>1850 Mayne Reid Rifle Rangers I. ii. 12 I’ve a mighty puncheon, as
the
>Frenchmen say, to hev a crack at them yeller-bellies. Footn. Yellow
>bellies–a name given by Western hunters and soldiers of the U.S.A.
to
>the
>Mexicans.
>1867 Smyth Sailor’s Word-bk., Yellow-belly, a name
given..occasionally
>to
>half-castes, &c.
>1934 ‘G. Orwell’ Burmese Days x. 155 They’re
Eurasians–sons of
white
>fathers and native mothers. Yellow-bellies is our friendly nickname
>for
>them.
>1966 [see slant-eye(s) s.v. slant a. 3].
>4. Name for various fishes having the under parts yellow (see quots.).
>1890 Science 28 Feb. 141/2 A sole (Peltorhamphus novæ~zealandiæ) and
a
>sole-like flounder (Rhombosolea leporina), commonly known as
>‘yellow-belly’, are also frequently caught.
>1896 Jordan & Evermann Fishes N. Amer. 1001 Lepomis Auritus... Yellow
>Belly; Redbreast Bream.
>1898 Morris Austral Eng., Yellow-belly. In New South Wales, the name
>is
>given to a fresh-water fish, Ctenolates auratus; called also
>Golden-Perch... In Dunedin especially, and New Zealand generally, it
>is a
>large flounder, also called Lemon-Sole [Ammotretis guntheri].
>1899 Cumbld. Gloss., Yalla belly, a young salmon-trout returning from
>the
>sea.
>5. A coward. Cf. yellow a. 2 b, yellow-bellied a. 2. slang (orig.
>U.S.).
>1930 J. Lait Put on Spot 215 Yellow-belly. Coward.
>1942 Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §404/3
>Coward..yellow-back,
>-belly or guts.
>1952 H. Innes Campbell’s Kingdom iii. ii. 271 What are you?.. A
bunch
>of
>yellow-bellies to be fooled into hiding away.
>1952 J. Steinbeck East of Eden 517 I’m a cowardly yellow-belly.
>1965 Austral. Women’s Weekly 20 Jan. 50/5 ‘Yellowbelly baby...
>Spoiled-cat
>crybaby,’ Steve yelled at him.
>1969 K. M. Wells Owl Pen Reader ii. 209 Grandad’s knees shook, and
he
>wasn’t no yellow-belly either.
>1972 ‘H. Howard’ Nice Day for Funeral ix. 128 She’d
call me every
kind
>of
>yellow belly if I suggested throwing in my hand.

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