[Possibly in allusion to the parable of the beggar Lazarus in Luke xvi.] One of ‘a set of vagabonds, who wandered about the country, soon after the dissolution of the religious houses; the provision of the poor in those places being cut off, and no other substituted.’ Nares.
1561. Awdelay, Frat. Vacaboundes, 3. An Abraham man is he that walketh bare armed, and bare legged, and fayneth hym selfe mad.
1633. Massinger, New Way to Pay, II. i. Are they padders, or Abram-men, that are your consorts?
1813. Q. Rev., IX. 167. Pretended maniacs who wandered over England, under the name of Abram-men.
Hence, To sham Abram: to feign sickness, a phrase in use among sailors.
1860. J. C. Hotten, Dict. Slang, When Abraham Newland was Cashier of the Bank of England, and signed their notes, it was sung: ‘I have heard people say that sham Abraham you may, but you mustn’t sham Abraham Newland.’
