1. A long-tailed animal, formerly a dog or horse with the tail uncut. Cut and long-tail: see CUT ppl. a. 9; fig. in the sense ‘riff-raff’ (cf. quot. a. 1700 here and BOB-TAIL).
1575–1699. [see CUT ppl. a. 9].
1602. 2nd Pt. Return fr. Parnass., IV. i. 1509. He hath bestowed an ounce of Tobacco vpon vs, and as long as it lasts, come cut and long-taile, weele spend it as liberally for his sake.
a. 1700. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Riff-raff,… Tagrag and Long-tail.
1865. Daily Tel., 17 Oct., 5/1. Ten brace more or less of ‘longtails’ [= pheasants].
1900. Westm. Gaz., 20 June, 4/2. The farmer wants to sell his horse as a ‘long-tail,’ and the military authorities would prefer not to receive it till it is five or six.
b. A long-tailed duck.
1837. Swainson, Nat. Hist. Birds, II. 189. Heralda, or the long-tails.
2. A nickname for: † a. A native of Kent. Obs.
In allusion to the jocular imputation that the people of Kent had tails (cf. quot. a. 1661); the French made the same accusation against Englishmen generally.
[1617. Moryson, Itin., III. 53. The Kentish men of old were sayd to have tayles, because trafficking in the Low-Countries, they never paid full … but still left some part unpaid.]
1628. Robin Goodfellow, his mad Prankes (Percy Soc.), 4. They ever after were called Kentish Long-tayles. Ibid., 5. Truly, sir, sayd my hoastesse, I thinke we are called Long-tayles, by reason our tales are long, that we use to passe the time withall, and make our selves merry.
1656. Sir J. Mennis & J. Smith, Musarum Deliciæ, 7. Which still stands as a Monument, Call’d Long-taile, from the Man of Kent.
1659. Howell, Lex., Eng. Prov., 21. Essex Calfs, Kentish Long-tails, Yorkshire Tikes.
c. 1661. Fuller, Worthies, Kent (1811), I. 486. ‘Kentish Long-Tailes.’… It happened in an English Village where Saint Austin was preaching, that the Pagans therein did beat and abuse both him and his associates, opprobriously tying Fish-tails to their backsides; in revenge whereof an impudent Author relateth … how such Appendants grew to the hind parts of all that Generation.
1701. T. Brown, Advice, in Coll. Poems, 104. We, the Long Heads of Gotham,… To the Long-Tails of Kent, by these Presents send Greeting.
b. A Chinaman.
1867. in Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk.
3. Tobacco-manuf.
1839. ‘Joseph Fume,’ Paper on Tobacco, 119. The manufacturers tried them with a sample of returns under the name of long-tails.
4. attrib. = next.
1848. C. A. Johns, Week at Lizard, 327. Longtail Tit (Parus Caudatus).
1855. Ogilvie, Suppl., Long-tail, a. Having the tail uncut, as a dog.
