subs. phr. (common).—1. See quots. and TERMINAL ESSAY. Also, as verb = to talk in the BACK-SLANG lingo.
1862. WHEATLEY, Anagrams, 141. BACK SLANG … is formed by the costermongers upon anagrammatical principles; thus look is cool.
1899. Century Dictionary, s.v. BACK-SLANG. A species of slang in which the words are pronounced or written backward, or as nearly so as the skill of the speaker or writer, or the possibility of pronouncing the word, will permit.
2. (old).—See quot. and SLUM.
1823. GROSE, Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue [EGAN], s.v. BACK SLUM. A back-room; also the back entrance to any house or premises; thus, we’ll give it ’em on the back-slum, means, we’ll get in at the back-door. Ibid., s.v. BACK SLANG. To enter or come out of a house by the back-door; or, to go a circuitous or private way through the streets, in order to avoid any particular place in the direct road, is termed BACK-SLANGING it.
Verb. (Australian).—1. To ask for hospitality on the road: a common and recognised up-country practice.
1898. MORRIS, Austral English … Where hotels are naturally scarce and inferior, the traveller asks for hospitality [and] is always made welcome. There is no idea of anything underhand on the part of the traveller.
