subs. (theatrical).—A coat. [From the Italian.]
ENGLISH SYNONYMS. Benjamin; cover-me-decently; upper benjamin (a great coat); joseph; wrap-rascal; bum-cooler or arsehole-perisher, or shaver (a short jacket); claw-hammer, swallow-tail, steel-pen (all three = a dress coat); M.B. coat; panupetaston; rock-a-low; reliever; pygostole; ulster; monkey-jacket. See also CASTER, many synonyms of which = a coat.
FRENCH SYNONYMS. Un cache-misère (familiar: specially applied to a coat buttoned close to the throat to conceal the absence of a shirt or the soiled state of one’s linen); un alpague (also alpaga and alpag); un elbeuf; un Berry (a fatigue jacket); une menuisière (pop: a long coat); un ne-te-gêne-pas-dans-le-parc (a short jacket; also termed un saute-en-barque, un pet-en-l’air, and un montretout).
GERMAN SYNONYMS. Oberhänger (an overcoat; also a cloak). Wallnusch (Hanoverian: corruption from the Hebrew malbusch = clothes); Schwalbenschweif (a dress-coat, a ‘swallow-tail’).
ITALIAN SYNONYM. Tappe (clothing in general; it also signifies ‘feathers’).
