subs. (old).—1. A rake; a loose liver; sometimes specifically, a fashionable whore. Shakespeare has it, ‘a lad of mettle,’ but in another place he uses CORINTH as above. In the slang sense an allusion to the notoriety of Corinth as a centre of prostitution, i.e., the temple-city of Aphrodite. Κορινθιάεσθαι = to CORINTHIANISE was Greek slang. Hence the proverb—Οὐ παντὸς ἀνδρὸς εἰς Κόρινθον ισθ᾽ ὁ μλοῦς: and Horace, Epist. lib. 1, xvii., 36.
| ‘Non cuivis homini contingit adire Corinthum.’ |
1598. SHAKESPEARE, 1 Henry IV., ii. 4. And tell me flatly I am no proud Jack, like Falstaff; but a CORINTHIAN, a lad of mettle, a good boy.
1641. MILTON, An Apology for Smectymnuus [Works (1851), 272]. And raps up, without pitty the sage and rheumatick old Prelatesse with all her young CORINTHIAN Laity.
1890. Daily Telegraph, 25 Feb., p. 4, col. 7. Is it not curious that hotel proprietors [at Monte Carlo] should countenance, if not encourage, a Tom and Jerry tone and a wild CORINTHIAN element, even in well-conducted restaurants?
1890. W. E. HENLEY and R. L. STEVENSON, Beau Austin, iii., 1. I assure you, Aunt Evelina, we are CORINTHIAN to the last degree.
2. A dandy; specifically applied in the early part of the present century to a man of fashion; e.g., CORINTHIAN Tom, in Pierce Egan’s Life in London. For synonyms, see DANDY.
1785. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v.
1819. T. MOORE, Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress, p. 9.
| ’Twas diverting to see, as one ogled around, | |
| How CORINTHIANS and Commoners mixed on the ground. |
1832. P. EGAN, Book of Sports, xiv. 210. I would be a CORINTHIAN to the end of the chapter, if I could—but the truth is, I was not lucky enough to have been born a Swell.
1853. WHYTE-MELVILLE, Digby Grand, ch. iv. Where the hospitable ‘Jem’ received his more aristocratic visitors, and to which, as CORINTHIANS, or ‘swells,’ we were immediately admitted.
1854. THACKERAY, John Leech’s Pictures of Life and Character in The Quarterly Review, No. 191, Dec. CORINTHIAN, it appears, was the phrase applied to men of fashion and ton … they were the brilliant predecessors of the ‘swell’ of the present period.
