subs. (common).—A clergyman. Also, by implication, anyone of a religious turn of mind.
ENGLISH SYNONYMS.—Devil catcher, driver, pitcher, or scolder; snub devil; bible pounder; duck that grinds the gospel mill; commister; camister; sky-pilot; chimney-sweep; rat; rum (Johnson); pantiler; cushion smiter, duster, or thumper; couple, or buckle, beggar; rook; gospel grinder; earwig; one-in-ten (tramps’ = a tithe-monger); finger-post; parish prig; parish bull; holy Joe; green apron; black cattle (collectively); crow; the cloth (collectively); white choker; patrico; black coat; black fly; glue pot; gospel postillion; prunella; pudding-sleeves; puzzle-text; schism-monger; cod; Black Brunswicker; spiritual flesh-broker; head-clerk of the Doxology Works; Lady Green; fire-escape; gospel sharp; padre (Anglo-Indian); pound-text.
FRENCH SYNONYMS.—Un radicon (thieves’); un otage (popular: = hostage, in allusion to events under the Commune of 1871); un radis noir (familiar: also a police officer. In allusion to ‘the cloth’); un ratichon (pop. from ratissé, rasé = shaved); un sanglier (thieves’: a wild boar, but also a play upon words sans without, + glier, the infernal regions); un raze or razi (thieves’); un rochet (thieves’: a surplice); un pante en robe (thieves’: ‘a cove in a gown,’ also a judge); un chasublard (popular); une calotte (fam.: le régiment de la calotte = the skull-cap brigade, i.e., the company of the Society of Jesus); un corbeau (pop.: = crow); un couac (popular); un babillard (thieves’: especially a confessor, a ‘blab-monger’); un bichot (a bishop); une enseigne de cimetière (‘a cemetery signpost.’ Cf., SKY-PILOT and FINGER-POST); un bâton de réglisse (thieves’: = a stick of liquorice. Also a police-officer); un barbichon (popular: a preaching friar. From barbe = beard, in allusion to the long beard characteristic of the order).
GERMAN SYNONYMS.—Herrle (especially applied to Catholic priests). Lefranz or Lefrenz (a transposition of Franzle or Fränzle = the Franciscan. Liber Vagatorum Lefrenzin, = a priest’s harlot, still popular in N. Germany); Schocherer (from Hebrew schochar = black. Cf., analogous English terms); Schwarzfärber (Schwarz = black; Färber = a dyer).
ITALIAN SYNONYMS.—Chiodrino; capellano rosso (a cardinal; ‘a red chaplain’); farfoio (= a monk; farfoia, a nun); rossignolo (= ‘a nightingale’); pisto or pistolfo (Michel: ‘parce qu’il suit le condamné à la piste’).
SPANISH SYNONYM.—Cleriguillo (= a little clerk: both insult and endearment).
1791. J. LACKINGTON, Memoirs, Letter vi. [ed. 1803]. These DEVIL-DODGERS happened to be so very powerful (that is, noisy) that they soon sent John home, crying out he should be damn’d.
1889. Cornhill Magazine, Jan., p. 50. He’s just a kind of a fine-haired cuss—a gambler, or a DEVIL-DODGER. I reckon … I’m open ter bet he’s a preacher.
