Farmer’s Slang & Its Analogues. 1890–1909, rev. 2022.
Holy-father
subs. (Irish).—See quot.
1
1785. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v. HOLY FATHER. A butcher’s boy of St. Patrick’s Market, Dublin, or other Irish blackguard; among whom the exclamation, or oath, By the Holy Father (meaning the Pope), is common.
