subs. (thieves’).—See quot.
1864. Times, 18 Oct. Another curious instance of the prevalence of this Lingua Franca is the word Mungarly, as representing bread or food. MUNGARLY CASA is a baker’s shop, evidently a corruption of some Lingua Franca phrase for an eating-house. The well-known Nix Mangiare stairs at Malta derive their name from the endless beggars who lie there and shout ‘Nix Mangiare,’ i.e., ‘Nothing to eat,’ to excite the compassion of the English who land there—an expression which exhibits remarkably the mongrel composition of the Lingua Franca, mangiare being Italian, and nix an evident importation from Trieste or other Austrian seaport.
