In combination, thus—SON OF APOLLO = a scholar (B. E.); SON OF A BITCH (SOW, WHORE, &c.) = a term of violent abuse; SON OF A BACHELOR = a bastard; SON OF A GUN (or SEA-COOK) = (1) a soldier’s bastard, and (2) a term of contempt (see quot. 1867); SON OF MARS = a soldier (B. E.); SON OF MERCURY = a wit (B. E.); SON OF PARCHMENT = a lawyer (B. E.); SON OF PRATTLEMENT = an advocate (GROSE); SON OF WAX = a cobbler; EVERY MOTHER’S SON = everybody; A FAVOURITE SON (see quot. 1888); SON OF VENUS = a wencher.
c. 1330. Auchinleck MS. [HORSTMANN, Altenglische Legenden, 253] [T. L. KINGTON-OLIPHANT, The New English, i. 18. There is the new phrase mani a moder child; whence comes ‘EVERY MOTHER’S SON’].
1592. SHAKESPEARE, Midsummer Night’s Dream, i. 2, 80. That would hang us, EVERY MOTHER’S SON.
1611. CHAPMAN, May-Day, ii. 2. The SON OF A SOW-GELDER that came to town … in a tattered russet coat … must needs rise a gentleman.
d. 1704. T. BROWN, Works, I. 121. Get thee gone from my Door, Like a SON OF A WHORE. Ibid., III. 41. Certain SONS OF PARCHMENT called Solicitors and Barristers.
1705. VANBRUGH, The Confederacy, iii. 2. Here’s a SON OF A W——.
1748. SMOLLETT, Roderick Random, iii. Lookee, you lubberly SON OF A W——E, if you can athwart me …; I’ll be foul of your quarter, d——n me. Ibid., xxvii. Lazy lubberly SONS OF BITCHES … good for nothing on board but to eat the King’s provision, and encourage idleness in the skulkers.
1772. BRIDGES, A Burlesque Translation of Homer, ‘Publisher to the Reader.’ They called one another rogue, rascal, and SON OF A BITCH very cordially.
1830. BULWER-LYTTON, Paul Clifford, x., ‘Fighting Attie’s Song.’
| Pass round the bingo,—OF A GUN, | |
| You musky, dusky, husky SON! |
1833. MARRYAT, Peter Simple I. xiv. You burgoo-eating, pea-soup-swilling, trousers-scrubbing SON OF A BITCH! Ibid., III. xxvii. You are a d——d trencher-scraping, napkin-carrying, shilling-seeking, up-and-down-stairs SON OF A BITCH. Ibid., I. xii. Take that—and that—and that—(thrashing the man with his rattan)—you d—d haymaking SON OF A SEA COOK.
1835. R. H. DANA, Jr., Two Years Before the Mast, xiv. He was not the man to call a sailor a SON OF A B——H, and knock him down with a handspike.
1837. R. H. BARHAM, The Ingoldsby Legends ‘The Lay of St. Medard.’ A stupid, old snuff-coloured SON OF A GUN!
1867. W. H. SMYTH, Sailor’s Word-Book, s.v. SON OF A GUN. An epithet conveying contempt in a slight degree, and originally applied to boys born afloat, when women were permitted to accompany their hushands to sea; one admiral declared he literally was thus cradled, under the breast of a gun-carriage.
1888. BRYCE, The American Commonwealth, II. 153. A FAVOURITE SON is a politician respected or admired in his own State, but little regarded beyond it.
1899. R. WHITEING, No. 5 John Street, xvi. They have that to give which is wanted by EVERY MOTHER’S SON.
