SPANISH, like DUTCH (q.v.), IRISH (q.v.), &c., contributes to colloquial English. Thus SPANISH = (1) money, spec. ready money: in America silver only; and (2) ‘fair words and compliments’ (B. E. and GROSE); SPANISH-FAGOT = the sun (GROSE); SPANISH-GOUT (NEEDLE, or POX) = syphilis: see FRENCH-GOUT and LADIES’-FEVER; SPANISH-PADLOCK = ‘a kind of girdle contrived by jealous husbands of that nation to secure the chastity of their wives’ (GROSE); SPANISH-PIKE = a needle; SPANISH-PLAGUE = building (RAY); SPANISH-TRUMPETER (or KING OF SPAIN’S TRUMPETER, i.e., DON KEY) = a braying ass (GROSE); TO WALK SPANISH = to be seized by the scruff and the seat, and thus forced along; hence, to act under compulsion; TO RIDE THE SPANISH MARE (nautical) = a punishment in which the offender was set astride a beam with the guys loosed, when the vessel was in a sea-way.
1656. FORD, The Sun’s Darling, ii. 1. Fol. A French gentleman, that trails a SPANISH PIKE; a tailor.
1837. R. H. BARHAM, The Ingoldsby Legends, ‘The Lay of the Old Woman Clothed in Grey.’ Save its synonyms ‘SPANISH,’ ‘Blunt,’ ‘Stumpy,’ and ‘Rhino.’
