subs. (old).—1. A dandy: masc. or fem.: also SPARKLE; (2) a lover, and spec. (American) a sweetheart; and (3) a man or woman of pluck and parts. As verb. = to court, to gallant, e.g., to SPARK a girl, or to SPARK a girl home. SPARKISH = (1) spirited: also SPARKFUL and SPARKY; and (2) = showy, dandified, gay (B. E. and GROSE).
1362. LANGLAND, Piers Plowman [SKEAT], C. xxi. 12. SPRAKLICHE he lokede.
[?]. Robin Hood [CHILD, Ballads, v. 358].
| But Robbin Hood upon him set, | |
| With his couragious SPARKES. |
1601. JONSON, The Poetaster, i. 1. Thy son’s a gallant SPARK, and must not be put out of a sudden.
1605. CAMDEN, Remaines, ‘Languages.’ Hitherto will our SPARKEFULL youth laugh at their great grandfathers English.
1612. CHAPMAN, The Widow’s Tears, i. 1.
| I will wed thee | |
| To my great widow’s daughter and sole heir, | |
| The lovely SPARK, the bright Laodice. |
1632. MASSINGER [?], The City Madam, iv. 2. Shew yourself city-SPARKS, and hang up money!
1633. MARMION, The Antiquary, i. What pretty SPARKLE of humanity have we here?
d. 1643. CARTWRIGHT, The Ordinary, iii. 5. Save you, boon SPARKS! Will’t please you to admit me?
1654. WEBSTER, Appius and Virginia [DODSLEY, Old Plays (HAZLITT), iv. 112]. But stay: behold the peerless SPARKS, whereof my tongue did talk.
1662. PEPYS, Diary, 7 Sept. Here I also saw Madame Castlemaine, and … the King’s bastard, a most pretty SPARKE.
1675. WYCHERLEY, The Country Wife, iv. 2. I have been detained by a SPARKISH coxcomb.
1687. RICHARD KIRBY and JOHN BISHOP, The Marrow of Astrology, 55. When Venus is ill placed, she inclines Men to be Effeminate, timerour, lustful, followers of wenches … a fantastic SPARK … coveting unlawful beds…; if a woman, very impudent in all her ways.
1687. T. BROWN, Works, I. 94, ‘The Saints in an Uproar.’ Those odd-fashion’d SPARKS, yonder.
1692. SIR R. L’ESTRANGE, Æsop, 33. A Daw that had a mind to be SPARKISH, Trick’d himself up with all the Gay-Feathers he could Muster together.
1603. DRYDEN, Love Triumphant, Prologue. 24.
| No double Entendrès, which you SPARKS allow, | |
| To make the Ladies look—they know not how. |
1709. WARD, Works, I. v. 6. Some Associate who … will very readily swear she is both a Whore and a Pickpocket, which terrible Accusation soon frights away her SPARK.
| Ibid. (1711), Don Quixote, 10. | |
| So the gay Damsel that is taught, | |
| By some loose SPARK to know what’s what. |
1749. FIELDING, The History of a Foundling, VIII. ii. I had rather have the soldiers than officers; for nothing is ever good enough for those SPARKS.
1773. GOLDSMITH, She Stoops to Conquer, iii. Fly to your SPARK; he’ll tell you more of the matter.
1777. SHERIDAN, The School for Scandal, i. 2. Their worthy father … was … nearly as wild a SPARK.
1801. T. DIBDIN, Il Bondocani, iii. 3. None of your wishy washy SPARKS that mince their steps.
1820. IRVING, The Sketch-Book, 432, ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.’ A sure sign that his master was courting, or, as it is termed, ‘SPARKING.’
1840. R. H. BARHAM, The Ingoldsby Legends, ‘A Lay of St. Gengulphus.’
| Ere a spruce young SPARK of a Learned Clerk | |
| Had called on his Lady, and stopp’d to tea. |
1844. THACKERAY, Barry Lyndon, i. The company of … two or three other young SPARKS of the town.
1846. CAROLINE M. KIRKLAND, Western Clearings, 16. That was the way young men cast sheep’s eyes when they went a-SPARKING.
1850. W. VALENTINE, A Budget of Wit and Humour, 48. Some thinks I ought to get married, and two or three has tried TO SPARK IT with me.
1888. EGGLESTON, The Graysons, xxxiii. The boys that do a good deal of SPARKING, and the girls that have a lot of beaux don’t always get married first.
1897. MARSHALL, Pomes, 48. He found her at supper with some other SPARKS.
2. (thieves’).—A diamond: also SPARKLE. A SPARK-PROP = a diamond breast-pin.
1879. J. W. HORSLEY, ‘Autobiography of a Thief,’ in Macmillan’s Magazine, XL. 506. ‘Pipe his SPARK PROP’ (diamond pin).
Verb. (Australian thieves’).—To watch closely.
1901. W. S. WALKER, In the Blood, 113, All you’ve got to do is to be sure o’ your John, an’ learn the time ’e comes round, SPARK him well away and do yer little does in the blooming hinterval.
A SPARK IN THE THROAT, subs. phr. (old).—Chronic thirst (GROSE).
