subs. (old colloquial).—1.  Generic for jealousy, envy, melancholy: also YELLOWS and YELLOWNESS: cf. BLUE, BROWN, RED, WHITE, etc. (B. E.). Also in frequent proverbial phrase: e.g., TO WEAR YELLOW HOSE (BREECHES or STOCKINGS) = to be jealous; TO ANGER THE YELLOW HOSE, etc. = to provoke jealousy; TO WEAR YELLOW STOCKINGS = to be cuckolded: hence YELLOW-HAMMER (or -GLOAK) = (1) a cuckold, and (2) a jealous man or husband. [YELLOW STOCKINGS (q.v.) were once, for a long period prior to the Civil Wars, a fashionable article of dress: the fashion is still preserved amongst BLUES (q.v.) at Christ’s Hospital.]

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  1596.  SHAKESPEARE, Merry Wives of Windsor, i. 3. 111. I will incense Page to deal with poison. I will possess him with YELLOWNESS. Ibid. (1600), Much Ado about Nothing, i. 1. Civil as an orange, and something of that jealous complexion. Ibid. (1602), Twelfth Night, ii. 4. With a green and YELLOW melancholy.

            Ibid. (1604), Winter’s Tale, ii. 3. 107.
                ’Mongst all colours
No YELLOW in’t, lest she suspect, as he does,
Her children not her husband’s!

2

  1607.  DEKKER, Northward Hoe, i. 3. Jealous men are either knaves or coxcombs; be you neither; you WEAR YELLOW HOSE without cause. Ibid. (1607), Westward Ho! ii. 2. I’ll make the YELLOW-HAMMER, her husband, know … that there’s a difference between a cogging bawd, and an honest motherly gentlewoman.

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  1621.  BURTON, The Anatomy of Melancholy, III. III. i. 2. At length he began to suspect, and turne a little YELLOW, as well he might, for it was his owne fault; and if men be jealous in such cases … the mends is in their owne hands…. The undiscreet carriage of some lascivious gallant … may make a breach, and by his overfamiliarity, if he be inclined to YELLOWNESS, colour him quite out.

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  1623.  MASSINGER, The Duke of Milan, iv. 1.

          Steph.  If I were
The duke (I freely must confess my weakness,)
I should WEAR YELLOW BREECHES!

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  1633.  R. BROME, The Antipodes, v. 4.

                    But for his YELLOWS,
Let me but lye with you, and let him know it,
His jealousie is gone.

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  1640.  BRATHWAITE, The Two Lancashire Lovers, v. 27. Thy blood is yet uncorrupted, YELLOWS has not tainted it.

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  16[?].  Roxburghe Ballads, ii. 61.

        If thy Wife will be so bad
  that in such false coine shee’lle pay thee,
        Why, therefore,
        Shouldst thou deplore,
Or WEARE STOCKINGS that are YELLOW?
  tush, be blith, (man!) greive no more,
A Cuckold is a good man’s fellow.

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  1678.  BUTLER, Hudibras, III. i.

        In earnest to as jealous piques;
Which th’ ancients wisely signify’d
By th’ YELLOW mantuas of the bride.

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  2.  See YELLOW-STOCKINGS.

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  BABY’S YELLOW subs. phr. (nursery).—Excrement, SHIT (q.v.): spec. infantine fæcal matter.

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