ENGLISH SLANG.
130 THN EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR']
SIR.—You may be interested in the use of the word "to lamm "—in a variant spelling—and the derivation given in " Peveril of the Peak," chap. 42:—" In short, the tumult thickened, and the word began to pass among the more desperate, Lambe them, lads; lambe them ! '—a cant phrase of the time, derived from the fate of Dr. Lambe, an astrologer and quack, who was knocked on the head by the rabble in Charles the First's time." Dr. Brewer (" Phrase and Fable ") halts between the old Norse origin and the following more attractive suggestion :—" Lamb is a pun on the Latin verb lambo (to lick), and the word 'lick' has been perverted to mean flog." At a school in Staffordshire we had the word in constant use. From the practical point of view its effect was the same as
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