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chained_bear commented on the word toad eater
"A poor female relation, and humble companion, or reduced gentlewoman, in a great family, the standing butt, on whom all kinds of practical jokes are played off, and all ill humours vented. This appellation is derived from a mountebank's servant, on whom all experiments used to be made in public by the doctor, his master; among which was the eating of toads, formerly supposed poisonous. Swallowing toads is here figuratively meant for swallowing or putting up with insults, as disagreeable to a person of feeling as toads to the stomach."
September 7, 2008
vendingmachine commented on the word toad eater
1881, Adam Woolbever, Treasury of Wisdom, Wit and Humor, Odd Comparisons and Proverbs, page 464:
A viceroy of Ireland asked one of his guests at a public dinner why there were no toads in Ireland? to which he replied, “because there are so many toad eaters."
March 10, 2024