jerry-lord

English

Etymology

jerry or Jerry + lord; similar to jerry-rig.

Noun

jerry-lord (plural jerry-lords)

  1. (rare, UK, slang) A tavernkeeper.[1]
    • 1843, Logan, William, An exposure ... of female prostitution in London, Leeds and Rochdale and especially ... Glasgow‎[1], page 10:
      More than once I have entered rooms at twelve o'clock noon, where half-a-dozen of prostitutes were drinking with as many men. Sometimes they listened with some attention to what I said; but when the “jerry lord" saw that his ‘”craft was in danger,” he began to order the "Scotch tormentor" off.
    • 1856, Lees, Frederic Richard, An Argument Legal and Historical for the Legislative Prohibition of the Liquor Traffic‎[2], page 48:
      Tho learned gentleman admitted that there was 'a great gulf" between the Jerry-lord and the Gin-spinner, between the Aristocracy of Alcohol and the Democracy of Drink. To sell beer alone, is low and degrading—but to sell Beer with Brandy quite respectable and elevating!
    • 1868, Anderton, Henry, “SHUFFLE THE CARDS!”, in Life and poems of Henry Anderton, of Walton-le-Dale‎[3], page 137:
      While you give 'em your brass for their brown-colour'd suds, They'll call you "free," "easy," and "funny;” […] Then, then will the " Jerry-lord" mask all His nods and his " thank ye's," and cry, " Get thee out! Begone, thou poor penniless rascal !"
    • 1878, George Davies, The village tragedy; or, Echoes of the past‎[4], page 182:
      The subject of this sketch rented a mill, with land sufficient for the keep of his horses and a few cows. But being a boozy sort of a fellow, he hit on the grand idea of becoming a jerry lord, and put over the door for his sign, in flaming letters, " THE MILL TAVERN."

References

  1. ^ The English dialect dictionary, being the complete vocabulary of all dialect words still in use, or known to have been in use during the last two hundred years; founded on the publications of the English Dialect Society and on a large amount of material never before printed.
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