phr. (common).—Prime; first-class; of the best (see quot. 1903). Also FIRST CLASS, LETTER A; A1 COPPER-BOTTOMED; and A1 AND NO MISTAKE: Fr. marqué à l’A (money coined in Paris was formerly stamped with an A). Cf. A PER SE.
1369. CHAUCER, Troilus and Creseide, 171.
| Right as our first LETTER is now an A, | |
| In beautie first so stood she makeles. |
1833. MARRYAT, Peter Simple, III. v. Broached molasses cask, No. 1, LETTER A.
1837. DICKENS, Pickwick Papers (1847), 341. ‘He must be a first-rater,’ said Sam. ‘A1,’ replied Mr. Roker.
1855. TOM TAYLOR, Still Waters Run Deep, ii. 1. In short, you’re A 1, and I’m nobody.
1856. H. B. STOWE, Dred, I. xxiii. An A NUMBER ONE COOK, AND NO MISTAKE!
1857. T. HUGHES, Tom Brown’s School-days, II. vi. I want to be A1 at cricket, and football, and all the other games.
1861. Reynolds’s, 24 Nov. The Chinese police are certainly A1 at such work.
1869. A. TROLLOPE, Phineas Finn, xliii. I never heard such a word before from the lips of a young lady. Not as A1? I thought it simply meant very good…. A1 is a ship—a ship that is very good.
1876. C. HINDLEY, ed. The Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, 229. She is a prime girl, she is; she is A. NUMBER ONE, COPPER-BOTTOMED, and can sail as well in her stays as out of her stays.
1882. Punch, lxxxii. 181, 1. I give him a first-rate bottle of claret, a cup of A1 coffee, a glass of old cognac, and the best cigar money can buy, and then I … find that his candid opinion coincides with my own.
1897. MARSHALL, Pomes, 46. She sported her NUMBER ONE gloss on her hair, And her very best blush on her cheek.
1900. HUME NISBET, In Sheep’s Clothing, 88. How proud he was of his sweetheart as he listened! She was A1 at Lloyd’s, AND NO MISTAKE about it.
1903. Lloyd’s Register, ‘Key.’ The character A denotes New Ships, or Ships Renewed or Restored. The Stores of Vessels are denoted by the figures 1 and 2; 1 signifying that the Vessel is well and sufficiently found.
2. (Fenian: obsolete).—See quot. Sometimes (erroneously) No. 1.
c. 1866. H. J. BYRON, MS. note [HOTTEN’S The Slang Dictionary, now in Brit. Mus.], s.v. A1. A title for the commander of 900 men.
NOT KNOWING GREAT A (or A B) FROM A BULL.’S-FOOT (or A BATTLEDORE), phr. (old).—Ignorant; illiterate. See B.
c. 1401. MS. Digby, 41, f. 5. I KNOW NOT AN A FROM THE WYND-MYLNE, Ne a B FROM A BOLE-FOOT, I trowe, ne thiself nother.
1609. DEKKER, Gul’s Horne Booke, 3. You shall not neede to buy bookes, no, scorne to DISTINGUISH A B FROM A BATTLEDORE.
1613. TAYLOR (‘The Water Poet’), Odcombs Complaint. ‘To the gentlemen readers that UNDERSTAND A.B. FROM A BATTLEDORE!’
1660. HOWELL, English Proverbs, 16. He KNOWETH NOT A B. FROM A BATTLEDOOR.
1846. BRACKENBRIDGE, Modern Chivalry, 43. There were members who scarcely KNEW B FROM A BULL’S-FOOT.
WHAT WITH A, AND WHAT WITH B. See WHAT.
TO GET ONE’S A, verb. phr. (Harrow).—To pass a certain standard in the gymnasium: the next step is to the Gymnasium Eight.
TO GET A, verb. phr. (Felsted School).—To be (practically) free of all restriction as to bounds: nominally the other bounds were, B = the ordinary limit, the roads about a mile from the school; C = punishment bounds, confinement to the cricket field and playground; and D = confinement to the old school-house playground, one of the commonest forms of punishment till 1876, when the present school-house was opened. C and D were also known respectively as MONGREL and QUOD.
