subs. (American).—1. The posteriors: see BUM.
2. (colloquial).—The sign ‘&’; ampersand. VARIANTS: AND-PUSSY-AND; ANN PASSY ANN; ANPASTY; ANDPASSY; ANPARSE; APERSIE (q.v.); PER-SE; AMPASSY; AM-PASSY-AND; AMPERSE-AND; AMPUS-AND; AMPUSSY AND; AMPAZAD; AMSIAM; AMPUS-END; APPERSE-AND; EMPERSI-AND; AMPERZED; and ZUMZY-ZAN.
1764. MACKLIN, The Man of the World. A shrivelled, cadaverous, neglected piece of deformity, i’ the shape of an ezard or an EMPERSI-AND, or in short anything.
d. 1843. SOUTHEY, Letters, i. 200. The pen commandeth only twenty-six … these are its limits—I had forgotten AND-PUSSEY-AND.
1859. G. ELIOT, Adam Bede. But he observed in apology, that it [the ‘z’] was a letter you never wanted hardly, and he thought it had only been put there ‘to finish off th’ alphabet, like, though AMPUS-END [“&”] would ha’ done as well,’ for what he could see.
