A few PHRASES ‘fall into alphabet’ here: TO SAY (or SING) THE TE DEUM (the LORD’S PRAYER or TO SPELL) BACKWARDS = to mutter, to curse: also as a charm: hence BACK-PATERNOSTER (or -PRAYER) = an imprecation; TO GO BACKWARDS = to go to the W.C.: see MRS. JONES; TO PISS BACKWARDS = TO SHIT (q.v.); TO BLOW BACKWARDS = TO FART (q.v.); TO LIE (or FALL) BACKWARDS = to play the whore: frequently extended as in quots. (RAY: 1694 and 1823); TO DO A BACKWARD FALL = (1) TO SPREAD (q.v.), and (2) to copulate: see GREENS and RIDE; ‘If I were to FALL BACKWARDS, I should break my nose’ (RAY: It. i.e., ‘I am so foiled in everything I undertake’). See BACK-TALK.
c. 1575. M. PARKER, Correspondence, 158. Prayers, for the Queen’s Majesty’s prosperity and continuance; where others SAY THEIR BACK-PATER-NOSTERS for her in corners.
1595. SHAKESPEARE, Romeo and Juliet, i. 3. ‘Dost thou fall upon thy face? Thou wilt FALL BACKWARD when thou has more wit’ [Repetition …] when thou comest to age. Ibid. (1600), Much Ado about Nothing, iii. 1. 60. I never yet saw man … But she would SPELL him BACKWARD … So turns she every man the wrong side out.
1678. COTTON, Virgil Travestie (1770), 9. Could BACKWARD BLOW … And, by his Farting, make foul Weather.
1672. J. PHILLIPS, Maronides, 120.
| Seeing the Jades prancks they had plaid, | |
| For Iris then they BACKWARD PRAY’D. |
1694. MOTTEUX, Rabelais, IV. lxiv. Are these … maids or married … Will they LIE BACKWARDS AND LET OUT THEIR FORE-ROOMS. Ibid., V. xxi. Yet more apt TO FALL BACKWARDS whenever any man happened to touch them.
c. 1709. WARD, Terræ Filius, VI. ‘Divertisements.’ A new safe-guard to a Woman’s Chastity, called Diana’s Clogs: In which any Citizen’s Wife may walk securely to a Beau’s Chamber in the Temple … and never FALL BACKWARDS upon the joyful Bed of unlawful Love. Ibid., Merry Observations upon Every Month, May. Many a BACKWARD PRAYER, by many a forward Cuckold, will be given the brave and inobliviated Monk, for bringing in his Royal Master, causing the Rump to be roasted, and making the Oliverian Party PISS BACKWARDS.
1748. SMOLLETT, Roderick Random, xi. My companion’s bowels being disordered he got up in order TO GO BACKWARD.
1771. J. S., trans. Le Dran’s Observations in Surgery, 164. The Patient being pressed TO GO BACKWARDS, went behind his Tent.
1809. MALKIN, Gil Blas [ROUTLEDGE], 113. Just as I was SINGING THE TE DEUM BACKWARDS for his campaigns I heard the clock strike ten.
1823. BADCOCK (‘Jon Bee’), Dictionary of the Turf, etc., s.v. PARLOUR. Mrs. Fubbs’s front parlour is no part of any building … she who is said to LET OUT HER PARLOUR AND LIE BACKWARD, cannot be supposed to repose with her face downwards.
1859. C. E. NORTON, Notes of Travel and Study in Italy, 47. The Gospel of Christ is READ BACKWARDS, when that world which he came to save is regarded as a world which it is a merit to abandon.
