subs. phr. (common).—A cat.
1833. MARRYAT, Peter Simple, I. ii. You must larn to chaw baccy, drink grog, and call the cat a BEGGAR, and then you knows all a midshipman’s expected to know now-a-days.
1874. HOTTEN, The Slang Dictionary, s.v. LONG-TAILED BEGGAR. ‘A boy, during his first, and a very short voyage, to sea, had … entirely forgotten the name of the cat, and was obliged, pointing to puss, to ask his mother what she called that ’ere LONG-TAILED BEGGAR?’ Sailors when they hear a freshwater tar discoursing largely are apt to say, ‘But how mate about that LONG-TAILED BEGGAR?’
ENGLISH SYNONYMS. Baudrons (Scots’); gib; grimalkin; masheen; nimshod; puss; Thomas; Tyb.
FRENCH SYNONYMS. Un lapin de gouttière (familiar = rabbit of the tiles); un greffier, griffard or griffon (griffe = claw); un gaspard (popular).
ITALIAN SYNONYMS. Laffaro; gulfo.
SPANISH SYNONYMS. Estaffion, estaffin, or estaffier.
