subs. (common).—1. See quot. 1883, and—especially—1890. A species of Don Juan in a small way of business: specifically among choristers and actresses. Hence (2) a dandy.
1883. T. A. GARTHAM, in Pall Mall Gazette, 11 Oct. The participle MASHED was in use, in America, before the substantive. A person who was very ‘spooney’ on another was said to be MASHED. Then came the verb TO MASH, and latterly the noun MASHER; i.e., he who produces the effect, or at least who imagines himself a ‘lady-killer.’ Need I say that men of this calibre are often fops or dandies? Hence, the word MASHER as now understood here.
1883. Athenæum, 10 Feb., p. 181, col. 1. One poem, indeed, called ‘A Cry from the Stalls,’ presents our poet in the strange guise of the laureate of the MASHERS—we apologize humbly for employing a detestable phrase with which America has enriched (?) our vocabulary significatory of the worshippers of actresses.
1883. Daily Telegraph, 10 Oct. The talk around them will fairly match in mental vigour the ejaculations of the gaming table or the race-course, or the prattle of the MASHER between the acts.
1884. A. LANG, Much Darker Days, p. 24. That mass, once a white hat, had adorned the brows of that MASHER!
1885. The Sporting Times, 23 May, ‘The Chorister’s Promise.’ She sat disconsolate, musing, sad,…. For times were deucedly awful bad, As MASHERS were close with what chips they had (And alas for the chips she owed!).
1890. Standard, 11 Feb., p. 3, col. 1. There were specimens of tramps and beggars, of fortune-tellers and hawkers, of village musicians and MASHERS, called in Vienna ‘Gigerls,’ which every good painter or sculptor would be delighted to have as models—better specimens of the picturesque, in fact, than can be found in Rome or Naples.
1890. BARRÈRE and LELAND, A Dictionary of Slang, Jargon & Cant, s.v. MASH. About the year 1860 MASH was a word found only in theatrical parlance in the United States. When an actress smiled at … a friend in the audience she was said to MASH him…. It occurred to the writer [C. G. LELAND] that it must have been derived from the gypsy mash (masher-ava) to allure, to entice…. Mr. Paluez a well-known impresario said … he could confirm [the suggestion] for the term had originated with the C— family, who were all actors and actresses, of Romany stock, who spoke gypsy familiarly among themselves.
1895. The Sporting Times, 23 Nov. ‘Nothing to Do.’ There’s the MASHER, the great unemployed of the day.
Adj. (common).—Smart.
1890. Globe, 7 Feb., p. 1, col. 4. What are umbrellas or MASHER canes to students immersed in Mill or Emerson, or the latest shilling dreadful?
