Abraham man
noun/ˈeɪ.bɹəˌhæm mæn/US
Etymology
From patients claiming, genuinely or not, to be temporarily discharged from the Abraham ward at Bethlem Royal Hospital (also known as Bedlam), a psychiatric hospital in London, for the purpose of begging. Possibly an allusion to a story in Luke 16, in which the beggar Lazarus ends up in Abraham's bosom. First use appears c. 1561 in The Fraternity of Vagabonds (1561) by John Awdely.
Definitions
A mentally ill beggar.
Any beggar who pretends to be ill, physically or mentally, to obtain alms.
- An Abraham man is he that walketh bare armed, and bare legged, and fayneth hymselfe mad, and caryeth a packe of wool, or a stycke with baken on it, or such lyke toy, and nameth himselfe poore Tom.
The neighborhood
- synonymAbraham cove
- synonymAbraham-cove
- synonymAbram
- synonymAbram-cove
- synonymAbram cove
- synonymBedlam beggar
- synonymGod's minstrel
- synonymPoor Tom
- synonymTom of Bedlam
- synonymTom of Bedlam's man
Derived
Vish — recursive loop
No curated loop yet for Abraham man. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.
sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA