Abraham man (abraham or abramman)

1. Originally, a mendicant lunatic from Bethlehem Hospital, London. The wards in the ancient Bedlam (Bethlehem) bore distinctive names, as of some saint or patriarch. That named after Abraham was devoted to a cla of lunatics who on certain days were permitted to go out begging. They bore a badge, and were known as Abraham - men. Many, however, as sumed the badge without and begged, feigning lunacy. Hence the more received meaning came to be2. An impostor who wandered about the country seeking alms, under pretense of lu nacy. Hence the phrase to sham Abraham, to feign sickne . Matthew, sceptic and scoffer, had failed to subscribe a prompt belief in that pain about the heart; he had muttered some words in which the phrase, "shamming Abra ham ," had been very distinctly audible. Charlotte Brontë, Shirley, xxxiii. IMG:content-0079.png:[graphic] It is one of the most curious phenomena of language, that words are as subject as coin to defacement and abrasion . G. P. Marsh , Lect. on Eng. Lang., Int., p. 16. 2. The result of rubbing or abrading; an abraded spot or place: applied chiefly to a fretting or excoriation of the skin by which the underlying ti ues are exposed.-3. In pathol ., a superficial excoriation of the mucous mem- brane of the intestines, accompanied by lo of substance in the form of small shreds.-4. The substance worn away by abrading or at- trition. Berkeley . abrasive (ab-rāʼsiv), a. and n . [L. as if * abrasivus , abrasus , pp. of abradere : see ab- rade.] I. a. Tending to produce abrasion; Greene, Alphonsus, ii. having the property of abrading; abradant. How now, base brat! what! are thy wits thine own, That thou dar'st thus a braide me in my land? II. in trans . Τo awake; start.. And if that he out of his sleepe a braide , He might don us bathe a vilanie. IMG:content-0080.png:[blocks in formation] C. P. B. Shelley , Workshop Appliances, p. 108. II. n. Any material having abrading quali- ties; an abradant. The amateur is most strenuously counselled to polish ployed for setting the edge. the tool upon the oil-stone, or other fine abrasive em- abraum (ab'râm; G. pron. äp'roum), n. [G.; lit., what has to be cleared away to get at some- thing valuable beneath; the worthle upper portion of a vein or ore-deposit; the earth covering the rock in a quarry; away, take from the room or place, ab- (= E. off ), from, + raum , place, = E. room , q. v.] Red ocher, used by cabinet-makers to give a red color to new mahogany. - Abraum salts [G. abraumsalze ], a mixture of salts of potash, soda, magnesia, etc., overlying the rock-salt deposit at Sta furt, Pru ia, and vicinity, the value of which was not immediately rec- ognized when these deposits were opened, but which is now the chief source of supply of pota ic salts in the world. WAZAD