The Pox Doctor's Clerk

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The Pox Doctor's Clerk

The Pox Doctor's Clerk

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No, no,” they shouted. “You can’t wear it like that. You look like a pox doctor’s clerk (pronounced clark).” D. Ireland Glass Canoe (1982) 15: They [...] ran into another mob of guys that shouldn’t have been out on the street. Only kids and dressed like pox doctors’ clerks.

Culotta’s 1957 novel, They’re A Weird Mob, holds the earliest citation, says Laugesen: “Jimmy whistled two notes softly, and Joe said, ‘Gees Nino, yer done up like a pox doctor’s clerk. Yer don’t need no coat an’ a coller an’ tie.’” I had a shower and changed my clothes. When I came out of the room, Joe and Jimmy were sitting in the lounge drinking beer. Jimmy whistled two notes, softly, and Joe said, ‘Gees, Nino, yer done up like a pox doctor’s clerk. Yer don’ need no coat an’ a coller an’ tie. Too hot, mate. Take ’em orf.’ The phrase to look like, or to be done up, like a pox doctor’s clerk, and variants, mean dressed nattily but in bad taste. Eric Partridge, Dictionary of Catch Phrases: American and British, from the Sixteenth Century to the Present Day, The Pox Doctor's Clerk is the moving and entertaining memoirs of one man's experiences as a volunteer in the casualty department of a Leicester hospital.W. Cameron Day Is Coming 504: You might carry a umbrella, jus’ fer a extra touch o' respect-bility — but don’t go makin’ yerself up like a pox-doctor's clerk. The second-earliest occurrence of the phrase that I have found is from They’re a Weird Mob ( Sydney: Ure Smith, 1957), a novel by the Australian author John O’Grady (1907-1981), published under the pen name of Nino Culotta: The hat must be placed straight on the head, a little forward so it catches on the bump at the rear of the head. This is to permit the hat to be tipped readily to ladies.

Attested in the late 17 th century, the colloquial term pox doctor designates a doctor specialising in the treatment of venereal disease . It was explained to me how a derby must be worn. The fashion is set by the young blades of Mayfair. Nino Culotta’ They’re a Weird Mob (1958) 106: Gees, Nino, yer done up like a pox doctor’s clerk. Yer don’ need no coat an’ a collar an’ tie. R. McGregor-Hastie Compleat Migrant 106: Clerk, pox doctor’s, to be dressed up like a: to be over-dressed. arts Australia & New Zealand etymology French/English linguistics literature media music public affairs religion symbolisms United Kingdom & Ireland USA & Canada Main Tags animals Australia Christianity dictionaries drinks economics food human body Ireland judicial Latin military newspapers & magazines phrases politics slang sports & games theatre United Kingdom USA links

just what the doctor ordered

Ah, but that wasn’t all, mum. When our Syd looked down into the hole that contraption ’ud made he see a shim of summat, an’ he waited till the smoke ’d all gone an’ then he got down to see what t’was”. J. Byrell (con. 1959) Up the Cross 8: ‘Wheredya come by your china? [...] He comes up like a pox doctor’s clerk’. G. Kersh Thousand Deaths of Mr Small 345: Don’t come dressed up like a pox-doctor's clerk. Come dressed like a human being. The earliest occurrence that I have found is from an article written from London, England, by Ernie Hill, of the Chicago Daily News ( Chicago, Illinois), and published in several U.S. newspapers in March 1954—for example in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Fort Worth, Texas) of Friday the 26 th: G. Seal Lingo 198: Other uses of up include the sartorial dressed up like a pox doctor’s clerk dressed in a lurid, flashy style.



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