TheVulgarTongue Bot ,
@TheVulgarTongue@zirk.us avatar

DEATH'S HEAD UPON A MOP-STICK. A poor miserable, emaciated fellow; one quite an otomy. See OTOMY.--He looked as pleasant as the pains of death.

A selection from Francis Grose’s “Dictionary Of The Vulgar Tongue” (1785)

--
@histodons

Image imitating a page from an old document, text (as in main toot): DEATH'S HEAD UPON A MOP-STICK. A poor miserable, emaciated fellow; one quite an otomy. See OTOMY.--He looked as pleasant as the pains of death. A selection from Francis Grose’s “Dictionary Of The Vulgar Tongue” (1785)
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    • TheVulgarTongue OP Bot ,
    @TheVulgarTongue@zirk.us avatar

    @histodons
    The funny thing is, I've searched my database and also the original text from which I built this bot and I can't find “otomy”.

    TheVulgarTongue OP Bot ,
    @TheVulgarTongue@zirk.us avatar

    @histodons
    The OED has "Otomi" but the definition is a native tribe from central America so I don't think that can be it.

    AdrianRiskin ,
    @AdrianRiskin@kolektiva.social avatar

    @TheVulgarTongue @histodons https://greensdictofslang.com/entry/ek3a45y

    Screenshot of linked page. Text: ottomy n. also otomy[SE anatomy; otamy n.] a skeleton; a very thin person. 1738Swift Polite Conversation 41: Why, my Lord, she was handsome in her Time; but, she can’t eat her Cake and have her Cake. I hear she grown a mere Otomy.1785, 1788, 1796Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.1811Lex. Balatronicum.1823Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.1834(con. 1737–9) W.H. Ainsworth Rookwood (1857) 143: That dried up old ottomy, who ought to grin in a glass case.1859, 1860Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.1873Sl. Dict.1895C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 55: Ottomy, a skeleton; a thin man.
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    • AdrianRiskin ,
    @AdrianRiskin@kolektiva.social avatar

    @TheVulgarTongue @histodons also spelled atomy!

    Screenshot from OED. Text: atomy Meaning & use 1. 1597– A skeleton. Cf. anatomy n. I.4, notomy n. Now rare. 1597 With deadlie visage paill and wan, mair like ane attomie nor man, I widderit cleine away. A. Montgomerie, Cherrie & Slae sig. B 2 1728 He is among the Otamys at Surgeon's Hall. J. Gay, Beggar's Opera ii. i. 19 1755 My bones..will be taken up smooth, and white, and bare as an atomy. T. Smollett, translation of M. de Cervantes, Don Quixote vol. II. iv. iii. 347 1823 His sides..looked just like an atomy, ribs and all. J. F. Cooper, Pioneers xiii. 146
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    • AdrianRiskin ,
    @AdrianRiskin@kolektiva.social avatar

    @TheVulgarTongue @histodons This is fascinating. I recently read Marcus Rediker on pirates and he mentions that the skeleton on many jolly Roger flags was called "an anatomy" but doesn't go into detail.

    TheVulgarTongue OP Bot ,
    @TheVulgarTongue@zirk.us avatar

    @AdrianRiskin @histodons
    Thank you!

    That's helped me find it with a double T: “The vulgar word for a skeleton.” and also a verb:
    “ To be ottomised; to be dissected. You'll be scragged, ottomised, and grin in a glass case: you'll be hanged, anatomised, and your skeleton kept in a glass case at Surgeons' Hall.’

    JPK_elmediat ,
    @JPK_elmediat@c.im avatar

    @TheVulgarTongue @histodons
    Otomy - from anatomy-skeleton

    http://www.public-library.uk/ebooks/26/90.pdf

    TheVulgarTongue OP Bot ,
    @TheVulgarTongue@zirk.us avatar

    @JPK_elmediat @histodons
    Thanks. No idea why I didn't look for it with double T, double M etc. Spelling with very fluid back then.

    AdrianRiskin ,
    @AdrianRiskin@kolektiva.social avatar

    @TheVulgarTongue @histodons

    An aged man is but a paltry thing,
    A tattered coat upon a stick...

    -- W. B. Yeats

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