A is For Abram-Man

"By words," Aristophanes said 2,400 years ago, "is the mind excited and the spirit elated." The first verse of the Gospel According to John says that "In the beginning was the Word," and all my life, words have fascinated me. I collect words the same way other people collect stamps or coins. Between 1973 and 1993, I put together a book of almost three hundred pages for my own amusement of new words that I've encountered. To no small degree, my world is nothing more or less than my words. As my vocabulary expands, so too does my ability to reflect, to remember, and to choose.

I'm going post words in my blog that for one reason or another have intrigued me either because they are rare or because they are slang. An example is abram-man, meaning a naked vagabond. Google registers 1,280 hits for this word- of sufficient rarity to make it interesting to me.

The Abraham Ward, in Bedlam, had for its inmates begging lunatics, who used to array themselves “with party-coloured ribbons, tape in their hats, a fox-tail hanging down, a long stick with streamers,” and beg alms; but “for all their seeming madness, they had wit enough to steal as they went along.” —Canting Academy.