Peg, n.2
(pɛg)
[An alteration of Meg = Margaret; cf. Polly = Molly, Mary.]
1. A pet form of the female name Margaret: cf. also peggy. Hence in proverbial nicknames: Peg Trantum, a romping, hoydenish girl. † gone to Peg Trantum's (Crancum's), dead (obs. slang).
| 1694 Motteux Rabelais v. vii. (1737) 30 That will sink you down to Peg-Trantums, an hundred Fathom under Ground. a 1700 B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Gon to Pegtrantums, Dead. 1706 E. Ward Wooden World Diss. (1708) 8 He fulfills to a Tittle the never-failing Proverb, ‘Set a Beggar on Horse⁓back, and he'll ride to Peg Crancums’. a 1825 Forby Voc. E. Anglia, Peg-trantum, a galloping, rantipole girl; a hoydenish mauther. |
2. Old Peg (dial.): Skim-milk cheese.
| 1785 Grose Dict. Vulg. T., Old Pegg, poor Yorkshire cheese. 1796 Ibid. (ed. 3) s.v. Peg, Old Peg; poor hard Suffolk or Yorkshire cheese. 1825 Brockett N.C. Gloss., Old-peg, Aud-peg, an inferior sort of cheese made of skimmed milk. It is also called, not inaptly, leather hungry. |