raree-show
(ˈrɛəriːʃəʊ)
Also 7–8 rary-, 8 raræ-.
[‘This word is formed in imitation of the foreign way of pronouncing rare show’ (Johnson).
It has also been suggested that raree may represent rarity (cf. G. raritäten-kasten), but Johnson's statement is prob. correct; the early exhibitors of peep-shows appear to have been usually Savoyards, from whom the form was no doubt adopted.]
1. A show contained or carried about in a box; a peep-show.
| [c 1681 (title) Raree Show, or the true Protestant Procession.] a 1704 T. Brown Sat. French King Wks. 1730 I. 61 May Savoy with thee hither pack And carry a raree-show upon his back. 1730 Fielding Tom Thumb iii. iv, Why dost thou speak Like men who carry raree-shows about? 1822 Scott Peveril xli, Fitter..by his size and appearance, for the inside of a raree-show, than the mysteries of a plot. 1849 E. Fitzgerald Lett. (1889) I. 198 A showman whom one gives a shilling to once a month to see his raree-show. |
2. transf. a. A show or spectacle of any kind.
| 1684 Hist. Acct. Gt. Frost 22 Thames becomes a kind of raree-show. 1719 Ramsay To Arbuckle 66 [A] poet, or an airy beau, Or ony twa-legg'd rary-show. 1747 Chesterfield Lett. cxxx. (1792) I. 349 Those who only mind the raree-shews of the places which they go through, such as steeples, clocks, town-houses, etc. 1824 J. Symmons tr. æschylus' Agam. 75, I long have mark'd Life's raree-show before me in a mirror. 1883 Chr. World 22 Nov. 813 He is averse to taking part in such a raree-show upon the Sunday. 1931 Blunden To Themis 22 Colours flying, drums drubbing, boys run miles for the raree-show. 1955 W. Gaddis Recognitions ii. vii. 634 He'll show you... He'll put up a real maudlin raree-show for you. 1971 Daily Tel. 8 Nov. 9/1 Religious people today protest against ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ as a vulgar raree-show cashing in on an adolescent fad. |
b. Spectacular display.
| 1809 Scott 16 July in Fam. Lett. (1894) I. v. 137 Those immense London Stages fit only for pantomime and raree-show. |
3. attrib., as
raree-show-box,
raree-show-man (hence
raree-show-manism),
raree-show-performance.
| 1737 London Mag. June 324/2, I presume that he [sc. Punch] will not be tolerated, either upon the Stage, or even in a *Raree-shew Box. 1765 Sterne Tr. Shandy VIII. xxiv, Thou didst look into it with as much innocency of heart, as ever child look'd into a raree-shew-box. 1806–7 J. Beresford Miseries Hum. Life (1826) xx. ii, Two men at two of the holes of a raree-show-box. |
| a 1700 B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, *Raree-show-men. 1756 C. Lucas Ess. Waters III. 329 A rary-shewman..always takes care to tell he had the honor [etc.]. 1864 C. Knight Passages Work. Life II. xiii. 269 The raree-showman is no more. |
| 1812 S. Jones Baker's Biographia Dramatica (rev. ed.) III. 306 A frivolous *raree-show performance. |
| 1842 Moore Mem. (1856) VII. 311 S―l, too, upon Romanism Will sport his *raree-showmanism. |