patrico Vagabonds' Cant.
(ˈpætrɪkəʊ)
Also 6 (patriarch-co), pater-, patter-, patring cove.
[First element uncertain: ? pater or patter + co2, lad.]
A priest or parson; esp. a hedge-priest.
| a 1550 Hye Way to Spyttel Hous 1047 in Hazl. E.P.P. IV. 69 The patryng coue in the darkman cace. 1561 J. Awdelay Frat. Vacab. 6 A Patriarke Co doth make mariages [etc.]. 1567 Harman Caveat xv. 60 For as much as these two names, a Iarkeman and a Patrico, bee in the old briefe of vacabonds... There is a Patrico, and not a Patriarcho. 1614 B. Jonson Barth. Fair ii. vi, You are the Patrico, are you? the patriarch of the cut-purses? 1641 Brome Joviall Crew iv. ii, Where's the old Patrico, our Priest, my Ghostly Father? 1782 Gentl. Mag. LII. 16 Patrico, or patercove,..stroling priests that marry under a hedge. 1827 Lytton Pelham lxxx, My idea at the moment was to disguise myself in the dress of the pater cove. a 1875 in C. Kingsley's Life & Lett. xxviii. (1879) II. 347 The gipsies of Eversley Common..used to call him [Kingsley] their ‘Patrico-rai’ (their Priest King). |