† ˈGormogon Obs.
Also gormagon.
[Meaningless: pseudo Chinese.]
A member of a society imitating the Freemasons, founded early in the 18th c.
| 1725 Two Letters in Grand Mystery of Freemasons (ed. 2) 13 The Venerable Order of Gormogons having been brought into England by a Chinese Mandarin. 1729 H. Carey Poems (ed. 3) 206 The Masons and the Gormogons Are laughing at one another. 1731 Daily Jrnl. 28 Oct. in N. & Q. Ser. iv. IV. 441/2 By command of the Volgi. A general Chapter of the..Ancient Order of Gor-mogon will be held [etc.]. 1742 Pope Dunc. iv. 576 One Rose a Gregorian, one a Gormogon. [Note.] A sort of Lay-brothers, Slips from the Root of the Free-Masons. 1747 Gray Lett. Wks. 1884 II. 166, I reckon next week we shall hear you are a free-Mason, or a Gormogon at least. 1791 ‘G. Gambado’ Ann. Horsem. v. (1809) 87 The art of riding before a lady on a double horse, vulgarly termed à la gormagon. |