huffcap

huffcap

See also: huff-cap

English

Alternative forms

• huff-cap

Etymology

huff +‎ cap. The ale is called this "because it induced people to set their caps in a bold huffing fashion."[1]

Noun

huffcap (countable and uncountable, plural huffcaps)

1. (obsolete) Strong ale.
   • 1576, Fulwell, Ulpian, Ars adulandi, or, The Art of Flattery:

     To quench the scorching heat of our parched throtes, with the best nippitatum in this toun, which is commonly called huffcap, it will make a man look as though he had seen the devil, and quickly move him to call his own father whoreson.

   • 1583, Stubbes, Philip, “The Manner of Church-ales in Ailgna”, in Furnivall, Frederick James, editor, The Anatomie of Abuses; republished as Phillip Stubbes's Anatomy of Abuses in England in Shakspere's Youth, A.D. 1583‎, London: The New Shakspere Society, 1882, page 150:

     Then, when the Nippitatum, this Huf-cap (as they call it) and this nectar of lyfe, is ſet abroche, wel is he that can get the ſooneſt to it, and ſpend the moſt at it; for he that fitteth the cloſeſt to it, and ſpends the moſte at it, he is counted the godlieſt man of all the reſt; but who either cannot, for pinching pouertie, or otherwiſe, wil not ſtick to it, he is counted one deſtitute bothe of vertue and godlynes.

2. (obsolete) A bully or blusterer.
   • 1599, Dekker, Thomas, The Shoemaker's Holiday, act 5, scene 3;Rhys, Ernest, editor, Thomas Dekker‎, unexpurgated edition, London: Vizetelly & Co, 1887, page 78:

     I am with child, till I behold this huff-cap.

   • a. 1677, Clifford, Martin, “The Second Letter”, in Notes Upon Mr. Dryden's Poems in Four Letters‎, published 1687:

     Prethee tell me true, was not this Huff-cap once the Indian Emperour, and at another time did not he call himself Maximine?

Synonyms

• (blusterer): see Thesaurus:braggart

References

1. Bickerdyke, John (1889) The Curiosities of Ale & Beer