truepenny
See also: true-penny
English
Alternative forms
- true-penny
Noun
truepenny (plural truepennies)
- (obsolete, sometimes capitalized) An honest, reliable fellow.
- c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act I, scene v]:
- Hamlet: . . . Give me one poor request.
Horatio: What is't, my lord? we will.
Hamlet: Never make known what you have seen to-night. . . .Indeed, upon my sword, indeed.
Ghost: [Beneath] Swear.
Hamlet: Ah, ha, boy! say'st thou so? art thou there, truepenny?
Come on—you hear this fellow in the cellarage—
Consent to swear.
- 1820 March, [Walter Scott], chapter II, in The Monastery. A Romance. […], volume II, Edinburgh: […] Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and for Archibald Constable and Co., and John Ballantyne, […], OCLC 892089409, page 37:
- "Ha!" said Christie, "art thou there, old True-penny? here, stable me these steeds, and see them well bedded, and stretch thine old limbs by rubbing them down; and see thou quit not the stable till there is not a turned hair on either of them."
- 1870, Wilkie Collins, chapter 25, in Man and Wife:
- "Duncan! you are, what I call, a clear-minded man. Well worth thinking of, old Truepenny!"
- 1916, Sherwood Anderson, chapter 3, in Windy McPherson's Son:
- "Hear me, Father Almighty. . . . Are you there, old Truepenny?"
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Usage notes
- Not uncommonly used by literary authors as an echo of Shakespeare's usage in Hamlet, complete with the phrase Art thou there?.
References
- truepenny at OneLook Dictionary Search