Chapter Taherites to Talking Bird of T by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Taherites to Talking Bird

Taherites (3 syl.). A dynasty of five kings who reigned in Khorassan for fifty-two years (820-872). So called from the founder, Taher, general of the Calif's army.

Tail Lion's tail. Lions, according to legend, wipe out their footsteps with their tail, that they may not be tracked.
   Twisting the lion's tail. (See Twisting.)
   He has no more tail than a Manx cat. There is a breed of cats in the Isle of Man without tails.

Tails The men of Kent are born with tails, as a punishment for the murder of Thomas á Becket. (Lambert: Peramb.) (See the Spectator, 173.)

“For Becket's sake, Kent always shall have tails.”
Andrew Marvel.

   Tails. It is said that the Ghilane race, which number between 30,000 and 40,000, and dwell “far beyond the Sennaar,” have tails three or four inches long. Colonel du Corret tells us he carefully examined one of this race named Bellal, the slave of an emir in Mecca, whose house he frequented. (World of Wonders, p. 206.)
   The Niam-niams of Africa are tailed, so we are told.

Tails The Chinese men were made to shave their heads and wear a queue or tail by the Manchu Tartars, who, in the seventeenth century, subdued the country, and compelled the men to adopt the Manchu dress. The women were allowed to compress their feet as before, although the custom is not adopted by the Tartars.
    “Anglicus a lergo caudam gerit” probably refers to the pigtails once worn.

Tailors The three tailors of Tooley Street. Canning says that three tailors of Tooley Street, Southwark, addressed a petition of grievances to the House of Commons, beginning- “We, the people of England.” (See Vaughan .)
   Nine tailors make a man. The present scope of this expression is that a tailor is so much more feeble than another man that it would take nine of them to make a man of average stature and strength. There is a tradition that an orphan lad, in 1742, applied to a fashionable London tailor for alms. There were nine journeymen in the establishment, each of whom contributed something to set the little orphan up with a fruit barrow. The little merchant in time became rich, and adopted for his motto, “Nine tailors made me a man,” or “Nine tailors make a man.” This certainly is not the origin of the expression, inasmuch as we find a similar one used by Taylor a century before that date, and referred to as of old standing, even then.

“Some foolish knave, I thinke, at first began
The slander that three taylers are one man.”
Taylor: Workes, iii. 73'(1630).

    Another suggestion is this: At the death of a man the tolling bell is rung thrice three tolls; at the death of a woman it is rung only three-two tolls. Hence nine tolls indicate the death of a man. Halliwell gives telled = told, and a tolling-bell is a teller. In regard to “make,” it is the French faire, as On le faisait mort, i.e. some one gave out or made it known that he was dead.

“The fourme of the Trinitie was founded in manne. ... Adam our forefather, ... and Eve of Adam the secunde personne, and of them both was the third persone. At the death of a manne three bells schulde be ronge as his knyll, in worscheppe of the Trinitie- for a womanne, who is the secunde personne of the Trinitie, two belles schulde be rungen.”- An old English Homily for Trinity Sunday. (See Strutt: Manners and Customs, vol. iii. p. 176.)

Tailor's Sword (A), or A Tailor's Dagger. A needle.

“The tailors cross-legged on their boards,
Needle-armed, hand-extended, prepared
To stab the black cloth with their swords [to make up mourning]
The instant that death is declared.”
Peter Pindar: Great Cry and Little Wool, Epist. i.

Take a Back Seat (To). To be set aside; to be deferred for the present. A parliamentary phrase.

“When there seemed to be a tendency ... to make the Irish question, in the cant of the day, `take a back seat,' Unionist indignation knew no bounds.”- The Daily Graphic, February 9th, 1893.