Peter Collins (slang) (original) (raw)
“Peter Collins” was a circus and theatrical colloquialism in British and American English of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, designating an imaginary or nonexistent person to whom a newcomer or beginner was sent on a silly errand as a kind of initiation (e.g., “Go ask Peter Collins for a left-handed screwdriver”). In underworld slang, it had the additional meaning of “nobody” or “no one.”. In this latter sense, the term was the basis for the pen name “Peter Collinson” (i.e., Peter Collins's son) used at the very beginning of his writing career by Dashiell Hammett, who later authored The Maltese Falcon and other famous works.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| dbo:abstract | “Peter Collins” was a circus and theatrical colloquialism in British and American English of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, designating an imaginary or nonexistent person to whom a newcomer or beginner was sent on a silly errand as a kind of initiation (e.g., “Go ask Peter Collins for a left-handed screwdriver”). In underworld slang, it had the additional meaning of “nobody” or “no one.”. In this latter sense, the term was the basis for the pen name “Peter Collinson” (i.e., Peter Collins's son) used at the very beginning of his writing career by Dashiell Hammett, who later authored The Maltese Falcon and other famous works. (en) |
| dbo:wikiPageID | 48386201 (xsd:integer) |
| dbo:wikiPageLength | 1294 (xsd:nonNegativeInteger) |
| dbo:wikiPageRevisionID | 1020970277 (xsd:integer) |
| dbo:wikiPageWikiLink | dbr:Nonexistent dbr:Initiation dbr:Newbie dbr:Circus dbr:Theatrical dbr:Colloquialism dbc:American_slang dbr:British_English dbr:American_English dbr:Dashiell_Hammett dbc:British_slang dbr:The_Maltese_Falcon_(novel) dbr:Imagination |
| dbp:wikiPageUsesTemplate | dbt:Reflist |
| dcterms:subject | dbc:American_slang dbc:British_slang |
| gold:hypernym | dbr:Circus |
| rdf:type | dbo:Organisation |
| rdfs:comment | “Peter Collins” was a circus and theatrical colloquialism in British and American English of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, designating an imaginary or nonexistent person to whom a newcomer or beginner was sent on a silly errand as a kind of initiation (e.g., “Go ask Peter Collins for a left-handed screwdriver”). In underworld slang, it had the additional meaning of “nobody” or “no one.”. In this latter sense, the term was the basis for the pen name “Peter Collinson” (i.e., Peter Collins's son) used at the very beginning of his writing career by Dashiell Hammett, who later authored The Maltese Falcon and other famous works. (en) |
| rdfs:label | Peter Collins (slang) (en) |
| owl:sameAs | wikidata:Peter Collins (slang) https://global.dbpedia.org/id/2NZWe |
| prov:wasDerivedFrom | wikipedia-en:Peter_Collins_(slang)?oldid=1020970277&ns=0 |
| foaf:isPrimaryTopicOf | wikipedia-en:Peter_Collins_(slang) |
| is dbo:wikiPageDisambiguates of | dbr:Peter_Collins |
| is dbo:wikiPageWikiLink of | dbr:Peter_Collins dbr:Peter_Collinson |
| is foaf:primaryTopic of | wikipedia-en:Peter_Collins_(slang) |