Dictionary

Abraham man en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈeɪ.bɹə.həm mæn/ (US)
• /ˈeɪ.bɹəˌhæm mæn/ (US)
• (US) audio

Etymology

From patients claiming, genuinely or not, to be temporarily discharged from the Abraham ward at Bethlem Royal Hospital (also known as Bedlam), a psychiatric hospital in London, for the purpose of begging. Possibly an allusion to a story in Luke 16, in which the beggar Lazarus ends up in Abraham's bosom. First use appears c. 1561 in The Fraternity of Vagabonds (1561) by John Awdely.

Meanings

1. (UK, obsolete, qualifier:thieves' cant) A mentally ill beggar.
2. (broadly) Any beggar who pretends to be ill, physically or mentally, to obtain alms.
   • Of all the mad rascalls (that are of this wing) the Abraham-man is the most phantastick: The fellow (quoth this old Lady of the Lake unto me) that sat halfe naked (at table to day) from the girdle upward, is the best Abraham-man that ever came to my house and the notablest villaine: he sweares he hath bin in bedlam, and will talke frantickly of purpose[…] 1608, Thomas Dekker, The Bel-Man of London, J. M. Dent & Sons, published 1905, An Abraham-man, pages 98–99:
   • An Abraham man is he that walketh bare armed, and bare legged, and fayneth hymselfe mad, and caryeth a packe of wool, or a stycke with baken on it, or such lyke toy, and nameth himselfe poore Tom. 1561, John Awdely, The Fraternitye of Vacabondes:

Forms

Deriveds

sham Abraham · sham Abram

Synonyms

Abram cove · Abram · Abraham-cove · Bedlam beggar · God's minstrel · Abram-cove · Tom of Bedlam's man · Poor Tom · Abraham cove · Tom of Bedlam

wikipedia: John Awdely