411 REFERENCE · Wiktionary
Norfolk Howard
Reference material by Wiktionary contributors. This retains its source identity and is not 411 news reporting.
English
Etymology
Said to be an allusion to a person named Ephraim Bug, who advertised that in the future he would call himself by the more aristocratic name of Norfolk Howard.
Noun
en UK obsolete slang A bedbug.
en 1888 James Arthur Lees; Walter J. Clutterbuck B.C. 1887: A Ramble in British Columbia 244 All the insects he had sorted, / Placed in paper bags the insects, / In one bag the Norfolk Howards, / In one bag the fleas, the Jumpers
en 1874 Henry Sampson A history of advertising 278 Speaking of advertising changes of name, a title by which those lodging-house pests, bugs, are now often known, that of Norfolk Howards, is derived from an advertisement in which one Ephraim Bug avowed his intention of being for the future known as Norfolk Howard.
References
en 1873 John Camden Hotten The Slang Dictionary
en eponyms