four-flusher

Pronounced: FOUR-flush-uhr, noun

Notes: I’ve run across this word in reading, but my meaning was bit off. In addition, I find the background to be interesting

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Yesterday’s word

The word slumgullion is “a meat stew”

First usage

This word first showed up in the late-1800s, but see the background below

Background / Comments

The first usage of this word was in the mid-1800s in a book by Mark Twain, but it referred to a beverage. It is thought that this word is made up of slum (an old word for ‘slime’) and gullion (mud or cesspool) — pretty unappetizing, eh? It’s not clear how this mutated from a beverage to a meat stew in a couple of decades.