truepenny

See also: true-penny

English

Alternative forms

• true-penny

Noun

truepenny (plural truepennies)

1. (obsolete, sometimes capitalized) An honest, reliable fellow.
   • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene v]:

     Hamlet: . . . Give me one poor request.
     Horatio: What is't, my lord? we will.
     Hamlet: Never make known what you have seen to-night. . . .Indeed, upon my sword, indeed.
     Ghost: [Beneath] Swear.
     Hamlet: Ah, ha, boy! say'st thou so? art thou there, truepenny?
     Come on—you hear this fellow in the cellarage—
     Consent to swear.

   • 1820 March, [Walter Scott], chapter II, in The Monastery. A Romance. […], volume II, Edinburgh: […] Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and for Archibald Constable and Co., and John Ballantyne, […], →OCLC, page 37:

     "Ha!" said Christie, "art thou there, old True-penny? here, stable me these steeds, and see them well bedded, and stretch thine old limbs by rubbing them down; and see thou quit not the stable till there is not a turned hair on either of them."

   • 1870, Wilkie Collins, chapter 25, in Man and Wife:

     "Duncan! you are, what I call, a clear-minded man. Well worth thinking of, old Truepenny!"

   • 1916, Sherwood Anderson, chapter 3, in Windy McPherson's Son:

     "Hear me, Father Almighty. . . . Are you there, old Truepenny?"

Usage notes

• Not uncommonly used by literary authors as an echo of Shakespeare's usage in Hamlet, complete with the phrase Art thou there?.

References

• “truepenny”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.