Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a dismissive excl.; usu. as a fig for...

1566		T. Drant (trans.) ‘The fyrst Satyre’ Horace his Satyres Bk I Aiiii: A figge for them [...] They hauke, they hem, they hisse at me, I weight it not an hawe.
1575		Appius and Virginia in Farmer (1908) 27: A fig for his uncourtesy that seeks to shun good company.
1584		Three Ladies of London II: Tush a figge for honestie.
1592		Arden of Feversham line 1584: grene.: The Lord of heauen hathe preserued him. will.: Preserued, a figge, the L. Cheiny hath preserued him.
1604		Shakespeare Othello I iii: Virtue! a fig!
1611		L. Barry Ram-Alley III i: A fico for her Docke, youle not be ruld.
1619		Rowlands Well met Gossip B3: A Figge for wealth, tis Person I affect.
1632		T. Nabbes Covent Garden III i: A figg for these Physicall observations.
1640		The Wandering Jew 21: You cry, give me Tobacco and a figg for Physitians.
1653		Urquhart (trans.) Gargantua and Pantagruel (1927) I Bk I 151: Pish! [...] a fig for your chapter!
1661		Antidote Against Melancholy in Ebsworth Choyce Drollery (1876) 156: A Figg for Melancholly.
1677		‘The Batchelor’s Ballad’ in Ebsworth Roxburghe Ballads (1891) VII:2 335: A fig for your beauty! your painting and patches.
1688–9		‘The West-Country Miser’ in Ebsworth Bagford Ballads (1878) I 222: Friend, a fig for the poor, I value them not.
1679		Behn Feign’d Curtizans 11: Call you this a Church, Sir? No, Sir, I’ll say that for little England, and a fig for’t, for Churches, easy Pulpits, [...] they are as well ordered as any Churches in Christendom.
1698		N. Ward London Spy I 2: A fig for St. Austin and his Doctrines.
1707		Humours of a Coffee-House 25 June 6: But a Fig for the French king and all his Fortresses.
1713		J. Gay Wife of Bath I i: A Fig, say I, for that Conjurer.
1722		S. Centlivre Artifice Act V: A Fig for your Reflections; nothing wou’d go down with your Vanity, but a Lord, forsooth.
1735		‘White Thighs’ in Farmer Merry Songs and Ballads (1897) I 242: A fig for them all, they can never compare, / To my charmer’s elastic white thighs.
1742		Fielding Joseph Andrews (1954) III 278: A fig for prospects!
1758		R. Dodsley King and Miller of Mansfield 17: A Fig for all Ceremony and Compliments too [...] let us drink and be merry.
1766		O. Goldsmith Vicar of Wakefield (1883) 78: ‘A fig for the silver rims,’ cried my wife, in a passion.
1779		in F. Moore Songs and Ballads of the Amer. Revolution (1855) 270: A fig for your noise, sir.
1780		M.P. Andrews Fire and Water! (1790) 23: A fig for mine and his majesty’s enemies.
1790		J. Freeth ‘Casting Voice against Fortifications’ Political Songster 40: A fig for Invasions, Or Fortifications.
1801		C. Dibdin Yngr Song Smith 137: Then a fig for French brags, and your great Buonapartes.
1812		‘A Boxing We Will Go’ Egan Boxiana I (1971) 482: A fig for boney — let’s have done / With that ungracious name.
1822		(con. early 17C) W. Scott Fortunes of Nigel II 30: ‘Now, out upon your tender conscience [...] and the fico for such outcasts of Parnassus!’.
1827		J. Kenney Spring and Autumn II i: A fig for his tenantry!
1831		Navy at Home II 117: Then says you ‘fie! fie!’ who, fie?— a fico for your fie, ‘the fig of Spain’.
1836		Comic Almanack Feb. 47: Come, buffers and duffers, and dashers and smashers [...] Come, Billingsgate sinners, and cat and dog skinners, / And play up a game to make Decency stare : / A fig for propriety, sense and sobriety! / They never were known at fam’d bartelmy fair.
1841		‘I Came From The Roar’ Dublin Comic Songster 66: So a fig for your laws, your starved Johnny Raws.
1856		C. Reade It Is Never Too Late to Mend II 34: A fig for me being drowned if the kid is drowned with me.
1863		‘The Irish Jig’ in Donnybrook-Fair Comic Songster 20: Then a fig for your new-fashioned waltzes.
1870		‘Hurrah! For the Life of a Soldier’ in Songs for the Army 25: A fig for a man who would fag all the day.
1883		H. Smart Hard Lines II 174: A fig for your British army.
1890		Bulletin (Sydney) 5 July 12/4: St. James’s Gazette says that the Victorian Balaclava subscription is ‘another proof of the tie which’ – but why should we take account of what that obscure little Tory rag says? [...]. A fig for St. James’s Gazette!
1900		Punch 24 Jan. 63/1: A fig for your school and your college.
1913		T.A. Dorgan Indoor Sports 17 Dec. [synd. cartoon] Cheer up Andy — we only live once. A fig for a care, a fig for a woe.
1922		E. Raymond Tell England (1965) 179: Lord, how small my little vanities seemed now! A fig for them all!
1947		in G. Legman Limerick (1953) 290: In his garden remarked Lord Dunedin, / ‘A fig for your diggin’ and weedin’.
1954		R. Service ‘My Favoured Fare’ in Carols of an Old Codger 43: A fig for love and greenery, / Be mine a song of things to eat.
1959		‘Count Palmiro Vicarion’ Limericks 81: A fig for your digging and weeding.