redshank, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

redshank n.

1. (UK Und.) of poultry [dial., the redshank gull (Totanus calidris) of the snipe family (Scolopacidae)].

(a) a duck.

c.1566		Harman Caveat for Common Cursetours in Viles & Furnivall (1907) 83: a quakinge chete or a red shanke a drake or duck.
c.1580		Polwart Invectiues Capitane Allexander Montgomeree and Pollvart in Parkinson (Poems) (2000) IX line 38: Tawny flank, reidschank, pyk thank, I man pay thee.
1592		Groundworke of Conny-catching n.p.: [as cit. c.1566].
1612		Dekker O per se O N4: This Filching-staffe [...] is able now and then to mill a Grunter, a bleating Cheate, a Red-shanke, a Tib of the Buttry and such like.
1637		Dekker Canting Song O per se O O3: Redshanks then I could not lack / Ruff peck still hung at my back.
1648		Dekker Canters Dict. Eng. Villainies (9th edn).
1665		Head Eng. Rogue I 52: Rod-shanke [sic], a Mallard.
1674		Head Canting Academy (2nd edn) 4: Some are sent [...] to filch Tybs of the Buttery, Cackling cheats, Margery Praters, Red-shanks, and Grunting cheats.
1688		R. Holme Academy of Armory Ch. iii item 68c: Canting Terms used by Beggars, Vagabonds, Cheaters, Cripples and Bedlams. [...] Red-shanks, Mallards, Drakes.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Red-shank c. a Duck.
1707		J. Shirley Triumph of Wit 186: The Foragers go out, and fetch in Crackling Cheats, Grunting Cheats, Margery Praters, Red Shanks, etc, that is, Chickens, Pigs, Hens, and Ducks; some at the same time breaking the Ruffman’s Hedges, that is, for Firing; Nor does Tib of the Buttery, that is, the Geese escape them.
1725		New Canting Dict. n.p.: red-shank a Duck, or Mallard.
1754		Scoundrel’s Dict. 18: Mallard, or Duck – Redshank.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.

(b) a turkey.

1707		‘Rum-Mort’s Praise of Her Faithless Maunder’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 36: Redshanks then I could not lack, / Ruff peck still hung on my Back.
1725		‘Retoure My Dear Dell’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 45: On redshanks and tibs thou shalt every day dine.

2. with ref. to bare, wind-reddened legs [the kilted Highlander’s or the woman’s bare legs, coloured through exposure to the elements].

(a) a derog. term for a Scottish Highlander.

1542		A. Boorde Introduction of Knowledge (1870) 132: The other parte of Irland is called the wilde Irysh; and the Redshankes be among them.
1565		T. Stapleton (trans.) Bede B iii c. 4: A priest [...] called Columban cam from Ireland into Britany to preche the woorde of God to the Redshankes [Picti] as dwelt in the south quarters [F&H].
1577		Holinshed Chronicles VI (1807) 82: The mountaine parts and out Iles euen vnto this daie are inhabited with a wild kind of people called Redshanks, esteemed by some to be mingled Scots and Picts.
1599		Nashe Praise of the Red Herring 35: The Scotish Iockies or Redshanks (so surnamed of their immoderate raunching vp the red shanks or red herrings).
1618		J. Taylor ‘Taylors Penniless Pilgrimage’ in Works (1869) I 135: The Highland men, who for the most part speak nothing but Irish [i.e. Gaelic] and in former time were those people which were called the Red-shankes.
1648		Milton Observations Articles of Peace Works (1851) 580: By thir actions we might rather judg them to be a generation of High-land Theevs and Red-shanks .
1681		S. Colvil Whiggs Supplication Pt II 52: That Red-shank sullen, Once challenged for stealling Beef .
1771		Smollett Humphrey Clinker (1925) II 48: The mountaineers of Wales, and the redshanks of Ireland.
1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (3rd edn).
1809		W. Scott Lady of Lake (1871) 101: [note] The ancient buskin was made of the undress’d deer hide [...] which procured the Highlanders the well-known epithet of Red-shanks .
1818		note by Jamieson in Burt Letters from Scotland I 74: In the Lowlands of Scotland, the rough-footed Highlanders were called red-shanks, from the colour of the red-deer hair.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1865		Columbia Dly Phoenix (SC) 20 May 1/3: Highland clansmen — whom the English of that time contemptuously called ‘Red-shanks’.
1872		C. Hindley Old Book Collector’s Misc. 49: red-shanks. — A contemptuous appellation for Scottish highland clansmen and native Irish, with reference to their naked hirsute limbs, and ‘As lively as a Red-Shank’ is still a proverbial saying.
1893		R.L. Stevenson Catriona 182: There might be knives again; these red-shanks are unco grudgeful .
1916		Fair Play (Ste Genevieve, MO) 3 June 1/6: he crushed O’Reilly with the help of Scottish mercenaries or ‘Redssanks,’ as they were called (doubtless they wore kilts and showed raw, wind-bitten knees).
1933		M. Marshall Tramp-Royal on the Toby 79: Thae Picts, as ye’ll maybe ken, were the Reidshanks, the brewers o’ heather ale, the painted heathen wha bided in Scotland lang afore ever the Romans cam’.

(b) (Irish) a woman wearing no stockings.

1846

New Mthly Mag. Feb. 181: ‘Yer dinner’s ready, sir’, screamed a red-shank from the house. [Ibid.] 180: [note] A term applied in Connaught to ladies, who consider stockings a superfluity .