Green’s Dictionary of Slang

hangman n.

(N.Z./W.I.) a reprobate, a ruffian; thus attrib.

1566		W. Adlington (trans) Golden Asse 73: The same hangeman boye did inuent an other torment for me, he gathered a great many sharpe thornes as sharpe as needels, and [...] tied them at my taile to pricke me [...] whereby I perceaued that the hangeman did deuise nothinge els saue to kill me by some manner of meanes.
1834		Marryat Peter Simple (1911) 237: Then, when we laughed, they called us ‘all the hangman tiefs,’ and every other opprobrious name which they could select from their vocabulary.
1959		G. Slatter Gun in My Hand 100: That’s Mick Donovan all right. A proper hangman when he got on it. A terrible man.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl.

SE in slang uses

In compounds

hangman’s day (n.)

1. Friday.

1859		Matsell Vocabulum 40: hangman’s day Friday is so called from the custom of hanging people on a Friday.
1881		Trumble Sl. Dict. (1890).

2. (N.Z. prison) .

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 84/1: hangman’s day n. an inmate’s release date, day of release.

hangman’s wages (n.) [the equivalent of a Scot. mark, the sum instituted as the executioner’s fee by James VI and I (1566–1625). It was divided into one shilling for the execution and three halfpence for the rope; but note Bee]

13½p, 1s 1½d (approx. 6p).

1608		Dekker Honest Whore Pt 2 (1630) V ii: Why should I eate hempe-seed at the Hangmans thirteen-pence halfe-penny Ordinary, and haue this whore laugh at me as I swing, as I totter?
[1661		‘The Hangman’s last Will & Testament’ Rump Poems and Songs (1662) II 150: For half thirteen pence half-penny wages, / I would have cleared out all the Town cages].
1678		S. Butler Hudibras Pt III canto 2 line 750–1: To find us pill’ries and cart-tails, / Or hangman’s wages.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: hangman’s wages, thirteen pence halfpenny, which according to the vulgar tradition was thus allotted, one shilling for the execution, and three halfpence for the rope. N.B. this refers to former times, the hangmen of the present day, having like other artificers, raised their prices. The true state of this matter is, that a Scottish mark was the fee allowed for an execution, and the value of that piece was settled by a proclamation of James I, at thirteen pence halfpenny.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1818		Pegge & Nichols Curialia Miscellanea 331: The vulgar notion, though it will not appear to be a vulgar error, that Thirteen Pence Halfpenny is the fee of the Executioner [...] at Tyburn, and therefore is called Hangman’s Wages.
1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 93: Hangman’s wages — thirteen-pence halfpenny, being the sum anciently paid to the jury convicting, viz. one penny each for eleven and two-pence halfpenny to the foreman, who then found the rope. Totally different now-a-day.
1838		W. Hone Table Bk 701: As to the fee itself, ‘thirteen-pence halfpenny — hangman’s wages,’ it appears to have been of Scottish extraction. The Scottish mark [...] was a silver coin; in value, thirteen-pence halfpenny.
1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. (2nd edn).
1869		Australasian (Melbourne) 17 July 8/5: Thirteen pence is called hangman’s wages.
1873		J. Mair Hbk of Phrases 18: Hangman’s Wages. Thirteenpence halfpenny.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.