Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also Birmingham) a counterfeit coin.

1680–1		‘Ogle’s History’ in Ebsworth Roxburghe Ballads (1885) V:1 99: A Broomegean too, may they find.
1754		B. Martin Eng. Dict. (2nd edn).
1772		Bridges Burlesque Homer (3rd edn) 255: Picks out the good ones [i.e. coins] from the pack, / And turns the Birminghams all back.
1797		Bridges Burlesque Homer (4th edn) II 255: [as cit. 1772].
1834		R. Southey Doctor 354/1: He picked it up, – and it proved to be a Brummejam of the coarsest and clumsiest kind, with a head on each side.
1870		Eve. News (Sydney) 3 Dec. 4/2: What must be thought of the pious impostors who had been, for the last forty years ‘chiselling’ a church, by passing off upon the unfortunate clerk so many ‘brummagems’ and ‘Tommy Dodds’ that he had at last collected a regular treasury of them?

2. the city of Birmingham; also attrib.

[1691		G. Miege New State of Eng. Pt I 235: Bromicham is a large and well-built Town [...] particularly noted a few years ago, for the counterfeit Groats made here].
1805		J. Reynolds Blind Bargain Epilogue: To Brummagum I went, and saw, believe it if you can, Sirs, / No counterfeit, a little boy, who acted like a man, Sirs.
1807		Irving & Paulding Salmagundi (1860 ) 229: The city of Birmingham, or rather, as the most learned English would call it, Brummagem.
1815		D. Humphreys Yankey in England Epilogue: At Brumingum the smoke from forges curling.
1820		‘Peter Corcoran’ ‘Lines to Philip Samson’ in Fancy 88: Go back to Brummagem! go back to Brummagem! / Youth of that ancient and halfpenny town!
1823		Dublin Eve. Post 9 Aug. 2/2: Marriage of their Most Gracious Majesteies the King and Queen of the Brummagem Beggars — A wedding took place at Bermingham [sic] on Monday [etc].
1835		Comic Almanack Mar. 11: To Brummagem you’ll go.
1839		Worcs. Jrnl 25 Apr. 4/2: Such Patriots, like tjhe Brummagem Delegates, generally contrive to get their travelling expenses paid.
1842		Worcester Jrnl 21 Apr. 3/6: [They] found themselves in Newport Street, where, having again added to their store of ‘liquid damnation,’ as our friend the celebrated Brummagem Vulcan would call it, a quarrel ensued.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor I 421/1: I was in Brummagem.
1867		R. Broughton Cometh up as a Flower 52: Those may be Manchester or Brummagem manners, but they won’t go down here, I can tell him.
1873		‘Cuthbert Bede’ Little Mr. Bouncer 91: I promised to [...] see him and Verdant Green off by the Brummagem coach.
1882		G.A. Sala in Living London (1883) June 244: I went to ‘Brummagem’ for a special purpose.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 29 July 1/6: The offer should have come from Brummagem, not Sheffield.
1899		G.H. Russell Under the Sjambok 206: I never thought four year ago, when I lived in Brummagem, that I’d ’ave got my tongue round it.
1929		‘Henry Green’ Living (1978) 321: Oh Bert I wish your dad and mother did live in Brummagen and not in Liverpool.
1941		G. Kersh They Die with Their Boots Clean 37: John Johnson of Birmingham; of Brummagem, gentlemen, the breeding-ground of the Fly Boys from time immemorial.
1963		C. Wood ‘Prisoner and Escort’ in Cockade (1965) I i: That Brummagem bike.

3. a person from or an inhabitant of Birmingham; usu. attrib. as a nickname.

1817		Morn. Chron. 29 May 3/3: Battle Between the Wolf and Brummagem Brutus [...] Brummagem Brutus hit short and stumbled, and the Wolf found an opportunity of throwing in his favourite facer [...] Shouts of [...] ‘Go it Brummagem’.
1825		Pierce Egan’s Life in London 19 June 164/2: Jem was sent down. — 7 to 4 on Brummagem.
1826		Bell’s Life & Sporting Chron. 17 Dec. 3/1: The much talked of fight between Ned O’Neal and Phil Sampson, ‘the Brummagem Youth as was’, as Frosty Faced Fogo would say, took place on Tuesday.
1851		Bell’s Life in Sydney 1 Mar. 2/4: Snowball was leary, but Brummagem would not be denied.
1855		(con. 1824) Fights for the Championship 95: The brummagem, though no counterfeit, was evidently fast on the wane.
1857		G. Lawrence Guy Livingstone 4: The son was Brummagem to the back-bone.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor I 316/1: There was Tailor Tom, and Brummagem Dick, and Keate-street Nancy.
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 12/1: The Doctor was ‘palled in’ with a ‘moll’ named ‘Brumagin Pol’.
1867		R. Broughton Cometh up as a Flower 52: ‘He is not Manchester or Brummagem,’ said I.
1879		C.J. Kickham Knocknagow 328: They call him ‘Brummagem,’ because he was born in Birmingham, in England.
1893		Omaha Dly Bee (NE) 31 May 2/1: The Nonpareils were beautifully [...] wholloped and the Brummagem lads [...] are filled with emotion.
1899		‘Pot’ & ‘Swears’ Scarlet City 40: The Brummagem Beauty got his digits onto the Magpie’s boko.
1901		J. Caminada Twenty-Five Years of Detective Life II 130: He was known as Brummagem Fred.
1909		W.H. Davies Beggars 251: I had Liverpool Nora and Brummagem Sal at my side.
1989		N. Beale [title] Brummagen Becky.

4. anything fake or inferior in make.

1856		C. Reade It Is Never Too Late to Mend III 131: Here is a new dodge, Brummagen planted on us so far from home.
1936		N. Marsh Death in Ecstasy 302: I know what you’re like now [...] A little bit of bloody Brummagen.

5. a spur.

1838		R.S. Surtees Jorrocks Jaunts (1874) 12: His friend and neighbour old B——, the tinker, plies his little mare with the Brummagems.
1984		Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 142/1: ca. 1830–1930.

6. a second-rate person.

1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 17 Jan. 14/2: After fighting several outside battles, Greenfield made his first show with a good man in 1877, when he tackled a ‘brummagen’ named Dick Perry. […] Greenfield was defeated, after fighting exactly one hour.
1896		Regiment 22 Aug. 318/2: ‘’it ’im, ’it ’im; he’s a bad’un—a real Brummagem’.

7. a Birmingham accent.

1939

‘Henry Green’ Party Going (1978) 477: ‘She were mortal bad I reckon when I see her took upstairs,’ this strange man said, speaking now in Brummagem.