tartar, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

tartar n.

[proper name Tartar, an inhabitant of the region of Central Asia extending east from the Caspian Sea, and formerly known as Independent and Chinese Tartary; ult. Persian Tatar, but linked in Western ears and superstitions with Lat. tartarus, hell]

1. a strolling vagabond, a beggar, a criminal mendicant.

[c.1597		Shakespeare Merry Wives of Windsor IV v: Here’s a Bohemian-Tartar tarries the coming down of thy fat woman].
1725		New Canting Dict. n.p.: tartar a notorious Rogue or Sharper, who sticks not to rob his Brother Rogue; and in this respect is reckon’d by some, the Fifty-ninth Order of Villains.
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. 1725].

2. (also tart, tarterer) a general derog. description.

1595		Shakespeare Midsummer Night’s Dream III ii: Thy love! out, tawny Tartar, out!
1663		Dryden Wild Gallant II i: I never knew your grandmother was a Scotchwoman. Is she not a Tartar too?
1672		J. Phillips Maronides (1678) V 74: What hideous Tartar with a vengeance / Invented first these fatal Engins.
a.1680		Rochester ‘A Satire Upon the Times’ in Works of Rochester (1721) 19: That well knew how to value painted Toys, / And left the Tartar to be catch’d by Boys.
1699		‘Song’ in Playford Pills to Purge Melancholy I 102: Nor will I in haste, / My dear liberty barter, / Lest, thinking to catch, / I am caught by a Tartar.
1751		Smollett Peregrine Pickle (1964) 323: And you yourself are a Goth, and a Turk, and a Tartar, and an impudent pretending jackanapes.
1778		Mme D’Arblay Diary and Letters (1904) I 70: Ah! [...] they will little think what a tartar you carry to them!
c.1785		‘The Agent’s Downfall’ in A. Carpenter Verse in Eng. in 18C Ireland (1998) 408: For many a year this Tartar had floruish’d, / Both tenants and all who offended him punish’d.
1790		‘The Irish Morsho’ in North Country Maid 3: I took up my quarters just when I did land / Amongst noble tartars at old Mother Hands.
1797		Bridges Burlesque Homer (4th edn) I 254: Sthenelus, the bully’s carter, / Remember’d what he heard that Tartar / His master say.
1809		B.H. Malkin (trans.) Adventures of Gil Blas (1822) I 207: Ah! lovely Mergelina, little do you fathom my character, to be deceived by the fine compliments of your husband the doctor, or by my Tartar contour!
1818		‘A. Burton’ Adventures of Johnny Newcome III 129: They knew their Captain was no starter, Yet far too keen to catch a Tartar.
1821–5		‘Bill Truck’ Man o’ War’s Man (1843) x: The proud old tartar of a fellow his grandfather.
1837		T. Hood ‘Drinking Song’ Works (1862) IV 225: No part I take in party fray, With tropes from Billingsgate’s slang-whanging tartars.
1841		W.J. Neale Paul Periwinkle 637: John, who had entered the service before as a midshipman, beneath an unfeeling Tartar of a captain.
1854		Delhi Sketch Bk 1 Mar. 27/1: Major General Sir Savage Tartar, K.C.B.
1855		Thackeray Newcomes II 329: What a woman that Mrs. Mackenzie is [...] What an infernal tartar and catamaran!
1860		Bell’s Life in Sydney 3 Nov. 3/2: But Joseph was a ‘Tartar,’ and on the way to the police elysium turned suddenly round, and with his fist struck him a violent blow .
1862		Thackeray Adventures of Philip (1899) 261: A Tartar that fellow was, and no mistake!
1873		W.H. Thomes Slaver’s Adventures 109: Trouble will arise, I am sure, for I see something in that fellow’s eyes that tells me he is a Tartar.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 5 Sept. 24/2: [N]ow followed the loudest smashing of crockery I ever heard. [...] Mrs. W had clearly enough turned Tartar, and thrown the whole of the dinner and dinner things into the fire-place.
1892		‘F. Anstey’ Voces Populi 325: ’E’s got a Tartar there, ’e ’as!
1894		Truth (Sydney) 4 Mar. 4/7: He ran against a Tartar — snagged, / And now in goal’s securely lagged.
1899		Taunton Courier 26 Apr. 8/4: She’ a tarterer! [...] That is the reason she has never married .
1912		Bulletin (Sydney) 22 Aug. 36/1: My ’usband ’e’s blasphemin’ and performin’ like a Tartar – / ’E sez a youngster orter use a gun [...].
1928		M.C. Sharpe Chicago May (1929) 29: I had tackled a tartar.

3. a champion, an expert.

1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: A Tartar is also an adept at any feat, or game: he is quite a Tartar at cricket, or billiards.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1785].
1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc.
1862		E. de la Bédollière Londres et les Anglais 318/1: tartar, [...] individu qui excelle dans une spécialité quelconque.
1883		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 20 Oct. 14/4: Lambert proved a ‘regular Tartar’.
1937		J. Archibald ‘Crash on Delivery’ in Flying Aces Nov. 🌐 Phineas had picked himself a tartar. [...] The Boche crate seemed capable of doing as many tricks as a wasp.

In phrases

catch a tartar (v.)

to encounter an apparent victim or weakling who turns out to be much stronger than suspected.

1682		Dryden ‘Prologue toThe King and Queen’ in Works (1854) 270: When men will needlessly their freedom barter for lawless power, sometimes they catch a tarter .
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: To catch a Tartar, in stead of catching, to be catcht in a Trap.
1725		New Canting Dict. n.p.: To catch a Tartar, is said, among the Canting Varlets, when a Rogue attacks one that he thinks a Passenger, but proves to be of this Class of Villains, who, in his Turn, having overcome the Assailant, robs, plunders, and binds him.
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. 1725].
1748		Smollett Roderick Random (1979) 175: Ah! ah! have you caught a tartar?
1753		Richardson Sir Charles Grandison (1812) I 30: He had caught a Tartar!
1772		Foote Nabob in Works (1799) II 308: It is they have caught the Tartars in us.
1785		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: tartar, to catch a tartar, to attack one of superior strength or abilities; This saying originated from the story of an Irish soldier, in the Imperial service, who, in a battle against the Turks, called out to his camerade that he had caught a Tartar, bring him along then, said he; he won’t come, answered paddy; then come along yourself, replied his camerade; arrah, cried he, but he won’t let me.
1796		Sporting Mag. Sept. VIII 309/1: She has now caught a Count and a Tartar at the same time; but would willingly relinquish her title to move in the more humble sphere of Clarinda.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1818		‘A. Burton’ Adventures of Johnny Newcome III 129: They knew their Captain was no starter, Yet far too keen to catch a Tartar.
1822		Tom and Jerry; A Musical Extravaganza II iv: I’ve caught a Tartar.
1821		D. Haggart Autobiog. 43: He soon found he had catched a tartar, for I instantly planted a right-hand blow on his underjaw, which sent him reeling to the ground.
1836		Knickerbocker (N.Y.) viii (Sept.) 285: The ‘cracker’ soon discovered that he had caught a Tartar.
1836		‘Jack Nastyface’ [Wm Robinson] Nautical Economy 19: Two or three hundred men were ready to follow [in an attempt to board] but the caught a Tartar, for their design was discovered.
1842		Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 30 July n.p.: Did they calculate on catching a correspondent. We would inform them that they have caught a tartar .
1843		Bellew Memoirs of a Griffin I 167: The general [...] ventured [...] on a second marriage; but here he caught a Tartar.
1846		Bell’s Life in Sydney 29 Aug. 2/5: A common trick among the ‘street phaetons’ when they catch a tartar who can not or will not fork out the ready.
1855		(con. 1850) Fights for the Championship 225: Bendy soon discovered that he had ‘caught a Tartar’ and not [...] ‘a yokel’.
1857		Bell’s Life in Victoria (Melbourne) 14 Nov. 3/1: The venerable Nestor seems rather to have caught a Tartar in‘'Welter,’ who has quite the best of the [...] passage-at-arms.
1858		O.W. Holmes Autocrat of the Breakfast Table 206: When the Danish pirates made descents upon the English coast, they caught a few tartars occasionally, in the shape of Saxons.
1862		J.R. Lowell Biglow Papers 2nd Ser. (1880) 105: There’s Philllips, for instance, has jes’ ketched a tartar / In the Law-’n’-Order Party of ole Cincinnater.
1868		Sportsman 13 Oct. 2/2: Notes on News [...] [M]y friend caught one of them and flung him [...] into the dirty muddy water of the Esk. [...] Then left him the full conviction, I haw doubt, that he had caught tartar.
1872		Schele De Vere Americanisms 623: Passenger, to wake up the wrong, — a phrase derived from the frequent mistakes made in waking up passengers who were to start early in the morning, — means to be mistaken in a man, to ‘catch a Tartar.’.
1876		C. Hindley Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack 237: He found he had caught a Tartar this time. He also knew Tom Maley as a fighting man, and as one of the most scientific of his day.
1879		H. Hartigan Stray Leaves (2nd ser.) 142: [H]e had caught a tartar, in the shape of the Reverend Father McDonough [...] who, being a very powerful man as well as a powerful preacher, tucked mister Hooky under his arm, and walked him off to barracks!
1884		H. Smart Post to Finish I 155: He caught a Tartar with a vengeance. Jim’s left shot out [...] and stretched the joker flat upon his back.
1890		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 8 Feb. 11/1: Homer Pennock has caught a tartar In the pedestrian business at last. He backed James Collins to win the Sheffield handicap heavily and stood to win $5,000. Collins never was in the race.
1890		H. King [perf. Harry King] ‘As hot as I can make it’ 🎵 Last night I caught a Tartar near a local railway arch / He gave me lots of trouble, but I quickly made him march / Tho’ not before he punched my nose and tore my coat in two.
c.1905		J. Furphy Buln-Buln and the Brolga (1948) 🌐 ‘I’ve caught you at last, Falkland-Pritchard!’ he hissed [...] ‘And take my word for it, my good fellow, you’ve caught a Tartar!’ says I.
1907		D. Stewart Shadows of the Night in Illus. Police News 28 Sept. 12/2: The mob [...] guessed how matters stood — a thief had ‘caught a tartar’.
1936		(con. 1895) T. O’Reilly Tiger of the Legion 68: [T]hey weren’t much, these yokels [...] with very little boxing technique [...] I caught a tarter about three times altogether, and took a good licking .
1973		(con. 1940s–60s) Hogbotel & ffuckes ‘The Bastard from the Bush’ in Snatches and Lays 82: Now listen here, you buggers, we’ve caught a fucking tartar, / At every kind of bludging, that bastard is a starter.