BANAGHER
(a) Everything. The name of a town in Ireland, which is said to have become proverbial as a rotten borough. To beat (or bang) Banagher is to surpass everything. 1928: “ ‘You beat Banagher, Pat,” said Willie, admiringly, ‘and Banagher beat the Divil’.”
BARBARA
(b) A term designating the first mood of the first figure of syllogisms. A syllogism in Barbara is one of which both the major and minor premisses, and the conclusion, are universal affirmatives. Thus, all animals are mortal; all men are animals; therefore, all men are mortal. The Latin means “barbarous things”.
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SKITTER
(a) To void thin excrement. A frequentative of “skite”, to defecate. 1610: “Seeing there was but a Skittering Lass between him and the Crown.”
ABUTILON
(c) A genus of plants (N.O. Malvaceae) with handsome yellow or white flowers veined with red. Modern Latin adapotation of the Arabic aubutilun applied to this or an allied genus by Avicenna. 1865: “Some tender abutilons like drops of redder gold and little English violets.”