dimidium dimidiumque

English

Etymology

Humorously Latinized version of "half and half", once used by students.

Noun

dimidium dimidiumque (uncountable)

1. (UK, slang, obsolete, humorous) half and half (mixture of ale and porter, or similar)
   • 1848, Albert Smith, Angus Bethune Reach, The Man in the Moon, volume 3, page 107:

     And when the young Anglo-Roma Gents went out between the acts, in order to imbibe dimidium dimidiumque, or gingiber, (doubtless the ginger-beer of the moderns,) they received at the theatre door […]

   • 1893, Charles Thomas Paske, Frederick George Aflalo, Myamma: A Retrospect of Life and Travel in Lower Burmah, page 153:

     I was still fresh, which was something; a trifle warm perhaps, and well disposed towards a pint of the dimidium dimidiumque of the ancients had such been available, but, in default of nectar, I sought another comforter, […]

References

• John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary