5 ms·

A dictionary of modern slang, cant, and vulgar words (1860)

85 points by benbreen 3y ago

sbjs 3y ago
So cool to see the web reader of archive.org in use on another site besides mine[1]. Also neat how this bridge between the two topics of archaic language and slang is the same one that I cover in my viral tiktok[2], which retells ancient stories traditionally associated with archaic language but in modern slang. There's really nothing about slang that makes it less official than less informal language. Dictionaries don't define language but document its usage. And universities don't define language but study it. [1]: immaculatalibrary.com [2]: @gen.z.bible.stories
tkgally 3y ago
An 1821 novel that is jam-packed with slang of that era is Life in London by Pierce Egan [1]. The book was popular in the 19th century, and two of the protagonists were the source, a century later, of the names of the cartoon characters Tom and Jerry [2]. It’s a cleverly written work and I enjoyed reading it a few years ago, but the density of the slang and topical references can make it difficult to parse today. An excerpt: ‘Tom’s box at the Opera caused many a languishing eye and palpitating heart to wander towards its elegant owner. His stroll through the Theatres caused a different sensation among another class of females, and no lures were neglected to decoy and entrap him. In the Parks, Tom was the GO among the “goes!” His peep into the Stews were merely en passant; and the knowing, enticing, Mother Dish-up’s something “new” was tried on in vain to “have the best” of our Hero only for a single darkey! Upon his descending into the Hells, if he did not prove himself as troublesome an inmate as the dramatic Don Giovanni, or possess the icy qualities of Signor Antonelli, the fire-eater and hornpipe-dancer upon red-hot iron bars, he nevertheless had found out the secret, —which, if it did not altogether prevent him from being scorched a little, yet saved him from being burnt to death! At Newmarket, Epsom, and Doncaster Races, Tom was viewed as the tulip of the turf. He not only took the shine out of the Prime Ones at Tattersal’s, but his nod for decision of judgement was the fiat of taste. In showing himself at the Fives-Court, all the peepers of the Fancy were on the stretch to ogle his beau-ideal form and appearance.’ [3] [1] https://archive.org/search?query=title%3A%28Life%20in%20London%29%20AND%20creator%3A%28Pierce%20Egan%29%20AND%20mediatype%3A%28texts%29 https://archive.org/search?query=title%3A%28Life%20in%20Lond... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_and_Jerry#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_and_Jerry#History [3] https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_505pL_b9D2IC/page/n111/mode/2up https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_505pL_b9D2IC/page/n111/mo...
- smatija 3y ago
  En passant is today still commonplace among chess players - it means "in passing" and it "describes the capture by a pawn of an enemy pawn on the same rank and an adjacent file that has just made an initial two-square advance" [1]. Tattersal reminds me of a character in Malazan book of the fallen series of novels, I wonder if it's a reference. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/En_passant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/En_passant
- savef 3y ago
  Are you American? Could you talk about some of the phrases and wordplay in here which didn't make sense to you? As a British person, this reads very easily, to the point that I'm shocked it's over 200 years old.
  - Max_Mustermann 3y ago
    As a non-native reader it seemed pretty clear to me as well. I guess knowing some French and having read a lot of fantasy novels helps.
  - tkgally 3y ago
    Here are some of the references in that passage that I would have had difficulty explaining before reading this book, and some I still cannot define: the GO among the “goes!”; the Stews; Mother Dish-up’s; for a single darkey; the Hells; the Prime Ones at Tattersal’s; the Fives-Court; the Fancy; and the significance of Don Giovanni and Signor Antonelli in (apparent) reference to gambling. This meaning of “Hell” is defined in the linked dictionary: “a fashionable gambling house.” I learned “the Fancy” when I read this and other books by Pierce Egan, as it’s a term he often used to mean boxers. While I understood immediately that the “class of females” in the Theatres meant prostitutes, I might not have picked up on that if I hadn’t read this and other books from the Regency period.
    - crazygringo 3y ago
      I second all of those. I'm American as well, and they're all similarly gibberish to me.
aaron695 3y ago
TL;DR what everyone wants to know - 'cant' is not ye olde speak for 'cunt'. From the book [1] - Cant is old; Slang is always modern and changing. To illustrate the difference: a thief in Cant language would term a horse a prancer or a prad,—while in slang, a man of fashion would speak of it as a bit of blood, or a spanker, or a neat tit. A handkerchief, too, would be a billy, a fogle, or a kent rag, in the secret language of low characters,—whilst amongst vulgar persons, or those who aped their speech, it would be called a rag, a wipe, or a clout. Cant was formed for purposes of secrecy. Slang is indulged in from a desire to appear familiar with life, gaiety, town-humour, and with the transient nick names and street jokes of the day. Both Cant and Slang, I am aware, are often huddled together as synonymes, but they are distinct terms, and as such should be used. [1] 'Cant' even at the time was not really believed to exist, book review in (1859) - https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/146567372 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/146567372 > “rhyming slang”, the Cockney dialect whereby “table” becomes “Cain and Abel” I always thought you took it one further i.e. He's a dropkick -> a dropkick is taking a punt -> he's a cunt. It's not subtle to just rhyme.
- barrkel 3y ago
  "Caint" is Irish for "talk". But the English word is as likely from French, and it's the same root as chant, incantation etc.
- tgv 3y ago
  > Slang is indulged in from a desire to appear familiar with life, gaiety, town-humour That analysis still stands.
- SSLy 3y ago
  > TL;DR what everyone wants to know - 'cant' is not ye olde speak for 'cunt'. Yeah, of course. I did read my D&D Player Handbooks after all.
distortedsignal 3y ago
Now we have urban dictionary.
- derefr 3y ago
  For English-language words. I’ve always been at a loss for how to figure out what the slang term for something is (or if there even is one) in another language. ML translation apps seemingly never output slang.
  - heinrich5991 3y ago
    Wiktionary (both the English and the correct language version) can be helpful.
    - derefr 3y ago
      For "culturally accepted" slang, yes — the kind that you'd actually find in a "modern" and unabridged dictionary. Not so much for the kind of passing-fad slang or "cultural niche" slang that you'd generally look to UrbanDictionary for if it were English.
  - greeniskool 3y ago
    I know Spanish and Portuguese have AsiHablamos[1] and Dicionário inFormal[2], respectively. I'd love to know if any other languages have their own slang dictionaries. [1]: https://www.asihablamos.com/ https://www.asihablamos.com/ [2]: https://www.dicionarioinformal.com.br/ https://www.dicionarioinformal.com.br/
- tokai 3y ago
  Being unauthoritative and driven by user input its borderline unusable unless its the most high profile and popular slang terms. It's hard to guess with definitions are memes and which are true.
  - distortedsignal 3y ago
    I feel like that fits well with my theory of language. Besides, how would you go about constructing a slang dictionary? Many of these words and terms and defined informally at best, and constantly contextually redefined at worst. Any attempt to create a static slang dictionary is going to be constantly under assault from the shifting landscape of language around it. I don't think there is any better example than the word "literally" in the last 20-25 years. In the mid-90's, it meant a very specific thing. Now, it's very different.
resolutebat 3y ago
> On the other hand, the people he refers to as pickpockets and cat burglars are rarely thieving guilds, but simply racial or ethnic others. “In Finland, the fellows who steal seal skins, pick the pockets of bear-skin overcoats, and talk Cant, are termed Lappes.” Lappi = Lapland, the northern region of not just Finland but Sweden and Norway, and lappalaiset is a derogatory term for the Sami people who live there. That said, there are no seals anywhere near Finnish waters (except a few very rare freshwater seals) and neither has wearing a "bearskin coat" even been close to a normal thing.
- tokai 3y ago
  Why would you write that there is no seals in Finland just to concede that there are seals endemic to Finland? Also the Baltic Sea is full of seals. https://www.marinefinland.fi/en-US/Nature_and_how_it_changes/Species/Marine_mammals/Seals https://www.marinefinland.fi/en-US/Nature_and_how_it_changes...
sterlind 3y ago
So many of these seem commonplace now! Son of a gun, spanking (as in "brand spanking new" and the physical act, apparently), spick and span, scamp, and slum, randomly taken from the S-es alone. Surely not all from thieves' cant, reality can't be that cool.
danw1979 3y ago
As I was once a young man who rushed out to purchase, and thoroughly digested Roger’s Profanisaurus, I really enjoyed the foreword to this second edition which states that the first edition sold out pretty much immediately… must have been very popular with Victorian lads.
hondo77 3y ago
I can find neither "mewling" nor "quim". Disappointed.
sundarurfriend 3y ago
> Star the glaze — to break the window of a jeweler Because the glass breaks in a star-like(-ish) pattern. Neat!

85 points by benbreen 3y ago

sbjs 3y ago

So cool to see the web reader of archive.org in use on another site besides mine[1]. Also neat how this bridge between the two topics of archaic language and slang is the same one that I cover in my viral tiktok[2], which retells ancient stories traditionally associated with archaic language but in modern slang. There's really nothing about slang that makes it less official than less informal language. Dictionaries don't define language but document its usage. And universities don't define language but study it. [1]: immaculatalibrary.com [2]: @gen.z.bible.stories

tkgally 3y ago

An 1821 novel that is jam-packed with slang of that era is Life in London by Pierce Egan [1]. The book was popular in the 19th century, and two of the protagonists were the source, a century later, of the names of the cartoon characters Tom and Jerry [2]. It’s a cleverly written work and I enjoyed reading it a few years ago, but the density of the slang and topical references can make it difficult to parse today. An excerpt: ‘Tom’s box at the Opera caused many a languishing eye and palpitating heart to wander towards its elegant owner. His stroll through the Theatres caused a different sensation among another class of females, and no lures were neglected to decoy and entrap him. In the Parks, Tom was the GO among the “goes!” His peep into the Stews were merely en passant; and the knowing, enticing, Mother Dish-up’s something “new” was tried on in vain to “have the best” of our Hero only for a single darkey! Upon his descending into the Hells, if he did not prove himself as troublesome an inmate as the dramatic Don Giovanni, or possess the icy qualities of Signor Antonelli, the fire-eater and hornpipe-dancer upon red-hot iron bars, he nevertheless had found out the secret, —which, if it did not altogether prevent him from being scorched a little, yet saved him from being burnt to death! At Newmarket, Epsom, and Doncaster Races, Tom was viewed as the tulip of the turf. He not only took the shine out of the Prime Ones at Tattersal’s, but his nod for decision of judgement was the fiat of taste. In showing himself at the Fives-Court, all the peepers of the Fancy were on the stretch to ogle his beau-ideal form and appearance.’ [3] [1] https://archive.org/search?query=title%3A%28Life%20in%20London%29%20AND%20creator%3A%28Pierce%20Egan%29%20AND%20mediatype%3A%28texts%29 https://archive.org/search?query=title%3A%28Life%20in%20Lond... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_and_Jerry#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_and_Jerry#History [3] https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_505pL_b9D2IC/page/n111/mode/2up https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_505pL_b9D2IC/page/n111/mo...

smatija 3y ago
En passant is today still commonplace among chess players - it means "in passing" and it "describes the capture by a pawn of an enemy pawn on the same rank and an adjacent file that has just made an initial two-square advance" [1]. Tattersal reminds me of a character in Malazan book of the fallen series of novels, I wonder if it's a reference. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/En_passant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/En_passant
savef 3y ago
Are you American? Could you talk about some of the phrases and wordplay in here which didn't make sense to you? As a British person, this reads very easily, to the point that I'm shocked it's over 200 years old.
- Max_Mustermann 3y ago
  As a non-native reader it seemed pretty clear to me as well. I guess knowing some French and having read a lot of fantasy novels helps.
- tkgally 3y ago
  Here are some of the references in that passage that I would have had difficulty explaining before reading this book, and some I still cannot define: the GO among the “goes!”; the Stews; Mother Dish-up’s; for a single darkey; the Hells; the Prime Ones at Tattersal’s; the Fives-Court; the Fancy; and the significance of Don Giovanni and Signor Antonelli in (apparent) reference to gambling. This meaning of “Hell” is defined in the linked dictionary: “a fashionable gambling house.” I learned “the Fancy” when I read this and other books by Pierce Egan, as it’s a term he often used to mean boxers. While I understood immediately that the “class of females” in the Theatres meant prostitutes, I might not have picked up on that if I hadn’t read this and other books from the Regency period.
  - crazygringo 3y ago
    I second all of those. I'm American as well, and they're all similarly gibberish to me.

aaron695 3y ago

TL;DR what everyone wants to know - 'cant' is not ye olde speak for 'cunt'. From the book [1] - Cant is old; Slang is always modern and changing. To illustrate the difference: a thief in Cant language would term a horse a prancer or a prad,—while in slang, a man of fashion would speak of it as a bit of blood, or a spanker, or a neat tit. A handkerchief, too, would be a billy, a fogle, or a kent rag, in the secret language of low characters,—whilst amongst vulgar persons, or those who aped their speech, it would be called a rag, a wipe, or a clout. Cant was formed for purposes of secrecy. Slang is indulged in from a desire to appear familiar with life, gaiety, town-humour, and with the transient nick names and street jokes of the day. Both Cant and Slang, I am aware, are often huddled together as synonymes, but they are distinct terms, and as such should be used. [1] 'Cant' even at the time was not really believed to exist, book review in (1859) - https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/146567372 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/146567372 > “rhyming slang”, the Cockney dialect whereby “table” becomes “Cain and Abel” I always thought you took it one further i.e. He's a dropkick -> a dropkick is taking a punt -> he's a cunt. It's not subtle to just rhyme.

barrkel 3y ago
"Caint" is Irish for "talk". But the English word is as likely from French, and it's the same root as chant, incantation etc.
tgv 3y ago
> Slang is indulged in from a desire to appear familiar with life, gaiety, town-humour That analysis still stands.
SSLy 3y ago
> TL;DR what everyone wants to know - 'cant' is not ye olde speak for 'cunt'. Yeah, of course. I did read my D&D Player Handbooks after all.

distortedsignal 3y ago

Now we have urban dictionary.

derefr 3y ago
For English-language words. I’ve always been at a loss for how to figure out what the slang term for something is (or if there even is one) in another language. ML translation apps seemingly never output slang.
- heinrich5991 3y ago
  Wiktionary (both the English and the correct language version) can be helpful.
  - derefr 3y ago
    For "culturally accepted" slang, yes — the kind that you'd actually find in a "modern" and unabridged dictionary. Not so much for the kind of passing-fad slang or "cultural niche" slang that you'd generally look to UrbanDictionary for if it were English.
- greeniskool 3y ago
  I know Spanish and Portuguese have AsiHablamos[1] and Dicionário inFormal[2], respectively. I'd love to know if any other languages have their own slang dictionaries. [1]: https://www.asihablamos.com/ https://www.asihablamos.com/ [2]: https://www.dicionarioinformal.com.br/ https://www.dicionarioinformal.com.br/
tokai 3y ago
Being unauthoritative and driven by user input its borderline unusable unless its the most high profile and popular slang terms. It's hard to guess with definitions are memes and which are true.
- distortedsignal 3y ago
  I feel like that fits well with my theory of language. Besides, how would you go about constructing a slang dictionary? Many of these words and terms and defined informally at best, and constantly contextually redefined at worst. Any attempt to create a static slang dictionary is going to be constantly under assault from the shifting landscape of language around it. I don't think there is any better example than the word "literally" in the last 20-25 years. In the mid-90's, it meant a very specific thing. Now, it's very different.

resolutebat 3y ago

> On the other hand, the people he refers to as pickpockets and cat burglars are rarely thieving guilds, but simply racial or ethnic others. “In Finland, the fellows who steal seal skins, pick the pockets of bear-skin overcoats, and talk Cant, are termed Lappes.” Lappi = Lapland, the northern region of not just Finland but Sweden and Norway, and lappalaiset is a derogatory term for the Sami people who live there. That said, there are no seals anywhere near Finnish waters (except a few very rare freshwater seals) and neither has wearing a "bearskin coat" even been close to a normal thing.

tokai 3y ago
Why would you write that there is no seals in Finland just to concede that there are seals endemic to Finland? Also the Baltic Sea is full of seals. https://www.marinefinland.fi/en-US/Nature_and_how_it_changes/Species/Marine_mammals/Seals https://www.marinefinland.fi/en-US/Nature_and_how_it_changes...

sterlind 3y ago

So many of these seem commonplace now! Son of a gun, spanking (as in "brand spanking new" and the physical act, apparently), spick and span, scamp, and slum, randomly taken from the S-es alone. Surely not all from thieves' cant, reality can't be that cool.

danw1979 3y ago

As I was once a young man who rushed out to purchase, and thoroughly digested Roger’s Profanisaurus, I really enjoyed the foreword to this second edition which states that the first edition sold out pretty much immediately… must have been very popular with Victorian lads.

hondo77 3y ago

I can find neither "mewling" nor "quim". Disappointed.

sundarurfriend 3y ago

> Star the glaze — to break the window of a jeweler Because the glass breaks in a star-like(-ish) pattern. Neat!