Part 1

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THE SLANG DICTIONARY

ETYMOLOGICAL HISTORICAL AND ANECDOTAL

A NEW IMPRESSION

LONDON CHATTO & WINDUS 1913

PREFACE.

Slang, like everything else, changes much in the course of time; and though but fifteen years have elapsed since this Dictionary was first introduced to the public, alterations have since then been many and frequent in the subject of which it treats. The first issue of a work of this kind is, too, ever beset with difficulties, and the compiler was always aware that, though under the circumstances of its production the book was an undoubted success, it necessarily lacked many of the elements which would make that success lasting, and cause the “Slang Dictionary” to be regarded as an authority and a work of reference not merely among the uneducated, but among people of cultivated tastes and inquiring minds. For though the vulgar use of the word Slang applies to those words only which are used by the dangerous classes and the lowest grades of society, the term has in reality, and should have—as every one who has ever studied the subject knows—a much wider significance. Bearing this in mind, the original publisher of this Dictionary lost no opportunity of obtaining information of a useful kind, which could hardly find place in any other book of reference, with the intention of eventually bringing out an entirely new edition, in which all former errors should be corrected and all fresh meanings and new words find a place. His intention always was to give those words which are familiar to all conversant with our colloquialisms and locutions, but which have hitherto been connected with an unwritten tongue, a local habitation, and to produce a book which, in its way, would be as useful to students of philology, as well as to lovers of human nature in all its phases, as any standard work in the English language. The squeamishness which tries to ignore the existence of slang fails signally, for not only in the streets and the prisons, but at the bar, on the bench, in the pulpit, and in the Houses of Parliament, does slang make itself heard, and, as the shortest and safest means to an end, understood too.

My predecessor, the original compiler, did not live to see his wish become an actual fact; and, failing him, it devolved upon me to undertake the task of revision and addition. How far this has been accomplished, the curious reader who is possessed of a copy of each edition can best judge for himself by comparing any couple of pages he may select. Of my own share in the work I wish to say nothing, as I have mainly benefited by the labours of others; but I may say that, when I undertook the position of editor of what, with the smallest possible stretch of fancy, may now be called a new book, I had no idea that the alteration would be nearly so large or so manifest. However, as the work is now done, it will best speak for itself, and, as good wine needs no bush, I will leave it, in all hope of their tenderness, to those readers who are best qualified to say how the task has been consummated.

In conclusion, it is but fair for me to thank, as strongly as weak words will permit, those gentlemen who have in various ways assisted me. To two of them, who are well known in the world of literature, and who have not only aided me with advice, but have placed many new words and etymologies at my service, I am under particular obligation. With this I beg to subscribe myself, the reader’s most obedient servant,

The Editor.

_December 20, 1873._

NOTE.—The reader will bear in mind that this is a Dictionary of _modern_ Slang,—a list of colloquial words and phrases in _present_ use,—whether of ancient or modern formation. Whenever _Ancient_ is appended to a word, it means that the expression was in respectable use in or previous to the reign of Queen Elizabeth. _Old_ or _Old English_, affixed to a word, signifies that it was in general use as a proper expression in or previous to the reign of Charles II. _Old Cant_ indicates that the term was in use as a Cant word during or before the same reign.

_The Publishers will be much obliged by the receipt of any cant, slang, or vulgar words not mentioned in the Dictionary. The probable origin, or etymology, of any fashionable or unfashionable vulgarism, will also be received with thanks._

CONTENTS.

PAGE

THE HISTORY OF CANT, OR THE SECRET LANGUAGE OF VAGABONDS 1

ACCOUNT OF THE HIEROGLYPHICS USED BY VAGABONDS 27

A SHORT HISTORY OF SLANG, OR THE VULGAR LANGUAGE OF FAST LIFE 34

DICTIONARY OF MODERN SLANG, CANT, AND VULGAR WORDS 71

SOME ACCOUNT OF THE BACK SLANG 347

GLOSSARY OF THE BACK SLANG 353

SOME ACCOUNT OF THE RHYMING SLANG 358

GLOSSARY OF THE RHYMING SLANG 365

CENTRE SLANG 369

THE BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SLANG 371

“_All ridiculous words make their first entry into a language by familiar phrases; I dare not answer for these that they will not in time be looked upon as a part of our tongue._”—SPECTATOR.

“_Rabble-charming words, which carry so much wild fire wrapt up in them._”—SOUTH.

“_Slang derivations are generally indirect, turning upon metaphor and fanciful allusions, and other than direct etymological connexion. Such allusions and fancies are essentially temporary or local; they rapidly pass out of the public mind: the word remains, while the key to its origin is lost._”

“_Many of these [slang] words and phrases are but serving their apprenticeship, and will eventually become the active strength of our language._”—H. T. BUCKLE.

THE HISTORY OF CANT,

OR THE

SECRET LANGUAGE OF VAGABONDS.

Cant and Slang are universal and world-wide. By their means is often said in a sentence what would otherwise take an hour to express. Nearly every nation on the face of the globe, polite and barbarous, has its divisions and subdivisions of various ranks of society. These are necessarily of many kinds, stationary and wandering, civilized and uncivilized, respectable and disreputable,—those who have fixed abodes and avail themselves of the refinements of civilization, and those who go from place to place picking up a precarious livelihood by petty sales, begging, or theft. This peculiarity is to be observed amongst the heathen tribes of the southern hemisphere, as well as in the oldest and most refined countries of Europe. In South Africa, the naked and miserable Hottentots are pestered by the still more abject _Sonquas_; and it may be some satisfaction for us to know that our old enemies at the Cape, the Kaffirs, are troubled with a tribe of rascals called _Fingoes_,—the former term, we are informed by travellers, signifying beggars, and the latter wanderers and outcasts. In South America, and among the islands of the Pacific, matters are pretty much the same. Sleek rascals, without much inclination towards honesty, fatten, or rather fasten, like the insects in the famous epigram, upon other rascals, who would be equally sleek and fat but for their vagabond dependents. Luckily for respectable persons, however, vagabonds, both at home and abroad, generally show certain outward peculiarities which distinguish them from the great mass of law-abiding people on whom they subsist. Observation shows that the wandering races are remarkable for an abnormal development of the bones of the face, as the jaws, cheek-bones, &c., for high-crowned, stubborn-shaped heads, quick, restless eyes,[1] and hands nervously itching to be doing; for their love of gambling; for sensuality of all kinds; and for their use of a CANT language with which to conceal their designs and plunderings.

The secret jargon, or rude speech, of the vagabonds who hang upon the Hottentots is termed Cuze-cat. In Finland, the fellows who steal seal-skins, pick the pockets of bear-skin overcoats, and talk cant, are termed Lappes. In France, the secret language of highwaymen, housebreakers, and pickpockets, is named Argot. The brigands and more romantic rascals of Spain term their private tongue Germania,[2] or Robbers’ Language. Rothwälsch,[3] or foreign-beggar-talk, is synonymous with cant and thieves’ talk in Germany. The vulgar dialect of Malta, and the Scala towns of the Levant—imported into this country and incorporated with English cant—is known as the Lingua Franca, or bastard Italian. And the crowds of lazy beggars that infest the streets of Naples and Rome, as well as the brigands of Pompeii, use a secret language termed Gergo. In England, as we all know, it is called Cant—often improperly Slang.

Most nations, then, possess each a tongue, or series of tongues maybe, each based on the national language, by which not only thieves, beggars, and other outcasts communicate, but which is used more or less by all classes. There is hardly any community in this country, hardly any profession, but has its slang, and proficiency in this is the greatest desideratum of an aspirant to the pleasures of Society, or the honours of literature and art. The formation of these secret tongues varies, of course, with the circumstances surrounding the speakers. A writer in _Notes and Queries_ has well remarked that “the investigation of the origin and principles of cant and slang language opens a curious field of inquiry, replete with considerable interest to the philologist and the philosopher. It affords a remarkable instance of lingual contrivance, which, without the introduction of much arbitrary matter, has developed a system of communicating ideas, having all the advantages of a foreign language.”

“The terms Cant and Canting were probably derived from chaunt and chaunting,—the whining tone, or modulation of voice adopted by beggars, with intent to coax, wheedle, or cajole by pretensions of wretchedness.”[4] For the origin of the other application of the word Cant, pulpit hypocrisy, we are indebted to the _Spectator_—“Cant is by some people derived from one Andrew Cant, who, they say, was a Presbyterian minister in some illiterate part of Scotland, who, by exercise and use, had obtained the faculty, alias gift, of talking in the pulpit in such a dialect that ’tis said he was understood by none but his own congregation,—and not by all of them. Since Master Cant’s time it has been understood in a larger sense, and signifies all exclamations, whinings, unusual tones, and, in fine, all praying and preaching like the unlearned of the Presbyterians.” This anecdote is curious, though it is but fair to assume that the preacher’s name was taken from his practice, rather than that the practice was called after the preacher. As far as we are concerned, however, in the present inquiry, Cant was derived from chaunt, a beggar’s whine; “chaunting” being the recognised term amongst beggars to this day for begging orations and street whinings; and “chaunter,” a street talker and tramp, is still the term used by strollers and patterers. This race is, however, nearly obsolete. The use of the word Cant, amongst beggars, must certainly have commenced at a very early date, for we find “To cante, to speake,” in Harman’s list of Rogues’ Words in the year 1566; and Harrison about the same time,[5] in speaking of beggars and Gipsies, says, “they have devised a language among themselves which they name Canting, but others Pedlars’ Frenche.”

Now, the word Cant in its old sense, and Slang[6] in its modern application, although used by good writers and persons of education as synonyms, are in reality quite distinct and separate terms. Cant, apart from religious hypocrisy, refers to the old secret language of Gipsies, thieves, tramps, and beggars. Slang represents that evanescent language, ever changing with fashion and taste, which has principally come into vogue during the last seventy or eighty years, spoken by persons in every grade of life, rich and poor, honest and dishonest.[7] Cant is old; Slang is always modern and ever 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,” 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 the modern folk who affect Slang, it would be called a “stook,” a “wipe,” a “fogle,” or a “clout.” Cant was formed for purposes of secrecy. Slang, though it has a tendency the same way, is still often indulged in from a mild desire to appear familiar with life, gaiety, town-humour, and the transient nicknames and street jokes of the day. Both Cant and Slang, we have before said, are often huddled together as synonyms; but they are most certainly distinct, and as such should be used.

To the Gipsies, beggars and thieves are in great measure indebted for their Cant language. It is supposed that the Gipsies originally landed in this country early in the reign of Henry VIII. They were at first treated as conjurors and magicians,—indeed, they were hailed by the populace with as much applause as a company of English performers usually receives on arriving in a distant colony. They came here with all their old Eastern arts of palmistry and second-sight, with their factitious power of doubling money by incantation and burial,—shreds of pagan idolatry; and they brought with them, also, the dishonesty of the lower-caste Orientals, and the nomadic tastes they had acquired through centuries of wandering over nearly the whole of the then known globe. They possessed also a language quite distinct from anything that had been heard in England up till their advent; they claimed the title of Egyptians, and as such, when their thievish propensities became a public nuisance, were cautioned and proscribed in a royal proclamation by Henry VIII.[8] The Gipsies were not long in the country before they found native imitators; and indeed the imitation is much more frequently found nowadays, in the ranks of the so-called Gipsies, than is the genuine article. Vagabondism is peculiarly catching, and the idle, the vagrant, and the criminal soon caught the idea from the Gipsies, and learned from them to tramp, sleep under hedges and trees, tell fortunes, and find lost property for a consideration—frequently, as the saying runs, having found it themselves before it was lost. They also learned the value and application of a secret tongue; indeed, with the Gipsies came in all the accompaniments of maunding and imposture, except thieving and begging, which were well known in this country, and perhaps in every other, long before visitors had an opportunity of teaching them.

Harman, in 1566, wrote a singular, not to say droll, book, entitled, _A Caveat for commen Cvrsetors, vulgarly called Vagabones, newly augmented and inlarged_, wherein the history and various descriptions of rogues and vagabonds are given, together with their canting tongue. This book, the earliest of the kind, gives the singular fact that within a dozen years after the landing of the Gipsies, companies of English vagrants were formed, places of meeting appointed, districts for plunder and begging operations marked out, and rules agreed to for their common management. In some cases Gipsies joined the English gangs; in others, English vagrants joined the Gipsies. The fellowship was found convenient and profitable, as both parties were aliens to the laws and customs of the country, living in a great measure in the open air, apart from the lawful public, and often meeting each other on the same by-path, or in the same retired valley; but seldom intermarrying or entirely adopting each other’s habits. The common people, too, soon began to consider them as of one family,—all rogues, and from Egypt. This superstition must have been very firmly imbedded, for it is still current. The secret language spoken by the Gipsies, principally Hindoo, and extremely barbarous to English ears, was found incomprehensible and very difficult to learn. The Gipsies naturally found a similar difficulty with the English language. A rude, rough, and singular, but under the circumstances not unnatural, compromise was made, and a mixture of Gipsy, old English, newly-coined words, and cribbings from any foreign, and therefore secret, language, mixed and jumbled together, formed what has ever since been known as the Canting Language, or Pedlar’s French; or, during the past century, St. Giles’s Greek.

Such was the origin of Cant; and in illustration of its blending with the Gipsy or Cingari tongue, we are enabled to give the accompanying list of Gipsy, and often Hindoo, words, with, in many instances, their English representatives:—

_Gipsy._ _English._

~Bamboozle~, to perplex or mislead ~Bamboozle~, to delude, cheat, by hiding. _Modern Gipsy._ or make a fool of any one.

~Bosh~, rubbish, nonsense, offal. ~Bosh~, stupidity, foolishness. _Gipsy and Persian._

~Cheese~, thing or article, “That’s ~Cheese~, or CHEESY, a the CHEESE,” or thing. _Gipsy and first-rate or very good Hindoo._ article.

~Chive~, the tongue. _Gipsy._ ~Chive~, or CHIVEY, a shout. To CHIVEY, to hunt down with shouts.

~Cuta~, a gold coin. _Danubian_ ~Couter~, a sovereign, twenty _Gipsy._ shillings.

~Dade~, or DADI, a father. _Gipsy._ ~Daddy~, nursery term for father.(*)

~Distarabin~, a prison. _Gipsy._ ~Sturabin~, a prison.

~Gad~, or GADSI, a wife. _Gipsy._ ~Gad~, a female scold; a woman who tramps over the country with a beggar or hawker.

~Gibberish~, the language of ~Gibberish~, rapid and unmeaning Gipsies, synonymous with SLANG. speech. _Gipsy._

~Ischur~, SCHUR, or CHUR, a thief. ~Cur~, a mean or dishonest _Gipsy and Hindoo._ man.(*)

~Lab~, a word. _Gipsy._ ~Lobs~, words.

~Lowe~, or LOWR, money. _Gipsy ~Lowre~, money. _Ancient Cant._ and Wallachian._

~Mami~, a grandmother. _Gipsy._ ~Mammy~, or MAMMA, a mother, formerly sometimes used for grandmother.(*)

~Mang~, or MAUNG, to beg. _Gipsy ~Maund~, to beg. and Hindoo._

~Mort~, a free woman,—one for ~Mot~, a prostitute. common use amongst the male Gipsies, so appointed by Gipsy custom. _Gipsy._

~Mu~, the mouth. _Gipsy and Hindoo._ ~Moo~, or MUN, the mouth.

~Mull~, to spoil or destroy. _Gipsy._ ~Mull~, to spoil, or bungle.(*)

~Pal~, a brother. _Gipsy._ ~Pal~, a partner, or relation.

~Pané~, water. _Gipsy._ _Hindoo_, ~Parney~, rain. PAWNEE.

~Rig~, a performance. _Gipsy._ ~Rig~, a frolic, or “spree.”

~Romany~, speech or language. ~Romany~, the Gipsy language. _Spanish Gipsy._

~Rome~, or ROMM, a man. _Gipsy ~Rum~, a good man, or thing. In and Coptic._ the Robbers’ language of Spain (partly Gipsy), RUM signifies a harlot.

~Romee~, a woman. _Gipsy._ ~Rumy~, a good woman or girl.

~Slang~, the language spoken by ~Slang~, low, vulgar, Gipsies. _Gipsy._ unauthorized language.

~Tawno~, little. _Gipsy._ ~Tanny~, TEENY, little.

~Tschib~, or JIBB, the tongue. ~Jibb~, the tongue; JABBER,[9] _Gipsy and Hindoo._ quick-tongued, or fast talk.

[In those instances indicated by a (*), it is doubtful whether we are indebted to the Gipsies for the terms. Dad, in Welsh, also signifies a father. Cur is stated to be a mere term of reproach, like Dog, which in all European languages has been applied in an abusive sense. Objections may also be raised against Gad, Maund, and many other of these parallels. We have, however, no wish to present them as infallible; our idea is merely to call the reader’s attention to the undoubted similarity between both the sound and the sense in most examples.]

Here, then, we have the remarkable fact of at least a few words of pure Gipsy origin going the round of Europe, passing into this country before the Reformation, and coming down to us through numerous generations purely by the mouths of the people. They have seldom been written or used in books, and it is simply as vulgarisms that they have reached us. Only a few are now Cant, and some are household words. The word jockey, as applied to a dealer or rider of horses, came from the Gipsy, and means in that language a whip. The word, used as a verb, is an instance of modern slang grown out of the ancient. Our standard dictionaries give, of course, none but conjectural etymologies. Another word, bamboozle, has been a sore difficulty with lexicographers. It is not in the old dictionaries, although it is extensively used in familiar or popular language for the last two centuries; and is, in fact, the very kind of word that such writers as Swift, Butler, L’Estrange, and Arbuthnot would pick out at once as a telling and most serviceable term. It is, as we have seen, from the Gipsy; and here we must state that it was Boucher who first drew attention to the fact, although in his remarks on the dusky tongue he has made an evident mistake by concluding it to be identical with its offspring, Cant. Other parallel instances, with but slight variations from the old Gipsy meanings, might be mentioned; but sufficient examples have been adduced to show that Marsden, a great Oriental scholar in the last century, when he declared before the Society of Antiquaries that the Cant of English thieves and beggars had nothing to do with the language spoken by the despised Gipsies, was in error. Had the Gipsy tongue been analysed and committed to writing three centuries ago, there is every probability that many scores of words now in common use could be at once traced to its source, having been adopted as our language has developed towards its present shape through many varied paths. Instances continually occur nowadays of street vulgarisms ascending to the drawing-rooms of respectable society. Who, then, can doubt that the Gipsy-vagabond alliance of three centuries ago has contributed its quota of common words to popular speech?