Comments on: Vulgar Song and Slang from the 19th Century and earlier

Vulgar Song and Slang from the 19th Century and earlier

Kattullus — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 06:55:22 -0800

Francis Grose's Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue from 1811. Canting Dictionary (thieving slang) from 1736. Three Centuries of Canting Songs and Slang Rhymes (1536–1896). Before you end up scragged, ottomised, and grinning in a glass case, you should learn to sing Frisky Moll's Song... and know what the heck it means:
A famble, a tattle, and two popps,
Had my Boman when he was ta'en;
But had he not bouz'd in the diddle shops,
He'd still been in Drury-Lane.

By: Kattullus

Kattullus — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 06:58:03 -0800

From the very awesome website Liam's Pictures from Old Books which I posted before.

By: RavinDave

RavinDave — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 07:36:43 -0800

Whore pipe. Heh.

By: amyms

amyms — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 07:36:52 -0800

Very interesting... Great site... That URL (fromoldbooks) first looked to me like "from mold books" and I thought they were being clever, saying that by putting the books online they were rescuing them from mold... lol

By: SteveTheRed

SteveTheRed — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 07:45:10 -0800

This a great post. Does living on Drury Lane make the Muffin Man a pimp?

By: Abiezer

Abiezer — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 08:09:51 -0800

I believe Grose's monumental work was later superseded by F.A.King, Cant, as regards Cockney usage. I certainly hear this latter work cited often when visiting London and environs.

By: Faint of Butt

Faint of Butt — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 08:15:37 -0800

Ooh, this could be useful... thanks, Kattullus!

By: Alec

Alec — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 09:03:05 -0800

Thanks for this useful link. BibliOdyssey is worth a look too.

By: languagehat

languagehat — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 09:50:08 -0800

I like manoeuvring the apostles; also Buttock and Twang, "a common Whore, but no Pickpocket." (It's a sign of civilization to make these fine distinctions.) Great post!

By: oneirodynia

oneirodynia — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 10:37:29 -0800

Cool! I have a copy of The Vulgar Tongue- you can buy it here.

By: jokeefe

jokeefe — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 11:21:15 -0800

Fantastic links, thank you so much. I think I'll spend the day reading these-- looking forward to it.

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 17:10:06 -0800

Fine post. Thanks.

By: chuckdarwin

chuckdarwin — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 04:49:16 -0800

A+++++ Quality FPP. Would read again.

By: pubblicitae

pubblicitae — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 05:08:33 -0800

Yeah! Thanks for post!

By: massless

massless — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 09:03:20 -0800

I know this is several days late ... but I was having trouble accessing the site and realized that a scan of the entire book is online at Google Book Search and can be read online, searched, or downloaded as a PDF. (Disclosure: sure, I'm a Google employee, but I still think it's neat and I needed to find out what a gull-groper was. Now I know.)

By: languagehat

languagehat — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 09:38:49 -0800

sure, I'm a Google employee Can you do something about the fucking "snippet view" that's ruining my life? Thanks!