[HN Gopher] A dictionary of modern slang, cant, and vulgar words...
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A dictionary of modern slang, cant, and vulgar words (1860)
Author : benbreen
Score : 74 points
Date : 2023-10-09 22:40 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (publicdomainreview.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (publicdomainreview.org)
| tkgally wrote:
| 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%20Lond...
|
| [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_and_Jerry#History
|
| [3]
| https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_505pL_b9D2IC/page/n111/mo...
| smatija wrote:
| 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
| savef wrote:
| 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.
| tkgally wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| I second all of those. I'm American as well, and they're
| all similarly gibberish to me.
| Max_Mustermann wrote:
| 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.
| distortedsignal wrote:
| Now we have urban dictionary.
| tokai wrote:
| 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.
| derefr wrote:
| 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.
| greeniskool wrote:
| I know Spanish and Portuguese have AsiHablamos[1] and
| Dicionario inFormal[2], respectively. I'd love to know if any
| other languages have their own slang dictionaries.
|
| [1]: https://www.asihablamos.com/
|
| [2]: https://www.dicionarioinformal.com.br/
| heinrich5991 wrote:
| Wiktionary (both the English and the correct language
| version) can be helpful.
| derefr wrote:
| 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.
| resolutebat wrote:
| > _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 wrote:
| 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...
| aaron695 wrote:
| 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
|
| > "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 wrote:
| "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 wrote:
| > Slang is indulged in from a desire to appear familiar with
| life, gaiety, town-humour
|
| That analysis still stands.
| SSLy wrote:
| > _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.
| hondo77 wrote:
| I can find neither "mewling" nor "quim". Disappointed.
| sbjs wrote:
| 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
| danw1979 wrote:
| 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.
| sterlind wrote:
| 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.
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