The Slang Dictionary: Etymological, Historical and Andecdotal

Transcriber's Note

An advertisement for dictionaries has been moved from the beginning of the text to the end.

Footnote 27 (“See Dictionary”) is referred to three times; links to the three entries concerned have been added to the text.

Footnote 29 (“See Dictionary”) is referred to twice; links to the two entries concerned have been added to the text.

The following are used inconsistently in the text:

banknote and bank-note
battles and battells
big-bird and big bird
blackguard and black-guard
boatrace and boat-race
Boozingken and Boozing-Ken
bow-Catcher and bowcatcher
brother-chip and brother-chip
Bubble-and-Squeak and Bubble and Squeak
chamberpot and chamber-pot
cherry-colour and cherry colour
chuck up and chuck-up
coalheaver and coal-heaver
cockshy and cock-shy
cocoanuts and cocoa-nuts
comb cut and comb-cut
coon and ’coon
corner men and corner-men
crabshells and crab shells
cutpurse and cut-purse
daylights and day-light
dead-heat and dead heat
dolly shop and dolly-shop
dunnyken and dunna-ken
everyday and every-day
fagot and faggot
fawney bouncing and fawney-bouncing
fyebuck and fye-buck
halfpence and half-pence
horse chaunter and horse-chaunter
housebreaking and house-breaking
kin-the-lamb and kin the lamb
knobstick and knob-stick
lovelock and love-lock
M. B. and M.B.
M. T. and M.T.
Merry Dun of Dover and merry dun of Dover
mountain pecker and mountain-pecker
necktie and neck-tie
newcomers and new-comers
now-a-days and nowadays
outdoor and out-door
overbearing and over-bearing
overnight and over-night
overreach and over-reach
P. P. and P.P.
parney and parny
percentages and per-centages
pillbox and pill-box
playhouse and play-house
purseproud and purse-proud
racehorse and race-horse
randem and random
reach me downs and reach-me-downs
ringdropping and ring-dropping
schofel and schoful
schoolboys and school-boys
seaport and sea-port
secondhand and second-hand
signpost and sign-post
Soft-soap and soft soap
speechmaking and speech-making
turncoat and turn-coat
turnout and turn-out
W. P. and W.P.
water-bewitched and water bewitched
watercloset and water-closet
wideawake and wide-awake

The following errors in the printed text have been corrected:

advertisement “W.,” changed to “W.”
advertisement “A to G)” changed to “(A to G)”
p. 15 “Bcck” changed to “Beck”
p. 17 “coined money” changed to “coined money.”
p. 29 “‘cribs’’” changed to “‘cribs’””
p. 41 “Tam O’ Shanter.”” changed to “Tam O’ Shanter.”
p. 68 “on’t—” changed to “on’t”—”
p. 74 “appearance” changed to “appearance.”
p. 74 “I Cor.” changed to “1 Cor.”
p. 82 “Dr” changed to “Dr.”
p. 83 “under-raduates” changed to “under-graduates”
p. 88 “BLUHEN” changed to “BLÜHEN”
p. 89 “?sp???” changed to “?sp???”
p. 90 “the new police” changed to “the new police.”
p. 91 “belong to you” changed to “belong to you.”
p. 94 “Spit-curl,”” changed to “Spit-curl,”
p. 97 “Rothwalsch” changed to “RothwÄlsch”
p. 97 “good fellow;” changed to “good fellow;””
p. 98 “at races” changed to “at races.”
p. 101 “large thick,” changed to “large, thick,”
p. 106 “tumble up,” changed to “tumble up”
p. 107 “contruction” changed to “contraction”
p. 110 “CASER” changed to “Caser”
p. 111 “ny temporary” changed to “any temporary”
p. 114 “pay.—ED” changed to “pay.—ED.”
p. 115 “CHEESE your barrikin,”” changed to ““CHEESE your barrikin,””
p. 116 “Derivation obvious” changed to “Derivation obvious.”
p. 118 “and waistcoat” changed to “and waistcoat.”
p. 120 “first-rate” changed to “first-rate.”
p. 128 “???????a? es?a?” changed to “?????????es?a?”
p. 135 “Very often” changed to ““Very often”
p. 136 “Culloden;*” changed to “Culloden;”
p. 137 “CUT ONE’S” CHANGED TO ““CUT ONE’S”
p. 139 “interrupted Julian” changed to “interrupted Julian,”
P. 141 “SO LOOK OUT”” CHANGED TO “SO LOOK OUT.””
P. 152 “MEDIOCITY” CHANGED TO “MEDIOCRITY”
P. 161 “O FOURTEEN” CHANGED TO “OF FOURTEEN”
P. 168 ““OR IN BAD” CHANGED TO “OR “IN BAD”
P. 171 “FULLY committed for trial.” changed to “FULLY committed for trial.””
p. 176 “crush hat” changed to “crush hat.”
p. 178 “by schoolboys” changed to “by schoolboys.”
p. 188 “unthinking” changed to “unthinking.”
p. 189 “Harry-soph” changed to “Harry-soph,”
p. 197 “Umh!” changed to ““Umh!”
p. 209 “Gloucestershire.” changed to “Gloucestershire,”
p. 217 “of the door,’” changed to “of the door,””
p. 219 “nothing five” changed to “nothing: five”
p. 224 “what a MEASLEY” changed to ““what a MEASLEY”
p. 229 “bad MOUNT.” changed to “bad MOUNT.””
p. 232 “Neptune’s Triumph, whch” changed to “Neptune’s Triumph, which”
p. 233 “Shakspear ehas” changed to “Shakspeare has”
p. 234 “VAMOS.”” changed to “VAMOS.”
p. 236 ““Your NIBS,” yourself.”” changed to ““Your NIBS,” yourself.”
p. 237 “Nix my dollyonce” changed to “Nix my dolly, once”
p. 243 “i.e., you” changed to “i.e., “you”
p. 247 “to the PARTY?”” changed to “to the PARTY?”
p. 247 “Stephano.” changed to ““Stephano.”
p. 250 “drive awa ;” changed to “drive away;”
p. 251 “Nor yet a single” changed to ““Nor yet a single”
p. 253 “dÉrobÉ”).” changed to “dÉrobÉ)”.”
p. 253 “English word” changed to “English word.”
p. 254 “its purity?” changed to “its purity?””
p. 254 “trrdesman” changed to “tradesman”
p. 256 “£100,0000,” changed to “£100,000,”
p. 258 “Pops ,pocket-pistols.” changed to “Pops, pocket-pistols.”
p. 264 “THICK UN a” changed to “THICK UN, a”
p. 265 “for the account”” changed to “for the account.””
p. 275 “in unproductive” changed to “an unproductive”
p. 285 “improvemennts” changed to “improvements”
p. 295 “voilently” changed to “violently”
p. 296 “a good beating,” changed to “a good beating.”
p. 297 “Sluieing” changed to “Sluicing”
p. 297 “tip-top nation.” changed to “tip-top nation.””
p. 299 “SNIDE ’UN.”” changed to “SNIDE ’UN.”
p. 304 “a person, to cease” changed to “a person,” to cease”
p. 305 “TEA-SPOON,” changed to “TEA-SPOON;”
p. 306 “prisoners, when,” changed to “prisoners, when”
p. 307 “Stab-rag” changed to “Stab-rag,”
p. 316 “first six months” changed to “first six months;”
p. 321 “that term” changed to “that term.”
p. 322 “upon TICKET.” changed to “upon TICKET.””
p. 331 “TWIG,’” changed to “TWIG,””
p. 334 “can you” changed to ““can you”
p. 334 “Romany!” changed to “Romany?”
p. 338 “WORRIT, ro” changed to “or WORRIT,”
p. 334 “igin hougour” changed to “igin agan hougour”
p. 340 “WHITE WINE.”” changed to “WHITE WINE.’””
p. 349 “end with two vowels” changed to “end with two consonants”
p. 354 “Exis yannepsxpence.” changed to “Exis yanneps, sixpence.”
p. 354 “an apple” changed to “an apple.”
p. 368 “of beer” changed to “of beer.”
p. 369 “centre slang, then,” changed to “Centre slang, then,”
p. 372 “London, 1809” changed to “London, 1809.”
p. 374 “part of the work” changed to “part of the work.”
p. 374 “attemp” changed to “attempts.”
p. 375 “1858” changed to “1858.”
p. 376 “1797” changed to “1797.”
p. 378 “1859” changed to “1859.”
p. 379 “Wiemarisches” changed to “Weimarisches”
p. 379 “10te” changed to “10ter”

Inconsistent use of small capitals and italics has been left as printed.

On p. 76, “will about win” has been left as printed.

On p. 121, “See COAL” in the entry for “Coal” has been left as printed.

On p. 195, “the blue jackets wont” has been left as printed.

On p. 379, “Wirtemberg” has been left as printed.

The following were not clearly printed and are conjectural:

Footnote to p. 53 “most objectionable”
p. 90 full stop in “Bethnal Green Museum.”
p. 94 the letter p in “person who steals”
p. 94 bracketed text in “swindler[, or a] lie”
p. 114 bracketed text in “Ch[aw] over”
p. 158 comma in “unfeminine accomplishment,”
p. 164 letter n and comma in “Flim-flamn,”
p. 181 bracketed text in “[tie]d.—Sea.”
p. 197 last two digits in “1632.”
p. 207 last two digits in “1820.”
p. 211 bracketed text in “so[lic]ited”
p. 243 bracketed text in “descripti[on,]”
p. 248 semi-colon in “POIX);”
p. 262 “to” in “stratagem to excite”
p. 295 comma in “into a man,”
p. 337 comma in “WELSHER,”

There are a number of references to non-existent entries:

the entry for “Briefs” refers to “Reflectors”;
the entry for “Bub” refers to “Bibe”
the entry for “Harum-scarum” refers to “Tandem”;
the entry for “Lucky” refers to “Strike”;
the entry for “Man in the moon” refers to “Election Inquiries”;
the entry for “Random” refers to “Tandem”;
the entry for “Whiddle” refers to “Wheedle”.

In some cases entries of that name exist, but appear to be unrelated:

the entry for “Buz” refers to “Snooks” and “Walker”;
the entry for “Random” refers to “Sudden Death”.

The following possible error has been left as printed:

p. 254 “an ingenious candle-snuffers”

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