Victorian Argot

 

I found a Dictionary of Slang and Cant dated 1860. The author was simply identified as 'A London Antiquary', but the publisher is named as John Camden Hotten, a publisher of pornography amongst other things.

He lists around 5000 words and phrases. This product of a 'quill driver' is a small and carefully curated selection of some of the more entertaining of them. Going through it all several things sprang out.

Many of the terms used are still recognisable, if not frequently used, today. To 'hang out. The 'Almighty Dollar'. 'Awful' means good or bad in much the same way as 'sick' is used now. A 'jemmy' is still a crowbar but can now be used as a verb. 'Hocus Pocus' you know. In other cases, we have the word but the meaning has changed. An all-rounder was then a type of shirt, Aunt Sally was a popular game at race courses and queer meant odd and was then the opposite of rum, which ironically now also can mean odd. A fagot was then a small child.

We have willy nilly, meaning disorganised or unpredictable and which I thought came from Shakespeare's 'will ye, nill ye'. I have no idea whether it has any consanguinuity with the Victorian nilly willy', meaning won't you or will you!

Others are gruesome distortions of other languages. The French 'deshabille' became dishabilly, and their dishes were 'kickshaw' from 'quelques choses'. There was an entire numbering system built on garbled Italian. 'Molto cattivo', meaning very bad, kept its meaning but warped into 'multee kertever'. Sometimes it strayed into Latin. Ipse dixit, an uncorroborated assertion, became 'ipsal dixal'. I believe that 'nantee palaver' or 'keep quiet' came by a roundabout route from Portuguese. It all even extended to Hindi. 'pani' for rain became 'parney'.

The Victorians, perhaps remembering the wars fought in the 1600s seem to insult the Dutch rather than simply borrow from them. In a 'Dutch concert', each musician plays a separate tune, and a 'Dutch consolation' that 'thank God it's no worse. We still do it. You will be familiar with a 'Dutch treat', a 'Dutch uncle' and 'Dutch courage'.

Some terms are rather beautiful. I liked and idea of the moon as the 'parish lantern' and that 'taking the Dublin Packet' meant to turn a corner. Other words are just pleasing. Chaggum is solidified boiled treacle goog, 'slantingdicular' as an opposite to 'perpendicular' and The British Assoc for the Promotion of Science was the 'Mud Fog'. And using 'paste-horn' for a nose is at least graphic.

Other characters you might want to meet. Or not. In the same vein…..

Blue Pigeon Flyers. People who claim they will fix your house, but run off with the lead.

Bounetter. A cheat fortune teller. (Are there honest and accurate ones?)

Chaunter-culls. A man (often in the pub) who will write you a libellous ballad. Fee usually 2/6d

Dandyprat. A funny little fellow

Mollisher. A female thief. The spacialist 'moll tooler' was a female pickpocket.

Cupboardheaded. Someone whose head is both wooden and hollow

A Lushington. A Piss artist

Needy mizzler. A tramp. As was 'shallow cove' and the half-naked beggars known as 'shivering jemmys'.

Land shark. Mostly used by sailors as a term for lawyers.

Someone 'maggotty' i.e. Fanciful or fidgety (Belief that a maggot on the brain was the cause)

Someone with a 'Newgate knocker', or 'cow's lick' which was a lock of hair twisted back to their ear, a style popular among theives and costermongers

Guy. A dowdy ill-dressed person.

Toshers. A thief of copper from the copper-bottomed ships which gave us the expression 'copper-bottomed.

Pot-Wallopers. Before the Reform Bill in 1832, you could sell your vote anywhere if you could prove that you worked there. So you claimed to be a housekeeper by boiling a kettle in a temporary shelter just inside the boundary.

There are places to avoid:

Flatty Ken. A pub where the landlord is blind to the rogues that use ir

Cockchaffer or 'vertical care grinder' . The treadmill used as punishment in prisons.

And activities if you were a pickaroon. i.e. ‘a seeker of dubious excitement’.

Joe Blake the Bartlemy. Visiting a 'low woman'. She might also be a 'kiddlewink' although that meant a small shop. Going into extra time? 'Keep it up' had approximately the same meaning then.

Shoot The Moon. To leave your rented house at night, stealing the furniture

Kennedy. To kill with a poker. Worse than a 'ferricadouzer' which was a knockout blow.

Drawing teeth. Covertly wrenching off door knockers for resale.

Suck The Monkey. To suck liquor from a barrel using a straw in a gimlet hole.

Is that too much? Maybe you would be better off doing a 'hook-um snivey' which was to cheat by feigning sickness. Or you could take a quiet 'dognose' being a beer with gin added, aiming to do a 'murphy', and sleep in the arms of Morpheus. In society? Opt for an old ladies' tea party, a 'muffin worry'.

In the Workhouse? Gruel was 'loblolly' and you might need a 'louse trap' or comb. In any event, you could ' pitch the Fork' or tell a pitiful tale.

Plucked. To be failed in an examination was to be 'plucked'.  

Finally, ironically a 'trump' was a good fellow and to 'yorkshire' was to cheat. That was probably a good plan if you expected to be 'plucked', or failed in an examination. Oh well. I guess we have all been 'plucked' at some stage.

The publisher offered more. At the back of the book were plugs for 'Garland of Pepysian Ballads, Historical, Romantic and Humerous', the 'Choicest Jest of English Wits' and the 'History of Playing Cards', among others that sound like good remedies for insomnia.