This dictionary is also the first that attempts to show the overlap and integration between canting words and common slang words. It aimed to educate the more polite classes in the language and, consequently, the methods of thieves and vagabonds, protecting the innocent from cant speakers and their activities. Though a number of early texts, beginning in the sixteenth century, codified forms of cant-the slang language of the criminal underworld-in word lists which appeared as appendices or parts of larger volumes, the dictionary of 1699 was the first work dedicated to slang words and their meanings. Both words can be found in The First English Dictionary of Slang, originally published in 1699 as A New Dictionary of Terms, Ancient and Modern, of the Canting Crew by B. Forewarned is forearmed.It’s a shame that so many very apt words fall out of common use over time, like “blobber-lippd,” which means having lips that are very thick, hanging down, or turning over and “chounter”, which is to talk pertly, and sometimes angrily. E.’s dictionary also provides a rich array of epithets for fools and simpletons (presumably referring to the folks who were easy marks for pickpocketing).Īs a public service for time-travelers, here are some things you wouldn’t want to be called on the streets of London in 1699: addle-pate, booberkin, burly-sop, clodpate, clunch, cock-robbin, cod’s-head, country-put, dulpickle, jack-adams, jobbernoll, nick-ninny, nigmenog, paper-skul, purple dromedary, sawny, sap-pate, sheep’s-head, simkin, sowse-crown and wise man of Gotham. Was voyeuristic, to be sure, but also practical: knowing what the ruffians were talking about might help you avoid getting your pocket picked if you ventured into the wrong neighborhood.Īlong with a slew of terms for loose women and strong drink, B.
But English gentility was fascinated by the crude, mysterious vocabulary of the “canting crew.” The interest “gentleman” - ironic considering how ungentlemanly his dictionary was. Then as cant: the special underworld language of petty thieves, beggars and other dangerous riffraff. What the author of the 1699 volume sought to document was known The title bestowed by the Bodleian is a bit anachronistic, as the actual word slang isn’t even recorded until 1756, according to the O.E.D.
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