Swear Like A .....Old Englishman?

[Thagarr]

[imgleft]http://img375.imageshack.us/img375/1079/9781851243489.jpg[/imgleft]Is your piratey vocabulary feeling a bit smallish lately? Fear not mates! The Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, recently unearthed a rare old copy of a book in their vast collection, a dictionary of English slang first published over 300 years ago! The book was originally published in 1699 as "A New Dictionary of Terms, Ancient and Modern, of the Canting Crew." It was originally intended to educate the polite London classes in ‘canting’(the language of thieves and ruffians) should they be unlucky enough to wander into the ‘wrong’ parts of town. The book was compiled by an unknown author, who went by the Nom De Plume of "B.E. Gent."

The book is being republished by Bodleian Library Publishing, now entitled appropriately, "The First English Dictionary of Slang 1699!" With a forward and introduction by John Simpson, the Chief Editor of the Oxford English Dictionary. Included in the work are entries ranging from rogues’ cant, through terms used by sailors, labourers, and those in domestic culture, to words and phrases used by the upper classes.

Included in the text are gems such as :

Anglers - c. Cheats, petty Thieves, who have a Stick with a hook at the end, with which they pluck things out of Windows, Grates, &c. also those that draw in People to be cheated.

Arsworm - a little diminutive Fellow.

Buffenapper - c. a Dog-stealer, that Trades in Setters, Hounds, Spaniels, Lap, and all sorts of Dogs, Selling them at a round Rate, and himself or Partner Stealing them away the first opportunity.

Bumfodder - what serves to wipe the Tail.

Bundletail - a short Fat or squat Lass.

Cackling-farts - c. Eggs.

Dandyprat - a little puny Fellow.

Farting-crackers - c. Breeches.

Humptey-dumptey - Ale boild with Brandy.

Grumbletonians - Malecontents, out of Humour with the Government, for want of a Place, or having lost one.

Fizzle - a little or low-sounding Fart.

You can read more about the new, old book HERE, and you can order yourself a brand spanking new copy for £12.99 HERE! Unfortunately, it looks like they only ship in the UK, America and Canada, if you want to order from the US or Canada for $25.00, go HERE!

 

[Fred Bob]

Harr! : Great find thar, Thagarr!

 

[Bava]

Lol...that book is pure gold. My word of the day: arsworm :

 

[Thagarr]

: I knew you fine bunch of scallywags would appreciate such refined reading material! :mm

It's a shame they don't get into the sailors phrases in the preview, I am gonna have to purloin ...err, purchase me a copy! According to the University of Chicago web page, the book doesn't start shipping till September 21'st!

 

[Stallion]

There's a slightly newer version (1899) available for free download from the internet archive: http://www.archive.org/details/newdictionaryoft00begeuoft .

 

[Thagarr]

Nice find Stallion! That actually appears to be the same book, it says on the page that the exact publication date is unknown. I just downloaded the PDF and read a bit through the preface, an ...interesting read to say the least! :

The plain text version was obviously done by an OCR program, and then never proofread and fixed, it picked up the letter S as the letter F through the entire document, making it almost unreadable. There are numerous other mistakes as well, as tough as the PDF is to read, the plain text version is even worse!

 

[Stallion]

They should try writing textbooks in olde English - you'd actually have to pay attention then!

 

[T'Flok]

Bumfodder? :