Category: Books

The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue was first published at the end of the eighteenth century, and given that the current health crisis is giving too much time to read books, I thought I’d pick a daily word from it until I got bored….

Nacky

A short and sweet definition for this word, simply defined by Grose as “ingenious”.

Google Ngram suggests that there was a surge in the use of the word in the early nineteenth century, but the percentage use is so low that I suspect that it’s picking up Grose’s book. I’ve wondered before whether Grose just made up words in the hope that they were more widely used, something akin to Shakespeare and the words he seemed to create. Either that or it’s some Scottish word, as it sounds Scottish….

The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue was first published at the end of the eighteenth century, and given that the current health crisis is giving too much time to read books, I thought I’d pick a daily word from it until I got bored….

Myrmidons

This is, at first sight, a rather exotic definition for Grose, which he notes means “the constable’s assistants, watchmen, etc”. I’m not an expert in Greek mythology, nor indeed do I have any real knowledge about it at all, so I’m reliant on Wikipedia to tell me:

“Myrmidons were an ancient nation of Greek mythology. In Homer’s Iliad, the Myrmidons are the soldiers commanded by Achilles. Their eponymous ancestor was Myrmidon, a king of Phthiotis who was a son of Zeus and “wide-ruling” Eurymedousa, a princess of Phthiotis. She was seduced by him in the form of an ant. An etiological myth of their origins, simply expanding upon their supposed etymology—the name in Classical Greek was interpreted as “ant-people”, from murmekes, “ants”—was first mentioned by Ovid, in Metamorphoses: in Ovid’s telling, the Myrmidons were simple worker ants on the island of Aegina.”

So, the meaning used by Grose is entirely correct and appropriate, with it being easy to see how it evolved to be used for the police. Given this word isn’t easy to spell, nor actually that easy to pronounce, I’m moderately surprised to see that it lingered on in terms of its usage for quite so long.

The word does though have a long history in English, meaning a sub-ordinate or loyal follower and it was in usage in the medieval period, so it’s not a new word coming into the language.

The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue was first published at the end of the eighteenth century, and given that the current health crisis is giving too much time to read books, I thought I’d pick a daily word from it until I got bored….

Mumble a Sparrow

This is another one of Grose’s particularly unpleasant definitions and although I hope it’s derived from a niche practice, I fear that it wasn’t. Anyway, it’s “a cruel sport practised at wakes and fairs, in the following manner: A cock sparrow whose wings are clipped, is put into the crown of a hat; a man having his arms tied behind him, attempts to bite off the sparrow’s head, but is generally obliged to desist, by the many pecks and pinches he receives from the enraged bird”.

I was puzzled why this would be performed at wakes, but I’ve now realised that ‘wake’ was a word used in some parts of the country at the time for a festival or fair. I’m glad that Grose considered this as cruel in the late eighteenth century, I’m moderately surprised that this was ever seen as a exciting game to play.

The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue was first published at the end of the eighteenth century, and given that the current health crisis is giving too much time to read books, I thought I’d pick a daily word from it until I got bored….

Muckworm

This is another intriguing word, defined by Grose as “a miser”. It retains that meaning today, although it can also mean someone who makes money by the overworking of others. It did also once mean a worm that lived in manure, but that usage seems to have fallen out of favour for not being very scientific.

Unfortunately, as can be seen from Google Ngram, the word has pretty much fallen out of usage over the centuries, which is a little bit of a shame.

The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue was first published at the end of the eighteenth century, and given that the current health crisis is giving too much time to read books, I thought I’d pick a daily word from it until I got bored….

Mousetrap

This phrase was used primarily in the eighteenth century, although was first recorded at the end of the seventeenth century. It is defined by Grose as “the parson’s mousetrap, the state of matrimony”. It seems that the trap snaps shut at the moment that the parson confirms that a couple are married. What a lovely way to think of the marriage ceremony….

The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue was first published at the end of the eighteenth century, and given that the current health crisis is giving too much time to read books, I thought I’d pick a daily word from it until I got bored….

Moss

I’m pleased that Grose explained this definition, otherwise it might have bemused me. It’s “a cant term for lead, because both are found on the tops of buildings”, with cant meaning a word used by the criminal fraternity. Although lead theft might be thought of as a modern crime, it has been a problem for centuries, with it being a specific criminal offence (with the threat of the death penalty as this was a capital crime) in the eighteenth century to be found with stolen metal.

The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue was first published at the end of the eighteenth century, and given that the current health crisis is giving too much time to read books, I thought I’d pick a daily word from it until I got bored….

Monks and Friars

I’ve never heard of this before, defined by Grose as “terms used by printers: monks are sheets where the letters are blotted, or printed too black; friars, those letters where the ink has failed touching the type, which are therefore white or faint”. The origins of this phrase date back to Joseph Moxon in his 1683 book titled ‘Mechanick Exercises’. Although he’s referring to the white and black of the dress worn by monks and friars, it’s also rather appropriate, as this period of printing was not that long after private printers, following in the footsteps of Gutenberg and his presses, had taken over from monks in the preparation of religious books.

The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue was first published at the end of the eighteenth century, and given that the current health crisis is giving too much time to read books, I thought I’d pick a daily word from it until I got bored….

Money Droppers

This is defined by Grose as “cheats who drop money, which they pretend to find just before some country lad; and by way of giving him a share of their good luck, entice him into a public house, where they and their confederates cheat or rob him of what money he has about him”. This form of confidence trick continues to this day, although I’m not sure that the cheats limit themselves to country lads. The phrase was in use between the mid seventeenth and early twentieth centuries, also sometimes referred to as “gold droppers”.

The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue was first published at the end of the eighteenth century, and given that the current health crisis is giving too much time to read books, I thought I’d pick a daily word from it until I got bored….

Mobility

This is defined as “the mob: a sort of opposite to nobility”, as opposed to the current meaning of ‘mobility’ relating to free movement which is a relatively new definition. And this would have likely been pronounced differently, so the ‘mob-ility’, a nice way of defining the different classes in society at the time.