The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue was first published at the end of the eighteenth century, and given that the Coronavirus crisis is giving too much time to read books, I thought I’d pick a daily word from it until I got bored…..
Chaw Bacon
This beautiful phrase, now more commonly just one word, is defined as “a countryman, a stupid fellow”. ‘Chaw’ is an old English variant of the word chew and the combination of the bacon element, which was traditionally seen as a poor man’s food (well, and women and children) so it’s the equivalent of a country bumpkin.
The phrase dates back to at least the early eighteenth century, but it seemed to have a resurgence in the late nineteenth century before falling back into obscurity.