Tag: Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue

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….

Hobson’s Choice

This phrase is defined by the dictionary as “that or none; from old Hobson, a famous carrier of Cambridge, who used to let horses to the students; but never permitted them to chuse [sic], always allotting each man the horse he thought properest for his manner of riding and treatment”.

The phrase is in common usage still today and I had thought when reading this dictionary that the origin was likely apocryphal, but it does seem to be true. It’s named after Thomas Hobson (1544–1631) who ran stables in Cambridge, owning 40 different horses. Some horses he used for the mail run between Cambridge and London, but he also lent them out to students and academics. Hobson wasn’t being awkward, but he wanted the choice of horse to be random so that people didn’t just keep picking the best horse and then wearing that one out. All very sound thinking.

The phrase came into more common usage following Hobson’s death and now just means that you’re getting what you’ve given, there’s no choice to be had.

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….

Hobbledygee

This is quite apt, thinking about my plan to walk the LDWA 100, it’s defined by the dictionary as “a pace between a walk and a run, a dog-trot”. I’m not sure that I walk that fast, as my walk pace tends to be between a walk and a walk, there’s no running involvement. The word origin is sadly a little lost, it can also mean someone who walks with a bit of a limp, which is more like me if I’m tired. If I can work out how to pronounce this, then I might just try and use it in conversation on LDWA walks, as there are a few members who naturally walk at this hobbledygee pace.

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….

Hobberdehoy

The dictionary defines this as “half a man and half a boy, a lad between both” and the word continues to be used today, albeit infrequently, to describe an ungainly or awkward young man. The word dates back to at least the sixteenth century and it was used by Charles Dickens in his writings in the nineteenth century.

One dictionary tries to explain this as “from the English hobby, and Old French hoi (‘today’); the original sense may have been ‘an upstart of today’”, but this seems a bit tenuous to me. It’s thought that the word ‘hobidy-booby’ once meant scarecrow, so there’s likely some link with that, although that again is from the sixteenth century and the original meaning is lost.

Original meaning aside, this is still a beautiful word and one that should be used more.

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….

Hidebound

The dictionary defines this as “stingy, hard of delivery; a poet poor in invention, is said to have a hidebound muse”. The word evolved with Middle English and was with reference to emaciated cattle (thereby having its back and ribs wrapped tightly by its hide), but then got extended to also meaning humans in a more general sense. It then became to mean ‘narrow in outlook’, before evolving into what the dictionary refers to as “hard of delivery”.

Since the eighteenth century, the word has evolved again into meaning someone or something which is unwilling to change and has fixed opinions, back to the narrow in outlook meaning. With that, there has been been an increase in the word’s usage over the last two centuries and it’s usually used in a negative sense.

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….

Hickenbothom

The dictionary ends the realm of the marginal random now with this definition of “Mr. Hickenbothom; a ludicrous name for an unknown person, similar to that of Mr. Thingambob. Hickenbothom, ie, a corruption of the German word ickenbaum, ie, oak tree”.

And I can add absolutely nothing to this, as I can’t find any other evidence that this is where the word did originate from. I’m also not entirely sure why a word meaning oak tree would be chosen. But English is a beautifully quirky language.

I suspect that the surge in mentions at the early nineteenth century was simply just this dictionary….

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….

Helter Skelter

This phrase is normally used today when referring to an amusement park ride, but its definition in the late eighteenth-century dictionary was “to run helter skelter, hand over head, in defiance of order”. The exact word origins for this phrase have long been lost as it has been used since at least the early sixteenth century and Shakespeare also used the term. ‘Skelten’ in Middle English meant to hasten, so it’s likely linked to that, with the ‘helter’ bit added later for extra emphasis.

Despite the reusing of the word in the early twentieth century as a ride, the phrase had remained in relatively constant use during the nineteenth century. There was a small uptick in usage during the 1960s, but this is likely due to the Beatles issuing a song entitled, well, Helter Skelter.

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….

Hedge Creeper

I’m moderately confused by this definition from Grose, where he notes this phrase means “a robber of hedges”. I’m not convinced by this, as I’m really not sure many hedges were robbed and this phrase was more commonly used to describe someone who hid in a hedge to commit a crime, perhaps a highwayman. It is possible that Grose meant that it’s a robber who steals something from hedges, perhaps clothing left out to dry, although that’s getting a bit tenuous. So, on this, I’m unsure….

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….

Hedge

This term, which is now a multi-trillion industry in the form of hedge funds, was defined by the dictionary as “to make a hedge; to secure a bet, or wager, laid on one side, by taking the odds on the other, so that, let what will happen, a certain gain secured, or hedged in, by the person who takes this precaution; who is then said to be on velvet”.

The word hedge is from the old English ‘hegg’, similar to the Dutch word ‘heg’ and the German word ‘hecke’, with the financial version just meaning to be on both sides of a hedge.

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….

Hangman’s Wages

Another cheery definition from Grose’s dictionary, this is explained as “thirteen pence halfpenny; which, according to the vulgar tradition, was this allotted: one shilling for the executioners, and three halfpence for the rope, – NB this refers to former times; the hangmen of the present day having, like other artificers, raised their prices. The true state of this matter is, that a Scottish mark was the fee allowed for an execution, and the value of that piece was settled by a proclamation of James I at thirteen pence halfpenny”.

Being an executioner was not an ideal job during the late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century, when this dictionary was published. There were many people capable of performing the execution, but it wasn’t a job role which was held in respect and was sometimes performed by prisoners hoping that their own sentences might be commuted. Things were to change though and, although referring to the mid-Victorian period, the comprehensive Capital Punishment web-site mentions:

“The post of hangman became much sought after in the mid 19th century and remained so until capital punishment was abolished in 1964 with large numbers, including women, applying for each vacancy. When William Calcraft retired, the post of hangman for London and Middlesex ceased to be a salaried position. His successors were paid a fee for each execution they carried out and these fees remained static at £10 for the hangman and 3 guineas for the assistant from the 1880’s to the late 1940’s, when the hangman’s remuneration was increased to £15. The cost of rail travel was also reimbursed. The fees were paid half at the time and the balance two weeks later. It is therefore reasonable to suppose that most of those who held the post of executioner did it not for financial gain but for other, more personal reasons.”

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….

Half Seas Over

A short definition from the dictionary, this phrase simply means “almost drunk”. It’s perhaps a similar derivative to the word ‘sloshed’, but might just be a matter of being half-way towards a destination and so there’s less of a nautical theme. The phrase was used from around the sixteenth century, but declined in the nineteenth century and is now pretty archaic.