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….

Fakement

This word is defined by the dictionary as “a counterfeit signature. A forgery. Tell the macers to mind their fakements; desire the swindlers to be careful not to forget another person’s signature”. It’s a word that sounds like it should exist in English (adding ‘ment’ usually means to action the first part of the word), but it also sounds as though it has been recently been made up. It actually though dates back to at least the sixteenth century, although was more commonly used in the nineteenth century.

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….

Elbow Grease

Some of the phrases in this dictionary remain in common usage today, but I would have otherwise assumed that they perhaps had a more recent origin. This phrase is defined in the dictionary in the same way as it would be today, “labour, elbow grease will make an oak table shine”. Indeed, the phrase is much older even than the late eighteenth century when this dictionary was published, it was being used as early as the sixteenth century and likely before then. There is a direct French equivalent, “huile de coude” which means the same.

 

 

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….

Earth Bath

Short and simple, this is defined by the dictionary as “a grave”.

The phrase is also very much a nineteenth-century one, it fell out of usage after that. More recent usages tend to be with reference to the treatment of being buried to one’s neck in soil for medical purposes, rather to the original rather more morbid meaning.

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…. Incidentally, this word is out of alphabetical order compared to the previous days as that’s where it’s located in the dictionary.

Die Hard

Although I’ve heard this phrase often, primarily due to the film name, I’ve never known what it really means. But, the Grose’s dictionary has the answer, it’s defined as “to show no signs of fear or contrition at the gallows; not to whiddle or squeak. This advice is frequently given to felons going to suffer the law, by their old comrades anxious for the honour of the gang”.

Over time, the word meaning has shifted away from death at the gallows, to mean instead remaining fixed on a viewpoint and not changing. Word origin for this meaning is from the mid-nineteenth century, which flows nicely from the original meaning of the phrase in the eighteenth century.

The Wikipedia article at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_hard_(phrase) is thus partly nonsense, they’ve got the first usage of this word as being after the publication of Grose’s 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….

Dutch Feast

Another in the series of phrases, such as Dutch Concert, which were meant as insults against the Dutch, the dictionary defines this as “where the entertainer gets drunk before his guest”. Underlying the phrase was the typecasting of the Dutch as bad drunks, whereas perhaps the British at the time considered themselves as rather well-behaved drunks. The phrase was used from the late seventeenth century, but then had pretty much died out by the mid-nineteenth century.

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….

Dutch Concert

This is another charming little phrase, defined as “where every one plays or signs a different tune”. I’m not sure if the dictionary meant signed as a conductor or meant to say ‘I, but the effect is still the same. The phrase is probably from the late seventeenth century, as worsening relations between Britain and the Netherlands led to some new derogatory language about the country. So, it likely started as an insult about the ability of Dutch musicians, but the phrase is still used today about a performance that goes a bit wrong and isn’t in harmony. There seems to be more harmony, if I can be excused for using that word again, between the British and the Dutch today though, such is progress,

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….

Dumplin

Ah, at least, a Norfolk themed word in the dictionary, defined as “a short thick man or woman. Norfolk dumpling; a jeering appellation of a Norfolk man, dumplins being a favourite kind of food in that county”. This also ties in with an image I posted last week entitled ‘Norfolk Dumplin’. The word origin here is from ‘dump’, which means the consistency of dough. The word is still used in a negative manner, someone seen as a stupid country person, although it has evolved into almost an affectionate meaning today. Incidentally, apparently the recipe for dumplings in Norfolk don’t call for fat, but instead flour and a raising agent, but I have no idea….

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….

Duke of Limbs

This is really a term of abuse, defined by the dictionary as “a tall, awkward, ill-made fellow”. It’s easy to see how the phrase came into being and it was used relatively frequently during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It was also particularly commonly used in the Nottinghamshire area and although meant as an insult, there are somewhat ruder one in Grose’s book…..

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….

I also managed to get one day behind with these because of doing rather too much walking, so here’s the extra one to make the number of days right  🙂

Ducks and Drakes

This is defined as “to make ducks and drakes: a school-boy’s amusement, practised with pieces of tile, oyster-shells, or flattish stones, which being skimmed along the surface of a pond, or still river, rebound many times. To make ducks and drake of one’s money, to throw it idly away”.

I hadn’t realised that this phrase for skimming stones is still in use in some areas, it’s thought that it dates from the sixteenth century and took its name as the stone hitting the water looks like a duck going above and under the water. The second meaning of the word, to throw away money, comes from the idea of throwing an item away. The phrase was used commonly in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, with people advising “not to make ducks and drakes” out of an issue, ie, don’t waste money on it.

This is another one of those phrases that has fallen out of usage to a large degree over recent decades, although it appears to have increased in usage over the last few years. As an aside, I’m not very good at skimming stones, I can usually get about two and then the damn thing sinks….

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….

Drub

This word has changed its meaning a little since the dictionary defined it as “to beat anyone with a stick, or rope’s end: perhaps a contraction of dry rub. It is also used to signify a good beating with any instrument”. Today, it’s more usually used as a way of suggesting that someone has beaten someone in a form of competition or sport, probably by quite some margin. It’s now thought that the word comes from the Arabian word ‘ḍaraba’, meaning a punishment by beating. It could though have come from the old English word ‘drepan’, meaning to hit or strike. I’m not convinced about the dictionary’s ‘dry rub’ argument….