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…. And to catch up after getting behind with these posts, and because I’m getting towards the end of the book, I’m doing three days at once now. How lovely….

 

Queen Street

Back to domestic affairs, Grose defines this as “a man governed by his wife, is said to live in Queen Street, or at the sign of the Queen’s Head”. The word ‘henpecked’, which was also in use at the beginning of the nineteenth century, is much more common now, but I’m slightly surprised this one didn’t remain in common usage for longer. Other than that, I can’t add much here, but I rather like the phrase.

 

Queer Plungers

This is one of Grose’s longer definitions, “cheats who throw themselves into the water, in order that they may be taken up by their accomplices, who carry them to one of the houses appointed by the Humane Society for the recovery of drowned persons, where they are rewarded by the society with a guinea each; and the supposed drowned persons, pretending he was driven to that extremity by great necessity, also frequently sent away with a contribution in his pocket”.

Firstly, the word ‘queer’ here was very common and used frequently in the canting (criminal underworld) community to mean something like odd, unusual, quirky or eccentric. So the origin of the phrase is just an eccentric jumper (of the diving kind, not the pullover kind….).

The Royal Humane Society had been founded in 1774, mostly at the initiative of William Hawes. He did indeed, at his own cost, provide a financial reward to anyone who brought to him someone who had fallen in the Thames and been rescued. It’s not hard to see where that plan could go wrong…. But, I assume they were aware of the potential problems and they could likely spot someone who was trying it on, although it strikes me as a brave thing to do in terms of jumping in the river in the first place.

On a most positive note, the Royal Humane Society themselves have details of what was achieved soon after they were launched, showing just how much good they’ve done. As for how common the queer plunging scam was, I can’t imagine that it happened all that much, but I can imagine it’d still happen today if it wasn’t for the fact that the Royal Humane Society no longer issue financial rewards.

 

Quick and Nimble

Grose defines this as “more like a bear than a squirrel. Jeeringly said to any one moving sluggishly on a business or errand that requires dispatch”. Firstly, I’m going to use Grose’s “more like a bear than a squirrel” at some point, that’s a beautiful turn of phrase.

The phrase’s meaning is self explanatory and it has remained in common usage since at least the eighteenth century. I prefer the bear and squirrel bit though.

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…. And to catch up after getting behind with these posts, and because I’m getting towards the end of the book, I’m doing three days at once now. How lovely….

 

Pursy

This is defined by Grose as “short-breathed, or foggy, from being over fat”. From the French ‘pousser’ to mean to breathe with difficulty, the word evolved to ‘pursif’ in Middle English. It was used not just to describe people who were overweight, but also horses who suffered from problems with breathing.

The word is now archaic, having started to fall out of usage by the end of the nineteenth century.

 

Quakers

I sense a slight lack of respect with how Grose defines this, namely “a religious sect so called from their agitations in preaching”. The word origin is still unclear, for some it comes from when members would “tremble in the way of the Lord”. Others have said it evolved from how the established Church of England trembled with the threat of this new religious thought and others that when the Quakers were being taken through the courts that it was said the Judge would quake with fear on Judgement Day.

The official name wasn’t the Quakers, but the Religious Society of Friends and the likely origin of the word is something to do with religious fervour as other groups had been referred to in a similar way in the past. Initially the word quaker was used in a derogatory manner, but over time the usage became more positive and it’s now used by the Religious Society of Friends themselves.

 

Queen Dick

I’ve never heard of this phrase, defined as “to the tune of the life and death of Queen Dick. That happened in the reign of Queen Dick: ie, never”. It was also a nickname given to Richard Cromwell, although not in a positive manner, when he was the Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland. The phrase doesn’t seem to have ever been in common usage, since it doesn’t appear on Google Ngram, and it seems that the “when pigs fly” alternative (which was also in usage in the time of Grose) instead entered the vernacular.

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…. And to catch up after getting behind with these posts, and because I’m getting towards the end of the book, I’m doing three days at once now. How lovely….

Pull

I have nothing to add to this definition, which is “to be arrested by a police officer” other than to note that I’m surprised it has been used since at least the end of the eighteenth century. It was also used to describe other parts of the judicial process, including being taken before a magistrate or being searched on the street.

 

Pump Water

“He was christened in pump water; commonly said of a person with a red face” is how Grose defines this phrase, a usage that seems limited to the late eighteenth century period. It’s also a reminder of the state of some water supplies, notably in cities, at the time. The phrase has also been used to define crying, although that dates to a little later in the nineteenth century.

 

Purl

Back to alcohol again, this is defined as “ale in which wormwood has been infused, or ale and bitters drunk warm”. This is a whole area of brewing which has mostly been lost, although some of its influences remain. Vermouth is a wine which was once flavoured with wormwood and absinthe is made with grand wormwood.

The drink likely had something of a woody feel to it and sometimes that would have been tempered with the addition of orange peel. But, it would have had flavour to it, which many beers from this period simply wouldn’t have had much of. The drink was often consumed in the morning and would have been more for its restorative benefits than anything else.

Purl Bar in London takes its name from the drink and they briefly mention this old style of beer on their web-site. Northern Monk also produced a beer called Purl which was brewed with few hops (as these wouldn’t have been around in the brewing process back in Grose’s times) and was flavoured with wormwood, orange peel and juniper. This sounds rather lovely, but, unfortunately, it has been out of production for some years.

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…. And to catch up after getting behind with these posts, and because I’m getting towards the end of the book, I’m doing three days at once now. How lovely….

Prigstar

This feels like a more modern word, defined by Grose as “a rival in love”. The word is from the seventeenth century and the word ‘prig’ at the time could mean a cheat, with ‘ster’ just being a suffix used in forming nouns. As an aside, the ‘ster’ used to be the suffix given to a job that a woman did, such as a ‘brewster’ for a female brewer and a ‘baxter’ for a female baker.

Although Grose used the ‘prigstar’ spelling, it was more commonly ‘prigster’. It’s not rarely used and has become archaic.

 

Prittle Prattle

There’s perhaps a hint at the sexism shown at society at the time with this phrase being defined as “insignificant talk: generally applied to women and children”. The phrase was first recorded as being used in the middle of the sixteenth century and is just a linguistic extension of the word ‘prattle’, meaning to talk in an inconsequential manner.

Unlike the not dissimilar ‘tittle-tattle’, this phrase has now fallen entirely out of usage.

 

Puff or Puffer

This is defined by Grose as “one who bids at auctions, not with an intent to buy, but only to raise the price of the lot; for which purpose many are hired by the proprietor of the goods on sale“. Now probably more commonly referred to as shill bidding, the word origin is just puffing or pumping up the price.

In 1965, Nicholas Ridley said in the House of Commons in a debate on the registration of auctioneers:

“Lastly, I believe that we should have a rule that when a lot does not reach its reserve no commission is chargeable. This would help to encourage people to put a proper reserve on their goods and to encourage auctioneers to get a proper price for what they are selling. I think that this is know in ancient parlance as “puff-bidding”, whereby a lot is withdrawn before it reaches its reserve. As far as I understand it, some auctioneers charge if goods are knocked down below the reserve price and others do not. I suggest that it should be made one of the rules of the trade that no charge is made where goods do not reach the reserve price.”

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…. And to catch up after getting behind with these posts, and because I’m getting towards the end of the book, I’m doing three days at once now. How lovely….

Post Master General

Grose’s definition here is interesting as it gives some guidance about the evolution of the role of Prime Minister and that person’s control over the formation of the Cabinet, which was developing when the dictionary was written. Grose noted the phrase meant “the prime minister, who has the patronage of the all posts and places” and that would have been a relatively new thing.

The role of Postmaster General had rather changed by the time that political figures such as Tony Benn were given the job. It was originally a powerful role as only the Postmaster General or his agents could authorise those who could handle the sending of mail, and the Postal Act of 1635 confirmed the monopoly situation. At least today there is little question of how much power the Prime Minister has, although it certainly not always been so.

 

Prate Roast

Following on from the previous definition, this is “a talkative boy”, but also meant anyone who was talkative or a chatterer. It’s a seventeenth century term, which lingered on into the nineteenth century before falling out of use. Someone who ‘prated’ was guilty of just talking for too long and too much, and although that word is still in usage I’m not sure that it’s particularly common.

 

Priest-Linked

This is a self-explanatory definition, just meaning “married” although it’s a shame that this isn’t much used today. I’d like someone to say “I’m Priest-Linked to her” rather than just say they’re married, it adds a touch of grandeur to the statement. Well, and perhaps slight contempt.

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…. And to catch up after getting behind with these posts, and because I’m getting towards the end of the book, I’m doing three days at once now. How lovely….

Pin Money

This is defined by Grose as “an allowance settled on a married woman for her pocket expenses” and it would have primarily been used to buy clothing and accessories (accessories here more defined as pins than anything more decadent). Sometimes it meant the sum of money given to the woman to run the household and there are some legal cases where pin money was given to women as settlements (not unlike today’s divorce arrangements). The phrase came into use in the mid-sixteenth century and is still used today, although usually in a wider meaning of just giving or paying someone a small amount of money.

 

Plumb

The definition here is “an hundred thousand pounds”, with Grose’s use of the word ‘an’ being common at the time as the ‘h’ of hundred was often not very clearly pronounced. This word could be spelled as ‘plum’ without the ‘b’ and the word ‘plum’ also meant wealthy, although I’m unsure why it came to mean £100,000 in particular. The word was mostly used by the criminal underworld and there were references to a ‘quarter of a plum’ and ‘half a plum’, so £25,000 and £50,000 respectively. It faded out of usage by around the middle of the nineteenth century.

 

Porridge Island

This is another one of Grose’s geographical definitions, “an alley leading from St. Martin’s church-yard to Roundcourt, chiefly inhabited by cooks, who cut off ready-dressed meat of all sorts, and also sell soup”.

This is Horwood’s map of London from 1790, so from the same time as Grose’s book. St. Martin’s churchyard and the Roundcourt can be seen on the map (clicking on the map makes it larger). This is today a much visited part of London, as St. Martin’s Church still stands and is now on the edge of Trafalgar Square, which was laid out in the 1820s. Unfortunately, nothing else remains of the street plan where Roundcourt once stood, although the line of The Strand is unchanged. This part of London is now relatively modern and in places quite soulless, it must have been rather a sight to have seen this area inhabited by cooks selling their soup.

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…. And to catch up after getting behind with these posts, and because I’m getting towards the end of the book, I’m doing three days at once now. How lovely….

Pigeon’s Milk

And a prank from times gone by, defined by Grose as “boys and novices are frequently sent on the first of April to buy pigeon’s milk”.

Google Ngram shows how the prank has slowly fallen out of favour.

 

Pillaloo

This word is defined by Francis Grose as “the Irish cry or howl at funerals”, although it originated as a hunting cry. The word dates to at least the early seventeenth century and is derived from the old Irish word puilliliú.

And Google Ngram’s history of the word, which is now used relatively infrequently.

 

Pin Basket

One of the more simple definitions, this is “the youngest child”. This harks back to a long lost tradition of when a pincushion used to be given as a present to a new mother, with pins inserted of various lengths to indicate the children by age. The youngest would thus have the shortest pin, with this phrase dating from around the middle of the eighteenth to the middle of 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…. And to catch up after getting behind with these posts, and because I’m getting towards the end of the book, I’m doing three days at once now. How lovely….

Pickthank

This is defined by Grose as “a tale-bearer or mischief maker” and it evolved from meaning someone who was sycophantic, literally trying to pick up thanks. The word was first used in the late fifteenth century, was used by Shakespeare and was commonly used into the nineteenth century.

The English language is a little mysterious, or at least how it’s used, as this word remained in usage for centuries and then just faded away in the twentieth century. I prefer its original meaning, someone who always looking to curry favour with others, in order to pick up a thanks.

Pig

This definition surprised me, as Grose’s definition pre-dates the formation of most police forces. He defines it as “a police officer. A China street pig; a Bow-street officer. Floor the pig and bolt; knock down the officer and run away”. There are all kinds of stories as to why this word came into usage, some have said it’s because the police were like pigs at rooting away, to solve crimes in this case. This seems unlikely to me, it’s likely just a derogatory term which the cant community (the criminal underworld) would have used and which gained wider parlance. Interestingly, the word wasn’t much used in this meaning during the later part of the nineteenth century or the early part of the twentieth century, but then in came back into usage more recently with the same meaning.

Pig Running

This is defined by Grose as “a piece of game frequently practised at fairs, wakes, &c. A large pig, whose tail is cut short, and both soaped and greased, being turned out, is hunted by the young men and boys, and becomes the property of him who can catch him and hold him by the tail, above the height of his head”. As a reminder, a wake was a fair in the nineteenth century, this wasn’t an activity held after someone was buried. What is moderately surprising to me is that this still goes on in a few places in the United States, although animal rights concerns have caused this to start to come to a juddering halt. The activity has had numerous other names, such as pig wrestling, pig scrambling, pig catching and so on, and it went on for centuries in the UK.

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…. And to catch up after getting behind with these posts, and because I’m getting towards the end of the book, I’m doing three days at once now. How lovely….

Peter Lay

This is defined by Grose as “the department of stealing portmanteaus, trunks, &c”, which is a throwback to when bags, parcels and trunks were known as ‘Peters’. I’m not quite sure where that word origin came about, but there was another phrase, not mentioned by Grose, which was to “peter-drag”, which was to steal bags from carriages. Google doesn’t much like me searching for ‘Peter Lay’, it seems to think that surely I must mean ‘Peter Kay’….. Anyway, this was one of these phrases, mostly used by the criminal underworld by all accounts (Peter Lay that is, not Peter Kay).

Petty Fogger

This phrase is defined as “a little dirty attorney, ready to undertake any litigious or bad cause: it is derived from the French words petit vogue, of small credit, or little reputation”. The phrase came into use in the sixteenth century and it remains in use today, although it’s usually now just one word such as pettifogging. The OED give a different word origin, noting “from petty + obsolete fogger ‘underhand dealer’, probably from Fugger, the name of a family of merchants in Augsburg in the 15th and 16th centuries.” Grose is right though, the word at the end of the eighteenth century was pettyfogger with the meaning that he gave, but it now tends to mean a lawyer or politician who focuses on small or petty details.

The evolution of the word with its different spellings, showing how frequently it was used in the nineteenth century compared to the twentieth century.

Pharaoh

This word is defined by Grose as “a strong malt liquor”, which sounds rather lovely. As an aside, when this word entered the English language, it was for some time spelled as ‘Pharao’ without the final ‘h’. The word was used in this way from the middle of the sixteenth century to the middle of the nineteenth century, and it likely came from the belief that Pharaoh was a strong or powerful leader, hence a powerful or strong beer.

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….

Penthouse Nab

This phrase is defined by Grose as “a broad brimmed hat”, although there’s an interesting (well I think there is) history to the word ‘penthouse’. The original meaning of this was some sort of outbuilding, usually shoved onto the side of a building, sometimes nothing more than a shed. Then there was a move in what the word meant, with reference to a building which sloped, and often the top of a building would slope at the top, which evolved into meaning the apartment or space at the top of a property.

In recent years, the word has become used much more frequently and a penthouse is now seen as a desirable place to live. It’s usually the grand residence at the top of a building which has more space, extensive views and is most certainly not some old shed stuck onto the side.