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 Coronavirus crisis is giving too much time to read books, I thought I’d pick a daily word from it until I got bored…..

Cagg Maggs

Defined by the dictionary as “Old Lincolnshire geese, which having been plucked ten or twelve years, are sent up to London to feast the cockneys”. There’s not much to add to this precisely worded definition, but I like the slight north-south divide being hinted at here, send the old and scraggy meat down to London rather than keep it up north…. That assumes that Lincolnshire is in the north, which is perhaps pushing it though.

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…..

Buzman

The dictionary defines this as a criminal’s word for a pickpocket. The interesting element about this is that some people think that this is the origin of the phrase “busman’s holiday”, which dates back to at least the 1880s. It would be that the pickpocket was always working even when they’re on holiday, such would be the nature of their ‘trade’. I’m not sure that this is the actual origin, but I do prefer this version.

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…..

Butter Box

This phrase is defined by the dictionary as “a Dutchman, from the great quantity of butter eaten by the people of that country”. I’m not quite sure if this is offensive or not, but I guess there could be worse, although I don’t think I’ll use the phrase the next time that I’m in the Netherlands. It was certainly initially meant to be offensive, it dates to the mid-seventeenth century when sailors used it in a derogatory manner during the Anglo-Dutch Wars.

It has also been suggested that the phrase derives from when the Dutch flag looked like this, which was in the seventeenth century, as apparently it looks like a butter box. I must admit, it doesn’t look at all like a butter box to me, so I’m going with the Dutch people binge eating butter.

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…..

Bundling

There’s quite a long definition for this in the dictionary, which is:

“A man and woman sleeping in the same bed, he with his small clothes, and she with her petticoats on; an expedient practised in America on a scarcity of beds, where, on such an occasion, husbands and parents frequently permitted travellers to bundle with their wives and daughters. This custom is now abolished. See Duke of Rochefoucalt’s Travels in America”.

Theodore Zeldin wrote about this in An Intimate History Of Humanity, noting that it was actually a more common practice than the dictionary suggested, as it was practised in England, Wales, the Netherlands (where it was known as kweesten) and even Afghanistan. There’s a Wikipedia page on the subject, and a book entitled Little Known Facts about Bundling in the New World was published in the United States.

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…..

Bull Beggar or Bully Beggar

This is defined by the dictionary as “an imaginary being with which children are threatened by servants and nurses, like raw head and bloody bones”. Being a child in the late eighteenth century does sound a little bit of a nightmare….. The phrase is still in occasional use today and there’s a pub in North Carolina called the “Bull and Beggar”. It dates all the way back to at least the fifteenth century and it might derive from Wales and the old Welsh word ‘bwbach’ which is a scarecrow or goblin.

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…..

Bulk and File

Defined by the dictionary as “two pickpockets; the bulk jostles the party to be robbed, and the file does the business”, a reminder of how long distraction robbery has gone on for. The phrase was being used as early as the seventeenth century and its origins are unclear. The bulk likely means the ‘main part’, in the same way that a bulky person could push someone around. The word ‘bulk-monger’ also dates from this period, meaning a prostitute who converses with pickpockets.

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…..

Buffle-Headed

Well, that’s day 50 of this virus thing reached, and I haven’t yet got bored of these words from the dictionary, although I’m surprised that I’m still on the letter B. Anyway, this is one of my favourite phrases so far, the dictionary defines it as “confused or stupid”, so I feel that I can get this into conversation a lot. The word ‘buffle’ used to be an alternate word for buffalo (it’s still the French word), but it also means “to be puzzled”. I can’t find any dictionary link this to the word ‘baffle’, but it’s hard to see that it isn’t linked, given that it means the same.

There’s not much use of the word buffle-headed today, with the exception of it being used in reference to a bird. The Bufflehead is a small sea duck, and it takes its name as its head looks like a buffalo. Well, I don’t think its head looks anything like a bloody buffalo, but that’s what the OED says. Sadly, it’s now an archaic term, but any word that means “dull, stupid or blundering” should be brought back into use, as we don’t have enough words for that.

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…..

Bufe Nabber

I’ve found no evidence that this phrase was used in any book or magazine, although it’s marked as criminal slang, so it was likely used informally and verbally. The dictionary defines this as “a dog stealer”, which is interesting insomuch that this was a crime that was clearly a problem in the late eighteenth century, an early version of dognapping. And “bufe nabber” is a more exciting term for the crime than dognapping. Another one to get back in the vernacular.

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…..

Budget

The dictionary defines this as a “wallet”, and also “a term used to signify the notification of taxes required by the Minister for the expenses of the ensuing year”. At the end of the eighteenth century, the phrase “open the budget” with reference to the Chancellor’s monetary decisions had started to come into use, but it wasn’t a widespread word for financial figures and that only came at the end of the nineteenth century when the “open the” fell off the phrase.

Back to the word wallet, it came into the English language in the fifteenth century from the French word for a leather bag or purse, which was bougette, which in turn had derived from Latin. Shakespeare used the word in reference to meaning a purse and it was used frequently in written and verbal communications.

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…..

Bubble and Squeak

This phrase still survives and is in common usage, but at the beginning of the nineteenth century it was defined as “beef and cabbage fried together”, which somehow has changed to potato and cabbage. The origins of the phrase are literal, the ingredients – well mainly the cabbage – bubble up and squeak as they’re cooked.

A ‘recipe’ from the 1890s said to “mash four potatoes, chop a plateful of cold greens, season with a small saltspoonful of salt and the same of pepper; mix well together and fry in dissolved dripping. Cut about three quarters of a pound of cold boiled beef into neat, thin slices. Fry slightly over a slow fire for six minutes, put the vegetables round the dish and the meat in the centre. Serve very hot”. Sounds bloody awful.

In the 1920s and 1930s the beef in the dish continued, but seemed to be replaced by sausages by the 1930s and 1940s. After the 1950s, it seemed to just become potato and cabbage, so who knows what it might become by the end of this century. Hopefully remove the cabbage and potato and just add a chicken bake.