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….

Penny-Wise and Pound Foolish

This definition hasn’t changed over the last two centuries, defined by Grose as “saving in small matters, and extravagant in great”. I don’t have much to add here, other than I find it surprising that the phrase has been in usage since the early seventeenth century, as it perhaps feels a little more modern.

And the phrase’s usage over the last two centuries.

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….

Peck

This is defined by Grose as meaning “Victuals. Peck and booze; victuals and drink”, with victuals being a now mostly archaic word for food, so, “food and drink”. The word is derived from the verk ‘pekken’, or to pick, most commonly used now when referring to birds. The word ‘peckish’, which Grose defines separately as meaning ‘hungry’ could have evolved in one of two ways. It could mean feeling hungry and wanting to pick at food (from the ‘pekken’ verb), or it could have derived more directly from the word meaning food.

And the usage of ‘peck’ and ‘peckish’ over time…

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….

Peccavi

This word is defined by Grose as “to cry peccavi, to acknowledge one’s self in an error, to own a fault: from the Latin Peccavi, I have sinned”.

The word was commonly used in the past, but has now become archaic, despite it being a word which is actually quite useful in clearly describing a behaviour. As Grose says, the origins are from the Latin word peccāvī, but perhaps the phrase “mea culpa” was instead just more appealing…. As might be expected from the Latin roots, the derivative word remains in usage in Italy.

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….

Pear Making

This is defined by Grose as “taking bounties from several regiments and immediately deserting. The cove was fined in the steel for pear making; the fellow was imprisoned in the house of direction for taking bounties from different regiments”. There was a real problem with recruitment at the beginning of the nineteenth century and the military was still using impressment (or press gangs) to make up numbers. So, a bounty was given to anyone signing up to tempt them to join the army (along with no end of false promises), but there were some who quickly ran off and this became more of a problem during the Napoleonic Wars, shortly after Grose wrote about this new scam.

As for how this became known as “pear making”, 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….

Paum

This is defined by Grose as “to conceal in the hand. To paum a die: to hide a die in the palm of the hand. He paums; he cheats. Don’t pretend to paum that upon me”. This is simply from the French word ‘paume’, which still means palm and it’s the same way that the palm tree got its name, which is because the leaves are shaped like an open palm. Anyway, the word survives in magic, magicians palm cards still today.

And here is the slow and steady fall out of usage of the word.

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….

Paviour’s Workshop

This is another definition that I can’t add much to, but is another one that I like, defined by Grose as “the street”. The phrase was in use from the late eighteenth century to the mid nineteenth century and I do wonder whether it was just easier to say ‘street’, but it makes it sound more exotic. The word ‘paviour’ has changed meaning since this phrase was in usage, as today it’s all about it being a stone that’s used in garden design. However, the old use for the word was to describe the job title of someone who laid paving stones on streets and although it’s not a common surname, that’s where that is from.

Just referring to the word ‘paviour’ on its own, this fell out of usage towards the end of the nineteenth century. The job of laying stone became less of a specialist one and the construction of almost endless new roads meant that this quite specific element of the job became less relevant.

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….

Parson

And this is a walking related definition from Grose, which is “a guide post, hand or finger post by the road side for directing travellers: compared to a parson, because, like him, it sets people in the right way”. Not that Grose treated religious office holders with respect with all of his definitions, some were perhaps far more telling about the realities of late eighteenth century religious figures.

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….

Pantler

This word is defined by Grose as “a butler” and is from the same derivative as the word ‘pantry’, so it means someone who is in charge of the bread and the entire pantry.

And the word has slowly, but surely, fallen out of usage over the last century. There are though a few cafes around the world with this name, normally those specialising in breads and cakes.

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…. NB, this is actually day 255 of the lockdown, so I’ve managed to get a few days behind, but am slowing catching back up (I can’t believe someone has noticed I was posting twice a day to catch up, one of my loyal three readers….).

Owl

And with this definition, Grose verges into practical jokes and japes…. He defines the word as “to catch the owl; a trick practised upon ignorant country boobies, who are decoyed into a barn under pretence of catching an owl, where, after divers[e] preliminaries, the joke ends in their having a pail of water poured upon their heads”. I have nothing to add to this definition, primarily as I’m not sure it was that widespread, but it’s nice to know that practical jokes aren’t anything new.

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….

Ottomy

This is defined by Grose as “the vulgar word for a skeleton”, although I’m not convinced that it’s actually that vulgar. The word is now archaic, but it was also spelled as ‘Otomy’, which is the explanation from where it likely came. That’s from the Greek word for cutting and words ending in ‘otomy’ generally mean cutting into something. And there’s not much more than can be cut away on a skeleton….. Most European languages have a word similar to skeleton, but this is a nicer one, it’s a shame this word didn’t take over I think.