If any gentleman of a studious turn of mind, who may have acquired the
habit of carrying pencils and notebooks, would for one year reside in
Monmouth Court, Seven Dials; six months in Orchard Street, Westminster;
three months in Mint Street, Borough; and consent to undergo another
three months on the extremely popular, but very much disliked treadmill
(_vulgo_ the “Everlasting Staircase”), finishing, I will propose, by
a six months’ tramp, in the character of a cadger and beggar, over
England, I have not the least doubt but that he would be able to write
an interesting work on the languages, secret and vulgar, of the lower
orders.
In the matter of SLANG, our studious friend would have to divide his
time betwixt observation and research. Conversations on the outsides
of omnibuses, on steamboat piers, or at railway termini, would demand
his most attentive hearing, so would the knots of semi-decayed cabmen,
standing about in bundles of worn-out great-coats and haybands, betwixt
watering pails, and conversing in a dialect every third word of which
is without home or respectable relations. He would also have to station
himself for hours near gatherings of ragged boys playing or fighting,
but ever and anon contributing to the note-book a pure street term. He
would have to “hang about” lobbies, mark the refined word-droppings
of magniloquent flunkies, “run after” all the popular preachers, go
to the Inns of Court, be up all night and about all day—in fact, be a
ubiquitarian, with a note-book and pencil in hand.
As for research, he would have to turn over each page of our popular
literature, wander through all the weekly serials, wade through the
newspapers, fashionable and unfashionable, and subscribe to Mudie’s,
and scour the novels. This done, and if he has been an observant man,
I will engage to say, that he has made a choice gathering, and that we
may reasonably expect an interesting little book.
I give this outline of preparatory study to show the reason the task
has never been undertaken before. People in the present chase after
respectability don’t care to turn blackguards, and exchange cards with
the Whitechapel Pecker or the Sharp’s-alley Chicken, for the sake of
a few vulgar, although curious words; and we may rest assured that it
is quite impossible to write any account of vulgar or low language,
and remain seated on damask in one’s own drawing room. But a fortunate
circumstance attended the compiler of the present work, and he has
neither been required to reside in Seven Dials, visit the treadmill, or
wander over the country in the character of a vagabond or a cadger.
In collecting old ballads, penny histories, and other printed
street narratives, as materials for a _History of Cheap or Popular
Literature_, he frequently had occasion to purchase in Seven Dials and
the Borough a few old songs or dying speeches, from the chaunters and
patterers who abound in those neighbourhoods. With some of these men
(their names would not in the least interest the reader, and would only
serve the purpose of making this Preface look like a vulgar page from
the London Directory) an arrangement was made, that they should collect
the cant and slang words used by the different wandering tribes of
London and the country. Some of these chaunters are men of respectable
education (although filling a vagabond’s calling), and can write good
hands, and express themselves fluently, if not with orthographical
correctness. To prevent deception and mistakes, the words and phrases
sent in were checked off by other chaunters and tramps. Assistance
was also sought and obtained, through an intelligent printer in Seven
Dials, from the costermongers in London, and the pedlars and hucksters
who traverse the country. In this manner the greater number of cant
words were procured, very valuable help being continually derived from
_Mayhew’s London Labour and London Poor_, a work which had gone over
much of the same ground. The slang and vulgar expressions were gleaned
from every source which appeared to offer any materials; indeed the
references attached to words in the Dictionary frequently indicate the
channels which afforded them.
Although in the Introduction I have divided cant from slang, and
treated the subjects separately, yet in the Dictionary I have only, in
a few instances, pointed out which are slang, or which are cant terms.
The task would have been a difficult one. Many words which were once
cant are slang now. The words PRIG and COVE are instances in point.
Once cant and secret terms, they are now only street vulgarisms.
The etymologies attempted are only given as contributions to the
subject, and the derivation of no vulgar term is guaranteed. The
origin of many street words will, perhaps, never be discovered, having
commenced with a knot of illiterate persons, and spread amongst a
public that cared not a fig for the history of the word, so long as it
came to their tongues to give a vulgar piquancy to a joke, or relish to
an exceedingly familiar conversation. The references and authorities
given in italics frequently show only the direction or probable source
of the etymology. The author, to avoid tedious verbiage, was obliged,
in so small a work, to be curt in his notes and suggestions.
He has to explain also that a few words will, probably, be noticed in
the Slang and Cant Dictionary that are questionable as coming under
either of those designations. These have been admitted because they
were originally either vulgar terms, or the compiler had something
novel to say concerning them. The makers of our large dictionaries have
been exceedingly crotchety in their choice of what they considered
respectable words. It is amusing to know that Richardson used the word
HUMBUG to explain the sense of other words, but omitted it in the
alphabetical arrangement as not sufficiently respectable and ancient.
The word SLANG, too, he served in the same way.
Filthy and obscene words have been carefully excluded, although
street-talk, unlicensed and unwritten, abounds in these.
“Immodest words admit of no defence,
For want of decency is want of sense.”
It appears from the calculations of philologists, that there are 38,000
words in the English language, including derivations. I believe I have,
for the first time, in consecutive order, added at least 3,000 words
to the previous stock,—vulgar and often very objectionable, but still
terms in every-day use, and employed by thousands. It is not generally
known, that the polite Lord Chesterfield once desired Dr. Johnson to
compile a Slang Dictionary; indeed, it was Chesterfield, some say, who
first used the word HUMBUG. Words, like peculiar styles of dress, get
into public favour, and come and go in fashion. When great favourites
and universal they truly become household words, although generally
considered slang, when their origin or antecedents are inquired into.
A few errors of the press, I am sorry to say, may be noticed; but,
considering the novelty of the subject, and the fact that no fixed
orthography of vulgar speech exists, it will, I hope, be deemed a not
uninteresting essay on a new and very singular branch of human inquiry;
for, as Mayhew remarks, “the whole subject of cant and slang is, to the
philologist, replete with interest of the most profound character.”
THE COMPILER WILL BE MUCH OBLIGED BY THE RECEIPT, THROUGH MR. CAMDEN
HOTTEN, THE PUBLISHER, OF ANY CANT, SLANG, OR VULGAR WORDS NOT
MENTIONED IN THE DICTIONARY. THE PROBABLE ORIGIN, OR ETYMOLOGY, OF ANY
FASHIONABLE OR UNFASHIONABLE VULGARISM, WILL ALSO BE RECEIVED BY HIM
WITH THANKS.
_Piccadilly, June 30th, 1859._