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Just for Fun / Canting Dictionary [thieving slang], 1736

« on: September 09, 2008, 11:59:04 pm »

1736 Canting Dictionary

"A Collection of the Canting Words and Terms, both ancient and modern, used by Beggars, Gypsies, Cheats, House-Breakers, Shop-Lifters, Foot-Pads, Highway-Men, &c;

Taken from The Universal Etymological English Dictionary, by N. Bailey, London, 1737, Vol. II, and transcrib'd into XML Most Diligently by Liam Quin.

Nearby: Dictionary of Proverbs by Nathan Bailey; Piggot's Political Dictionary (1795); Kent's 1718 Grammar of Heraldry

Francis Grose's 1811 Dictionary of Slang

Also, Extracts from Dictionaries

I don't have a slang word of the day yet, but this online dictionary of thieving slang is more than just a list of slang words and their meanings. There are examples of how the slang words and phrases were used, and I have added lots of links between the entries so you can use it as a slang thesaurus too.

Most of the links here are from lists of resources for writers, and if you are writing about the late 1600s or early 1700s in England (especially with London slang) you'll find a lot of ideas here.

Nathan Bailey published this slang glossary in 1737, and he didn't hold back: there are sex slang terms along with prison slang and even eighteenth century urban slang phrases! Is it a slang dictionary or a slang glossary? The author called it a dictionary of canting terms, and it's certainly more than just a list of slang words and their meanings.

 

If you are looking for a modern British dictionary of slang, or for elizabethan slang, look elsewhere. This is vulgar slang from the 1720s."

e.g.


MOON-Curser

MOON-Curser, a Link-boy, or one that, under Colour of lighting Men, (especially they who get in Drink, or have the Fields, or any uninhabited or By place, to go over) robs or leads them to a Gang of Rogues, that will do it for him.