The slang dictionary

by John Camden Hotten

Transcriber’s Note

An advertisement for dictionaries has been moved from the beginning of the text to the end.

Footnote 27 (“See Dictionary”) is referred to three times; links to the three entries concerned have been added to the text.

Footnote 29 (“See Dictionary”) is referred to twice; links to the two entries concerned have been added to the text.

The following are used inconsistently in the text:

• banknote and bank-note
• battles and battells
• big-bird and big bird
• blackguard and black-guard
• boatrace and boat-race
• Boozingken and Boozing-Ken
• bow-Catcher and bowcatcher
• brother-chip and brother-chip
• Bubble-and-Squeak and Bubble and Squeak
• chamberpot and chamber-pot
• cherry-colour and cherry colour
• chuck up and chuck-up
• coalheaver and coal-heaver
• cockshy and cock-shy
• cocoanuts and cocoa-nuts
• comb cut and comb-cut
• coon and ’coon
• corner men and corner-men
• crabshells and crab shells
• cutpurse and cut-purse
• daylights and day-light
• dead-heat and dead heat
• dolly shop and dolly-shop
• dunnyken and dunna-ken
• everyday and every-day
• fagot and faggot
• fawney bouncing and fawney-bouncing
• fyebuck and fye-buck
• halfpence and half-pence
• horse chaunter and horse-chaunter
• housebreaking and house-breaking
• kin-the-lamb and kin the lamb
• knobstick and knob-stick
• lovelock and love-lock
• M. B. and M.B.
• M. T. and M.T.
• Merry Dun of Dover and merry dun of Dover
• mountain pecker and mountain-pecker
• necktie and neck-tie
• newcomers and new-comers
• now-a-days and nowadays
• outdoor and out-door
• overbearing and over-bearing
• overnight and over-night
• overreach and over-reach
• P. P. and P.P.
• parney and parny
• percentages and per-centages
• pillbox and pill-box
• playhouse and play-house
• purseproud and purse-proud
• racehorse and race-horse
• randem and random
• reach me downs and reach-me-downs
• ringdropping and ring-dropping
• schofel and schoful
• schoolboys and school-boys
• seaport and sea-port
• secondhand and second-hand
• signpost and sign-post
• Soft-soap and soft soap
• speechmaking and speech-making
• turncoat and turn-coat
• turnout and turn-out
• W. P. and W.P.
• water-bewitched and water bewitched
• watercloset and water-closet
• wideawake and wide-awake

The following errors in the printed text have been corrected:

• advertisement “W.,” changed to “W.”
• advertisement “A to G)” changed to “(A to G)”
• p. 15 “Bcck” changed to “Beck”
• p. 17 “coined money” changed to “coined money.”
• p. 29 “‘cribs’’” changed to “‘cribs’””
• p. 41 “Tam O’ Shanter.”” changed to “Tam O’ Shanter.”
• p. 68 “on’t—” changed to “on’t”—”
• p. 74 “appearance” changed to “appearance.”
• p. 74 “I Cor.” changed to “1 Cor.”
• p. 82 “Dr” changed to “Dr.”
• p. 83 “under-raduates” changed to “under-graduates”
• p. 88 “BLUHEN” changed to “BLÜHEN”
• p. 89 “ἄσπρόν” changed to “ἄσπρον”
• p. 90 “the new police” changed to “the new police.”
• p. 91 “belong to you” changed to “belong to you.”
• p. 94 “Spit-curl,”” changed to “Spit-curl,”
• p. 97 “Rothwalsch” changed to “Rothwälsch”
• p. 97 “good fellow;” changed to “good fellow;””
• p. 98 “at races” changed to “at races.”
• p. 101 “large thick,” changed to “large, thick,”
• p. 106 “tumble up,” changed to “tumble up”
• p. 107 “contruction” changed to “contraction”
• p. 110 “CASER” changed to “Caser”
• p. 111 “ny temporary” changed to “any temporary”
• p. 114 “pay.—ED” changed to “pay.—ED.”
• p. 115 “CHEESE your barrikin,”” changed to ““CHEESE your barrikin,””
• p. 116 “Derivation obvious” changed to “Derivation obvious.”
• p. 118 “and waistcoat” changed to “and waistcoat.”
• p. 120 “first-rate” changed to “first-rate.”
• p. 128 “Κορινθίαζ εσθαι” changed to “Κορινθιάζεσθαι”
• p. 135 “Very often” changed to ““Very often”
• p. 136 “Culloden;*” changed to “Culloden;”
• p. 137 “CUT ONE’S” CHANGED TO ““CUT ONE’S”
• p. 139 “interrupted Julian” changed to “interrupted Julian,”
• P. 141 “SO LOOK OUT”” CHANGED TO “SO LOOK OUT.””
• P. 152 “MEDIOCITY” CHANGED TO “MEDIOCRITY”
• P. 161 “O FOURTEEN” CHANGED TO “OF FOURTEEN”
• P. 168 ““OR IN BAD” CHANGED TO “OR “IN BAD”
• P. 171 “FULLY committed for trial.” changed to “FULLY committed for trial.””
• p. 176 “crush hat” changed to “crush hat.”
• p. 178 “by schoolboys” changed to “by schoolboys.”
• p. 188 “unthinking” changed to “unthinking.”
• p. 189 “Harry-soph” changed to “Harry-soph,”
• p. 197 “Umh!” changed to ““Umh!”
• p. 209 “Gloucestershire.” changed to “Gloucestershire,”
• p. 217 “of the door,’” changed to “of the door,””
• p. 219 “nothing five” changed to “nothing: five”
• p. 224 “what a MEASLEY” changed to ““what a MEASLEY”
• p. 229 “bad MOUNT.” changed to “bad MOUNT.””
• p. 232 “Neptune’s Triumph, whch” changed to “Neptune’s Triumph, which”
• p. 233 “Shakspear ehas” changed to “Shakspeare has”
• p. 234 “VAMOS.”” changed to “VAMOS.”
• p. 236 ““Your NIBS,” yourself.”” changed to ““Your NIBS,” yourself.”
• p. 237 “Nix my dollyonce” changed to “Nix my dolly, once”
• p. 243 “i.e., you” changed to “i.e., “you”
• p. 247 “to the PARTY?”” changed to “to the PARTY?”
• p. 247 “Stephano.” changed to ““Stephano.”
• p. 250 “drive awa ;” changed to “drive away;”
• p. 251 “Nor yet a single” changed to ““Nor yet a single”
• p. 253 “dérobé”).” changed to “dérobé)”.”
• p. 253 “English word” changed to “English word.”
• p. 254 “its purity?” changed to “its purity?””
• p. 254 “trrdesman” changed to “tradesman”
• p. 256 “£100,0000,” changed to “£100,000,”
• p. 258 “Pops ,pocket-pistols.” changed to “Pops, pocket-pistols.”
• p. 264 “THICK UN a” changed to “THICK UN, a”
• p. 265 “for the account”” changed to “for the account.””
• p. 275 “in unproductive” changed to “an unproductive”
• p. 285 “improvemennts” changed to “improvements”
• p. 295 “voilently” changed to “violently”
• p. 296 “a good beating,” changed to “a good beating.”
• p. 297 “Sluieing” changed to “Sluicing”
• p. 297 “tip-top nation.” changed to “tip-top nation.””
• p. 299 “SNIDE ’UN.”” changed to “SNIDE ’UN.”
• p. 304 “a person, to cease” changed to “a person,” to cease”
• p. 305 “TEA-SPOON,” changed to “TEA-SPOON;”
• p. 306 “prisoners, when,” changed to “prisoners, when”
• p. 307 “Stab-rag” changed to “Stab-rag,”
• p. 316 “first six months” changed to “first six months;”
• p. 321 “that term” changed to “that term.”
• p. 322 “upon TICKET.” changed to “upon TICKET.””
• p. 331 “TWIG,’” changed to “TWIG,””
• p. 334 “can you” changed to ““can you”
• p. 334 “Romany!” changed to “Romany?”
• p. 338 “WORRIT, ro” changed to “or WORRIT,”
• p. 334 “igin hougour” changed to “igin agan hougour”
• p. 340 “WHITE WINE.”” changed to “WHITE WINE.’””
• p. 349 “end with two vowels” changed to “end with two consonants”
• p. 354 “Exis yannepsxpence.” changed to “Exis yanneps, sixpence.”
• p. 354 “an apple” changed to “an apple.”
• p. 368 “of beer” changed to “of beer.”
• p. 369 “centre slang, then,” changed to “Centre slang, then,”
• p. 372 “London, 1809” changed to “London, 1809.”
• p. 374 “part of the work” changed to “part of the work.”
• p. 374 “attemp” changed to “attempts.”
• p. 375 “1858” changed to “1858.”
• p. 376 “1797” changed to “1797.”
• p. 378 “1859” changed to “1859.”
• p. 379 “Wiemarisches” changed to “Weimarisches”
• p. 379 “10te” changed to “10ter”

Inconsistent use of small capitals and italics has been left as printed.

On p. 76, “will about win” has been left as printed.

On p. 121, “See COAL” in the entry for “Coal” has been left as printed.

On p. 195, “the blue jackets wont” has been left as printed.

On p. 379, “Wirtemberg” has been left as printed.

The following were not clearly printed and are conjectural:

• Footnote to p. 53 “most objectionable”
• p. 90 full stop in “Bethnal Green Museum.”
• p. 94 the letter p in “person who steals”
• p. 94 bracketed text in “swindler[, or a] lie”
• p. 114 bracketed text in “Ch[aw] over”
• p. 158 comma in “unfeminine accomplishment,”
• p. 164 letter n and comma in “Flim-flamn,”
• p. 181 bracketed text in “[tie]d.—Sea.”
• p. 197 last two digits in “1632.”
• p. 207 last two digits in “1820.”
• p. 211 bracketed text in “so[lic]ited”
• p. 243 bracketed text in “descripti[on,]”
• p. 248 semi-colon in “POIX);”
• p. 262 “to” in “stratagem to excite”
• p. 295 comma in “into a man,”
• p. 337 comma in “WELSHER,”

There are a number of references to non-existent entries:

• the entry for “Briefs” refers to “Reflectors”;
• the entry for “Bub” refers to “Bibe”
• the entry for “Harum-scarum” refers to “Tandem”;
• the entry for “Lucky” refers to “Strike”;
• the entry for “Man in the moon” refers to “Election Inquiries”;
• the entry for “Random” refers to “Tandem”;
• the entry for “Whiddle” refers to “Wheedle”.

In some cases entries of that name exist, but appear to be unrelated:

• the entry for “Buz” refers to “Snooks” and “Walker”;
• the entry for “Random” refers to “Sudden Death”.

The following possible error has been left as printed:

• p. 254 “an ingenious candle-snuffers”