A Dictionary of Slang, Cant, and Vulgar Words / Used at the Present Day in the Streets of London; the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge; the Houses of Parliament; the Dens of St. Giles; and the Palaces of St. James.

by John Camden Hotten

HANGMAN’S WAGES, thirteenpence halfpenny.

HANSEL, or HANDSALE, the lucky money, or first money taken in the morning by a pedlar.—Cocker’s Dictionary, 1724. “Legs of mutton (street term for sheep’s trotters, or feet) two for a penny; who’ll give me a HANSEL? who’ll give me a HANSEL?”—Cry at Cloth Fair at the present day. Hence, earnest money, first fruits, &c. In Norfolk, HANSELLING a thing, is using it for the first time, as wearing a new coat, taking seizin of it, as it were.—Anglo Saxon. N. Bailey.

HA’PURTH OF LIVELINESS, the music at a low concert, or theatre.

HARD LINES, hardship, difficulty.—Soldiers’ term for hard duty on the lines in front of the enemy.

HARD UP, in distress, poverty stricken.—Sea.

HARD-UPS, cigar-end finders, who collect the refuse pieces of smoked cigars from the gutter, and having dried them, sell them as tobacco to the very poor.

HARRY, or OLD HARRY (i.e. Old Hairy?) the Devil; “to play OLD HARRY with one,” i.e., ruin or annoy him.

HARRY-SOPH (ἐρίσοφος, very wise indeed), an undergraduate in his last year of residence.—Cambridge.

HASH, a mess, confusion; “a pretty HASH he made of it;” to HASH UP, to jumble together without order or regularity.

HATCHET, “to throw the HATCHET,” to tell lies.