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

POONA, a sovereign.—Corruption of pound; or from the Lingua Franca?

PONY, twenty-five pounds.—Sporting.

POPS, pocket pistols.

POP, to pawn or pledge; “to POP up the spout,” to pledge at the pawnbroker’s,—an allusion to the spout up which the brokers send the ticketed articles until such times as they shall be redeemed. The spout runs from the ground floor to the wareroom at the top of the house.

POSH, a halfpenny, or trifling coin. Also a generic term for money.

POSTERIORS, a correspondent insists that the vulgar sense of this word is undoubtedly slang (Swift, I believe, first applied it as such), and remarks that it is curious the word anterior has not been so abused.

POST-HORN, the nose.—See [PASTE-HORN].

POST-MORTEM, at Cambridge, the second examination which men who have been “plucked” have to undergo.—University.

POT, a sixpence, i.e., the price of a pot or quart of half-and-half. A half crown, in medical student slang, is a FIVE-POT PIECE.

POT, “to GO TO POT,” to die; from the classic custom of putting the ashes of the dead in an urn; also, to be ruined, or broken up,—often applied to tradesmen who fail in business. Go to pot! i.e., go and hang yourself, shut up and be quiet. L’Estrange, to PUT THE POT ON, to overcharge, or exaggerate.