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The Slang Dictionary: The Vulgar Words, Street Phrases, and Fast Expressions of High and Low Society, Many With Their Etymology, and a Few With Their History Traced (Classic Reprint)
The Slang Dictionary The Vulgar Words Street Phrases and Fast Expressions of High and Low Society Many With Their Etymology and a Few With Their History Traced - Classic Reprint Author:John Camden Hotten THE HISTORY OF CANT, OR THE SECRET LANGUAGE OF VAGABONDS. CANT and SLA~G are universal and world-wide. Nearly every nation on the face of the globe, polite and barbarous, may be divided into two portions, the stationary and the wandering, the civilised and the uncivilised, the respectable and the scoundrel,-those who have fixed abodes and [Lvail... more » themselves of the refinements of civilisation, and those who go from place to place picking up a precarious livelihood by petty sales, begging, or theft. This peculiarity is to be observed amongst the heathen tribes of the southern hemisphere, as well as in the oldest and most refined countries of Europe. As :ilI[Lyhew very pertinently rem[Lrks, " It would appe[Lr, that not only are all races divisible into wanderers and settlers, but that each civilised or settled tribe has generally some wandering horde intermingled with and in a measure preying upon it." In South Africa, the naked and miserable Hottentots are pestered by t
Table of Contents
CONTENTS; THE HISTORY OF CANT, OR THE SECRET LANGUAGE; OF VAGABONDS; Black and Coloured V AGABONDS-Vagabonds all over Europe-Vaga-; PAGE; bonds Universal, 1-3; Etymology of CANT-Cant used in old times-Difference between; Cant and Slang, 3-5; The GIPsIEs-Gipsies taught English Vagabonds-The GipsyVagabond; alliance-The Origin of Cant-Vulgar words from; the Gipsy - Gipsy element in the English language - The; poet Moore on the origin of Cant-Borrow on the Gipsy language-; The inventor of Canting not hanged, 5 -I I; Old CANT words still used-Old Cant words with modern meanings; -The words" Rum" and « Queer" explained-Old Cant words; entirely obsolete, 11-14; THE OLDEST" ROGUE'S DICTIONARY," 14-20; « Jaw-breakers," or hard words, used as Cant-"r ere Highwaymen; educa'ted men 1-Vagabonds used Foreign words as Cant-The; Lingua Franca, or« less