Customer Reviews

A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue

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Review of Third Edition, 1963:

This isn't fictional "thieve's cant" as used in some role-playing games, this is the real deal! Thousands of terms used by the British and American underworld are carefully explained and, in some cases, early literary references are also noted.

A few examples of this strange dialect include: "eternity box," a coffin; "Mahometan gruel," for coffee (because it was introduced from Muslim Turkey); "one of us" or "one of my cousins" was used for a harlot; "quill driver," a scribe or hackney writer; "Friday face," a dismal countenace (because Fridays were fast days in The Roman Church); "goloshes" comes from "Goliath's shoes," so-called because these outer shoes are very large; "Bo-Peep," one who sometimes hides and sometimes shows himself in public. There are *thousands* of such cool usages in this book.

I have seen limited lists of thieve's cant on various web sites, but many of them crib from some edition or other of this book. Barnes & Noble should *definitely* release a new edition of this as a paperback!