Dig Idioms

Several words have found themselves used in a number of phrases. We looked at 'egg' last time and this time it's 'dig'.

Dig is first used to describe an archaeological expedition in 1896.

Dig is used to mean a prod or poke (often with the elbow in the ribs) from 1819.

Digs is first seen as a slang term for ‘lodgings’ in 1893, but the term ‘diggings’ had been in use since at least 1838.

Whether I can include dugout or not is likely a matter of personal opinion, but I am because the dugout canoe is one of the earliest technologies (albeit not so much dug out as burned out) – however, not seen in print until 1722.

The dug out is also an area alongside the playing area where coaches, medical team, other players would be located during play. This sense is first seen in 1914.

Shindig is probably getting close to becoming obsolete, but for those who remember this reference to a party, dance, or lively gathering, it is first seen in 1821 – it is thought to have originally been used as ‘shinty’.

And on the subject of music, nobody ever used the slang term ‘dig’ to suggest they rather liked the latest musical offering until the late 1950s.

Homonyms, Etymologically Speaking: H

Many words have two meanings, sometimes more, which are often very different. Such words have identical spelling and pronunciation, they are known as homonyms. Here I continue an A to Z list of such words and look at how that word came to have two different meanings.

H is for heel, obviously the part of the foot is by far the most common use. It comes from Old English hela, Proto-Germanic hanhilon, and Proto-Indo-European kenk which not only referred to the bend of the heel but also the bend at the knee.

Heel is also used to refer to a contemptible individual. It is first seen in US underworld slang in 1914, probably because it referred to one of the lowest standing. Similarly, the phrase 'down at heel' refers to well-worn footwear. Also, there is the now lost term of fighten with heles literally to 'fight with heels' and referring to fleeing the confrontation.

New Words

I recently came across E. E. Cummings and a poem where he coined the word manunkind. Not normally overly delighted with modern created words, but this example, published in 1944, intrigued me. Used in the poem to describe a potential environmental problem, it started me looking at other recently created words. Note I've tried to avoid technological and scientific words.

Bling has been used since at least 1997, although initially often given as bling-blingm and started by American rappers. Despite the recent creation the origin is by no means certain but may well have been based on the German blinken 'to gleam, sparkle'.

Crunk is a style of music, the word becoming popular in the 1990s. It is thought to be a contraction of 'crazy drunk', the same word also used to mean 'good'.

Grrrl is a contraction of 'grrr' and 'girl', describing a young woman who sees herself as independent, strong, and possibly aggressive.

Jeggings are tight-fitting trousers, similar to leggings but made from denim - hence a combination of 'jeans' and 'leggings'.

Listicle is a piece of writing presented in list form, thus part 'list' and part 'article'.

Locavore is another portmanteau, is puts together two elements which describe someone who eats local produce. (I would have preferred to learn it was one who ate the locals.)

Noob is an abbreviation of 'newbie' but used in a derogatory sense by those playing computer games. Note 'newbie' has only been used since 1969, this first used by US military. In 1946 we find newie, in 1909 we first see newing or 'new thing' and referring to a naval cadet on their first training session, and in the 15th century newing which is a contraction of 'new thing'.

Po-Po, recently starting to be used in Britain and appearing in the OED since 2015, has been imported from the USA where it began in the 1980s as an abbreviation for Portland Police and what was shouted by lookouts used by gangs to warn of the imminent arrival of the constabulary.

Purple State is another US import, one which describes an electorate which is neither traditionally right (blue) or left (red) and thus a mix or purple. In the United Kingdom we would normally refer to such seats as marginals.

Screenager is a teenager who spends a lot of time in front of a screen, such as a computer or a phone.

Totes is an abbreviation for 'totally', where the word is used rather ungrammatically such as in the phrase 'it was like totally amazing'. For those of an earlier time, 'totes' would have been a method of gambling similar to a lottery where numbers are predicted or a form of horseracing betting.

Truthiness is a weird word for it doesn't quite mean what seems evident. Here the use is to describe something which appears or is felt as true, but isn't - rather like the word then.

Whovian is someone who is a fan of the television series Doctor Who. This is, of course, the modern era of the series. When it first aired on BBC in black and white and ran with actors William Hartnell to Sylvester McCoy, these would have been science-fiction enthusiasts.

Yarn-Bombing is that weird idea of decorating a tree, bench, metal pole or barrier with a knitted something. I'm told it's a fund-raiser, but then I'm told many things are fund-raisers and I don't see the point of those either.

Many new words are portmanteaus, itself a word coined by Lewis Carroll, describing words made by combining two or more other words. In Old English, Anglo-Saxon if you prefer, the same was true although those were referred to as kennings. Words such as ban-haus or 'bone house' which is a reasonable enough description of the body. Other portmanteau words created in the 21st century include badassy, droolworthy, buzzworthy, fatberg, frankenfood, guyliner, microaggression.

The A to Z of Sex (again)

A few years ago I looked at slang for sex and thought it was about time we delved again in the seedier side of the English language and look at some of the other terms coined thoughout history to describe the sexual act and things related to same. Enjoy! (And when I say "enjoy" I mean this and not that, if you see what I mean.)

A is for ALMANACH, a late 19th and early 20th century term for what the dictionary refers to as 'the female pudend' (and for balance).....

B is for BALD-HEADED HERMIT, the male member.

C is for CHAFER, the act of copulation.

D is for DEMIREP, a woman whose chastity is called into question, and a term first seen in print in Fielding's Tom Jones published in 1749.

E is for EARLY DOORS which, while soccer pundits might use it to mean 'early on', originated as rhyming slang for 'whores'. Hence we'll all titter when hearing Joe Manager speaking of how "The lads did good early doors".

F is for FIRE-PLUG, a young man with veneral disease.

G is for GETTER, a male with great capacity for fertilization.

H is for HANDFUL OF SPRATS, best way to describe this is 'groping'.

I is for IMPALE used to mean to possess (as in being with) a woman.

J is for JIGGLE, the sexual act.

K is for KEEPING-CULLY, a man who thinks he is keeping a mistress in a home for his own personal use, when in fact he's keeping her for anyone she chooses to be with.

L is for LAP-CLAP, conception.

M is for MEDICINE, the sex act (as in take one's medicine).

N is for NUTMEGS, testicles.

O is for OLD ADAM or the male member.

P is for PARSLEY-BED, again the dictionary refers to this as 'the female pudend'.

Q is for QUEER ROOST, maybe 'living over the brush', 'living in sin', co-habiting?

R is for RAMBLER, a woman of ill repute.

S is for SEALS, testicles again.

T is for THRUM, the sexual act.

U is for UPPER WORKS, the female breast.

V is for VIRGINS BUS, the last bus from Piccadilly Corner which, contrary to the name, was largely populated by prostitutes.

W is for WAP, the sexual act.

X, Y and Z had me beaten once again!

Colonial Slang

Dialect terms vary greatly across England, words used in the north and east would be completely unknown in the south and west. What is more the English spoken in Scotland and Ireland has even more variations. Hence I wondered what terms had crept in English among the former British colonies, in particular the slang terms. There were hundreds, but having removed those referring to body parts, sex and those of more obvious meaning, I ended up with the following list.

Australian: Back of Bourke (a very long way away)

Australian: Bush oyster (nasal mucus)

Australian: Franger (condom)

Australian: Mystery bag (a sausage)

Australian: Zack (sixpence - actually 5 cents)

Canadian: Toque (a warm knitted cap)

Canadian: Cowtown (how the locals know Calgary, Alberta)

Canadian: Pablum (vitamin deficiencies) and named from a propietary baby food.

Canadian: Gastown (a region of Vancouver) named after Gassy Jack Deighton and refers to the area devoted to the arts, media, technology and tourism.

Canadian: Skookum (excellent)

New Zealand: Carked (death, not necessarily a person)

New Zealand: Choice (thanks a lot)

New Zealand: Hungus (someone who likes food a lot)

New Zealand: Squizz (a glace)

New Zealand: Dairy (expensive)

South African: Babbelas (a hangover) comes from the Zulu word ibhabhalazi.

South African: Braai (barbecue)

South African: Fundi (expert) comes from the Nguni tribe's language.

South African: Jislaaik (an expression of surprise)

South African: Shongololo (a millipede) and from the Zulu word ukushonga which means 'to roll up'.

If anyone wants to drop me a line and suggest others, feel free.

Modern Slang

Slang is created by succeeding generations to create a personal code which the older lot were not meant to understand. I recall one phrase we thought we could use quite freely around the school – of course ‘dreck’ was not a word we had invented, as the German teacher was quick to point out. We also freely used the expression ‘wagging it’ to describe one who was AWOL. I was amazed to discover this had skipped a generation and was well-known to my grandparents, although they would have termed it ‘playing the wag’.

In modern parlance the same is true where old expressions have been revived. For example the insult ‘div’, a description of someone who is considered less than wise and an overheard expression which got me thinking about the subject in the first place. There are two schools of thought here, northerners may point to a the foolhardy miners who insisted on using the older and less reliable Davy Lamp down the mine when a proven improvement was readily available. I would question this explanation as the ‘divs’ would also be endangering the lives of their colleagues and such a double standard would surely never be allowed by the mine owners. In the south of England a much later origin has been suggested in a shortened form of Unemployment Dividend – the 1950s version of Job Seekers Allowance. This explanation is not much more credible, an insult from a shortened form of ‘dividend’ hardly seems likely as a dividend is a positive not a negative.

What does seem certain is the origin of ‘chav’. This stereotype has been in use far longer than I ever thought. Apparently it was in use, in its modern sense, by 1998 and first appeared in print five years later – it was named ‘the word of the year’ for 2004. However the word certainly existed in the 19th century when it is given as ‘chaval’, a slang term for ‘a boy’. It is held to be from the Romani word chavi meaning ‘child’. Despite what you hear it is most certainly not an acronym, creative etymology long after it was in general use suggested an origin of ‘Council House And Violent’.

Accents and Dialects

An interesting question was put to me this week. The original reference was to the miners from Wales moving to the Midlands in order to find work in the coal fields of Staffordshire. As they would tend to congregate with others of their own culture, how many generations would it take for their Welsh accent to be replaced by the local Black Country tones?

Such is not really my area of expertise but I was reminded of two occasions when the voices did not match what was expected before the speakers opened their mouths. The first was at school when a couple of brothers joined our numbers having recently moved when the family needed to find work. Both brothers were of Indian parentage, each excellent scholars, and spoke with a very broad accent which made them difficult to understand – it was pure Glaswegian. The second instance came much later, when I visited an old friend and his family. They had moved to Leeds from Birmingham and while both parents were clearly Midlanders, their two sons sounded as if they had been raised by Amos Brearley from Emmerdale.

Another involved in the aforementioned conversation had had some experience of this. A young lady who had spent some time in Italy told how it was clearly our children who picked up the accents from their peers and not their parents.

This does show why successive generations speak virtually in a code and language all of their own. For example the baddie was obvious The Wizard of Oz when it was first seen on the big screen, but would today’s generation see the Wicked Witch of the West as the trendiest character in the story?

It did indicate how quickly accents and even use of words can change and shows how old written records, in my case particularly those of place names, can be influenced in the phonetic spelling by something which can never be a gradual change.

Hardware

I did not have a job when I left school - it was the early seventies and the last days of Edward Heath's government and unemployment was the height of fashion. What I did have was a Saturday job in a hardware shop which, for a couple of months full time, gave me a meagre income and very tired feet.

At the time I had no idea ‘hardware’ was also used as a slang term for ammunition during the days when Birmingham’s Gun Quarter and munitions factories were employed as many in cottage industries as the city’s more famous Jewellery Quarter did at its height. The most famous of the ‘hardware’ manufacturers was BSA, a name now synonymous with motorcycles but one which began as Birmingham Small Arms and abbreviated to BSA. The military relied so heavily on supplies from Birmingham that those from the Second City became known as Hardware-Blokes. This was then transferred to those who sold metal items door-to-door, with their wares known as Hardware-Swag.

The ‘hardware’ term was only in use for about 50 years from 1870. Before, during and afterwards the residents of Birmingham were more commonly known as Brummies. This came from Brummagen, a local name which developed from the idea of the city’s name being ‘Bromwich-ham’ and influenced by neighbouring settlements such as Castle Bromwich and West Bromwich and the development of the terms Brummie and Brum are obvious.

Around the same time the term Brummagem came into use with a very different meaning. Look in the Oxford English Dictionary under ‘Brummagem’ and see the definition ‘counterfeit, cheap and showy’. This comes from a time when the Jewellery Quarter was found to have a number of unscrupulous characters who were watering down the gold with cheaper metals. The reason gold is so valuable is threefold: it is comparatively rare, does not tarnish, and is extremely malleable making it easy to make into the intricate jewellery designs. As the percentage of gold in the product drops so the finished product increases in size and gaudiness.

While neither slang term is in use for metal-working, I know of no other example where a slang place name has entered the dictionary with a completely different meaning at the same time as a word in the dictionary has come to be a slang term for a person from the same place.

I would welcome any suggestions for themes or subjects, or even specific words to examine the origins, meanings and etymologies. I’d be delighted to hear from you.

Fanny Adams

An expression known to all meaning ‘nothing’ – and often said to be ‘Sweet Fanny Adams’. Yet it is also a term having a most interesting etymology, albeit a sad and macabre one.

In 1867 three girls from Alton in Hampshire took a walk. Fanny Adams, aged 8, her 7-year-old sister Lizzie, and their 8-year-old friend Minnie Warner were given permission to head towards Flood Meadow by Harriet Adams, mother of the sisters. Around two in the afternoon on Tanhouse Lane they met Frederick Baker, a 29-year-old solicitor’s clerk. The man offered four halfpennies to the girls, one for each and an extra one for Fanny to accompany him to Shalden some two miles away. They all took the coins but Fanny refused to go with him. It made no difference. Baker carried Fanny Adams into a field of hops. She was never seen alive again.

It was three hours before the other girls returned home. In their naivety they saw no reason to raise an alarm and it was only when a neighbour, a Mrs Gardiner, asked about Fanny that their story came out and Mrs Adams was informed. Both women retraced the girls’ steps and soon met Baker. They spoke to him and while he admitted he had given them money he denied anything else had happened. In Victorian Britain a man in his position was considered completely trustworthy and his version was accepted.

Another two hours and still no sign of Fanny and every available hand went searching. They soon found what they were looking for in the hop field. What they found was horrific for the body had been horribly mutilated. Arms and legs were severed, the eye sockets were empty, and the torso was empty. Her eyes later found in the river, with the internal organs strewn across the countryside. Over a matter of days the remains were recovered and taken to the local doctor’s surgery where they were reunited.

Later that evening Baker was arrested at the office of his employer, William Clement. Police had to protect him from the mob who, on seeing the blood on his clothes, were increasingly aggressive. There was so much evidence against him – two blood-stained knives on his person, a witness to Baker leaving Alton and a new career “as a butcher”, the statements of the Lizzie and Minnie, and a diary entry in Baker’s own hand “24th August, Saturday – killed a young girl. It was fine and hot.”

Sent for trial at Winchester it was revealed Baker had murdered her by a blow to the head with a sizable stone. His counsel tried to show he was insane, there being several cases of such in the family, they also tried to show diminished responsibility with medical evidence of epilepsy. There was no question as to his eventual guilt, the only question whether the police could protect him long enough for him to die at the hands of the executioner. On Christmas Eve 1867 Baker was hanged outside Winchester Gaol, the last person executed in the city.

Today we see the origin of the phrase as insensitive, to say the least. However it took just two years for this notorious case to enter the language, for it was then the Royal Navy introduced tinned mutton to their rations. Sailors did not care for the new protein source and suggested it must be produced from the remains of the murder victim. It has been speculated the two stories were linked by the local of the Royal Navy yard at Deptford, where there was an abattoir and a bakery and within touching distance of Alton. In reality the two were several miles apart and this explanation was almost certainly created several years afterwards. The same is also true of the abbreviation “Sweet FA” used for “sweet f**k all” when certainly from much later. The tin containing the meat was later reused as a mess tin. Recycling nineteenth century style led to the mess tin being known as a Fanny as it still is today

Shortly after the use of Fanny Adams to refer to something as ‘worthless’ or ‘nothing at all’ the Australians began referring to canned chopped meat as Harriet Lane. Despite this also being the name of Fanny’s mother, the two are unrelated except by the circumstances of their respective murders. As with Fanny, Harriet Lane (for that was her name) was murdered and butchered, the latter by a man named Henry Wainwright. However this was not in Australia, as we would presume, but in London.

As usual I would welcome any suggestions for themes or subjects, or even specific words to examine the origins, meanings and etymologies. I’d be delighted to hear from you.

Slang Terms for Body Parts

Recently author Jim Murdoch suggested it might be interesting to look at slang terms for body parts. Thanks for the suggestion, Jim. It has resulted in the following.

Initially I intended to provide an alphabetical list but soon discovered there are many more terms than I ever thought possible. Hence I opted for taking each body part and looking at the slang terms for each. It also seems logical to start with the top and work down and thus let’s start with the head.

Head has several slang terms used in English, some will be not only known and used. Noggin first came into common use around the beginning of the nineteenth century. Origins are disputed, some maintaining it is perfectly acceptable, if little used, English word. If this is so it would then share the same origin as Irish naigin and Scottish Gaelic noigean rather than be derived from same.

Loaf is much easier, it is simply the abbreviation for ‘loaf of bread’ and rhyming slang for ‘head’.

Nut is also fairly easy to see as likening the hard skull to the hard exterior of a nut, the head being the only reasonably sized part of the body to do so.

Noodle was an English synonym for a simpleton by the middle of the eighteenth century and predictably went on to become a slang term for the head.

Bonce, my particular favourite, can also be bonse and is first seen in the latter part of the nineteenth century when it was used to describe two very different things. It is easy to see how a large marble called a bonce will have soon been used to refer to the head. Similarly the bonce was also a term used by schoolboys to refer to the headmaster, again a short step to refer to the human head. It is difficult to know which came first as both appeared in writing at more or less the same time.

On the head we have a face incorporating the ears and eyes. Taking these in order the ears, seemingly forever objects of ridicule, are known as the lug or more often said as lughole. The lug is not true slang for it has been used in Scotland since at least the sixteenth century, the etymology remains obscure. Eyes are easier, either speaking of peepers, clearly derived from ‘peeping’, or mince pies, rhyming slang for eyes.

Noses are also found on the head and, with the exception of (as Monty Python described them) ‘the naughty bits’, the one part of the body which seems to have attracted more slang terms than any other. Some are easy to see as alluding to this body part resembling those located in a similar position on other animals. Examples of which include beak, snout, proboscis and trunk.

Conk probably shares its origin with ‘conch’, for it was originally used solely to refer to a particularly fleshy nose which resembled the shell.

Hooter can only describe the sound made when certain individuals blow their nose as if it’s a musical instrument, albeit often a badly tuned one.

Legs are also known as ‘pins’, for obvious reasons. Indeed the only slang term which wasn’t self-explanatory was ‘gam’ which we see as an American term. It must have come from gamb for this is the heraldic description for a leg.

Feet are known as ‘tootsies’, a variation on ‘toddle’ as in ‘walk’. The term ‘plates’ is short for ‘plates of meat’ and thus rhyming slang.

Then of course we come to those aforementioned ‘naughty bits’ (I stick with Python’s terminology as ‘private parts’ irritates me as I consider ALL my parts to be private). Predictably there are more names for these parts than everywhere else combined and I’m sure others are created very regularly. I consulted the Dictionary of Historical Slang and, merely flicking through the pages, it soon became evident there was a least one male and one female term on almost every one of its thousand plus pages.

In the light of the sheer numbers involved, and so as not to appear overly explicit, vulgar, demeaning, or politically incorrect I decided to omit any references to the male wedding tackle or the female equivalent (save for those) while all breasts will also be left out, be they male or female (and no mention of ‘moobs’ as I find this most offensive, they are ‘measts’ if you please).

However irrespective of gender we all have one ‘naughty bit’ in common and as the subject of bottoms will always illicit a laugh, I decided to end (pun intended) with slang terms for the rear. This is nowhere near a comprehensive list, I have chosen a few samples but doubtless will return to the subject if I ever find myself at a loss for something to post.

Bum is, after the original Saxon arse, the most common term. It predates ‘bottom’ and is thought to have originated as ‘imitating the sound of an explosion’ – hence the bum was named from the fart which is roughly equal to Ford naming their new model the Carbon Monoxide. Incidentally the use of ‘bottom’ from the eighteenth century led to ‘bum’ being considered vulgar.

Fundament was in use by the thirteenth century, literally referring to the ‘foundation’ and an early forerunner of such easily recognized terms such as ‘sit upon’, ‘seat’, ‘backside’, ‘behind’, ‘posterior’ and even ‘derriere’.

Prat is in general use as a synonym for ‘foolish’ but began as slang for the good old bottom and is first seen in writing in 1610 with the line “And tip lower with thy prat”. The origin is unknown although I’m sure that prat has fallen out of favour is undoubtedly appreciated by those named Rear of the Year.

Two centuries later it became known as ‘the ultimatum’, easy to see as from the Latin meaning ‘the farthest point’. Incidentally Latin is also used for the anatomical name, the buttocks being ‘nates’ and, if you are unfortunate enough to only have one, the singular ‘natis’.

I have missed many expressions out because they are largely Americanisms and have only caught on in the UK owing to the vast number of broadcasting hours devoted to US imports. However usage of ‘fanny’ in the US to refer to the posterior is hardly likely to catch on to the west of the Atlantic owing to its use to describe another body part. It is used in the States as a diminutive for ‘Frances’, just why this nickname developed is a mystery although there are numerous (highly questionable) suggestions. I include this term here for its use in the Provence region of France. Here the game of petanque is played and when a player is beaten 13-0, the worst possible score, the phrase “Il est fanny” (he is fanny) is heard and the loser is expected to pay the standard forfeit. This involves kissing a woman by the name of Fanny on the bottom. Presumably there is a dearth of women of this name or, perhaps more likely, they are sick and tired of crap petanque players trying to kiss their derriere. Either way the French always bring to the game an image of a mademoiselle baring her posterior, which could be in the form of a picture, a carving, or piece of pottery. This certainly explains why petanque has never caught on in the UK.

I would welcome any suggestions for themes or subjects, or even specific words to examine the origins, meanings and etymologies. I’d be delighted to hear from you.

A Valentine's Day Afterthought

I needed to refer to to my copy of The Penguin Dictionary of Historical Slang this week. One word caught my eye as I had not realised it had ever had so many meanings, nor used in so many ways. That word was GANDER.

To me 'gander' had two meanings: officially used to describe a male goose but also used as slang term for 'look, peruse' as in "Have a gander at this!" Yet the dictionary has no less than ten other uses for the same word.

Gander - from the 17th to the 20th centuries described a married man, clearly taken from the term for the goose.

Gander-party - an alternative to a stag-party.

Gander - as in "What's good for the goose is good for the gander", earlier given as "What's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander", and first seen in the 18th century as "Goose, gander and gosling are three sounds but one thing" and all asking for no preferential treatment.

Gander - used to mean to ramble or waddle like a goose, in use during the 19th century.

Gander - a fool, chiefly in use in London and thought to be derived from Gandin, the French personification of a fop or fool.

Gander-faced - an adaption of the previous use, this meaning 'silly-faced' in the 19th century.

Gander's wool - refers to feathers, itself a colloquialism for 'money'. Hence a rather long-winded reference to cash.

Gander-mooner - is a husband during the gander-month (see following) and the somewhat tenuous link to Valentine's Day.

Gander-month (also Gander-moon) - describes the month after childbirth and in use from the 17th to early 19th centuries. Yes, exactly what I wondered - why is there a male reference to childbirth, when this is something no male (human nor goose) has thus far managed to deliver? Somewhat inconsiderately this described the period when, with the wife 'indisposed', it was perfectly acceptable for the husband to sleep around.

A Writer's A-Z of Sex

Last week's look at slang terms for drink and drunks meant I had to thumb through my Penguin Dictionary of Historical Slang in order to fill in the gaps. In doing so I noticed one subject appeared again and again, often many times on each page. Whilst I could have guessed the most common reference was to sex, even I was amazed by the quantity (but certainly not the quality) of the terms.

At first I intended to look at female references in one post with male to follow. However in this politically correct world half of the terms would have offended somebody and the other half likely everybody. Hence I opted for the following, written from the etymological viewpoint and not just for a cheap laugh (well mostly).

A is for ankle sprain, derived from the French avoir mal aux genous, it describes successful seduction.

B is for brim meaning to copulate and once the correct terminology in describing the mounting of the sow by the boar.

C is for cleave, used to mean 'to be wanton'.

D is for dark cully, a man who visits his mistress only under cover of darkness.

E is for ewe-mutton which is defined as 'an amateur prostitute', (an oxymoron if ever I heard one).

F is for firkytoodle, a delightful word originating in the seventeenth or eighteenth centuries and which is probably best defined here as foreplay.

G is for gay which, in the late nineteenth century, was actually used to describe heterosexual activity.

H is for hoddypeak, another word for a cuckold

I is for itch-buttocks, not what it seems but used from the sixteenth century for what is sometimes referred to as 'the missionary position'.

J is for Judische-compliment, a strange early nineteenth expression for it describes a well-endowed man with no money.

K is for keep-down-the-census, which is easy enough to understand when we know if refers to pleasuring oneself.

L is for leather-stretching, the act of intercourse.

M is for machine, a reference to the male organ and derived from the French machin, or 'thing'.

N is for Nebuchadnezzar, a late nineteenth century reference to the male organ and related to "take Nebuchadnezzar out to grass", a rather wordy alternative to the three-letter word 'sex'.

O is for orchestra, thyming slang 'orchestra stalls' being 'testicles'.

P is for pestle, the male organ (no prizes for guessing what a 'mortar' was)

Q is for quicumque, a very young woman of questionable morals.

R is for rigsby, another young woman of questionable morals.

S is for scolopendra, yet another woman of questionable morals and apparently named for the sting in the tail of a centipede.

T is for table-end, describing a couple whose desires are so great they are unable to wait until they have 'climbed the stairs'.

U is for under-petticoating, quite simply is soliciting but applied to either sex.

V is for vrow-case, a brothel and probably derived from the Dutch vrouw 'a woman'.

W is for whipperginnie, a woman of ill repute

X, Y and Z had me beaten

A Round of Drinks

Being partial to a drink now and again, I overhear some unusual slang terms when ordering at the bar. This is particularly true when travelling around the British Isles, closer to home they are more familiar and mostly ignored. Words such as bevy, tipple, wallop, grog, etc., are known to all and require no explanation.

However it was when I picked up my Dictionary of Historical Slang I discovered just how many slang terms there are in the English language for the demon drink, for those who enjoy same, and everything related to it.

A is for ANOTHER ACROBAT meaning 'another drink'. Tumbler being another word for an acrobat and also a glass.

B is for BLACK POT meaning 'a toper' (one who enjoys his drink a little too much). A black pot was a beer mug in the days when bottles and tankards were made of leather and sealed with tar.

C is for CANTEEN MEDAL, describing a military man who wore a beer stain on his tunic. A persistent drunkard (today we would say 'alcoholic') was similarly described as a Canteen Wallah.

D is for DEADY meaning 'gin' and thought to have originated from a proprietary name of a distiller.

E is for ELBOW-CROOKER, a nineteenth century term for a heavy drinker and for obvious reasons.

F is for both FELLOW-COMMONER an 'empty bottle' and FIDDLER'S BITCH one who is 'very drunk'. While we know what they mean, where the come from is a mystery.

G is for GASP meaning to 'drink a dram of spirits', presumably from its possible effect.

H is for HEAVY BROWN, describing porter. The first beer aged at the brewery and despatched to the inns ready to drink, it was a kind of stout.

I is for INDENTURED, meaning 'to stagger under the influence of drink'.

J is for JACK SURPASS, rhyming slang for 'a glass (of liquor)'.

K is for KILL-PRIEST, a slang term for port wine.

L is for LUSHING-KEN, a very run down and dirty public house.

M is for MOPPY, another word for 'intoxicated'.

N is for NANCY DAWSON, a naval term for the rum ration.

O is for O-BE-JOYFUL, a public house.

P is for PAINT, to drink something very strong.

Q is for QUANTUM, a late nineteenth century term for an ale.

R is for RUSH-LIGHT, any strong liquor, from the late eighteenth century.

S is for SCREECH, a nineteenth century word for potent whisky.

T is for TAPE, a general term for strong liquor but most often referring to gin.

U is for UNPAVED, to be aggressive under the influence of drink.

V is for VARNISH, a late nineteenth century term used specifically for bad champagne.

W is for WET QUAKER, a man who on the surface is most pious but in secret is a heavy drinker.

X is for .... well I couldn't find one, so I thought I'd make one up. If xenophobia is the irrational fear of foreigners and oenophobia is a fear of wines, then could XENOENOPHOBIA be the irrational fear of foreign wines?

Y is for YADNAB, which should really be ydnarb because it is supposed to be brandy backwards.

Z is for .... again I couldn't find one so I've cheated and gone for ZIBIB, a colourless drink distilled from raisins.

Cheers!

Free-Dumb of Speech

Grammatical errors and incorrect use of words is not a new phenomenon. Simply the ease by which we communicate in the twenty-first century has brought these annoyances to our attention.
I was born after received pronunciation had been largely abandoned by the BBC. During my formative years accents were heard everywhere - for example Michael Parkinson was probably the biggest thing on the BBC in those days, while Eddie Waring was heard every Saturday afternoon on Grandstand. Both northerners, their accents betrayed their origins but their words and grammar were quite correct. Today many presenters make a string of errors and effectively pass these on to the public.

For example, I hardly ever hear "bored with...." this days, the vast majority say "bored of....." which can only be through confusion between 'board' and 'bored'. Hence many must think the government has an office examining why the country is Board of Trade.

Could've (and should've) are perfectly acceptable contractions, short for 'could have' and 'should have' respectively. Yet when this word is split into its two constituents parts, most often for emphasis, we continually hear "Could of..." and "Should of...." or even "Could off ..." and "Should off...." in writing. I am bracing myself for the Facebook entry stating "Emma wants to off her baby at home."

Use of 'Pacific' instead of 'specific' can only be because these are people who simply never bother to read. Similarly the regions at the north and south poles are said to be the Artic and Antartic, when the map clearly shows the Arctic and Antarctic - an error also heard when purchasing an "artic roll".

Since the advent of the internet it has highlighted how so many simply have no notion of the correct use of it's and its; your and you're; to, too, and two; their, there and they're; who and whom; even an and and!

In conversation you still here libry or libary instead of library; borrowed instead of loaned; hampster instead of hamster; and increasingly esculator instead of escalator. Incidentally, please note the plural of TEXT is TEXTS and never TEXES. While "yeah?" and "right?" and "ok?" are never going to replace full stops, commas, or colons, nor will every sentence be a question, so please desist.

Finally a personal hate. The letter H is pronounced 'aitch' (look in the dictionary) it is NOT HAITCH as we hear again and again. Indeed it is constantly broadcast on ITV2 trailers suggesting such a programme is also available on "ITV2 Haitch Dee"

Strictly Cash Terms

Recently I came across a word I had (thankfully) never heard before. However it was clear from the adverisement that wonga meant cash, coin of the realm, currency, money. Momentarily baffled as to why such a grotesque noise should ever be considered worthy of use, it did get me thinking of other slang terms for money, some of which I will admit to having used myself, albeit sparingly, I also found many more than I had never encountered.

ackers - used in the United Kingdom it is one of several which was brought back to the homeland from colonial days. It is derived from the Egyptian akka, itself having many uses as a personal name, even a tribal one, yet seems to have its earliest reference as the triangular object on the Great Pyramid of the pharaoh Khuffu or Khuvu.

bob - some will still recall pre-decimal currency in the United Kingdom when pounds were divided into twenty shillings. Most often the shilling was known as a 'bob', which is first recorded in the early nineteenth century, while the origin is obscure.

brass - is one of the most obvious origins, it simply refers to the colour of the coinage.

buck - is in use for the American dollar by 1856. The origin is uncertain but thought to have originated as an abbreviation of 'buckskin', the basic unit of trade between Native Americans and European settlers in the early frontier days.

coppers - as with other names, this is a simple reference to the colour of some of the coins.

deaner - is another term for a shilling, not one I had ever heard before, but is certainly a mis-spelling of 'dinar', from Greek denarius, and seen as currency across North Africa, parts of the Middle East and as far north as Yugoslavia.

dibs - is used for small amounts of money. It is short for dibstones, the pebbles or counters used in the game played with knucklebones.

dough - may be a slang term today, however in the Middle English term dogh, from Germanic dag, did indeed mean 'money'.

folding stuff - one of the less imaginative terms, clearly this only refers to paper money.

fin - is applied to the £5 but the origin is obscure, suggestions of an abbreviation for 'finance' seem contrived.

gelt - is a Yiddish word, from Old High German gelt meaning 'recompense, reward'.

greenback - obviously the colour of the dollar bill.

joey - referred to the old silver threepence, the etymology is unknown but is referred to as such in George Orwell's Keep the Aspidistras Flying.

monkey - is a term for £500, it is held to be derived from the image of the monkey on the Indian 500 rupee note and brought back the Britain by soldiers who had served there.

nicker - a reference to a pound sterling, although the origin is unkown.

pony - as with the term 'monkey' a term brought back from India, this image on the 25 rupee note and describing £25.

quid - is the most commonly used term for a pound (also once used for a guinea). Almost certainly from Latin quid simply 'something'. First known usage is in 1688 when Shadwell writes "Let me equip thee with a quid" showing it must have been in popular use even then.

sou - is from the Old French sou a former French coin of minimal value.

tanner - is another name derived from the days of the British influence in India. At the time a rupee was roughly equal to a shilling, the rupee comprised sixteen annas and thus half a rupee was eight anna. Easy to see how half a shilling could also be seen as 'eight anna' or 'a tanner'.

It is claimed there are only two other subjects which have more slang terms than money - drink I may look at some time in the future (alcoholic, of course), but euphemisms for sex and the various acts is not for blogging.
(I should be able to get at least one book out of it!)