A Pocket Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue:

by Francis Grose, Steve Mockus (Editor)

A profane guide to the slang from eighteenth-century London’s backstreets and taverns and how to use the antique jargon and curse words in modern conversation.   This slang dictionary gathers the most amusing and useful terms from English history and helpfully presents them to be used in the conversations of today.   Originally published in 1785, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue was one of the first lexicons of English slang, compiled by a militia captain who collected the terms he overheard on his late-night excursions to London’s slums, dockyards, and taverns. Now the legacy lives on in this colorful pocket dictionary. Learn the origin of phrases like “birthday suit” and discover slang lost to time An unexpected marriage of lowbrow humor and highbrow wit A Pocket Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue is perfect for enlivening contemporary conversation with historical phrases; it includes a topical list of words for money, drunkenness, the amorous congress, male and female naughty bits, and so on. A funny book for wordplay, language, swearing, and insult fans, as well as fans of British humor and culture Perfect for those who loved How to Speak The Quintessential Guide to the King’s English, Cockney Slang, and Other Flummoxing British Phrases by Christopher J. Moore; Knickers in a A Dictionary of British Slang by Jonathan Bernstein; and The Official Dictionary of Sarcasm by James Napoli

Genres: Nonfiction, Humor, Research, History

110 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 7, 2020

About the author

Francis Grose 1731 - 1791) was an English antiquary, draughtsman, and lexicographer. He produced A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (1785) and A Provincial Glossary, with a Collection of Local Proverbs, and Popular Superstitions (1787).

Reviews

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

    Vulgar didn’t always refer to making explicit/offensive references to sex/body functions, which I think is often forgotten. Vulgar used to refer to the common tongue of the masses, which is what this book is a dictionary of. The language of slums, and dockyards, and taverns, and the common folk just scraping by in England.
   This was reading a dictionary, which was enjoyable in its own way. So many of these words we don’t hear anymore, and others I wish I had read before other books I had read this year (for example, learning “cove” in this dictionary before encountering it in Beka Cooper. Similar with "mort" meaning woman, which was transformed to "mot" in Beka Cooper - the better to avoid the correlation with the French "mort"="death"). Then there were also the words we do still use, and some of the most thematically common ones were grouped for modern-day readers all in a page or two in addition to being a dictionary entry.
   I think this could have been improved on with some sort of historical forward, adding more contemporary context to the dictionary, instead of just pulling a few compilations of different slang which means the same thing (usually containing one or two popular words we still use today).

[Holly · Rating 4 out of 5]

To my devilish delight, many a slang term defined in this dictionary still holds purchase in current expression! There is or was a fixation on “female naughty bits,” with a borderline offensive (even for a vulgar collection!) amount of “cock” references related thereunto, the hicksius doxius (my spell checker and auto corrector HATED that), and a surprising number of words and phrases for the buffle-headed. My favorites were/is now “earth bath,” which is to say “a grave,” and “grumbletonian” (a discontented person; one who is always railing at the times or ministry”) which has indeed found employ in my own vernacular. This pocket dictionary’s indeed useful every day as promised!

[Shayna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Amusing, though repetitive.

And a lot of flipping back and forth to remember what other words in the definitions meant.

Pretty sure about 75% is a euphemism for anatomy and/or sex, another 20% having to do with alcohol, and Other Subjects rounding out the last 5.