18th-century slang and terms
May 15, 2022 11:51:47 GMT -7
brokennock, Sicilianhunter, and 3 more like this
Post by spence on May 15, 2022 11:51:47 GMT -7
An assortment of old terms I've saved over the years, mostly from posts made on previous forums I've been on. It's long.
I think this list of slang terms is from Eric
Partridge's "A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English" published in
1937:
Abraham-sham - a feigned illness
Admiral of the Blue - a tavern keeper
Admiral of the Narrow Seas - a drunk who vomits into a neighbor's lap
Air and exercise - a flogging at the cart's tail
Akerman's Hotel - Newgate prison
All nations - a mixture of drinks from unfinished bottles
Anchor, bring one's ass to an - sit down
Anne's fan - thumbing the nose
Apothecary, talk like an - talk nonsense
Apple-dumpling shop - a woman's bosom
Arse, hang an - to hold back
B from a bull's foot, not to know - to be ignorant
Bachelor's fare - bread, cheese and kisses
Bag, empty the - tell everything
Bagpipe - a long-winded talker
Baranaby dance - to move unevenly
Barnacles - spectacles
Barrel fever - ill health caused by excessive drinking
Basket of chips, grin like a - to grin broadly
Bear-garden jaw - rough or vulgar language
Davy sow, drunk as - very drunk
Deadly nevergreen - the gallows
Devil among the tailors, the - a row or disturbance
Devil-drawer - a bad artist
Devil may dance in his pocket, the - he is penniless
Diddle - gin
Diet of Worms, gone to the - be dead and buried
Dog Booby - awkward lout
Dog laugh, enough to make a - extremely funny
Dog-vane - a cockade
Dogs have not dined, the - "Your shirt tail is hanging out"
Dog's portion - a lick and a smell
Dot and carry, go - a person with a wooden leg
Douglas with one eye and a stinking breath,
Roby - the breech
Draws straws - to feel sleepy
Duke of limbs - tall awkward fellow
Dunghill, die - die cowardly
Dutch concert - everyone plays or sings a different tune
Dutch feast - the entertainer gets drunk before the guests
Earwig - a malicious flatterer
Emperor, drunk as - regally drunk
Ensign-bearer - a drunkard
Eternity box - a coffin
Ewe dressed in lamb's fashion, an old - an old woman in girl's clothes
Eye, to have fallen down and trodden upon one's - to have a black eye
Face but one's own, have no - be penniless
Facer - a glass full to the brim
Faces, make - beget children
Faggot - a man hired to appear on a muster-roll
Fallen away from a horse load to a cart load - to become fat
Fantastically dressed - very shabby
Fash one's beard - become annoyed (Scottish)
Fiddler's money - all small change
Fiddlestick's end - nothing
Fire a gun - introduce a subject unskillfully
Fire-shovel when young, to have been fed with a - have a big mouth
Fish-broth - salt water
Flag of defiance - a drunken roisterer
Flag of distress - the cockade of a half-pay officer
Flap with a fox tail - a rude dismissal
Flapdragon - VD
Flash the gentleman - pretend to be a gentleman
Flats and sharps - weapons
Flawed - drunk
Flay the fox - vomit
Fly in a tar box - nervously excited
Fool at one end, maggot on the other - an angler
Foreman of the jury - one who monopolizes the conversation
Foul a plate - dine with someone
Frenchfied - venerially infected
Full as a goat - very drunk
Game pullet - a young whore
Gammon - nonsense
Garters - fetters
Gemini! - expression of surprise
Gentleman in red - a soldier
Gentleman's companion - a louse
Give one's head for washing - to submit to be imposed upon
Glass-eyes - person wearing spectacles
Glim, douse the - put out the light!
Glorious - estatically drunk
Glue-pot - a parson
God permit - a stage coach
Goose, to find fault with a fat - grumble without cause
Gooseberry, play old - play the devil
Gospel-shop - a church
Grapple-the-rails - whiskey
Jakes - a privy
Jaw-me-down - a very talkative fellow
Jericho, have been to - be tipsy
Jerrymumble - to shake
Jerusalem, be going to - to be drunk
Jimmy Round - a Frenchman
Job's dock, be laid up in - be treated for VD in hospital
Josphus rex, you are - you're joking
Kerry security - take the money and run
Kicksees - breeches
Kill-devil - rum
King John's men, one of - a small man
King's English, clip the - to be drunk
Knob - a officer
Knock-down - strong liquor
Laced mutton - a whore
Lapel, ship the white - to be promoted from the ranks (esp. marines)
Lazy as the tinker who laid down his budget to fart - very lazy
Leap over the hedge before one comes to the stile - to be hasty
Leap over the stile first, let the best dog - the best man take the lead
Leg, cut one's - become drunk
Legs on one's neck, lay one's - run away
Lie with a latchet - a thorough-going lie
Line of the old author, a - a dram of brandy
Lion, tip the - flatten someone's nose to his face
Little house - a privy
Live lumber - passengers in a ship
Live stock - body vermin
Looking glass - chamber pot
Louse-land - Scotland
Lumping penniworth - a great bargain
Mab - to dress carelessly
Mag - chatter
Maltoot - a sailor
Man-a-hanging - a person in difficulties
Married to Brown Bess - enlisted in the army
Mauled - exceedingly drunk
Mice-feet o', make - destroy utterly (Scottish)
Milk the pigeon - attempt the impossible
Mischief, load of - a wife
Monkey on horseback without tying his tail?, who put - a very bad rider
Monkey's allowance - more rough treatment than pay
Morris - to decamp
Mourning shirt - a dirty shirt
mums the lips - murder,
look like God's revenge againt - to look very angry
nails, eat one's - do something foolish
Navel-tied - to be inseperable
Necessary - a bedfellow
Newgate steps, born on - of criminal extraction
Nit, dead as - quite dead
Nose, make a bridge of someone's - to skip someone when passing the bottle
Numbers the waves, he - he's wasting time
Oaken towel - a cudgel
Oatmeal, give one his - to punish
Off the hooks - crazy
Open lower-deckers - to use bad language
Overshoes, overboots - completely
Owl, take the - become angry
Packet - a false report (Scots)
Paddy-whack - an Irishman
Painter, but one's - send a person away
Parson Palmer - one who slows the bottle's round by talking
Pease-kill, make a - to squander lavishly ( Scots)
Penny lattice-house - a low ale-house
Perch, drop off the - to die
Peter-gunner - a bad shot
Peter Lung - one who drinks slowly
Pickled - roguish
Pin basket - youngest child of a completed family
Piper's wife - a whore
Pipes, tune one's - begin to cry
Piss in a quill - agree on a plan
Pissing-while - a very short time
Pitt's picture - a bricked up window
Play the whole game - to cheat
Pontius Pilate - a pawn broker
Popper - a pistol
Postmaster general - the prime minister
Prattle-broth - tea
Princum Prancum, Mistress - a fastidious, formal woman
Prow - a bumpkin
Public ledger - a whore
Pully-hauly - a romp
Punch-house - a brothel
Rabbit hunting with a dead ferrit - a pointless undertaking
Rag-water - bad booze
Red lane - the throat
Regulated, be - to be declared fit for the Navy by the press gang
Remedy-critch - a chamber pot
Repository - prison
Rib-roast - to thrash
Ride as if fetching the midwife - to go in haste
Ride the forehorse - to be early
Roast meat, cry - to boast of one's good fortune
Roast-meat clothes - holiday clothes
Rocked in a stone kitchen - a little weak-minded
Rogue in spirit - a distiller
Rot-his-bone, be gone to - be dead
Royal image - a coin
Rum customer - one who is dangerous to meddle with
Rumbo - rum punch
Rump, loose in one's - wanton
Sack, buy the - become tipsy
Saddle the wrong horse - lay blame on the wrong person
Saddle one's nose - wear spectacles
Saddle the spit - to give a meal
Salt eel - a thrashing with a rope's end
Sand, eat - to shorten one's watch by prematurely turning the glass
Sandy - a Scotsman
Sauce - VD
Sawney - a Scotsman
Suspence, in deadly - hanged
Swannery, keep a - to boast
Swipes, purser's -- small beer
Tankard, tears of - liquour stains on a waistcoat
Tea-voider - a chamber pot
Three skips of a louse - of little or no value
Tickle-pitcher - a drinking buddy
Tiff - thin or inferior liquour
Tight cravat - the hangman's noose
Tilter - a small-sword
Tinker, swill like a - to drink immoderately
Tabacco, make dead men chew - keep dead men on the books
Tommy tit - a smart lively little fellow
Tongue enough for two sets of teeth - a very talkative person
Top light!, blast your - damn your eyes!
Trader - a whore
Tripes and trillibubs - nickname for a fat man
Trunkmaker-like - more noise than work
Uproar - an opera
Vaulting school - a brothel
Waltham's calf, wise as - very foolish
Wamble - queezy stomach
War-caperer - a privateer
Water bewitched - weak tea or beer
Water in one's shoes - a source of annoyance
Wedding, you have been to an Irish - you have a black eye
Whisk - an impertinent fellow
Whither-go-ye - a wife
Wife in water-colors - a mistress
Windy - conceited
Wolf in the stomach, have a - be famished
Wrapted up in warm flannel - drunk
Yarmouth capon - a herring
Znees - frost
Old medical terms:
Ablepsy - Blindness
Ague - Malarial Fever
American plague - Yellow fever
Anasarca - Generalized massive edema
Aphonia - Laryngitis
Aphtha - The infant disease "thrush"
Apoplexy - Paralysis due to stroke
Asphycsia/Asphicsia - Cyanotic and lack of oxygen
Atrophy - Wasting away or diminishing in size.
Bad Blood - Syphilis
Bilious fever - Typhoid, malaria, hepatitis or elevated temperature and bile emesis
Biliousness - Jaundice associated with liver disease
Black plague or death - Bubonic plague
Black fever - Acute infection with high temperature and dark red skin lesions and high mortality rate
Black pox - Black Small pox
Black vomit - Vomiting old black blood due to ulcers or yellow fever
Blackwater fever - Dark urine associated with high temperature
Bladder in throat - Diphtheria (Seen on death certificates)
Blood poisoning - Bacterial infection; septicemia
Bloody flux - Bloody stools
Bloody sweat - Sweating sickness
Bone shave - Sciatica
Brain fever - Meningitis
Breakbone - Dengue fever
Bright's disease - Chronic inflammatory disease of kidneys
Bronze John - Yellow fever
Bule - Boil, tumor or swelling
Cachexy - Malnutrition
Cacogastric - Upset stomach
Cacospysy - Irregular pulse
Caduceus - Subject to falling sickness or epilepsy
Camp fever - Typhus; aka Camp diarrhea
Canine madness - Rabies, hydrophobia
Canker - Ulceration of mouth or lips or herpes simplex
Catalepsy - Seizures / trances
Catarrhal - Nose and throat discharge from cold or allergy
Cerebritis - Inflammation of cerebrum or lead poisoning
Chilblain - Swelling of extremities caused by exposure to cold
Child bed fever - Infection following birth of a child
Chin cough - Whooping cough
Chlorosis - Iron deficiency anemia
Cholera - Acute severe contagious diarrhea with intestinal lining sloughing
Cholera morbus - Characterized by nausea, vomiting, abdominal cramps, elevated temperature, etc. Could be appendicitis
Cholecystitus - Inflammation of the gall bladder
Cholelithiasis - Gall stones
Chorea - Disease characterized by convulsions, contortions and dancing
Cold plague - Ague which is characterized by chills
Colic - An abdominal pain and cramping
Congestive chills - Malaria
Consumption - Tuberculosis
Congestion - Any collection of fluid in an organ, like the lungs
Congestive chills - Malaria with diarrhea
Congestive fever - Malaria
Corruption - Infection
Coryza - A cold
Costiveness - Constipation
Cramp colic - Appendicitis
Crop sickness - Overextended stomach
Croup - Laryngitis, diphtheria, or strep throat
Cyanosis - Dark skin color from lack of oxygen in blood
Cynanche - Diseases of throat
Cystitis - Inflammation of the bladder
Day fever - Fever lasting one day; sweating sickness
Debility - Lack of movement or staying in bed
Decrepitude - Feebleness due to old age
Delirium tremens - Hallucinations due to alcoholism
Dengue - Infectious fever endemic to East Africa
Dentition - Cutting of teeth
Deplumation - Tumor of the eyelids which causes hair loss
Diary fever - A fever that lasts one day
Diptheria - Contagious disease of the throat
Distemper - Usually animal disease with malaise, discharge from nose and throat, anorexia
Dock fever - Yellow fever
Dropsy - Edema (swelling), often caused by kidney or heart disease
Dropsy of the Brain - Encephalitis
Dry Bellyache - Lead poisoning
Dyscrasy - An abnormal body condition
Dysentery - Inflammation of colon with frequent passage of mucous and blood
Dysorexy - Reduced appetite
Dyspepsia - Indigestion and heartburn.Heart attack symptoms
Dysury - Difficulty in urination
Eclampsy - Symptoms of epilepsy, convulsions during labor
Ecstasy - A form of catalepsy characterized by loss of reason
Edema - Nephrosis; swelling of tissues
Edema of lungs - Congestive heart failure, a form of dropsy
Erysipelas
Elephantiasis - A form of leprosy
Encephalitis - Swelling of brain; aka sleeping sickness
Enteric fever - Typhoid fever
Enterocolitis - Inflammation of the intestines
Enteritis - Inflations of the bowels
Epitaxis - Nose bleed
Erysipelas - Contagious skin disease, due to Streptococci with vesicular and bulbous lesions
Extravasted blood - Rupture of a blood vessel
Falling sickness - Epilepsy
Fatty Liver - Cirrhosis of liver
Fits - Sudden attack or seizure of muscle activity
Flux - An excessive flow or discharge of fluid like hemorrhage or diarrhea
Flux of humour - Circulation
French pox - Syphilis
Gathering - A collection of pus
Glandular fever - Mononucleosis
Great pox - Syphilis
Green fever / sickness - Anemia
Grippe/grip - Influenza like symptoms
Grocer's itch - Skin disease caused by mites in sugar or flour
Heart sickness - Condition caused by loss of salt from body
Heat stroke - Body temperature elevates because of surrounding environment temperature and body does not perspire to reduce temperature. Coma and death result if not reversed
Hectical complaint - Recurrent fever
Hematemesis - Vomiting blood
Hematuria - Bloody urine
Hemiplegy - Paralysis of one side of body
Hip gout - Osteomylitis
Horrors - Delirium tremens
Hydrocephalus - Enlarged head, water on the brain
Hydropericardium - Heart dropsy
Hydrophobia - Rabies
Hydrothroax - Dropsy in chest
Hypertrophic - Enlargement of organ, like the heart
Impetigo - Contagious skin disease characterized by pustules
Inanition - Physical condition resulting from lack of food
Infantile paralysis - Polio
Intestinal colic - Abdominal pain due to improper diet
Jail fever - Typhus
Jaundice - Condition caused by blockage of intestines
King's evil - Tuberculosis of neck and lymph glands
Kruchhusten - Whooping cough
Lagrippe - Influenza
Lockjaw - Tetanus or infectious disease affecting the muscles of the neck and jaw. Untreated, it is fatal in 8 days
Lung sickness - Tuberculosis
Lues disease - Syphilis
Lues venera - Venereal disease
Lumbago - Back pain
Lung fever - Pneumonia
Lung sickness - Tuberculosis
Lying in - Time of delivery of infant
Malignant sore throat - Diphtheria
Mania - Insanity
Marasmus - Progressive wasting away of body, like malnutrition
Membranous Croup - Diphtheria
Meningitis - Inflations of brain or spinal cord
Metritis - Inflammation of uterus or purulent vaginal discharge
Miasma - Poisonous vapors thought to infect the air
Milk fever - Disease from drinking contaminated milk, like undulant fever or brucellosis
Milk leg - Post partum thrombophlebitis
Milk sickness - Disease from milk of cattle which had eaten poisonous weeds
Mormal - Gangrene
Morphew - Scurvy blisters on the body
Mortification - Gangrene of necrotic tissue
Myelitis - Inflammation of the spine
Myocarditis - Inflammation of heart muscles
Necrosis - Mortification of bones or tissue
Nephrosis - Kidney degeneration
Nepritis - Inflammation of kidneys
Nervous prostration - Extreme exhaustion from inability to control physical and mental activities
Neuralgia - Described as discomfort, such as "Headache" was neuralgia in head
Nostalgia - Homesickness
Palsy - Paralysis or uncontrolled movement of controlled muscles.
Paroxysm - Convulsion
Pemphigus - Skin disease of watery blisters
Pericarditis - Inflammation of heart
Peripneumonia - Inflammation of lungs
Peritonitis - Inflammation of abdominal area
Petechial Fever - Fever characterized by skin spotting
Peurperal exhaustion - Death due to child birth
Phthiriasis - Lice infestation
Phthisis - Chronic wasting away or a name for tuberculosis
Plague - An acute febrile highly infectious disease with a high fatality rate
Pleurisy - Any pain in the chest area with each breath
Podagra - Gout
Poliomyelitis - Polio
Potter's asthma - Fibroid pthisis
Pott's disease - Tuberculosis of spine
Puerperal fever - Elevated temperature after giving birth to an infant
Puking fever - Milk sickness
Putrid fever - Diphtheria.
Quinsy - Tonsillitis.
Remitting fever - Malaria
Rheumatism - Any disorder associated with pain in joints
Rickets - Disease of skeletal system
Rose cold - Hay fever or nasal symptoms of an allergy
Rotanny fever - (Child's disease)
Rubeola - German measles
Sanguineous crust - Scab
Scarlatina - Scarlet fever
Scarlet fever - A disease characterized by red rash
Scarlet rash - Roseola
Sciatica - Rheumatism in the hips
Scirrhus - Cancerous tumors
Scotomy - Dizziness, nausea and dimness of sight
Scrivener's palsy - Writer's cramp
Screws - Rheumatism
Scrofula - Tuberculosis of neck lymph glands. Progresses slowly with abscesses and pustulas develop. Young person's disease. Possibly chicken pox
Scrumpox - Skin disease, impetigo
Scurvy - Lack of vitamin C. Symptoms of weakness, spongy gums and hemorrhages under skin
Septicemia - Blood poisoning
Shakes - Delirium tremens
Shaking - Chills, ague
Shingles - Viral disease with skin blisters
Ship fever - Typhus
Siriasis - Inflammation of the brain due to sun exposure
Sloes - Milk sickness
Small pox - Contagious disease with fever and blisters
Softening of brain - Result of stroke or hemorrhage in the brain, with an end result of the tissue softening in that area
Sore throat distemper - Diphtheria or quinsy
Spanish influenza - Epidemic influenza
Spasms - Sudden involuntary contraction of muscle or group of muscles, like a convulsion
Spina bifida - Deformity of spine
Spotted fever - Either typhus or meningitis
Sprue - Tropical disease characterized by intestinal disorders and sore throat
St. Anthony's fire - Also erysipelas, but named so because of affected skin areas are bright red in appearance
St. Vitas dance - Ceaseless occurrence of rapid complex jerking movements performed involuntary
Stomatitis - Inflammation of the mouth
Stranger's fever - Yellow fever
Strangery - Rupture
Sudor anglicus - Sweating sickness
Summer complaint - Diarrhea, usually in infants caused by spoiled milk
Sunstroke - Uncontrolled elevation of body temperature due to environment heat. Lack of sodium in the body is a predisposing cause
Swamp sickness - Could be malaria, typhoid or encephalitis
Sweating sickness - Infectious and fatal disease common to UK in 15th century
Tetanus - Infectious fever characterized by high fever, headache and dizziness
Thrombosis - Blood clot inside blood vessel
Thrush - Childhood disease characterized by spots on mouth, lips and throat
Tick fever - Rocky mountain spotted fever
Toxemia of pregnancy - Eclampsia
Trench mouth - Painful ulcers found along gum line, Caused by poor nutrition and poor hygiene
Tussis convulsiva - Whooping cough
Typhus - Infectious fever characterized high fever, headache, and dizziness
Variola - Smallpox
Venesection - Bleeding
Viper's dance - St. Vitus Dance
Water on brain - Enlarged head
White swelling - Tuberculosis of the bone
Winter fever - Pneumonia
Womb fever - Infection of the uterus.
Worm fit - Convulsions associated with teething, worms, elevated temperature or diarrhea
Yellowjacket - Yellow fever
A few slang terms from A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, Francis Grose, 1785:
PIT, to lay pit and boxes into one, an operation in midwifery, whereby the division between the anus and vagina is cut through and demolished;
SMOUCH, dried leaves of the ash tree, used by the smugglers for adulterating the black, or bohea teas.
SLUG, a piece of lead of any shape, to be fired from a blunderbuss ;
BLUE PLUMS, a bullet; surfeited with a blue plumb, wounded with a bullet ; a sortment of George R — 's blue plumbs, a volley of ball, shot from soldiers' firelocks.
BROWN BESS, a soldier's firelock. To hug brown bess ; to carry a firelock, or serve as a private soldier.
BROGUE, a particular kind of shoe without a heel, worn in Ireland, and figuratively used to signify the Irish accent.
BUBBLE AND SQUEAK, beef and cabbage fried together. It is so called from its bubbling up and squeaking whilst over the fire.
BUCKET ; to kick the bucket ; to die.
TO BUG, a cant word among journeymen hatters, signifying the exchanging some of the dearest materials of which a hat is made for others of less value. Hats are composed of the furs and wools of diverse animals, among which is a small portion of beaver's fur. Bugging is stealing the beaver, and substituting in lieu thereof an equal weight of some cheaper ingredient. Bailiffs who take money to postpone or refrain the serving of a writ, are said to bug the writ.
BUM FODDER, soft paper for the necessary house or torchecul.
BUMPER, a full glass, in all likelihood from its convexity or bump at the top ; some derive it from a full glass for merrily drank to the health of the pope, a la bon pere.
TUP RUNNING, a rural sport practised at wakes and fairs in Derbyshire, a ram whose tail is well soaped and greased is turned out to the multitude, any one that can take him by the tail and hold him fast is to have him for his own.
SLUG A BED, a drone, one that cannot rise in the morning.
SLUSH, greasy dish water, or the skimmings of a pot where fat meat has been boiled.
SNAPPERS, pistols.
BARKING IRONS, pistols, from their explosion resembling the bow-wow or barking of a dog (Irish).
BULL DOGS, pistols,
POPS, pistols ; pop shop, a pawnbroker's shop ; to pop, to pawn, also to shoot ; I popt my tatler, I pawned my watch ; I popt the cull, I shot the man.
LOGGERHEAD, a blockhead, or stupid fellow ; we three logger heads be, a sentence frequently written under two heads, the reader by repeating them makes himself the third ; a logger head, is also a double headed, or bar shot of iron.
RANTALLION, one whose scrotum is so relaxed as to be longer than his penis, i. e. whose shot pouch is longer than the barrel of his piece.
One final one, from In the 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue:
Mrs. Philips ware. See Cundum.
"Cundum. The dried gut of a sheep, worn by men in the act of coition, to prevent venereal infection; said to have been invented by one Colonel Cundum. These machines were long prepared and sold by a matron of the name of Philips, at the Green Canister, in Half - moon - street, in the Strand. That good lady having acquired a fortune, retired from business; but learning that the town was not well served by her successors, she, out of a patriotic zeal for the public welfare, returned to her occupation; of which she gave notice by divers hand-bills, in circulation in the year 1776.
Also a false scabbard over a sword, and the oil skin case for holding the colours of a regiment."
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Pasting lists into this forum is a PITA. It destroys the format, smooshes the list into a paragraph, you have to manually reconstruct the list again, item by item, then also correct the spacing for every item. Sheesh! It took me well over an hour to compose, and I can't swear I kept it all straight.
Spence
I think this list of slang terms is from Eric
Partridge's "A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English" published in
1937:
Abraham-sham - a feigned illness
Admiral of the Blue - a tavern keeper
Admiral of the Narrow Seas - a drunk who vomits into a neighbor's lap
Air and exercise - a flogging at the cart's tail
Akerman's Hotel - Newgate prison
All nations - a mixture of drinks from unfinished bottles
Anchor, bring one's ass to an - sit down
Anne's fan - thumbing the nose
Apothecary, talk like an - talk nonsense
Apple-dumpling shop - a woman's bosom
Arse, hang an - to hold back
B from a bull's foot, not to know - to be ignorant
Bachelor's fare - bread, cheese and kisses
Bag, empty the - tell everything
Bagpipe - a long-winded talker
Baranaby dance - to move unevenly
Barnacles - spectacles
Barrel fever - ill health caused by excessive drinking
Basket of chips, grin like a - to grin broadly
Bear-garden jaw - rough or vulgar language
Davy sow, drunk as - very drunk
Deadly nevergreen - the gallows
Devil among the tailors, the - a row or disturbance
Devil-drawer - a bad artist
Devil may dance in his pocket, the - he is penniless
Diddle - gin
Diet of Worms, gone to the - be dead and buried
Dog Booby - awkward lout
Dog laugh, enough to make a - extremely funny
Dog-vane - a cockade
Dogs have not dined, the - "Your shirt tail is hanging out"
Dog's portion - a lick and a smell
Dot and carry, go - a person with a wooden leg
Douglas with one eye and a stinking breath,
Roby - the breech
Draws straws - to feel sleepy
Duke of limbs - tall awkward fellow
Dunghill, die - die cowardly
Dutch concert - everyone plays or sings a different tune
Dutch feast - the entertainer gets drunk before the guests
Earwig - a malicious flatterer
Emperor, drunk as - regally drunk
Ensign-bearer - a drunkard
Eternity box - a coffin
Ewe dressed in lamb's fashion, an old - an old woman in girl's clothes
Eye, to have fallen down and trodden upon one's - to have a black eye
Face but one's own, have no - be penniless
Facer - a glass full to the brim
Faces, make - beget children
Faggot - a man hired to appear on a muster-roll
Fallen away from a horse load to a cart load - to become fat
Fantastically dressed - very shabby
Fash one's beard - become annoyed (Scottish)
Fiddler's money - all small change
Fiddlestick's end - nothing
Fire a gun - introduce a subject unskillfully
Fire-shovel when young, to have been fed with a - have a big mouth
Fish-broth - salt water
Flag of defiance - a drunken roisterer
Flag of distress - the cockade of a half-pay officer
Flap with a fox tail - a rude dismissal
Flapdragon - VD
Flash the gentleman - pretend to be a gentleman
Flats and sharps - weapons
Flawed - drunk
Flay the fox - vomit
Fly in a tar box - nervously excited
Fool at one end, maggot on the other - an angler
Foreman of the jury - one who monopolizes the conversation
Foul a plate - dine with someone
Frenchfied - venerially infected
Full as a goat - very drunk
Game pullet - a young whore
Gammon - nonsense
Garters - fetters
Gemini! - expression of surprise
Gentleman in red - a soldier
Gentleman's companion - a louse
Give one's head for washing - to submit to be imposed upon
Glass-eyes - person wearing spectacles
Glim, douse the - put out the light!
Glorious - estatically drunk
Glue-pot - a parson
God permit - a stage coach
Goose, to find fault with a fat - grumble without cause
Gooseberry, play old - play the devil
Gospel-shop - a church
Grapple-the-rails - whiskey
Jakes - a privy
Jaw-me-down - a very talkative fellow
Jericho, have been to - be tipsy
Jerrymumble - to shake
Jerusalem, be going to - to be drunk
Jimmy Round - a Frenchman
Job's dock, be laid up in - be treated for VD in hospital
Josphus rex, you are - you're joking
Kerry security - take the money and run
Kicksees - breeches
Kill-devil - rum
King John's men, one of - a small man
King's English, clip the - to be drunk
Knob - a officer
Knock-down - strong liquor
Laced mutton - a whore
Lapel, ship the white - to be promoted from the ranks (esp. marines)
Lazy as the tinker who laid down his budget to fart - very lazy
Leap over the hedge before one comes to the stile - to be hasty
Leap over the stile first, let the best dog - the best man take the lead
Leg, cut one's - become drunk
Legs on one's neck, lay one's - run away
Lie with a latchet - a thorough-going lie
Line of the old author, a - a dram of brandy
Lion, tip the - flatten someone's nose to his face
Little house - a privy
Live lumber - passengers in a ship
Live stock - body vermin
Looking glass - chamber pot
Louse-land - Scotland
Lumping penniworth - a great bargain
Mab - to dress carelessly
Mag - chatter
Maltoot - a sailor
Man-a-hanging - a person in difficulties
Married to Brown Bess - enlisted in the army
Mauled - exceedingly drunk
Mice-feet o', make - destroy utterly (Scottish)
Milk the pigeon - attempt the impossible
Mischief, load of - a wife
Monkey on horseback without tying his tail?, who put - a very bad rider
Monkey's allowance - more rough treatment than pay
Morris - to decamp
Mourning shirt - a dirty shirt
mums the lips - murder,
look like God's revenge againt - to look very angry
nails, eat one's - do something foolish
Navel-tied - to be inseperable
Necessary - a bedfellow
Newgate steps, born on - of criminal extraction
Nit, dead as - quite dead
Nose, make a bridge of someone's - to skip someone when passing the bottle
Numbers the waves, he - he's wasting time
Oaken towel - a cudgel
Oatmeal, give one his - to punish
Off the hooks - crazy
Open lower-deckers - to use bad language
Overshoes, overboots - completely
Owl, take the - become angry
Packet - a false report (Scots)
Paddy-whack - an Irishman
Painter, but one's - send a person away
Parson Palmer - one who slows the bottle's round by talking
Pease-kill, make a - to squander lavishly ( Scots)
Penny lattice-house - a low ale-house
Perch, drop off the - to die
Peter-gunner - a bad shot
Peter Lung - one who drinks slowly
Pickled - roguish
Pin basket - youngest child of a completed family
Piper's wife - a whore
Pipes, tune one's - begin to cry
Piss in a quill - agree on a plan
Pissing-while - a very short time
Pitt's picture - a bricked up window
Play the whole game - to cheat
Pontius Pilate - a pawn broker
Popper - a pistol
Postmaster general - the prime minister
Prattle-broth - tea
Princum Prancum, Mistress - a fastidious, formal woman
Prow - a bumpkin
Public ledger - a whore
Pully-hauly - a romp
Punch-house - a brothel
Rabbit hunting with a dead ferrit - a pointless undertaking
Rag-water - bad booze
Red lane - the throat
Regulated, be - to be declared fit for the Navy by the press gang
Remedy-critch - a chamber pot
Repository - prison
Rib-roast - to thrash
Ride as if fetching the midwife - to go in haste
Ride the forehorse - to be early
Roast meat, cry - to boast of one's good fortune
Roast-meat clothes - holiday clothes
Rocked in a stone kitchen - a little weak-minded
Rogue in spirit - a distiller
Rot-his-bone, be gone to - be dead
Royal image - a coin
Rum customer - one who is dangerous to meddle with
Rumbo - rum punch
Rump, loose in one's - wanton
Sack, buy the - become tipsy
Saddle the wrong horse - lay blame on the wrong person
Saddle one's nose - wear spectacles
Saddle the spit - to give a meal
Salt eel - a thrashing with a rope's end
Sand, eat - to shorten one's watch by prematurely turning the glass
Sandy - a Scotsman
Sauce - VD
Sawney - a Scotsman
Suspence, in deadly - hanged
Swannery, keep a - to boast
Swipes, purser's -- small beer
Tankard, tears of - liquour stains on a waistcoat
Tea-voider - a chamber pot
Three skips of a louse - of little or no value
Tickle-pitcher - a drinking buddy
Tiff - thin or inferior liquour
Tight cravat - the hangman's noose
Tilter - a small-sword
Tinker, swill like a - to drink immoderately
Tabacco, make dead men chew - keep dead men on the books
Tommy tit - a smart lively little fellow
Tongue enough for two sets of teeth - a very talkative person
Top light!, blast your - damn your eyes!
Trader - a whore
Tripes and trillibubs - nickname for a fat man
Trunkmaker-like - more noise than work
Uproar - an opera
Vaulting school - a brothel
Waltham's calf, wise as - very foolish
Wamble - queezy stomach
War-caperer - a privateer
Water bewitched - weak tea or beer
Water in one's shoes - a source of annoyance
Wedding, you have been to an Irish - you have a black eye
Whisk - an impertinent fellow
Whither-go-ye - a wife
Wife in water-colors - a mistress
Windy - conceited
Wolf in the stomach, have a - be famished
Wrapted up in warm flannel - drunk
Yarmouth capon - a herring
Znees - frost
Old medical terms:
Ablepsy - Blindness
Ague - Malarial Fever
American plague - Yellow fever
Anasarca - Generalized massive edema
Aphonia - Laryngitis
Aphtha - The infant disease "thrush"
Apoplexy - Paralysis due to stroke
Asphycsia/Asphicsia - Cyanotic and lack of oxygen
Atrophy - Wasting away or diminishing in size.
Bad Blood - Syphilis
Bilious fever - Typhoid, malaria, hepatitis or elevated temperature and bile emesis
Biliousness - Jaundice associated with liver disease
Black plague or death - Bubonic plague
Black fever - Acute infection with high temperature and dark red skin lesions and high mortality rate
Black pox - Black Small pox
Black vomit - Vomiting old black blood due to ulcers or yellow fever
Blackwater fever - Dark urine associated with high temperature
Bladder in throat - Diphtheria (Seen on death certificates)
Blood poisoning - Bacterial infection; septicemia
Bloody flux - Bloody stools
Bloody sweat - Sweating sickness
Bone shave - Sciatica
Brain fever - Meningitis
Breakbone - Dengue fever
Bright's disease - Chronic inflammatory disease of kidneys
Bronze John - Yellow fever
Bule - Boil, tumor or swelling
Cachexy - Malnutrition
Cacogastric - Upset stomach
Cacospysy - Irregular pulse
Caduceus - Subject to falling sickness or epilepsy
Camp fever - Typhus; aka Camp diarrhea
Canine madness - Rabies, hydrophobia
Canker - Ulceration of mouth or lips or herpes simplex
Catalepsy - Seizures / trances
Catarrhal - Nose and throat discharge from cold or allergy
Cerebritis - Inflammation of cerebrum or lead poisoning
Chilblain - Swelling of extremities caused by exposure to cold
Child bed fever - Infection following birth of a child
Chin cough - Whooping cough
Chlorosis - Iron deficiency anemia
Cholera - Acute severe contagious diarrhea with intestinal lining sloughing
Cholera morbus - Characterized by nausea, vomiting, abdominal cramps, elevated temperature, etc. Could be appendicitis
Cholecystitus - Inflammation of the gall bladder
Cholelithiasis - Gall stones
Chorea - Disease characterized by convulsions, contortions and dancing
Cold plague - Ague which is characterized by chills
Colic - An abdominal pain and cramping
Congestive chills - Malaria
Consumption - Tuberculosis
Congestion - Any collection of fluid in an organ, like the lungs
Congestive chills - Malaria with diarrhea
Congestive fever - Malaria
Corruption - Infection
Coryza - A cold
Costiveness - Constipation
Cramp colic - Appendicitis
Crop sickness - Overextended stomach
Croup - Laryngitis, diphtheria, or strep throat
Cyanosis - Dark skin color from lack of oxygen in blood
Cynanche - Diseases of throat
Cystitis - Inflammation of the bladder
Day fever - Fever lasting one day; sweating sickness
Debility - Lack of movement or staying in bed
Decrepitude - Feebleness due to old age
Delirium tremens - Hallucinations due to alcoholism
Dengue - Infectious fever endemic to East Africa
Dentition - Cutting of teeth
Deplumation - Tumor of the eyelids which causes hair loss
Diary fever - A fever that lasts one day
Diptheria - Contagious disease of the throat
Distemper - Usually animal disease with malaise, discharge from nose and throat, anorexia
Dock fever - Yellow fever
Dropsy - Edema (swelling), often caused by kidney or heart disease
Dropsy of the Brain - Encephalitis
Dry Bellyache - Lead poisoning
Dyscrasy - An abnormal body condition
Dysentery - Inflammation of colon with frequent passage of mucous and blood
Dysorexy - Reduced appetite
Dyspepsia - Indigestion and heartburn.Heart attack symptoms
Dysury - Difficulty in urination
Eclampsy - Symptoms of epilepsy, convulsions during labor
Ecstasy - A form of catalepsy characterized by loss of reason
Edema - Nephrosis; swelling of tissues
Edema of lungs - Congestive heart failure, a form of dropsy
Erysipelas
Elephantiasis - A form of leprosy
Encephalitis - Swelling of brain; aka sleeping sickness
Enteric fever - Typhoid fever
Enterocolitis - Inflammation of the intestines
Enteritis - Inflations of the bowels
Epitaxis - Nose bleed
Erysipelas - Contagious skin disease, due to Streptococci with vesicular and bulbous lesions
Extravasted blood - Rupture of a blood vessel
Falling sickness - Epilepsy
Fatty Liver - Cirrhosis of liver
Fits - Sudden attack or seizure of muscle activity
Flux - An excessive flow or discharge of fluid like hemorrhage or diarrhea
Flux of humour - Circulation
French pox - Syphilis
Gathering - A collection of pus
Glandular fever - Mononucleosis
Great pox - Syphilis
Green fever / sickness - Anemia
Grippe/grip - Influenza like symptoms
Grocer's itch - Skin disease caused by mites in sugar or flour
Heart sickness - Condition caused by loss of salt from body
Heat stroke - Body temperature elevates because of surrounding environment temperature and body does not perspire to reduce temperature. Coma and death result if not reversed
Hectical complaint - Recurrent fever
Hematemesis - Vomiting blood
Hematuria - Bloody urine
Hemiplegy - Paralysis of one side of body
Hip gout - Osteomylitis
Horrors - Delirium tremens
Hydrocephalus - Enlarged head, water on the brain
Hydropericardium - Heart dropsy
Hydrophobia - Rabies
Hydrothroax - Dropsy in chest
Hypertrophic - Enlargement of organ, like the heart
Impetigo - Contagious skin disease characterized by pustules
Inanition - Physical condition resulting from lack of food
Infantile paralysis - Polio
Intestinal colic - Abdominal pain due to improper diet
Jail fever - Typhus
Jaundice - Condition caused by blockage of intestines
King's evil - Tuberculosis of neck and lymph glands
Kruchhusten - Whooping cough
Lagrippe - Influenza
Lockjaw - Tetanus or infectious disease affecting the muscles of the neck and jaw. Untreated, it is fatal in 8 days
Lung sickness - Tuberculosis
Lues disease - Syphilis
Lues venera - Venereal disease
Lumbago - Back pain
Lung fever - Pneumonia
Lung sickness - Tuberculosis
Lying in - Time of delivery of infant
Malignant sore throat - Diphtheria
Mania - Insanity
Marasmus - Progressive wasting away of body, like malnutrition
Membranous Croup - Diphtheria
Meningitis - Inflations of brain or spinal cord
Metritis - Inflammation of uterus or purulent vaginal discharge
Miasma - Poisonous vapors thought to infect the air
Milk fever - Disease from drinking contaminated milk, like undulant fever or brucellosis
Milk leg - Post partum thrombophlebitis
Milk sickness - Disease from milk of cattle which had eaten poisonous weeds
Mormal - Gangrene
Morphew - Scurvy blisters on the body
Mortification - Gangrene of necrotic tissue
Myelitis - Inflammation of the spine
Myocarditis - Inflammation of heart muscles
Necrosis - Mortification of bones or tissue
Nephrosis - Kidney degeneration
Nepritis - Inflammation of kidneys
Nervous prostration - Extreme exhaustion from inability to control physical and mental activities
Neuralgia - Described as discomfort, such as "Headache" was neuralgia in head
Nostalgia - Homesickness
Palsy - Paralysis or uncontrolled movement of controlled muscles.
Paroxysm - Convulsion
Pemphigus - Skin disease of watery blisters
Pericarditis - Inflammation of heart
Peripneumonia - Inflammation of lungs
Peritonitis - Inflammation of abdominal area
Petechial Fever - Fever characterized by skin spotting
Peurperal exhaustion - Death due to child birth
Phthiriasis - Lice infestation
Phthisis - Chronic wasting away or a name for tuberculosis
Plague - An acute febrile highly infectious disease with a high fatality rate
Pleurisy - Any pain in the chest area with each breath
Podagra - Gout
Poliomyelitis - Polio
Potter's asthma - Fibroid pthisis
Pott's disease - Tuberculosis of spine
Puerperal fever - Elevated temperature after giving birth to an infant
Puking fever - Milk sickness
Putrid fever - Diphtheria.
Quinsy - Tonsillitis.
Remitting fever - Malaria
Rheumatism - Any disorder associated with pain in joints
Rickets - Disease of skeletal system
Rose cold - Hay fever or nasal symptoms of an allergy
Rotanny fever - (Child's disease)
Rubeola - German measles
Sanguineous crust - Scab
Scarlatina - Scarlet fever
Scarlet fever - A disease characterized by red rash
Scarlet rash - Roseola
Sciatica - Rheumatism in the hips
Scirrhus - Cancerous tumors
Scotomy - Dizziness, nausea and dimness of sight
Scrivener's palsy - Writer's cramp
Screws - Rheumatism
Scrofula - Tuberculosis of neck lymph glands. Progresses slowly with abscesses and pustulas develop. Young person's disease. Possibly chicken pox
Scrumpox - Skin disease, impetigo
Scurvy - Lack of vitamin C. Symptoms of weakness, spongy gums and hemorrhages under skin
Septicemia - Blood poisoning
Shakes - Delirium tremens
Shaking - Chills, ague
Shingles - Viral disease with skin blisters
Ship fever - Typhus
Siriasis - Inflammation of the brain due to sun exposure
Sloes - Milk sickness
Small pox - Contagious disease with fever and blisters
Softening of brain - Result of stroke or hemorrhage in the brain, with an end result of the tissue softening in that area
Sore throat distemper - Diphtheria or quinsy
Spanish influenza - Epidemic influenza
Spasms - Sudden involuntary contraction of muscle or group of muscles, like a convulsion
Spina bifida - Deformity of spine
Spotted fever - Either typhus or meningitis
Sprue - Tropical disease characterized by intestinal disorders and sore throat
St. Anthony's fire - Also erysipelas, but named so because of affected skin areas are bright red in appearance
St. Vitas dance - Ceaseless occurrence of rapid complex jerking movements performed involuntary
Stomatitis - Inflammation of the mouth
Stranger's fever - Yellow fever
Strangery - Rupture
Sudor anglicus - Sweating sickness
Summer complaint - Diarrhea, usually in infants caused by spoiled milk
Sunstroke - Uncontrolled elevation of body temperature due to environment heat. Lack of sodium in the body is a predisposing cause
Swamp sickness - Could be malaria, typhoid or encephalitis
Sweating sickness - Infectious and fatal disease common to UK in 15th century
Tetanus - Infectious fever characterized by high fever, headache and dizziness
Thrombosis - Blood clot inside blood vessel
Thrush - Childhood disease characterized by spots on mouth, lips and throat
Tick fever - Rocky mountain spotted fever
Toxemia of pregnancy - Eclampsia
Trench mouth - Painful ulcers found along gum line, Caused by poor nutrition and poor hygiene
Tussis convulsiva - Whooping cough
Typhus - Infectious fever characterized high fever, headache, and dizziness
Variola - Smallpox
Venesection - Bleeding
Viper's dance - St. Vitus Dance
Water on brain - Enlarged head
White swelling - Tuberculosis of the bone
Winter fever - Pneumonia
Womb fever - Infection of the uterus.
Worm fit - Convulsions associated with teething, worms, elevated temperature or diarrhea
Yellowjacket - Yellow fever
A few slang terms from A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, Francis Grose, 1785:
PIT, to lay pit and boxes into one, an operation in midwifery, whereby the division between the anus and vagina is cut through and demolished;
SMOUCH, dried leaves of the ash tree, used by the smugglers for adulterating the black, or bohea teas.
SLUG, a piece of lead of any shape, to be fired from a blunderbuss ;
BLUE PLUMS, a bullet; surfeited with a blue plumb, wounded with a bullet ; a sortment of George R — 's blue plumbs, a volley of ball, shot from soldiers' firelocks.
BROWN BESS, a soldier's firelock. To hug brown bess ; to carry a firelock, or serve as a private soldier.
BROGUE, a particular kind of shoe without a heel, worn in Ireland, and figuratively used to signify the Irish accent.
BUBBLE AND SQUEAK, beef and cabbage fried together. It is so called from its bubbling up and squeaking whilst over the fire.
BUCKET ; to kick the bucket ; to die.
TO BUG, a cant word among journeymen hatters, signifying the exchanging some of the dearest materials of which a hat is made for others of less value. Hats are composed of the furs and wools of diverse animals, among which is a small portion of beaver's fur. Bugging is stealing the beaver, and substituting in lieu thereof an equal weight of some cheaper ingredient. Bailiffs who take money to postpone or refrain the serving of a writ, are said to bug the writ.
BUM FODDER, soft paper for the necessary house or torchecul.
BUMPER, a full glass, in all likelihood from its convexity or bump at the top ; some derive it from a full glass for merrily drank to the health of the pope, a la bon pere.
TUP RUNNING, a rural sport practised at wakes and fairs in Derbyshire, a ram whose tail is well soaped and greased is turned out to the multitude, any one that can take him by the tail and hold him fast is to have him for his own.
SLUG A BED, a drone, one that cannot rise in the morning.
SLUSH, greasy dish water, or the skimmings of a pot where fat meat has been boiled.
SNAPPERS, pistols.
BARKING IRONS, pistols, from their explosion resembling the bow-wow or barking of a dog (Irish).
BULL DOGS, pistols,
POPS, pistols ; pop shop, a pawnbroker's shop ; to pop, to pawn, also to shoot ; I popt my tatler, I pawned my watch ; I popt the cull, I shot the man.
LOGGERHEAD, a blockhead, or stupid fellow ; we three logger heads be, a sentence frequently written under two heads, the reader by repeating them makes himself the third ; a logger head, is also a double headed, or bar shot of iron.
RANTALLION, one whose scrotum is so relaxed as to be longer than his penis, i. e. whose shot pouch is longer than the barrel of his piece.
One final one, from In the 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue:
Mrs. Philips ware. See Cundum.
"Cundum. The dried gut of a sheep, worn by men in the act of coition, to prevent venereal infection; said to have been invented by one Colonel Cundum. These machines were long prepared and sold by a matron of the name of Philips, at the Green Canister, in Half - moon - street, in the Strand. That good lady having acquired a fortune, retired from business; but learning that the town was not well served by her successors, she, out of a patriotic zeal for the public welfare, returned to her occupation; of which she gave notice by divers hand-bills, in circulation in the year 1776.
Also a false scabbard over a sword, and the oil skin case for holding the colours of a regiment."
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Pasting lists into this forum is a PITA. It destroys the format, smooshes the list into a paragraph, you have to manually reconstruct the list again, item by item, then also correct the spacing for every item. Sheesh! It took me well over an hour to compose, and I can't swear I kept it all straight.
Spence