Victorian Slang Primer No.6 - Love lane

Some racy 19th c. (and probably earlier) slang from the Routledge Dictionary of Historical Slang:-

Love-lane: The female pudend : C.19-20; ob.: low coll vergining on S.E. euphemism. Hence, a turn or an ejectment in love-lane, an act of copulation.

It gets even better ...

Turn. ... 3. An act of copulation: low : C19-20 (cf. C.17 S.E. turn-up, a whore) 'Hence,' says F.& H. 'to take a turn (or to turn a woman up) = to copulate [see RIDE] : also to take a turn among the cabbages, up one's petticoats (or among one's frills), in Abraham's bosom, in Love Lane, Bushey Park, Cock Alley, Cupid's Alley, Cupid's Corner, Hair Court, on Mount Pleasant, among the parsley, through the stubble, or a turn on one's back (of women)' : the Cupid phrases may be literary euphemism; Bushey Park and Mount Pleasant are confined to London.

 
Mount Pleasant? London readers should refer to this post on Londonist, and refrain from making jokes about the sorting office, where new vistas of euphemism await.

Victorian Slang Primer No.4 - My Gropus Clinics Copper

Some classic criminal slang from The Mysteries of London (c.1845):

    Lip us a chant. Sing us a song.
    Mum your dubber. Keep your mouth shut.
    My gropus clinics coppers. My pocket has got money in it.
    Fake the rubber. Stand treat this time.
    Noggin of lightning. Quartern of gin.
    Slacken your glib. Loosen your tongue.
    Cease napping the bib. Leave off whining.
    Precious-rum squeeze at the Spell. Good evening's work at the theatre.
    Yokel. Countryman.
    Forks. Finger.
    Rum-Tom-Pat. Clergyman.
    Kickseys. Breeehcs.
    Twitch. Silk net purse.
    Glims. Spectacles.
    Snitch. Nose.
    Hock-dockeys. Shoes.
    Gam-cases. Stockings.
    Parish prig. Parson.
    Nib-cove. Gentleman,
    Chanting the play. Explaining the tricks and manœuvres of thieves.
    Shov'd my trunk Moved off.
    Gay-tyke-boy. Dog-fancier.
    Chirp. Give information.
    Spelt in the leer. Advertised in the newspaper.
    Leg-glazier. A thief who carries the apparatus of a glazier, and calls at houses when he knows the master and mistress are out, telling the servant that he has been sent to clean and mend the windows. By these means he obtains admission, and plunders the house of any thing which he can conveniently carry off.
    Fedger. Glazier's frame.
    Squibs. Paint brushes
    Nibsomest cribs. Best houses.
    Blue-bottles. Police.
    Flue-flaker. Chimney-sweeper.
    Slavey. Female servant.
    Flag. Fourpenny-piece.
    Fly the blue-pigeon. Cut the lead off the roof.
    Bank the rag. Make some money.
    Mabber. Cab-driver.
    Dose the swell fred. Inveigle the fare into a public-house and hocus him.
    Vamper. A fellow who frequents public-houses, where he picks a quarrel with any person he has got a ring or a watch about him, his object being to lead the person into a pugilistic encounter, so as to afford the vamper's confederate, or pal, the opportunity of robbing him.
    Mill for a ned. Fight for a sovereign.
    Gams. Legs.
    Ticker. Watch.
    Flamms. Rings.
    Swell-street. The West End.
    Mounseer-fak'd calp. A hat of French manufacture.
    Strummel. Hair.
    Heater-cases. Wellington boots.
    Lully. Shirt.
    Upper ben. Coat.
    Rain-napper. Umbrella.
    Gold-headed dick. Riding-whip.
    River-tick. Tradesmen's books.
    Box of the stone-jug. Cell in Newgate.
    Hobbled. Committed for trial.
    Macing. Swindling.

Victorian Slang Primer No.3 - The Widow, The Boy

Punch, 1882: "Yes, I'll have a glass of the Boy with you "to celebrate that last victory" ... explanation below:

Champagne was then The Widow - a reference to Veuve Clicquot - or The Bubbly - a nickname easily understood - or The Boy. The Boy is a title that always puzzled me until, the other day, I was informed that, in a well-known sporting club, the wine was carried about on a tray by a youth; the fact, it is declared, gave the word.

William Pett Ridge, A Story Teller : Forty Years in London, 1923

Victorian Slang Primer No.2 - Scroofing

Scroof. — A sponge: one who endeavours to live at other people's expense, so that he can save his own pockets.

Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 1823 ed.

Scroof — to go about living with friends at their expense.

Sinks of London Laid Open, 1848 ed.

Victorian Slang Primer No.1 - Shooting the Cat

Shooting The Cat.—Among the strange phrases in use among sailors, which at first sight appear utterly senseless and silly, is one applied to the victim of seasickness, who is said to be "shooting the cat." What possible connection can there he between the overt act alluded to and the destruction of a "harmless necessary animal?" The first thing a man in search of what schoolboys call a " desi" has to do, is to settle in what language he must look for it. We have not far to go for the cat. Our sea terms, especially those of the mercantile marine, are almost all of either Dutch or Portuguese origin, these two nations having been our precursors in over-sea commerce. That which for many years past we have decided upon calling the ship's cargo (from the latter language) was in earlier days sometimes designated by the Dutch name of katt, the tradition of which still remains in our naturalised tea-caddy and katty-packages employed to this day; and also in the English word cat, which is used for a coasting vessel, the name of the thing carried being given to the vessel carrying, just as packet is short for packet-boat. To shoot the cargo is a common expression for disburdening a ship of its load ; and I need not insist further upon the aptness of the metaphor to the misery of the sea.

The Shipwrecked Mariner : A Quarterly Maritime Magazine, 1869

Bloomeration

BLOOMERATION

Bloomeration (London, 1891). Illumination. First heard 9th November at Prince of Wales' illuminations.

Binned

BINNED

A couple more brief entries from 'Passing English of the Victorian Era':

Bellywengins (E. Anglian, chiefly Suffolk). A violent corruption of 'belly-vengeance', a cruel comment upon the sour village beer of those regions.

Binned (Lond., 1883). Hanged; a ghastly word, referring to Bartholomew Binns, a hangman appointed in 1883.

Bags of Mystery

BAGS OF MYSTERY

More suspicious slang from 'Passing English of the Victorian Era', a dictionary which I suspect is not entirely to be trusted. The list of different types of Victorian beard is quite good, mind you:

Bags o' Mystery. (Peoples'). A satirical term for sausages, because no man but the maker knows what is in them.
     'If they're going to keep running-in polony fencers for putting rotten gee-gee into the bags of mystery, I hope they won't leave fried-fish-pushers alone.'
     This term took its rise about 1850, long before the present system of market-inspection was organised. But this term remained long after sausages were fairly wholesome. The 'bag' refers to the gut which contained the chopped meat.

irrelevant image shamelessly snatched from folksy.com

Balaclava (1856-60). A full beard, first seen upon the faces of the English army upon their return to England from Crimea. The new departure was instantly dubbed with the name of the most popular of the three great battles (Alma, Balaclava, Inkermann), the name probably being chosen by reason of the brilliancy of the charge of the Light Brigade. French writers who had visited the Great Exhibition of 1851, and who had been struck by the absolute absence of the moustache (except in the case of some military men), and the utter absence of the beard, without exception, were astonished upon return visits half-a-dozen years afterwards, to find Englishmen were bearded like the pard. Britons upon the principle of reaction always going the whole hog, grew all the hair they could, and the mere moustache of Frenchmen was nowhere in the fight. Interestingly enough, exactly as the wild, unkempt beard of 'The Terror ' dwindled into the moustache for the young, and the cotelette (mutton-chop) for the elderly, so the Balaclava (which abated the razor, as a daily protesting sacrifice to anti-gallicanism) toned down by '70, into the various beards of to-day the Peaked, the Spade, the Square, and other varieties of Tudor beards. These remained until the Flange, or Dundreary (see 1872-73),came in and cleared the chin, to be followed by the Scraper. To-day the 'York' prevails the short, pointed beard still worn by the Prince of Wales.

Banbury (London, 1894). One of the more recent shapes of 'jam', 'biscuit', 'cake', 'confectionery', 'tart' (qq.v.) a loose woman.
     Witness took several names and addresses, and some of the females described themselves as 'Banburys'; and said they got their living as best they could. — Raid on the Gardenia Club, The People, 4th February 1894.

I'll corpse you!

I'LL CORPSE YOU!

One of many charming phrases to be found in Arthur Morrison's slum-lit classic, A Child of the Jago, 1896. Here's the appendix containing a list of most of the slang:

Balmy: barmy, stupid
Bang-up: very fine
Barney: lark, spree, quarrel
Benjamin: coat
Benjy: waistcoat
Break: collection made for someone recently out of prison
Boat, in the: sentenced to penal servitude
Broads: playing cards
Buster: burglar
Chancery, in: in an awkward situation
Chat, to screw a: to break into a house
Chiv(e): (v) to cut, stab (n) knife
Claim: to steal
Click: robbery, theft
Clock, red: gold watch
Cop: to steal
Croak: to die
Daisies: boots (rhyming slang—daisy roots)
Davy: affidavit
Dipper: pick-pocket
Fag: pick-pocket
Fall: to be arrested
Fence: receiver of stolen goods
Flimp: to rob
Friendly lead: subscription by whip-round usually held in a pub
Fully: to commit a person for trial
Gilt: money
Gonoph: thief esp. skilled pick-pocket
Go out: to follow the profession of thieving
Hook: pick-pocket
Ikey: Jew esp. receiver of stolen goods
James (jemmy): iron crow-bar
Kicksies: trousers
Lag: to sentence to penal servitude
Lagging dues: liable to be sentenced to penal servitude
Lob-crawling: till-robbing
Lucky, to cut one's: to make a getaway
Mace: (n) swindler (v)
To work the Mace: to swindle by obtaining goods on false pretences
Mag, on the: engaged in swindling esp. as confidence trickster
Magsman: swell confidence trickster
Mazzard: head, face Milling: boxing
Moke: donkey
Nark: (v) to inform (n) informer
Narking dues: arrested because of information provided by a nark
Neddy: loaded bludgeon or stick
Nick: to steal
Nobby: smart, stylish
Oof: money
Pecker, to keep one's pecker up: to remain cheerful
Peter: bag, box, trunk
Pogue: purse
Prop: tie-pin, brooch
Quid: pound
Quod: (v) to serve time (n) prison
Rorty: dashing, lively
Rum: odd
Screw: to break into
Slang: watch chain
Smug: to arrest
Sneak: to steal, pilfer
Snide: counterfeit
Snidesman: coiner of counterfeit
Sparks: diamonds
Split: (v) to inform (n) 1. informer, 2. detective
Stall-farming: prob. helping pick-pockets
Stir: prison
Stramash: rough-and-tumble
Stretch: one year esp. prison sentence
Swag: stolen goods
Toke: bread
Topper: something of outstanding quality
Toy: watch
Toy getter: watch stealer
Toy and tackle: watch and chain
Turn over: to search/rob someone
Twirl: skeleton key
Uxter: money
Weed: to take, steal
Welsh: to inform
Welsher: informer
Yannups: money

This is jam!

THIS IS JAM!

More Victorian slang culled from the first novel (novella, really) of W. Somerset Maugham Liza of Lambeth (1897). Maugham had worked in the Lambeth slums, so he had first-hand experience of the way people talked. He explicitly notes that he does not give the 'unexpurgated' words of his characters (ie. we may safely assume that, in Lambeth, there was a good deal more swearing of a kind that never appeared in Victorian fiction) but it seems fairly accurate to me, looking at other sources and the OED.

Beeno (normally 'beano', elsewhere, I think) – party, spree

Boozed – drunk

Brake (noun) – OED gives ‘break’; waggon/coach for outing

Bust it – this one is not clear; may be 'bust' or Maugham's approximation of characters saying 'burst'; – 'make a great success of it', I think; also as exclamation, seemingly like ‘damn it’; not obviously in the OED

Cheese it! – leave it out!

Cock, old cock, cocker – mate, pal, familiar form of address to a man

Corker (Maugham writes as 'cawker') – a stunner, something astonishing

Dossy – stylish, smart, of a woman's clothing

Drag ­– waggon/coach for outing

Heel-tap – liquour left at bottom of a glass, dregs

This is jam! – this is great fun, this is a fine thing!

On my own hook – on my own

Mash – sweetheart, boyfriend

Got the needle – annoyed

Ooftish – money, cash

Pill – contemptible person, bore

Slobber (noun) – kiss

Still (noun) – a still birth

Whack (noun) – portion, share

'If you go crooked I'll 'ave your wall-paper orn'minted wiv your brains'

'IF YOU GO CROOKED, I'LL 'AVE YOUR WALL-PAPER ORN'MINTED WIV YOUR BRAINS.'

One of many fun quotes from Clarence Rook's Hooligan Nights, a tale of street-crime, 1890s style. Here's a compendium of slang from the book which I just put together, some of it familiar, some not. How do you like your wobblers?

Barker –gun
Beano – rowdy entertainment, festivities, fun
Boko – nose
Brass – money
Bull-dog with six teeth – gun
Bung – landlord
Can – barman
Chivvy – face
Class, to be; doing something class - being or doing something impressive, admirable amongst criminals
Cocker – mate, pal
Cop – policeman
Crack a crib – burglary
Dabbed about – thrown
Dial - face
Fanlight jumping – burglary by breaking in through fanlight
Full up to the knocker – thoroughly drunk
Gargler ­– throat
Glim – candle, light
Hooks ­– hands
Kip – somewhere to sleep
Lagged – imprisoned
Lam – beat up, thrash
Lamps – eyes
Lever – lever-watch
Mug – idiot
His number’s up – he’s finished
Napper – head
Nipper – child
Off your rocker - mad
Prig – thief
Put someone’s lights out – kill them
Ready – ready money, money
Quiff – dodge, trick, ploy
Raws – bare fists
Razzo – nose, esp. a red nose
Row – fight
Do a scoot – flee; do a runner
Shut your head! – shut up
Slavey – (female) servant, maid of all work
Slop - policeman
Snide coin – counterfeit; planting snide coin
Snuff (someone) – kill, harm
Split – informer/detective/policeman
Sticker – knife
Step short – hurry up
Swag – ill-gotten gains
Swank – behave ostentatiously, swagger
Tea-leafing – petty opportune theft
Throttle – throat
Ticker – watch
Trotter cases – boots
Wet – beer/drink
Wobbler - egg

Let's Make Tracks

LET'S MAKE TRACKS

Victorian slang is of particular interest to this novelist ... I'm always trying to reproduce accurate language that isn't a simple 'Cockney' pastiche; and doesn't sound odd to modern ears either. It's actually rather difficult - especially with words now considered entirely American that are good Victorian London English ("Station-house" for "police station" is one that always comes to mind). A pleasure, then, to find a Times article citing a lecture critical of 1850s slang. Much of it is familar, but I've never come across "make tracks" as a Victorian-ism ... or the likes of "walks his chalks". Enjoy the full article here