A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue
Francis Grose · 1785
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Description
Francis Grose published his Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue in 1785, the first true slang dictionary in English. Grose was an artist and antiquary who collected words in taverns, markets, and army camps. He treated street speech as worthy of the same care scholars gave to Latin.
The entries record thieves' cant, soldiers' and sailors' talk, and the jokes and insults of everyday London life. Many entries are funny, and many are rude, which was part of the point. Polite dictionaries of the age ignored this half of the language. Grose preserved it, and historians of English still mine his pages for how ordinary people actually spoke in the 1700s.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Francis Grose |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 1785 |
| COLLECTION | REFERENCE |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 477245 |
| LICENSE | Public Domain |
| RIGHTS | PUBLIC DOMAIN |
| SOURCE | Project Gutenberg |