buck up
»What he wants is bucking up; somebody to say to him, ‘Bravo! why, this is splendid’.» (They And I. 239. 3.)
The author.
To buck up is schoolboy slang (Winchester College) for to be glad, pleased, to cheer up.
The usual expression is: Oh, buck up!—a phrase which at Westminster School would have a different meaning, namely exert yourself; at Uppingham, to be bucked is to be tired. (Farmer & Henley.)
bunk
»Don’t see anything for it, but for him to do a bunk.»—»Not a bad idea that, only where’s ’e to bunk to?» (P. Kelver II. 56. 8.)
A young clerk.
To bunk, probably originally schoolboy slang, means to escape, run away, take to flight (because of ‘funk’, or to avoid punishment).
To do a bunk: colloquial use of do with a verb stem used as a noun = achieve, perform, the action denoted by the verb. Cf. to do a drink.
bloke
»This bloke I have fallen on looks a bit sick.» (P. Kelver II. 237. 2.)
A plumber.
»I wouldn’t have them know as ’ow I was one of them college blokes.» (Novel Notes 203. 23.)
Uneducated young Londoner.
Bloke (or bloak) is London-cant for man, fellow. (Possibly, the word is derived from the Dutch blok, Germ. Block, though, if this is the case, it is difficult to account for the long vowel.)
blooming
»Not a blooming shadow, assured me J.,» so far as she’s concerned. (P. Kelver II. 53. 16.)
A young City clerk.
»I will drift into being a blooming milkman.» (T. T. T. 157. 2.)
Uneducated Londoner.
»I ain’t got a blooming sixpence on me.» (Sketches 128. 11.)
The same.
»Underneath my sneering phiz I’m a blooming ’Arry.» (Novel Notes 204. 10.)
The same.
»D’ye think I am a bloomin’ kid?» (Tommy And Co. 16. 20.)
The same.
»She gives me the blooming ’ump.» (Novel Notes 202. 25.)
A workman.
»I ain’t no blooming Smythe.» (Novel Notes 203. 8.)
The same.
Blooming (bloomin’) is a term in high favour among the ‘vulgus’.
It is a euphemism, similar to blessed, blamed, blarmed, etc., and is frequently used by the lower classes to emphasize words.
to blue
Mrs. D. »What have you done—blued the lot?»
Mr. D. »Belinda, your vulgar expressions pain me.» (The Prude’s Progr. 37. 2.)
To blue means here: to spend, to get rid of money quickly.
Have you blued the lot? = have you spent all the money?
Cf. to be blued = to be robbed.
boss-eyed
»You boss-eyed old cow, you.» (Stage-Land. 58. 22.)
Uneducated young man.
Boss-eyed means squint-eyed or with one eye injured. Here it is probably the former, the expression alluding to a woman.
The term may be connected with the schoolboy slang word »boss» as in »boss a shot» = make a bad shot—in which case it would refer to imperfection of the vision, rather than to obliquity in the position of the eye.
bullyrag
»They turn round and bully-rag me for being argumentative.» (They And I. 164. 14.)
A cultivated man.
»It ain’t no use my taking her now, I’ll only get bullyragged for disturbing ’em.» (P. Kelver I. 242. 30.)
Old woman of the working class.
Bullyrag (or Ballyrag) = to abuse, to scold vehemently. (Swedish: skälla ut.)
clout
»I do not blame the dog (contenting myself with merely clouting his head or throwing stones at him).» (Three Men In A Boat 162. 30.)
= to strike.
The word is originally a provincialism, but is used in vulgar language also.
cockey
»Yer won’t tell?—Say, ‘I swear’.»
»I swear-»
»Good-bye, cockey.» (P. Kelver I. 75. 30.)
Dialogue between two »street Arabs».
The term has probably nothing to do with cock-eye (squinting eye), but is a vulgar mode of address and diminutive of cock (cf. sonny, matey, slavey, chummy etc.), as in »a fine old cock», where the word indicates a certain superiority.
cop, copper
»It’s only the fools as gets copped.» (T. T. T. 162. 15.)
Uncultivated Londoner.
»I nearly got copped.» (Miss Hobbs 42. 18.)
Easy conversation between gentlemen.
»I have seen her fling her petticoats about, when the copper wasn’t by.» (T. T. T. 132. 16.)
A waiter.
= to seize, to catch.
The word is probably originally thieves’ cant, and has here the sense of arrest.
A cop or copper: a policeman.
The etymology of cop is doubtful. It has been associated with the Gipsy kap or cop = to take, with the root of the Latin cap-io, and with the Hebrew cop = a hand or palm. Farmer-Henley (Dict. of Slang and Coll. Engl.) observes that low-class Jews employ the term, and understand it to refer to the act of snatching.
cove
»I’m not cut for a respectable cove.» (T. T. T. 161. 20.)
Uneducated young man.
»Her master seems to have been an odd sort of a cove.» (T. T. T. 172. 20.)
A waiter.
»This cove looks young.» (The Passing 12. 12.)
A constable.
Cove (also covey, cofe, cuffing, and, in the feminine, covess) is a common vulgarism for man, person. The term is no doubt derived from the old Gipsy word cova = man.
It is, I should think, not quite as vulgar as the synonymous bloke.
curse
Neither child appeared to care a curse for anybody. (T. T. T. 182. 11.)
A waiter.
I don’t care a curse = I don’t care in the slightest degree. (Ich frage keinen Pfifferling danach; Je m’en fiche comme d’une guigne.)
The equivalent I don’t care a hang is rather colloquial.
Some euphemisms for damn, damned
»Why, bless us, where’s your eyes.» (Three Men In A Boat 171. 13.)
A lockkeeper.
»What’s the difference blessed if I can see.» (Three Men In A Boat 201. 5.)
An old woman of the lower classes.
»Though I’d been sitting in the shop the whole blessed time.» (Tommy And Co. 55. 20.)
The same.
»An afternoon! Bless the man, I want them for a month.» (The Prude’s Progress 19. 6.)
A jovial ex-actress.
»Blowed if I don’t think they’ll be a chirpier lot in t’other place.» (Sketches 201. 25.)
Uncultivated Londoner.
»Blow me if it ain’t me as ’as been cheated out of the fourpence.» (Sketches 128. 6.)
An omnibus conductor.
»Blow me tight if ’ere ain’t a gentleman been looking for Wallingford lock.» (Three Men In A Boat 115. 4.)
A provincial »Arry».
»Blimy if I don’t believe ’e’s taking ’ome ’is washing up his back.» (The Passing 10. 11.)
Uncultivated young woman.
»Oh, drat the man!» (Three Men In A Boat 233. 28.)
A young lady.
»Drat the boy!» (The Prude’s Progress 48. 4.)
An elderly lady.
»I don’t see the darned good of this part of the trick.» (Woodb. Farm 24. 30.)
Young peasant girl.
»I always see his face when I look on the darned things.» (Woodb. Farm 25. 38.)
The same.
»The blarmed tent is not up yet.» (Three Men In A Boat 19. 15.)
»That blasted dog of yours.» (Novel Notes 52. 15.)
A burglar.
»No, dash it, I can’t think of that line.» (Three Men In A Boat 92. 16.)
»Danged if I see so much fun in it.» (Woodb. Farm. 57. 40.)
Young peasant.
»The dog ought to know a durned sight more about them.» (Novel Notes 152. 26.)
A sailor.
All these expressions are, of course, vulgar, but not equally so.
Darn and, to a less extent, bless are euphemisms in common use in polite circles. Blow is a little coarser, but still usable by a lady in quite private life. Blast (Cockney brast) is a distinctly profane word, generally implying ill-temper. Drat is the usual word in the language of the domestic servant. Blime or blimey (= blind me!) as well as blarmed (probably a corruption of blamed) is distinctly vulgar. Dang (esp. dang it!) is a mild form of damn; might be used even by a clergyman.
the dismals
»I used to get the fair dismals watching it.» (T. T. T. 129. 21.)
A waiter.
= to feel wretched, dejected.
The phrase is doubly vulgar: »fair» to express »complete», as in »a fair (regular) swindle», »a fair old brute», »a fair knock out» (a fair fight); »dismals»—adjective turned into a plural noun to express a state of mind.
Cf. rheumatics (rheumatism); to have (to get) the blues = to feel melancholy.
doorstep
»Slices of bread and butter—»doorsteps», as we used to call them.» (T. T. T. 126. 14.)
A waiter.
»Door-steps» at two a penny.» (Sketches 55. 5.)
The author.
= a thick slice of bread and butter.
fair
»I thought it only right to give it (the bicycle) a fair trial.»—»You gave your family a fair trial also; if you will allow me the use of slang.» (Three Men On The Bummel. 47. 10.)
A cultivated young man.
= regular, real, thorough-going.
Cf. a fair swindle, a fair old brute, a fair devil, etc.
fake
A ’alf-brother, who’s always got to be spry with some fake about ’is lineage. (T. T. T. 138. 22.)
Uneducated Londoner.
»I ain’t the talent for the Don Juan fake.» (T. T. T. 143. 13.)
The same.
Fake (originally thieves’ cant?) is a proceeding or an affair of any kind irrespective of morals or legality. In America: a swindler. As verb: to do anything, to fabricate, cheat, steal, forge, etc.—a general verb-of-all-work. To fake up: to paint one’s face, make up a character.
The etymology is very doubtful. Some authors have associated the word with feage (whiff away), derived perhaps from the German fegen. This seems, however, to be rather a questionable construction.
fizzing
»Go to your lamented master, the fizzing count.» (Woodb. Farm 55. 9.)
A young farmer.
= excellent, ripping, crack.
fly
»I did help a chap to sell papers once: he said I was fly at it.» (Tommy And Co. 36. 22.)
A London brat of the working class.
»I don’t take ’er on while I’m myself. I’m too jolly fly.» (Novel Notes 212. 20.)
Uneducated young man.
= knowing, cute.
(Cf. Dickens, Bleak House: »Do what I want, and I will pay you well»—»I’m fly».)
In the 16th and 17th centuries it was held that familiar spirits, in the guise of flies, fleas, etc., attended on witches, who for a price professed to dispose of the Power for evil thus imparted. Thence a fly meant a familiar (spiritus familiaris). That is, I presume, the origin of the above expression.
funk
»I’m in a blue funk that one of these days she will oversleep herself.» (They And I. 194. 6.)
A student.
= to be anxious, nervous about something.
(funk: a state of fear; generally with an intensifying word, e. g. a bloody, mortal, or blue funk.)
Garn
»Garn! They’d run out of ’eads when they was making you.» (P. Kelver I. 93. 9.)
A London gutter child.
Garn, a corruption of go on, is vulgar London language. It is used in the same way as the French Va! Allez!
governor
A man, slouching under the trees, paused as I overtook him.
»You couldn’t oblige me with a light, could you, guv’nor?» he said. (Novel Notes 110. 16.)
Governor stands here as a vulgar mode of address, quite corresponding to the French bourgeois. In Swedish we should say simply: han or Herrn.
In the sense of father or master, employer (The governor: »gubben»), the word is now in everyday colloquial use.
grub
»You give me my grub and a shake-down, and I’ll grumble less than’ most of ’em». (Tommy and Co. 15. 15.)
Uneducated Young man.
One of the commonest of the numerous vulgar paraphrases of food (Farmer-Henley’s Dict. of Slang and Coll. Engl. mentions about a score of them.)
to lam
»The Lord will help us. Hold him fast, and—Lam into him». (Novel Notes 163. 9.)
A tract-distributor.
»She lammed in tracts at him full of the most awful language». (Sketches 200. 25.)
Old woman of the working class.
Lamb (vulgarized: lam) is sometimes ironically used to indicate a rough, cruel, or merciless person, and thence specifically applied to bludgeon men at elections. To this word we must refer, I suppose, the vulgar verb to lamb or to lam = to beat, to strike frequently. (Figurally or literally.)
The sense of the two above expressions is:
(1) go at him (figurally);
(2) she aimed mental blows at him by means of tracts.
let on
»Don’t let on to any of the chaps that I am a member of that blessed waxwork show». (Novel Notes 203. 20.)
Uncultivated young man.
Let on: vulgar for confess, inform, reveal the secret.
matey
»You must have forgot yourself, matey.» (Sketches 193. 20.)
A workman.
A vulgar diminutive form of mate.
mug
»Do you take me for a mug?» (Tommy And Co. 46. 20.)
A London brat of the working class.
He »took to» me, he said, because I was »so jolly green»—»such a rummy little mug.»
A schoolboy.
»Are you the rich mug Vane’s been representing you to be?» (P. Kelver II. 224. 28.)
An actress.
»Keep your mug shut about Oxford.» (Novel Notes 203. 26.)
Uncultivated young man.
Mug in the first three quotations is a vulgarism and means simpleton, greenhorn; in the last, it is another word (thieves’ cant) for mouth or face.
nab
»The chap who was nabbed at B. last week.» (T. T. T. 163. 7.)
A waiter.
= caught, arrested.
Originally thieves’ cant. Cf. the Swed. nappa: to grasp.
nob
»The nobs should be made to acknowledge it»! (P. Kelver II. 259 7.)
A businessman, former Whitechapel butcher.
Nob, abbreviation of nobility, as mob of mobility, stands on the same level as toff, both of them meaning person of distinction.
office
»I give her the office the next time I see her.» (T. T. T. 144. 3.)
A waiter.
= the hint, the signal.
To give or tip the office: to give a hint, a private information.
To take the office is to understand and profit by the hint given.
peg out
»The little beggar, at the end of the time mentioned, ‘pegged out’, to use Jimmy’s word». (Novel Notes 85. 25.)
Young Londoner of the working class.
= to die.
Vulgar synonyms: to hop off, to hop the twig, to kick the bucket.
phiz
»Underneath my sneering phiz I’m a blooming ’Arry.» (Novel Notes 204. 4.)
Uneducated Londoner.
Phiz, probably an abbreviation of physiognomy, is a vulgarism for face, countenance.
put away
»You don’t often see anybody put it away like that girl did.» (T. T. T. 126. 9.)
An elderly waiter.
= to dispose of by eating.
Compare W. S. Gilbert, Bab Ballads:
Cf. stow away.
to queer a pitch
»Business is business; and I ain’t going to queer ’er pitch for ’er.» (T. T. T. 137. 7.)
Uneducated young Londoner.
To queer a pitch is to spoil a chance of business.
Pitch (vulgar) is a place of sale or entertainment. »He had fixed his pitch outside.» (T. T. T. 124. 10.) Germ. Stand, Bude.
Cf. To queer = to spoil, to outwit.
To queer the stifler: to cheat the hangman; to queer fate: to get the better of the inevitable.
rocky
»She is a bit rocky.»—
»A bit rocky?»—
»Upset, ma’am, excited.» (Miss Hobbs 4. 8.)
A servant.
In this sense the expression is vulgar, whereas, in the sense of broken (by drink, illness, poverty, etc.) or difficult, dubious, it may be considered as verging towards colloquial.
(The term is, of course, derived from the verb rock.)
rorty
He entreated me to hold »Smith», the rorty ’Arry, a secret from the acquaintance of »Smythe», the superior person. (Novel Notes 203. 26.)
Young Londoner.
The phrase means: he was an ’Arry out and out.
Rorty (or Raughty) = of the very best.
Cf. rorty-toff: an out and out swell; rorty-dasher: a fine fellow; rorty-boys: jolly chaps.
The etymology is doubtful; possibly a corruption of right > righty?
savey
»When I comes into your shop to order refreshments, I’m boss. Savey?» (T. T. T. 126. 3.)
Uneducated Londoner.
»Me out of it—everything’s simple. Savey?» (T. T. T. 54. 13.)
The same.
»Upon my sivvy, blessed if I see ’ow to do it.» (P. Kelver II. 54. 13.)
Young London clerk.
Savey (savvy) is a common vulgarism for knowing, knowledge; as verb: to know, to understand.
Do you savey? = Do you know, do you understand? He had plenty of savey = of savoir faire, or savoir vivre.
»Upon my sivvy» stands probably for »upon my affy», a common vulgarized form of »upon my solemn affidavit» (upon my sworn testimony.)
The term is no doubt derived from some Romanic language, perhaps a corruption of the French vous savez or savez-vous.
Sawny-headed
»Well, you was a sawny-headed chunk, Josiah, you was.» (Novel Notes 36. 15.)
= a blockhead, a simpleton.
Sawny is said to be a corruption of »Sandy», the usual nickname (abbrev. of Alexander) for a Scotsman, as Taffy (Welsh pronunciation of Davy) for a Welshman, and Paddy (short for Patrick) for an Irishman.
Chunk = a shapeless mass of anything, a thick piece, a lump: of wood, bread, etc.; as applied to a person = blockhead. (Cf. chump.)
shove
»What is up?» I says. »Got the shove?» (T. T. T. 156. 14.)
A waiter.
= to be dismissed.
Cf. to give the shove: to send packing.
shut up
»Shut up, mother,» he cried at last, quite gruffly. (Sketches 197. 11.)
A bookmaker.
= hold your tongue!
Vulgar synonyms: Shut it! Stow it!
To be shut up: to be silenced, done for.
Cf. the French: ferme la boite!
sight
»She had a precious sight more gumption than he had ever possessed.» (T. T. T. 213. 18.)
A waiter.
»He tried to do others a precious sight sharper than himself.» (T. T. T. 220. 20.)
The same.
»The dog, who ought to know a durned sight more about them than he does— —.» (Novel Notes 152. 25.)
A sailor.
Sight is a common vulgarism for »lot», »deal.» (Precious, intensive adj. and adv., is colloquial, verging towards vulgar.)
sit
»She sits herself again.» (T. T. T. 225. 10.)
A waiter.
The ordinary vulgar confusion of sit and seat. (This phrase should not be considered as on the same level as the following: »The moment you stand or sit him down he begins.» (T. T. T. 67. 2.) This is only an ordinary graphic use of an intransitive verb in a transitive sense; colloquial perhaps, but not vulgar.)
skunk
»I trusted him, the skunk.» (Woodb. Farm 58. 20.)
Uneducated young man.
A skunk is a mean, paltry wretch (usling.) Originally the word signifies a stinkard (Mydaus meliceps).
slap-up
»We’ll have a good, round, square, slap-up meal.» (Three Men In A Boat 41. 7.)
= fine, first-rate, of the best.
Synonym: bang-up.
Cf. slapping: very-big, excellent; slapper: anything exceptional.
sort of
»This seemed to sort of lighten the boat.» (Three Men In A Boat 108. 30.)
= seemed to lighten the boat, as it were.
Often spelt and pronounced »sorter.» Compare kind of (»kinder»). Both especially common in American vulgar language and probably imitated from America.
to do spoons
»The girl said he’d gone to do spoons—whatever that may mean.» (Barbara 18. 25.)
A doctor.
= to make love, to flirt.
The expression may, I think, be characterised as a vulgarism; while spoon, as verb, originally student slang, may be considered as slang > colloquial.
stow
»Stow it!» he says. (T. T. T. 161. 14.)
Uneducated individual.
»Oh, stow that», she says. (T. T. T. 141. 15.)
The same.
= hold your tongue!
Cf. Shut it!
toff, toffy
»I’ve mixed a good deal with the toffs in my time.» (T. T. T. 133. 21.)
A waiter.
»a quiet, respectable toff.» (T. T. T. 138. 20.)
Uneducated young man.
»There was a party of toffs there.» (Novel Notes 213. 10.)
A London ’Arry.
»a bit of a toff in his off-hours.» (T. T. T. 211. 2.)
A waiter.
»Toffy enough she looked in her diamonds and furs.» (T. T. T. 140. 16.)
The same.
A toff = a fop, a swell. Toffy (tofficky) = dressy, showy, smart.
At Oxford noblemen students used to wear a golden tassel (a tuft) in their cap. Hence they were called »tufts»; so we get toff.
to be up a tree
»What would he do without you?»—
»Well, I’m afraid he would be a little up a tree, sir, if I may be permitted a vulgarism.» (Woodb. Farm 31. 9.)
A servant.
To be up a tree or treed means to be cornered, done for, obliged to surrender. To be up the tree is a phrase often used by City tradesmen in the sense of bankrupt.
Probably the expression derives its origin from a cant-word tree = gallows.
a wet
»’Ave a wet?» I declined the wet. (Novel Notes 205. 25.)
A young workman.
Common vulgarism for a drink.
swarry
»A day’s work, and then a pipe by your own fire-side with your slippers on. That is my swarry.» (T. T. T. 143. 16.)
A waiter.
Swarry is here probably a vulgar corruption of the French soirée.
(Cf. Dickens, Pickwick Papers, where it is still further corrupted into leg of mutton.)