A month ago I commented as part of a Facebook discussion, ‘What we really need is a reverse slang dictionary, where you can look up a 'standard' word and find the slang expression of your period. I don't know how many times I have thumbed through Captain Grose or Eric Partridge to verify a slang term before I use it.’ And here it is, for Georgian and Regency England at least, which just happens to be my period.
In Regency Slang Revealed, Louise Allen has combed through the first, 1811 edition of Grose’s Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue; The Lexicon Balatronicum, Pierce Egan’s 1823 so-called third edition of Grose which includes much of Egan’s own sporting slang and John Badcock’s 1823 Slang: A Dictionary of the Turf, The Ring, The Chase, The Pit, of Bon-Ton and the Varieties of Life, and painstakingly sorted the entries into twenty-one sections covering The Body; People, Their Character and Behaviour; Social Interaction; Domestic Life; Getting Dressed; Eating and Drinking; Wealth & Poverty; Money & Valuables; Buying & Selling; Trades, Occupations & Employment; Sex & the Sex Trade; Entertainment, Music, Sport & Gambling; Crime & Criminals; Law & Order; Nationality & Race; Britain; Religion; Countryside, Nature & Agriculture; Sea, Ships & Seafaring; Transport & Travel; Language, Slang, Accent & Speech Approval; Motivation, Failure & Stopping; Condition or Quality; Time, Day & Never.
Each section is again broken down into various headings where all the relevant terms are listed. Prisons & Imprisonment, for example, has six subheadings. The informative table of contents and thirteen-page index make it very easy to chase down the elusive word or phrase. Regency Slang Revealed is an essential tool for researchers and authors of books set in the extended Regency period. It is available from Amazon in paperback at the very affordable price of £4.99.
In Regency Slang Revealed, Louise Allen has combed through the first, 1811 edition of Grose’s Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue; The Lexicon Balatronicum, Pierce Egan’s 1823 so-called third edition of Grose which includes much of Egan’s own sporting slang and John Badcock’s 1823 Slang: A Dictionary of the Turf, The Ring, The Chase, The Pit, of Bon-Ton and the Varieties of Life, and painstakingly sorted the entries into twenty-one sections covering The Body; People, Their Character and Behaviour; Social Interaction; Domestic Life; Getting Dressed; Eating and Drinking; Wealth & Poverty; Money & Valuables; Buying & Selling; Trades, Occupations & Employment; Sex & the Sex Trade; Entertainment, Music, Sport & Gambling; Crime & Criminals; Law & Order; Nationality & Race; Britain; Religion; Countryside, Nature & Agriculture; Sea, Ships & Seafaring; Transport & Travel; Language, Slang, Accent & Speech Approval; Motivation, Failure & Stopping; Condition or Quality; Time, Day & Never.
Each section is again broken down into various headings where all the relevant terms are listed. Prisons & Imprisonment, for example, has six subheadings. The informative table of contents and thirteen-page index make it very easy to chase down the elusive word or phrase. Regency Slang Revealed is an essential tool for researchers and authors of books set in the extended Regency period. It is available from Amazon in paperback at the very affordable price of £4.99.
