words

Londoners have always loved a bit of verbal inventiveness, but a newly resurfaced “cant” dictionary from 1699 shows just how vivid (and rude-sounding) the capital’s underworld slang could be. The book defines terms such as “fuddlecup” (a drunkard) and “cackling-farts” (eggs), along with a long list of coded words used by thieves, beggars, and streetwise hustlers to talk in plain sight. The first-edition volume – ‘ A New Dictionary of the Terms Ancient and Modern of the Canting Crew’ - was explicitly marketed as a practical guide for “foreigners” and other newcomers, promising help to “secure their Money and preserve their Lives.” In other words, it wasn’t just a curiosity: it was early modern London’s rough-and-ready survival manual writes Project