Authors: Maria McCann
follower
servant’s suitor
foyster
pickpocket
frig
masturbate
frisk
search (a till or a person being robbed)
funk
panic
gammon
nonsense, rubbish
garden thrash
contemptuous term for vegetables
gentry-cove
gentleman
gentry-mort
gentlewoman
gingumbob
thingummy
glim
partially concealed lantern, ‘dark lantern’
Grand Tour
European trip, part of the education of young gentlemen
guinea
gold coin worth £1.05
Harris’s (List)
a catalogue of prostitutes, with their prices and specialities, anonymously edited by Sam Derrick. From 1761 he took up the ‘day job’ of Master of Ceremonies at Bath and Tunbridge Wells while continuing to edit
Harris’s
, something that only became public knowledge after his death.
hartshorn
ammonia used as smelling salts
high toby/toby man
highwayman
hogo
stink
hollow leg
man with huge capacity for drinking
in keeping
(of a woman) financially supported by a lover
in the straw
pregnant
Jack Ketch
traditional nickname for the hangman
jerry
chamber pot
keeper
man supporting a mistress
keeping cully
dupe supporting an unfaithful mistress
ken
house, dwelling
kiddey
see
flash kiddey
kidney
disposition, principles or humour
kinchin
child
knotting-bag
a workbag, used by some women as a handbag
large, a
the corpse of an adult
lay
enterprise, pursuit or attempt
les domestiques
the servants
letch
kink, perversion, particular attraction
lift
pickpocket
lightning
gin
link-boy
boy carrying a torch, or ‘link’, who could be hired to guide pedestrians
Lock Hospital
hospital for the treatment of sexually transmitted disease
loobies
bumpkins
lush
(
noun/verb
) a drinker; to drink
lushy
fond of drinking
ma femme
my wife
Magdalene House
charity which rescued prostitutes
make someone easy
kill someone
man of honour
libertine
man of spirit
debauchee
mantua-maker
dressmaker
marrowbones
knees
middling sort
middle class
mill
beat
Miss Laycock
a woman’s sexual organs
monosyllable, the
a woman’s sexual organs
mort
woman
Mother
female brothel keeper
Mr Lushington
a drunkard
Mrs Delany
a bluestocking known for her interest in gardening as well as other aspects of what we might now call ‘lifestyle’
muff
a woman’s sexual organs. Women beginning a new relationship or getting married were toasted, ‘To the well wearing of your muff.’
Mussulman
Muslim
nantz
brandy from Nantes
nap/nab
catch/get
necessary house
lavatory
New Buildings
new developments in the area around Marylebone
niaiseries
foolishnesses
nose
spy
nuns
prostitutes in a brothel
ogles
eyes
Old Harry
the devil
Old Scratch
the devil
one of us
a prostitute
ottomised
dissected (corruption of ‘anatomised’)
Pam, Pamphile
the Knave of Clubs
panney
house
parish settlement
the right to reside in a parish or to receive parish assistance
partie de plaisir
enjoyable outing
peach, to
to ‘grass someone up’
pelisse
type of cloak
perruque
earlier version of ‘periwig’ (modern English, ‘wig’)
phiz
face
pièce de résistance
(in this context) finest achievement
pike (off)
‘do a runner’
plump currant
‘in the pink’
plus ça change
the more things change (the more they stay the same)
pomade
hair dressing
poor’s hole/poor’s pit
type of communal grave in which the coffins of the poor were stacked three or four deep
posset
drink of alcohol mixed with milk or cream and spices
prad
horse
priggers
thieves
prink oneself
beautify oneself
provocatives
aphrodisiacs
pushing academy
brothel
put one’s finger in one’s eye
feign grief/force oneself to cry
queer culls
sodomites
Queer Street
a tricky situation, especially financial
Quel dommage!
What a shame!
ragoo
ragout
Ranelagh
a fashionable pleasure garden
readies
ready money
Receiving House
early kind of post office, often based at an inn
red-headed friend
menstrual period
resurrectionist
grave-robber
revenons à nos moutons
let’s get back to where we started (literally: ‘Let’s return to our sheep’, an allusion to a fifteenth-century play)
riding St George
sex with the woman on top
ridotto
gathering with music and dancing
rig
fun, game, trick
Romeville
London
rose (never blown upon)
a virgin
rout
fashionable evening party or reception
rum
good, fine, desirable
sacque
style of dress
sal
salivation caused by mercury treatment (for syphilis)
scrag, to
hang (a person)
seraglio
continental type of brothel, considered more upmarket
Sex, the
with a capital ‘S’, this means ‘women’
shiv
knife
simpkin
simpleton
Sisterhood, the
prostitutes
small, a
the corpse of a child
sot
drunkard
sotto voce
spoken so as not to be overheard
Spanish fly
cantharides, an aphrodisiac
sparrowgrass
asparagus
Spitalfields silk
silk of London manufacture, from the parish of Spitalfields
sprain one’s ankle
become pregnant
squaretoes
old-fashioned person
stand bitch
act the hostess, pour tea
sugar stick
penis
supper
evening meal
sweating
mercury treatment for syphilis
take the King’s Shilling
join the army
Tarocco
Tarot
tarse
penis
tendresses
‘tendernesses’. Here, intimate talk and other sounds from the bedroom
three-legged mare
the gallows
toby
see
high toby
toddle
leave, run away
togs
clothes
toilette
grooming, self-presentation
ton
, the
the fashionable nobility
touché
‘You win that one’
tray
in cards, the three of any suit
trepan
to kidnap, usually into slavery
(trusty) Trojan
trustworthy person, confidante