Ace, King, Knave (60 page)

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