A Dictionary of Modern Slang, Cant, and Vulgar Words


A Dictionary of Modern Slang, Cant and Vulgar Words is a dictionary of slang originally compiled by publisher and lexicographer John Camden Hotten in 1859.
The first edition was published in 1859, with the full title and subtitle: A dictionary of modern slang, cant, and vulgar words: used at the present day in the streets of London, the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, the houses of Parliament, the dens of St. Giles, and the palaces of St. James : preceded by a history of cant and vulgar language : with glossaries of two secret languages, spoken by the wandering tribes of London, the costermongers, and the patterers. It has also been published as The Slang Dictionary: Etymological, Historical, and Anecdotal.
The dictionary included criminal slang, back slang, rhyming slang, and other types of slang. Its author, Hotten, included histories of some slangs, a detailed bibliography, and a noted definition:
Hotten's work was arguably the most important work on swears since Francis Grose's 1785 Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue.

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