dirty words in dictionaries revisted

[George Thompson]

A few of you perhaps have perhaps been each morning eagerly opening your emails hoping to see the final word on the astonishing appearance in a schoolboy's Latin Dictionary from the late 19th century of the word "cunt" offered, along with "strumpet", as a translation of the word "cunnus".  I first posted about this in I believe March.  The dictionary was "The Handy Dictionary of the Latin and English Languages", published by David McKay, of 610 South Washington Square, Philadelphia.  My copy isn't dated, but some library's record dates it to "188?".

This may not be the final word; it may be only the hemi-demi-semi-final word.  But. . . .

The earliest appearance of this definition I have found is in "A New Dictionary of the Latin and English languages, with an appendix of Latin geographical, historical, and mythological proper names".  London, New York, George Routledge and Sons, [1878] [1 v.] 16 cm.  I have seen the Harvard copy of this book.  The title page doesn't carry a date, and has in pencil "187?".  It was received by Harvard as a gift in 1911.  The specific publication date comes from the Yale library record.  (RLIN records CTYADHL6331-B & MAHGARR93213-B)

The 3rd floor reference room of the NYPL has "A New Dictionary of the Latin and English Languages; with an appendix of Latin geographical, historical, and mythological proper names".  Leipzig, B. Tauchnitz, 1885.  This date is from the title page, and the definition of "cunnus" is present.

However, the Routledge edition had a note facing the title page (the verso of the half-title page, is I believe the technical designation) "Printed for George Routledge and Sons by Bernard Tauschnitz, Leipzig", so there may have been a Tauschnitz edition before the Routledge one or simultaneous with it, and the manuscript may have originated in Germany.  I see by RLIN that the Metropolitan Museum of ARt has an edition from Tauchnitz dated 1881 and described as the 3rd edition.

The plates were used in the early 20th century to produce "Burt's Latin-English Dictionary in two parts: Latin-English, English-Latin".  Rev. and enl. New York: A. L. Burt Co., [19--]  198, 212 pp.; 16 cm.  This is at the NYPL, and contains the definition.

I saw through ABEBooks that there were booksellers with copies of the McKay edition that dated from 1938, 1946 and 1950.  Alan J. Miller, Bookseller (1158 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10029-6917 alan at alansbooks.com) kindly responded to my email to him about the 1950 printing.  Zane W. Gray (BOOKSELLERS, 11 Alice Trail, Fairfield, PA, U.S.A., 17320-8288  doddm at blazenet.net) checked the 1938 and 1946 printings.  All three contain the definition.

The dictionary was reset by "D. McKay" of New York in the early 1960s to produce a "Handy Dictionary of the Latin and English Languages", revised by S. C. (Sidney Chawner) Woodhouse.  The book was at least sufficiently revised to eliminate the whole entry for "cunnus" -- a quick glance shows only a few minor changes otherwise.  There is a copy of this at NYU.

A dirty mind is a joy forever, but when I first posted this I offered those who wanted a philological justification the thought that this dictionary might represent the earliest appearance in print of the word in an American source.  This is still may be the case, even though now it seems that the book didn't originate in America, and perhaps not in the English-speaking world.

None the less, it is remarkable that the dictionary was published and distributed with this definition in the U. S., beginning in the dark reign of Anthony Comstock, evidently without attracting notice.  Presumably at least one or two of the college boys who sniggered over this entry in the 1870s and 1880s grew up to be dour Latin masters, and yet this entry stood for at least 70 years before it was censored.

GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.

"We have seen the best of our time.  Machinations, hollowness, treachery, and all ruinous disorders follow us disquietly to our graves."  King Lear, Act 1, scene 2 (Gloucester speaking).