"fork *up*" (July 1837), and other slang

[Jesse Sheidlower]

On Mon, Mar 01, 2010 at 08:44:37PM -0500, Robin Hamilton wrote:
>> Matsell may not have been dumb, but he was certainly out to make a buck
>> (worth so much more in spending power then),
>
> I wouldn't argue that -- but does this clash with his abilities as a
> lexicographer?
>
>> and surely he
>> was linguistically and lexicographically naive.
>
> That, I suspect, is the crux of our disagreement -- and you'd have Julie
> Coleman on your side.  Neveretheless ...

For what it's worth, I did a paper on the _Vocabulum_ at the
2003 DSNA, and looked very closely at the work, and my
conclusion was that he was quite original. Yes, he copied a
hell of a lot, but he also changed and added a lot, and many
of his changes are not found in other slang/cant dictionaries,
but can be found in the popular/underground literature of the
approximate era, which suggests that he did know whereof he
lexicographized.

Jesse Sheidlower
OED

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