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

[Jonathan Lighter]

One true test of Matsell's reliability as a reporter would be to determine
how much of his original material can be shown to antedate his dictionary in
non-lexicographical sources. (It would be too much to insist that the
earlier sources be nonfiction.) Jesse may have done this - I don't recall.

My investigation of Matsell's own _National Police Gazette_ suggests to me
that it used relatively little of the _Vocabulum_ vocabulary before or even
after 1859, though its columns frequently used cant.  I find that
curious.  I included in HDAS almost every naturally occurring U.S. ex. I
could find illustrating an entry in Matsell, and I found relatively
few. With computer databases available, perhaps it would be time to look
again.

Even if you were Chief of Police, the simplest way to compile a "Rogue's
Lexicon" in 1859, would be to plagiarize from whichever of your
predecessors' work was available.

Add a few current terms, no matter how uncommon, and lo! a rogue's lexicon.


JL

On Mon, Mar 1, 2010 at 9:08 PM, Robin Hamilton <
robin.hamilton2 at btinternet.com> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Robin Hamilton <robin.hamilton2 at BTINTERNET.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "fork *up*" (July 1837), and other slang
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> From: "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
>
> > P.S.  Robin Hamilton wrote earlier:
> >>Actually, I'm wrong on "tip" [as "give"], come to think of it -- it
> >>comes into "Of the
> >>Budge" (often miscalled "The Budg and Snudge Song") about 1673 --
> >
> > The OED has tip v.4 sense 1.b., "With a coin or sum of money as obj.
> > (Hence sense 2, in which the person, here the indirect or dative,
> > becomes the direct obj.) Also with up and absol." -- with quotations
> >
> > 1610 ROWLANDS Martin Mark-all Eiv, Tip a make ben Roome Coue, Giue a
> > halfepeny good Gentlemen.
> > 1673 R. HEAD Canting Acad. 13 Tip him no Cole, give him no Money.
>
> Hm ...  I'll have to look again at Rowlands (and I'd agree _Martin
> Mark-All_
> is by him rather than Samuel Rid or S.R.), but the whole phrase Rowlands
> gives is [characteristically] just that bit off -- while "bene" and "rum"
> both occur (and both mean "good", though "bene" is more usually applied to
> things and "rum" to people) and "rum cove" is pretty common for
> "gentleman",
> I can't ever remember another case of "bene" + "rum", let alone the entire
> "bene Roome Coue" phrase.  So if Rowlands uses the term "tip" in 1610, and
> it's not used again before Head in _The Canting Academy_ (it's not in
> Head's
> gloss in _The English Rogue_ in 1665, for what that's worth), I'd still be
> prepared to argue that "tip" in this sense is a word which enters the cant
> lexis, along with a set of other terms, round about the 1660/1670s, where
> Head is the first to be recorded printing it, both in the gloss in _The
> Canting Academy_ and in his printing of "Of the Budge", and his gloss to
> that, in the same work.
>
> But more on that when I finish revisiting your original passage, which I'm
> still working at.  Do you have a URL for it?  I can't seem to find it via
> google, and I'd like to know the context.
>
> Robin
>
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