The vulgar tongue
"The Vulgar Tongue tells the full story of English language slang, from its origins in early British beggar books to its spread in American and Australian culture in the eighteenth century"-- Tells the full story of English language slang, from its origins in early British beggar books to its spread in American and Australian culture in the eighteenth century. The aim is not to record the history of the over 125,000 English words that make up the lexis. Rather, the author focuses on the common, often profane themes that run through the word-list--crime, sex, bodily parts and functions, insults, and drink and drugs--and their scope and function throughout the various cultures and overlapping subcultures of English language history, from the sporting world to the university campus to ethnic communities. --Publisher's description.
Stats for nerds
1recommend
3mentions
3people
2018–2021years
33% recommend67% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- Can't upvote this enough; it's a great podcast. If this seems just a little too esoteric, might I appeal to everybody's prurient side and recommend Chaucer's Vulgar Tongue [0] as a gateway episode?
[0] https://historyofenglishpodcast.com/2019/09/25/episode-129-c...
- I don't know if you realise it or not but "PITA" is almost the perfect expression to use for networking equipment by the name of "Arris":
" Jonathon Green, a British slang lexicographer who authored The Vulgar Tongue: Green's History of Slang, told me that his favorite rhyming slang word is "arris," which means ass, because it actually goes through more than one round of partially-dropped rhyming. "Arris," he said, is short for "Aristotle," which rhymes with "bottle," which itself is the first half of the phrase "bottles and glass," which rhymes with "ass." So in rhyming slang, "I'll put my foot up your arris" means "I'll put my foot up your ass" "
from https://www.vox.com/2015/2/16/8045999/cockney-rhyming-slang-...
- I read The Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed at the beginning of the year, just before she passed away. This summer I the first four books of the Earthsea series and will probably read The Other Wind and Tales soon. I've really enjoyed both universes--with Earthsea I keep wishing someone would make a game with this kind of magic system. The Lathe of Heaven is such a wonderful title, I'm looking forward to reading that as well.
I read her translation of Tao Te Ching while waiting in 2 hours of traffic for a ferry and it was wonderful and really informs the rest of her works.
I'm currently reading Cadillac Desert by Marc Reisner, on the history of U.S. water policy in the West. Frustratingly dry.
Also re-reading On the Road but unlike 16 years ago I'm reading the 'Original Scroll Edition' this time: no chapters, paragraph breaks, invented character names, censors, etc. The book you read in high school is, in fact, the novelization of the original, which Kerouac wrote in twenty days. I've kept my beat-up paperback copy of the 'novel' nearby and I've preferred the scroll edition for the most part.
On the nightstand: - Annals of the Former World by John McPhee 300 pages into it, but I got a bit tired of the redundancy inherent in combining multiple books into one. - The Vulgar Tongue by Jonathon Green. 40 pages in. I've been looking for a copy of the dictionary. - The Path to the Nest of Spiders by Italo Calvino.
