Slang dictionary of 17th-century London revealed
By Rob Hastings in The Independent
Thursday, 12 August 2010

In 1699 the word "slang" had not even been coined. Nevertheless, a newly uncovered book proves that whether you were an "arsworm" ("a little diminutive Fellow") or a "bundletail" ("a short Fat or squat Lass"), colloquial language was thriving in 17th-century England.

Those are just two of the 4,000 entries included in A New Dictionary of Terms, Ancient and Modern, of the Canting Crew, which has recently been rediscovered in Oxford University's Bodleian Library.
Given the number of references to the nether regions, it seems bum jokes were just as popular then as now. Breeches were known as "farting-crackers" and "Bumfodder" is sensitively described as "what serves to wipe the Tail".
One term is particularly apt in today's political climate: "Malecontents, out of Humour with the Government, for want of a Place, or having lost one" are defined as "Grumbletonians."
The dictionary was originally compiled to amuse the polite London classes with a knowledge of "canting", the vocabulary of thieves and ruffians.



Footnote:

Now the Bodleian Library has reproduced it with an introduction by John Simpson, chief editor of the Oxford English Dictionary, describing the history and culture of canting in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, as well as the evolution of English slang.

A fascinating volume for all who marvel at words and their derivation.