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    Saturday, November 03, 2007

    Billingsgate Language

    Completely found via Neil Gaiman's blog and for which I am both grateful and now fully immersed. While I won't really be using it in what I'm writing about via 1889, it is none the less intriguing and wonderful.

    Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue


    job’s dock - He is laid up in Job’s dock; i.e. in a salivation. The apartments for the foul or venereal patients in St. Bartholomew’s hospital, are called Job’s ward.

    rabbit catcher - A midwife.

    paw paw tricks - Naughty tricks: an expression used by nurses, &c. to children.


    You get the idea.

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