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TURN OUT, personal show or appearance; a man with a showy carriage and horses is said to have a good TURN OUT.

TURNOVER, an apprentice who finishes with a second master the indentures he commenced with the first.

TURNPIKE-SAILORS, beggars who go about dressed as sailors.

TURN UP, a street fight; a sudden leaving, or making off.

TURN UP, to quit, change, abscond, or abandon; “Ned has TURNED UP,” i. e. run away; “I intend TURNING IT UP,” i. e. leaving my present abode or altering my course of life. Also to happen; let’s wait, and see what will TURN UP.

TUSHEROON, a crown piece, five shillings.

TUSSLE, a pull, struggle, fight, or argument. Johnson and Webster call it a vulgar word.

TUSSLE, to struggle, or argue.

TWELVER, a shilling.

TWIG, style, à-la-mode; “get your strummel faked in TWIG,” i. e., have your hair dressed in style; PRIME TWIG, in good order, and high spirits. —Pugilistic.

TWIG, “to hop the TWIG,” to decamp, “cut one’s stick,” to die.

TWIG, to understand, detect, or observe.

TWIST, brandy and gin mixed.

TWIST, appetite; “Will’s got a capital TWIST.”

TWITCHETTY, nervous, fidgetty.

TWITTER, “all in a TWITTER,” in a fright, or fidgetty state.

TWO-HANDED, awkward.

TWOPENNY, the head; “tuck in your TWOPENNY,” bend down your head.

TWOPENNY-HOPS, low dancing rooms, the price of admission to which was formerly – and not infrequently now – two pence. The clog hornpipe, the pipe dance, flash jigs, and hornpipes in fetters, à la Jack Sheppard, are the favourite movements, all entered into with great spirit and “joyous, laborious capering.” —Mayhew.

TYBURN COLLAR, the fringe of beard worn under the chin. —See NEWGATE COLLAR.

TYE, or TIE, a neckerchief. Proper hosier’s term now, but slang thirty years ago, and as early as 1718. Called also, SQUEEZE.

UNBETTY, to unlock. —See BETTY.

UNCLE, the pawnbroker. —See MY UNCLE.

UNDER THE ROSE. —See ROSE.

UNICORN, a style of driving with two wheelers abreast, and one leader, – termed in the United States, a SPIKE TEAM. Tandem is one wheeler and one leader. Random, three horses in line.

UNUTTERABLES, trousers —See INEXPRESSIBLES.

UNWHISPERABLES, trousers.

UP, “to be UP to a thing or two,” to be knowing, or understanding; “to put a man UP to a move,” to teach him a trick; “it’s all UP with him,” i. e., it is all over with him, often pronounced U.P., naming the two letters separately; “UP a tree,” see TREE; “UP to TRAP,” “UP to SNUFF,” wide awake, acquainted with the last new move; “UP to one’s GOSSIP,” to be a match for one who is trying to take you in; – “UP to SLUM,” proficient in roguery, capable of committing a theft successfully.

UPPER BENJAMIN, a great coat.

UPPER STOREY, or UPPER LOFT, a person’s head; “his UPPER STOREY is unfurnished,” i. e., he does not know very much.

UPPISH, proud, arrogant.

USED UP, broken-hearted, bankrupt, fatigued.

VAMOS, or VAMOUS, to go, or be off. Spanish, VAMOS, “let us go!” Probably NAMUS or NAMOUS the costermonger’s word, was from this, although it is generally considered back slang.

VAMPS, old stockings. From VAMP, to piece.

VARDO, to look; “VARDO the cassey,” look at the house. Vardo formerly was old cant for a wagon.

VARMENT, “you young VARMENT, you!” you bad, or naughty boy. Corruption of vermin.

VELVET, the tongue.

VERTICAL-CARE-GRINDER, the treadmill.

VIC., the Victoria Theatre, London, – patronised principally by costermongers and low people; also the street abbreviation of the Christian name of her Majesty the Queen.

VILLAGE, or THE VILLAGE, i. e., London. —Sporting.

VILLE, or VILE, a town or village. – pronounced phial, or vial. —French.

VINNIED, mildewed, or sour. —Devonshire.

VOKER, to talk; “can you VOKER Romany?” can you speak the canting language. —Latin, VOCARE; Spanish, VOCEAR.

WABBLE, to move from side to side, to roll about. Johnson terms it a “low, barbarous word.”

WALKER! or HOOKEY WALKER! an ejaculation of incredulity, said when a person is telling a story which you know to be all gammon, or false. The Saturday Reviewer’s explanation of the phrase is this: – “Years ago, there was a person named Walker, an aquiline-nosed Jew, who exhibited an orrery, which he called by the erudite name of Eidouranion. He was also a popular lecturer on astronomy, and often invited his pupils, telescope in hand, to take a sight at the moon and stars. The lecturer’s phrase struck his school-boy auditory, who frequently “took a sight” with that gesture of outstretched arm, and adjustment to nose and eye, which was the first garnish of the popular saying. The next step was to assume phrase and gesture as the outward and visible mode of knowingness in general.” A correspondent, however, denies this, and states that HOOKEY WALKER was a magistrate of dreaded acuteness and incredulity, whose hooked nose gave the title of BEAK to all his successors; and, moreover, that the gesture of applying the thumb to the nose and agitating the little finger, as an expression of “Don’t you wish you may get it?” is considerably older than the story in the Saturday Review would seem to indicate. There is a third explanation of HOOKEY WALKER in Notes and Queries, iv., 425.

WALK INTO, to overcome, to demolish; “I’ll WALK INTO his affections” i. e., I will scold or thrash him. The word DRIVE (which see) is used in an equally curious sense in slang speech.

WALK OVER, a re-election without opposition. —Parliamentary, but derived from the Turf, where a horse – which has no rivals entered – WALKS OVER the course, and wins without exertion.

WALK-THE-BARBER, to lead a girl astray.

WALK YOUR CHALKS, be off, or run away, – spoken sharply by any one who wishes to get rid of you. —See CHALKS.

WALL-FLOWER, a person who goes to a ball, and looks on without dancing, either from choice or not being able to obtain a partner.

WALL-FLOWERS, left-off and “regenerated” clothes, exposed for sale in Monmouth-street.

WALLOP, to beat, or thrash. Mr. John Gough Nichols derives this word from an ancestor of the Earl of Portsmouth, one Sir John Wallop, Knight of the Garter, who, in King Henry VIII.’s time, distinguished himself by WALLOPING the French; but it is more probably connected with WEAL, a livid swelling in the skin, after a blow. —See POT WALLOPER.

WALLOPING, a beating or thrashing; sometimes in an adjective sense, as big, or very large.

WAPPING, or WHOPPING, of a large size, great.

WARM, rich, or well off.

WARM, to thrash, or beat; “I’ll WARM your jacket.”

WASH, “it won’t WASH,” i. e., will not stand investigation, is not genuine, can’t be believed.

WATCHMAKER, a pickpocket, or stealer of watches.

WATCH AND SEALS, a sheep’s head and pluck.

WATER-BEWITCHED, very weak tea, the third brew (or the first at some houses), grog much diluted.

WATER OF LIFE, gin.

WATERMAN, a light blue silk handkerchief. The Oxford and Cambridge boats’ crews always wear these – light blue for Cambridge, and a darker shade for Oxford.

WATTLES, ears.

WAXY, cross, ill-tempered.

WEDGE, silver. —Old cant.

WEDGE-FEEDER, silver spoon.

WEED, a cigar; the WEED, tobacco generally.

WELL, to pocket, or place as in a well.

WENCH, provincial and old-fashioned term for a girl, derived from WINK. In America, negro girls only are termed WENCHES.

WEST CENTRAL, a water-closet, the initials being the same as those of the London Postal District. It is said that for this reason very delicate people refuse to obey Rowland Hill’s instructions in this particular.

WET, a drink, a “drain.”

WET, to drink. Low people generally ask an acquaintance to WET any recently purchased article, i. e., to stand treat on the occasion; “WET your whistle,” i. e., take a drink; “WET the other eye,” i. e., take another glass.

WET QUAKER, a drunkard of that sect; a man who pretends to be religious, and is a dram drinker on the sly.

WHACK, a share or lot; “give me my WHACK,” give me my share. Scotch, SWEG, or SWACK.

WHACK, to beat; WHACK, or WHACKING, a blow or thrashing.

WHACKING, large, fine, or strong.

WHALE, “very like a WHALE in a teacup,” said of anything that is very improbable; taken from a speech of Polonius in Hamlet.

WHEEDLE, to entice by soft words. “This word cannot be found to derive itself from any other, and therefore is looked upon as wholly invented by the CANTERS.” —Triumph of Wit, 1705.

WHERRET, or WORRIT, to scold, trouble, or annoy. —Old English.

WHIDDLE, to enter into a parley, or hesitate with many words, &c.; to inform, or discover.

WHIDS, words. —Old Gipsey cant.

WHIM-WAM, an alliterative term, synonymous with fiddle-faddle, riff-raff, &c., denoting nonsense, rubbish, &c.

WHIP, to “WHIP anything up,” to take it up quickly; from the method of hoisting heavy goods or horses on board ship by a WHIP, or running tackle, from the yard-arm. Generally used to express anything dishonestly taken. —L’Estrange and Johnson.

WHIP JACK, a sham shipwrecked sailor, called also a TURNPIKE sailor.

WHIPPER-SNAPPER, a waspish, diminutive person.

WHIPPING THE CAT, when an operative works at a private house by the day. Term used amongst tailors and carpenters.

WHISKER. There is a curious slang phrase connected with this word. When an improbable story is told, the remark is, “the mother of that was a WHISKER,” meaning it is a lie.

WHISTLE, “as clean as a WHISTLE,” neatly, or “SLICKLY done,” as an American would say; “to WET ONE’S WHISTLE,” to take a drink. This is a very old term. Chaucer says of the Miller of Trumpington’s wife (Canterbury Tales, 4153) —

“So was hir joly WHISTAL well Y-WET;”

“to WHISTLE FOR ANYTHING,” to stand small chance of getting it, from the nautical custom of whistling for a wind in a calm, which of course comes none the sooner for it.

WHITE FEATHER, “to show the WHITE FEATHER,” to evince cowardice. In the times when great attention was paid to the breeding of game-cocks, a white feather in the tail was considered a proof of cross-breeding.

WHITE LIE, a harmless lie, one told to reconcile people at variance; “mistress is not at home, sir,” is a WHITE LIE often told by servants.

WHITE LIVER’D, or LIVER FACED, cowardly, much afraid, very mean.

WHITE PROP, a diamond pin.

WHITE SATIN, gin, – term amongst women.

WHITE TAPE, gin, – term used principally by female servants.

WHITE WINE, the fashionable term for gin.

 
“Jack Randall then impatient rose,
And said, ‘Tom’s speech were just as fine
If he would call that first of GO’S
By that genteeler name – WHITE WINE.’”
 

Randall’s Diary, 1820.

WHITECHAPEL, or WESTMINSTER BROUGHAM, a costermonger’s donkey-barrow.

WHITECHAPEL, the “upper-cut,” or strike. —Pugilistic.

WHITEWASH, when a person has taken the benefit of the Insolvent Act he is said to have been WHITEWASHED.

WHOP, to beat, or hide. Corruption of WHIP sometimes spelled WAP.

WHOP-STRAW, cant name for a countryman; Johnny Whop-straw, in allusion to threshing.

WHOPPER, a big one, a lie.

WIDDLE, to shine. —See OLIVER.

WIDE-AWAKE, a broad-brimmed felt, or stuff hat, – so called because it never had a nap, and never wants one.

WIDO, wide awake, no fool.

WIFE, a fetter fixed to one leg. —Prison.

WIFFLE-WOFFLES, in the dumps, sorrow, stomach ache.

WIGGING, a rebuke before comrades. If the head of a firm calls a clerk into the parlour, and rebukes him, it is an earwigging; if done before the other clerks, it is a WIGGING.

WILD, a village. —Tramps’ term.—See VILE.

WILD, vexed, cross, passionate. In the United States the word mad is supplemented with a vulgar meaning similar to our Cockneyism, WILD; and to make a man MAD on the other side of the Atlantic is to vex him, or “rile” his temper – not to render him a raving maniac, or a fit subject for Bedlam.

WILD OATS, youthful pranks.

WIND, “to raise the WIND,” to procure money; “to slip one’s WIND,” coarse expression meaning to die.

WIND, “I’ll WIND your cotton,” i. e., I will give you some trouble. The Byzantine General, Narses, used the same kind of threat to the Greek Empress, – “I will spin such a thread that they shall not be able to unravel.”

WINDED-SETTLED, transported for life.

WINDOWS, the eyes, or “peepers.”

WINEY, intoxicated.

WINKIN, “he went off like WINKIN,” i. e., very quickly.

WINKS, periwinkles.

WINN, a penny. —Ancient cant.

WIPE, a pocket handkerchief. —Old cant.

WIPE, a blow.

WIPE, to strike; “he fetcht me a WIPE over the knuckles,” he struck me on the knuckles; “to WIPE a person down,” to flatter or pacify a person; to WIPE off a score, to pay one’s debts, in allusion to the slate or chalk methods of account keeping; “to WIPE a person’s eye,” to shoot game which he has missed —Sporting term; hence to obtain an advantage by superior activity.

WIRE, a thief with long fingers, expert at picking ladies’ pockets.

WOBBLESHOP, where beer is sold without a license.

WOODEN SPOON, the last junior optime who takes a University degree; denoting one who is only fit to stay at home, and stir porridge. —Cambridge.

WOODEN WEDGE, the last name in the classical honours list at Cambridge. The last in mathematical honours had long been known as the WOODEN SPOON; but when the classical Tripos was instituted, in 1824, it was debated among the undergraduates what sobriquet should be given to the last on the examination list. Curiously enough, the name that year which happened to be last was WEDGEWOOD (a distinguished Wrangler). Hence the title.

WOOL, courage, pluck; “you are not half-WOOLLED,” term of reproach from one thief to another.

WOOLBIRD, a lamb; “wing of a WOOLBIRD,” a shoulder of lamb.

WOOL-GATHERING, said of any person’s wits when they are wandering, or in a reverie. —Florio.

WOOL-HOLE, the workhouse.

WORK, to plan, or lay down and execute any course of action, to perform anything; “to WORK the BULLS,” i. e., to get rid of false crown pieces; “to WORK the ORACLE,” to succeed by manœuvring, to concert a wily plan, to victimise, – a possible reference to the stratagems and bribes used to corrupt the Delphic oracle, and cause it to deliver a favourable response. “To WORK a street or neighbourhood,” trying at each house to sell all one can, or so bawling that every housewife may know what you have to sell. The general plan is to drive a donkey barrow a short distance, and then stop and cry. The term implies thoroughness; to “WORK a street well” is a common saying with a coster.

WORM, see PUMP.

WORMING, removing the beard of an oyster or muscle.

W.P., or WARMING PAN. A clergyman who holds a living pro tempore, under a bond of resignation, is styled a W.P., or WARMING PAN rector, because he keeps the place warm for his successor. —Clerical slang.

WRINKLE, an idea, or fancy; an additional piece of knowledge which is supposed to be made by a WRINKLE à posteriori.

WRITE, “to WRITE ONE’S NAME on a joint,” to have the first cut at anything, – leaving sensible traces of one’s presence on it.

YACK, a watch; to “church a YACK,” to take it out of its case to avoid detection.

YARD OF CLAY, a long, old-fashioned tobacco pipe, also called a churchwarden.

YARMOUTH CAPON, a bloater, or red herring. —Old—Ray’s Proverbs.

YARN, a long story, or tale; “a tough YARN,” a tale hard to be believed; “spin a YARN,” tell a tale. —Sea.

YAY-NAY, “a poor YAY-NAY” fellow, one who has no conversational power, and can only answer yea or nay to a question.

YELLOW BELLY, a native of the Fens of Lincolnshire, or the Isle of Ely, – in allusion to the frogs and a yellow-bellied eel caught there; they are also said to be web-footed.

YELLOW-BOY, a sovereign, or any gold coin.

YELLOW-GLOAK, a jealous man.

YELLOW-JACK, the yellow fever prevalent in the West Indies.

YELLOW-MAN, a yellow silk handkerchief.

YOKEL, a countryman. —West.

YOKUFF, a chest, or large box.

YORKSHIRE, “to YORKSHIRE,” or “come YORKSHIRE over any person,” is to cheat or BITE them. —North.

YORKSHIRE ESTATES, “I will do it when I come into my YORKSHIRE ESTATES,” – meaning if I ever have the money or the means. The phrase is said to have originated with Dr. Johnson.

YOUNKER, in street language, a lad or a boy. Term in general use amongst costermongers, cabmen, and old-fashioned people. Barnefield’s Affectionate Shepherd, 1594, has the phrase, “a seemelie YOUNKER.” Danish and Friesic, JONKER. In the Navy, a naval cadet is usually termed a YOUNKER.

YOUR-NIBS, yourself.

ZIPH, LANGUAGE OF, a way of disguising English in use among the students at Winchester College. Compare MEDICAL GREEK.

ZOUNDS, a sudden exclamation, – abbreviation of God’s wounds.

SOME ACCOUNT OF THE BACK SLANG, THE SECRET LANGUAGE OF COSTERMONGERS

The costermongers of London number between thirty and forty thousand. Like other low tribes, they boast a language, or secret tongue, in which they hide their earnings, movements, and other private affairs. This costers’ speech, as Mayhew remarks, offers no new fact, or approach to a fact, for philologists; it is not very remarkable for originality of construction; neither is it spiced with low humour, as other cant. But the costermongers boast that it is known only to themselves; that it is far beyond the Irish, and puzzles the Jews.

The main principle of this language is spelling the words backwards, – or rather, pronouncing them rudely backwards. Sometimes, for the sake of harmony, an extra syllable is prefixed, or annexed; and, occasionally, the word is given quite a different turn in rendering it backwards, from what an uninitiated person would have expected. One coster told Mayhew that he often gave the end of a word “a new turn, just as if he chorussed it with a tol-de-rol.” Besides, the coster has his own idea of the proper way of spelling words, and is not to be convinced but by an overwhelming show of learning, – and frequently not then, for he is a very headstrong fellow. By the time a coster has spelt an ordinary word of two or three syllables in the proper way, and then spelt it backwards, it has become a tangled knot that no etymologist could unravel. The word GENERALISE, for instance, is considered to be “shilling” spelt backwards. Sometimes Slang and Cant words are introduced, and even these, when imagined to be tolerably well known, are pronounced backwards. Other terms, such as GEN, a shilling, and FLATCH, a halfpenny, help to confuse the outsider.

After a time, this back language, on BACK-SLANG, as it is called by the costermongers themselves, comes to be regarded by the rising generation of street sellers as a distinct and regular mode of speech. They never refer words, by inverting them, to their originals; and the YENEPS and ESCLOPS, and NAMOWS, are looked upon as proper, but secret terms. “But it is a curious fact, that lads who become costermongers’ boys, without previous association with the class, acquire a very ready command of the language, and this though they are not only unable to spell, but ‘don’t know a letter in a book.⁵⁶’” They soon obtain a considerable stock vocabulary, so that they converse rather from the memory than the understanding. Amongst the senior costermongers, and those who pride themselves on their proficiency in BACK-SLANG, a conversation is often sustained for a whole evening, especially if any “flatties” are present whom they wish to astonish or confuse. The women use it sparingly, but the girls are generally well acquainted with it.

The addition of an s, I should state, always forms the plural, so that this is another source of complication. For instance, woman in the BACK-SLANG, is NAMOW, and NAMUS, or NAMOWS, is women, not NEMOW. The explorer, then, in undoing the BACK-SLANG, and turning the word NAMUS once more into English, would have suman, – a novel and very extraordinary rendering of women. Where a word is refractory in submitting to a back rendering, as in the case of pound, letters are made to change positions for the sake of harmony; thus, we have DUNOP, a pound, instead of dnuop which nobody could pleasantly pronounce. This will remind the reader of the Jews’ “old clo! old clo!” instead of old clothes, old clothes, which would tire even the patience of a Jew to repeat all day.

This singular BACK tongue has been in vogue about twenty-five years. It is, as before stated, soon acquired, and is principally used by the costermongers (as the specimen Glossary will show), for communicating the secrets of their street tradings, the cost and profit of the goods, and for keeping their natural enemies, the police, in the dark. Cool the esclop (look at the police) is often said amongst them, when one of the constabulary makes his appearance.

Perhaps on no subject is the costermonger so particular as on money matters. All costs and profits he thinks should be kept profoundly secret. The Back Slang, therefore, gives the various small amounts very minutely.

FLATCH, halfpenny.

YENEP, penny.

OWT-YENEPS, twopence.

ERTH-YENEPS, threepence.

ROUF-YENEPS, fourpence.

EVIF, or EWIF-YENEPS, fivepence.

EXIS-YENEPS, sixpence.

NEVIS-YENEPS, sevenpence.

TEAICH, or THEG-YENEPS, eightpence.

ENIN-YENEPS, ninepence.

NET-YENEPS, tenpence.

NEVELÉ-YENEPS, elevenpence.

EVLÉNET-YENNEPS, twelvepence.

GEN, or GENERALIZE, one shilling, or twelvepence.

YENEP-FLATCH, three halfpence.

OWT-YENEP-FLATCH, twopence halfpenny. &c. &c. &c.

GEN, or ENO-GEN, one shilling.

OWT-GENS, two shillings.

ERTH-GENS, three shillings.

The GENS continue in the same sequence as the YENEPS above, excepting THEG-GENS, 8s., which is usually rendered THEG-GUY, – a deviation with ample precedents in all civilised tongues.

YENORK, a crown piece, or five shillings.

FLATCH-YENORK, half-a-crown.

Beyond this amount the costermonger reckons after an intricate and complicated mode. Fifteen shillings would be ERTH-EVIF-GENS, or, literally, three times 5s.; seventeen shillings would be ERTH-YENORK-FLATCH, or three crowns and a half; or, by another mode of reckoning, ERTH-EVIF-GENS FLATCH-YENORK, i. e., three times 5s., and half-a-crown.

DUNOP, a pound.

Further than which the costermonger seldom goes in money reckoning.

In the following Glossary only those words are given which costermongers principally use, – the terms connected with street traffic, the names of the different coins, vegetables, fruit and fish, technicalities of police courts, &c.

The reader might naturally think that a system of speech so simple as the BACK-SLANG would require no Glossary; but he will quickly perceive, from the specimens given, that a great many words in frequent use in a BACK sense, have become so twisted as to require a little glossarial explanation.