# 1700s slang from the London underworld > Twenty 1700s slang words from Grose’s 1785 dictionary, and how the era swore, from zounds to damme, each quoted and explained, with a tavern scene for Plot. Twenty 1700s slang words from Grose’s 1785 dictionary, and how the era swore, from zounds to damme, each quoted and explained, with a tavern scene for Plot. 1700s Recorded 1785 rum Fine, good or valuable. A rum nab is a good hat. RUM NAB, a good hat. (Francis Grose, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 1785)A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue ## London thieves' cant ### The words Francis Grose collected the slang of London's taverns, gaming houses and thieves in 1785. Much of it was cant, the private speech of the underworld. - rum RUM NAB, a good hat. (Francis Grose, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 1785) Fine, good or valuable. A rum nab is a good hat. - sapscull SAPSCULL, a simple fellow; sappy, foolish. (Francis Grose, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 1785) A simple, foolish fellow. - to bubble To BUBBLE, to cheat. (Francis Grose, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 1785) To cheat someone. - to bam To BAM, to impose on any one by a falsity; also to jeer or make fun of any one. (Francis Grose, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 1785) To fool someone with a lie, or to make fun of them. - to kick the bucket To kick the bucket; to die. (Francis Grose, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 1785) To die. - to go snacks SNACK, a share; to go snacks, to be partners. (Francis Grose, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 1785) To share the takings; to be partners. - bene cove BENE COVE, (cant) a good fellow. (Francis Grose, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 1785) A good fellow; someone you can trust. - to peach PEACH, to impeach; called also to … squeak, or turn stag. (Francis Grose, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 1785) To inform on your accomplices. - cully CULLY, a fop or fool, also a dupe to women. (Francis Grose, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 1785) A fool or dupe; someone easily cheated, especially by women. - mort MORT, a woman, or wench, also a yeoman’s daughter. (Francis Grose, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 1785) A woman. - queer QUEER, or QUIRE, base, roguish, bad, naught, or worthless. (Francis Grose, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 1785) Bad, base or worthless. A queer coin is a counterfeit one. - rhino RHINO, money, (cant) (Francis Grose, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 1785) Money. - bone box BONE BOX, the mouth. Shut your bone box; shut your mouth. (Francis Grose, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 1785) The mouth. - a quiz QUIZ, a strange looking fellow, an odd dog. (Francis Grose, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 1785) An odd-looking fellow; an eccentric. - peepers PEEPERS, eyes; single peeper, a one eyed man. (Francis Grose, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 1785) The eyes. - to humbug HUM, to hum, or humbug, to deceive, or impose on one by some story or device. (Francis Grose, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 1785) To fool someone with a story or a trick. A humbug is the trick itself. - down in the dumps DUMPS, down in the dumps, low spirited, melancholly. (Francis Grose, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 1785) Low-spirited; gloomy. - to tip TIP, to give, or lend; tip me your daddle, give me your hand. (Francis Grose, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 1785) To give or hand over. Tip me your daddle: give me your hand. - in quod QUOD, Newgate, or any other prison; the dab’s in quod, the poor rogue is in prison. (Francis Grose, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 1785) In prison. - to twig TWIG, to twig, to observe; twig the cull, he is peery, observe the fellow, he is watching us. (Francis Grose, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 1785) To notice someone, or to watch them closely. ### Swear words and oaths How people cursed, and the softer words they said instead, from the same dated sources. - zounds ZOUNDS, an exclamation, an abbreviation of God’s wounds. (Francis Grose, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 1785) A shocked oath, worn down from “God’s wounds.” - odd’s plut and her nails ODD’S PLUT AND HER NAILS, a Welch oath, frequently mentioned in a jocular manner. (Francis Grose, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 1785) A Welsh oath, “by God’s blood and the nails,” said as a joke by people who had no idea what it meant. - a damme boy DAMME BOY, a roaring, mad blustering fellow, a scourer of the streets, or kicker up of a breeze. (Francis Grose, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 1785) A loud, swaggering street brawler, named for the oath he never stops swearing. - to rap out a volley RAP, to rap, to take a false oath, also to curse; he rapped out a volley. (Francis Grose, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 1785) To swear a string of oaths in one breath. The scene INT. THE BLACK DOG TAVERN, LONDON - NIGHT Pipe smoke and low beams. NAN TULLY (30s) counts coins into stacks. JACK HOLLIS (20s) drops a fine hat on the table. JACK A rum nab. Took it off a sapscull at the cockfight. NAN You bubbled him? JACK Bammed him. Told him his horse had kicked the bucket in the yard. He ran out. I didn't. Nan slides half the coins across the table. NAN Then we go snacks. You're a bene cove, Jack Hollis. JACK And if he comes looking? NAN Then nobody in this house peaches. Sit down. In print How often each word appeared in books, against its own busiest year. Busiest year to kick the bucket 2021 to humbug 1860 down in the dumps 2013 in quod 1863 [Counts from Google Books Ngram Viewer](https://books.google.com/ngrams) Recorded in - [Francis Grose, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (1785)](https://archive.org/details/grosevulgartongue) ### Make it yours in Plot Start with this example or bring your own draft. Develop the story, try another version, and keep the work you want. Opens as a new Plot project once you sign in or create a free account. Inkwell keeps this copy for 24 hours. [Download](https://www.inkwell.software/resources/writing-starters/period-slang?) Field notes ## Writing dialogue that sounds like its time - ### Date the word, not the feeling Check every period word against a source from the time, not a list that sounds old. A dictionary entry or a published novel tells you the word was in use by that year. It does not tell you when it started, so a word recorded in 1859 can belong to a character in 1850, and probably not one in 1750. - ### Use less than you found One period word every few lines is enough to place a scene. A speech packed with slang reads like a costume. Let ordinary words carry most of the dialogue and save the slang for the moments a character wants to sound like they belong. - ### Make the meaning clear from the scene A reader or an audience never gets a glossary. Put the word where the action explains it: the stolen hat on the table before anyone calls it a rum nab, the sack of silver before anyone says swag. If a word needs a footnote, the scene is not doing its job yet. - ### Slang says who belongs Grose and Matsell recorded cant: the private language of thieves, meant to keep outsiders out. A character who uses it is in the gang, and one who misses it is not. Use that. The 1920s words did the same for a young crowd, the 1930s ones for detectives and crooks, the 1940s ones for soldiers and the teenagers they left at home, and the 1950s and 1960s ones for teenagers keeping their parents out. The 2000s words came from rap and the internet, and spread as fast as both. - ### Where to find more Dictionaries of slang and cant from the period, novels and plays written at the time, newspapers, and court records all show how people talked. Prefer sources written in the era over histories written later, and keep a note of where each word came from so you can check it again. - ### Hear it before you keep it Read the scene aloud, or hold a table read. Period dialogue that looks right can sound stiff when spoken. Cut what an actor trips on, and keep the version you like as a save point before you try another. ## Already have a draft? Bring your Word document or screenplay into Plot and keep developing it with save points and alternate drafts. 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