Skip to content
Inkwell

Words your characters would say

1800s slang from the New York underworld

Twenty 1800s slang words from George Matsell’s 1859 Vocabulum, and oaths like blast it, each quoted and explained, with a Mulberry Street scene for Plot.

1800sRecorded 1859

swag

Stolen goods; the haul.

SWAG. Plunder. (George W. Matsell, Vocabulum; or, The Rogue's Lexicon, 1859)Vocabulum; or, The Rogue's Lexicon

New York underworld

The words

George Matsell, a former New York chief of police, published a lexicon of criminal slang in 1859 so officers could follow what they overheard.

swagSWAG. Plunder. (George W. Matsell, Vocabulum; or, The Rogue's Lexicon, 1859)
Stolen goods; the haul.
bluntBLUNT. Money. (George W. Matsell, Vocabulum; or, The Rogue's Lexicon, 1859)
Money.
coppedCOPPED. Arrested. (George W. Matsell, Vocabulum; or, The Rogue's Lexicon, 1859)
Arrested.
to squealSQUEAK or SQUEAL. To inform. (George W. Matsell, Vocabulum; or, The Rogue's Lexicon, 1859)
To inform on accomplices after an arrest.
palPAL. A companion; the partner of a thief. (George W. Matsell, Vocabulum; or, The Rogue's Lexicon, 1859)
A companion, or a thief's partner.
dudsDUDS. Clothes. (George W. Matsell, Vocabulum; or, The Rogue's Lexicon, 1859)
Clothes.
coveCOVE or COVEY. A man. (George W. Matsell, Vocabulum; or, The Rogue's Lexicon, 1859)
A man.
mugMUG. The face; a simple fellow. (George W. Matsell, Vocabulum; or, The Rogue's Lexicon, 1859)
The face. Also a simple fellow.
beakBEAK. A magistrate; a judge. (George W. Matsell, Vocabulum; or, The Rogue's Lexicon, 1859)
A magistrate or judge.
cheese itCHEESE. Be silent; listen. “Cheese it, the coves are fly,” be silent, the people understand us. (George W. Matsell, Vocabulum; or, The Rogue's Lexicon, 1859)
Be quiet, someone is listening.
cribCRIB. A house. (George W. Matsell, Vocabulum; or, The Rogue's Lexicon, 1859)
A house.
cracksmanCRACKSMAN. A burglar who uses force instead of picklocks or false keys. (George W. Matsell, Vocabulum; or, The Rogue's Lexicon, 1859)
A burglar who breaks in by force.
darbiesDARBIES. Handcuffs; fetters. (George W. Matsell, Vocabulum; or, The Rogue's Lexicon, 1859)
Handcuffs; shackles.
fenceFENCE. A receiver of stolen goods; to sell stolen goods. (George W. Matsell, Vocabulum; or, The Rogue's Lexicon, 1859)
Someone who buys and sells stolen goods. Also, to sell them.
flyFLY. Knowing; up to him. (George W. Matsell, Vocabulum; or, The Rogue's Lexicon, 1859)
Knowing; wise to what is going on.
mollMOLL. A woman. (George W. Matsell, Vocabulum; or, The Rogue's Lexicon, 1859)
A woman.
squareSQUARE. Honest; upright; good. (George W. Matsell, Vocabulum; or, The Rogue's Lexicon, 1859)
Honest; upright.
suckerSUCKER. A term applied by gamblers to a person that can be cheated at any game of cards. (George W. Matsell, Vocabulum; or, The Rogue's Lexicon, 1859)
Someone a gambler can cheat; an easy mark.
blokeBLOKE. A man. (George W. Matsell, Vocabulum; or, The Rogue's Lexicon, 1859)
A man.
lushLUSH. Drink. (George W. Matsell, Vocabulum; or, The Rogue's Lexicon, 1859)
Drink; liquor.

Swear words and oaths

How people cursed, and the softer words they said instead, from the same dated sources.

D. I. O.D. I. O. Damn it! I’m off. (George W. Matsell, Vocabulum; or, The Rogue's Lexicon, 1859)
“Damn it, I’m off”: a thief’s goodbye on the way out the door.
blasted“No, not for all the blasted beaks this side of Sturbin.” (George W. Matsell, Vocabulum; or, The Rogue's Lexicon, 1859)
Cursed, damned. Said of anything a speaker is angry at.
blast it“Blast the super! for I fear it has got me into a muss.” (George W. Matsell, Vocabulum; or, The Rogue's Lexicon, 1859)
Damn it. A curse aimed at the thing that has gone wrong.
The scene

EXT. MULBERRY STREET, NEW YORK - NIGHT (1859)

A gas lamp sputters. KITTY BYRNE (19) waits in a doorway. DAN FLYNN (20s) hurries up with a sack over his shoulder.

DAN

Swag. Silver, mostly.

KITTY

And the blunt?

DAN

Gone with Mick. He got copped at the corner.

KITTY

Will he squeal?

DAN

Not Mick. He's a pal.

KITTY

Then get out of those duds. Every cove in the ward knows your mug by now.

In printHow often each word appeared in books, against its own busiest year.Shaded: when this era's sources recorded it.
Busiest year
cheese it1895
cracksman1906
darbies1843
bloke2013

Counts from Google Books Ngram Viewer

Recorded in

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

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.

Import a draft

Related writing resources