SLANG, suggested spendthrift lexicographer Francis Grose in his Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue of 1785, ought to inspire pride in British hearts. Ribald, scatological, inventive, vigorous and witty, slang, he said, was the preserve of a nation without shackles, proof of British 'freedom of thought and speech, arising from... our constitution'. 'Vulgar' it undoubtedly was, 'suiting to the common people', as Dr Johnson defined vulgarity in 1755. Yet slang was more than throaty grossness.
By 1774 and his Dictionary's fourth edition, Johnson had qualified his definition: 'vulgar' also meant 'vernacular' and 'national'. Slang, acclaimed as a byproduct of British free speech, had come of age as a national tongue. For many Britons, it was-as Nathan Bailey had suggested in his popular Dictionarium Britannicum of 1730-the 'true ENGLISH'.
The 18th century can well lay claim to being a golden age of British slang. Pungent, pithy, frequently derogatory terms for every human encounter and bodily function abounded. In Hanoverian Britain, prissiness was restricted to the revivalist preachers, whom slang-merchants ridiculed as 'Amen curlers', or the elderly spinsters they termed 'ape leaders', as unmarried women's punishment after death would be to lead monkeys in hell.
Bu hikaye Country Life UK dergisinin November 01, 2023 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Giriş Yap
Bu hikaye Country Life UK dergisinin November 01, 2023 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
Happiness in small things
Putting life into perspective and forces of nature in farming
Colour vision
In an eye-baffling arrangement of geometric shapes, a sinister-looking clown and a little girl, Test Card F is one of television’s most enduring images, says Rob Crossan
'Without fever there is no creation'
Three of the top 10 operas performed worldwide are by the emotionally volatile Italian composer Giacomo Puccini, who died a century ago. Henrietta Bredin explains how his colourful life influenced his melodramatic plot lines
The colour revolution
Toxic, dull or fast-fading pigments had long made it tricky for artists to paint verdant scenes, but the 19th century ushered in a viridescent explosion of waterlili
Bullace for you
The distinction between plums, damsons and bullaces is sweetly subtle, boiling down to flavour and aesthetics, but don’t eat the stones, warns John Wright
Lights, camera, action!
Three remarkable country houses, two of which have links to the film industry, the other the setting for a top-class croquet tournament, are anything but ordinary
I was on fire for you, where did you go?
In Iceland, a land with no monks or monkeys, our correspondent attempts to master the art of fishing light’ for Salmo salar, by stroking the creases and dimples of the Midfjardara river like the features of a loved one
Bravery bevond belief
A teenager on his gap year who saved a boy and his father from being savaged by a crocodile is one of a host of heroic acts celebrated in a book to mark the 250th anniversary of the Royal Humane Society, says its author Rupert Uloth
Let's get to the bottom of this
Discovering a well on your property can be viewed as a blessing or a curse, but all's well that ends well, says Deborah Nicholls-Lee, as she examines the benefits of a personal water supply
Sing on, sweet bird
An essential component of our emotional relationship with the landscape, the mellifluous song of a thrush shapes the very foundation of human happiness, notes Mark Cocker, as he takes a closer look at this diverse family of birds