and while we’re on the subject of slang…
This gem from 1811 is available at Project Gutenberg, and is filled (obviously) with slang, swears and insults from days of yore.
ACTIVE CITIZEN. A louse.
ADAM’S ALE. Water.
DAIRY. A woman’s breasts, particularly one that gives
suck. She sported her dairy; she pulled out her breast.PADDY. The general name for an Irishman: being the
abbreviation of Patrick, the name of the tutelar saint of that
island.SPIT. He is as like his father as if he was spit out of his mouth; said of a child much resembling his father.
SUCH A REASON PIST MY GOOSE, or MY GOOSE PIST. Said
when any one offers an absurd reason.SUCK. Strong liquor of any sort. To suck the monkey;
see MONKEY. Sucky; drunk.
A print copy is over at Amazon, but it seems to me this text has some remix potential.
Profanity is alive and well on Twitter, except in Utah, apparently. You’d expect heathen citydwellers to swear, and we do not disappoint, but the Bible belt is pretty foul-mouthed too (no word whether language there trended cleaner on Sundays). Thanks to tweets, blog comments and unlocked Facebook feeds, we know more than ever before about the way regular people—in New York, Detroit, Miami, Los Angeles, and the DMV—talk to each other, although everyone disagrees about the Internet’s effect on slang in general, and regional slang in particular.
A few months old, but this piece from the Awl that I must have missed about Twitter (and other social media) and local slang is worth your time.
