Vocabulum Or The Rogues Lexicon

Download or read book Vocabulum; Or the Rogue's Lexicon written by George W. Matsell and published by . This book was released on 1991 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book VOCABULUM OR THE ROGUES LEXICO written by George W. Matsell and published by Echo Library. This book was released on 2016-09-29 with total page 112 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: George Washington Matsell (1811-1877) was the first New York City Police Commissioner. This dictionary of American thieves' cant, compiled from the most authentic sources, was published in 1859.

Download or read book Vocabulum - Or, the Rogue's Lexicon written by George Matsell and published by Deutsch Press. This book was released on 2011-06 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

Download or read book Vocabulum; Or the Rogue's Lexicon written by George W. Matsell and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2013-12 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An excerpt from the beginning of the PREFACE: WHEN young man enters upon the business of life, he may have some indefinite idea, of what he intends to follow out to the close thereof; but he soon finds himself surrounded by circumstances which control his actions and business pursuits, and lead him into channels of thought and industry that had not previously entered into his philosophy. At least I have found it to be so, and I have no doubt others have had a similar experience. To become a lexicographer, certainly never entered into my calculation, or even found a place in the castle-building of my younger days; and if a kind friend had suggested to me that I was destined to fill such a position in life, I would simply have regarded him as a fit subject for the care of the authorities. This improbable event has now taken place; and I present myself to the world as the compiler of a language used in all parts of the world, and yet understood connectedly but by few persons. The rogue fraternity have a language peculiarly their own, which is understood and spoken by them no matter what their dialect, or the nation where they were reared. Many of their words and phrases, owing to their comprehensive meaning, have come into general use, so that a Vocabulum or Rogue's Lexicon, has become a necessity to the general reader, but more especially to those who read police intelligence. Occupying the position of a Special Justice, and Chief of the Police of the great Metropolis of New York, where thieves and others of a like character from all parts of the world congregate, and realizing the necessity of possessing a positive knowledge of every thing connected with the class of individuals with whom it was my duty to deal, I was naturally led to study their peculiar language, believing that it would enable me to converse with them more at ease, and thus acquire a knowledge of their character, besides obtaining from them information that would assist me in the position I occupied, and consequently be of great service to the public. To accomplish this task was no mean undertaking, as I found that it required years of diligent labor to hunt up the various authorities, and these when found proved only partially available, as much of the language in present use was unwritten, and could only be obtained by personal study among first-class thieves who had been taught it in their youth. The difficulties surrounding it, did not deter me from following out my resolution, and by closely pursuing it, I had opened up to me a fountain of knowledge that I could not have obtained if I had not possessed a clear understanding of this peculiar dialect. Experience has since demonstrated to me that any man engaged in police business can not excel without understanding the rogues' language, in the study of which they will find this Lexicon of invaluable service.

Download or read book A History of Cant and Slang Dictionaries written by Julie Coleman and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2008-11-20 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The second volume of Julie Coleman's entertaining and revealing history of the recording and uses of slang and criminal cant takes the story from 1785 to 1858, and explores their manifestations in the United States of America and Australia. During this period glossaries of cant were thrown into the shade by dictionaries of slang, which now covered a broad spectrum of non-standard English, including the language of thieves. Julie Coleman shows how Francis Grose's Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue revolutionized the lexicography of the underworld. She explores the compilation and content of the earliest Australian and American slang glossaries, whose authors included the thrice-transported James Hardy Vaux and the legendary George Matsell, New York City's first chief of police, whose The Secret Language of Crime: The Rogue's Lexicon informed the script of Martin Scorcese's film Gangs of New York. Cant represented a tangible danger to life and property, but slang threatened to undermine good behaviour and social morality. Julie Coleman shows how and why they were at once repellent and seductive. Her fascinating account casts fresh light on language and life in some of the darker regions of Great Britain and the English-speaking world.

Download or read book A Dictionary of the Underworld written by Eric Partridge and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-06-12 with total page 2680 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published in 1949 (this edition in 1968), this book is a dictionary of the past, exploring the language of the criminal and near-criminal worlds. It includes entries from Australia, New Zealand, Canada and South Africa, as well as from Britain and America and offers a fascinating and unique study of language. The book provides an invaluable insight into social history, with the British vocabulary dating back to the 16th century and the American to the late 18th century. Each entry comes complete with the approximate date of origin, the etymology for each word, and a note of the milieu in which the expression arose.

Download or read book Bulletin of the Library Company of Philadelphia written by Library Company of Philadelphia and published by . This book was released on 1878 with total page 842 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: