The Canting Crew
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The first English-language slang dictionary:
A New Dictionary of the Terms Ancient and Modern of the Canting Crew, in Its Several Tribes, of Gypsies, Beggers, Thieves, Cheats, &c, With an Addition of some Proverbs, Phrases, Figurative Speeches, &c Useful for all sorts of People (especially Foreigners) to secure their Money and preserve their Lives; besides very Diverting and Entertaining, being wholly New.
The title page, in the style of the era, makes creative use of font size, font style, and text placement:
There's a (not very informative) Wikipedia article, and a Project Gutenberg version that offers an HTML-ized version of the title page:
There are lots of interesting words among the 4,000 or so in this work — I'll add a few that struck my eye later today.
Julia said,
November 24, 2025 @ 11:32 am
I look forward to it
Philip Taylor said,
November 24, 2025 @ 12:01 pm
Just orded a (facsimile) copy — more once it arrives.