SLANG DICTIONARY of cant, vulgar words 1869 JC Hotten rare 100-print large ed

Description: A rare edition of John Camden Hotten's self-published "THE SLANG DICTIONARY: or, THE VULGAR WORDS, STREET PHRASES, AND "FAST" EXPRESSIONS OF HIGH AND LOW SOCIETY. many with their entymology, and a few with their history traced."By the way, this book was originally called "A London Antiquary", but the title was changed after the first printing. This was an unusual print run of what i think was the 3rd edition of the book...each addition basically added more words and information to the previous collection. This one came out 4 years after the original print run of the 3rd edition, so i don't know if there was any more info in this one. i can't actually find any information about this version online.It is a "large paper" copy; basically there were huge margins on all sides of the text, and a blank sheet in between each printed sheet.The idea was that you, as a researcher, or someone living in the ~future~, could add new phrases and information about emerging slang.And in the over 150 years that this book has been on this Earth, not one previous owner ever thought to actually add anything! Honestly it's disappointing. Will you be the one to add "Yeet" and "Doge" to this book, for people 160 years from now to learn from and muse over? Will you add in the history of 1337-speak, or the "I can haz cheezburger" meme phenomena for historians to understand even after the oldest sites on the internet fade away and all is lost? Unfortunately, I was not so brave, either.Anyway, only 100 of these large-prints were ever issued. and it is a LARGE boi, too. like a hard-covered phone book. Check out the table of contents. It goes over the secret language of vagabonds and transients, as well as their "heiroglyphics" or graffiti writing systems to communicate info. Then the majority of the middle is a full dictionary of thousands of words, many of them exceedingly Victorian-British sounding.Towards the end the book, it goes into other sections of little sub-dialects and lingo of criminals, merchants and con-men, such as back slang (saying words backwards) and rhyming slang (saying phrases that rhyme with a word, in place of that word). Arguably, the best part is there is a very thorough bibliography in back, so if you're using this for research it includes a LOT of other reference books for you to search for, although this is honestly by far the best old timey collection of slang i've ever seen. SPECS: Red hardcover with green leather spine, and gilding to spine and tops of pages.10.5" tall, 8" wide, 2.25" thick.Last numbered page says "302" but there's technically twice that, since there are blank pages in between. CONDITION: First off, please look at pics.Are they good and thoroughly looked at now? awesome.As you can see, the covers are worn. A previous owner named "Kathy" stuck a label sticker with her name ON THE COVER. Why, Kathy? She had also stuck little label stickers on the spine (these were brittle and fell off while it was in my possession; which left matte-ish areas on the leather). she also, randomly, stuck blank labels over some of the printing info in the book. again, why, Kathy? I shined (shone?) a flashlight through them and it's just the regular "printed by Hotten in London" info, as well as an offer by Hotten to send you inserts for new slang discoveries, so i'm not sure why she felt the need to censor them. She also left a few pencil scribbles in the same hand writing, although nothing useful.Text block is coming loose from the cover, and pages were taped at the title page.Pages are surprisingly clean for the age though; they're printed on a nicer, glossier and denser, paper than what most 1860s books used. If you need more info or pics, let me know; i could only add 24 photos to this listing.Also if you just need me to look up a word, let me know. No international orders, please.Free local pick up in the Metro Detroit area is available, as long as you're okay with meeting at a public place. Check out my eBay store for more old and rare books from my personal collection, including lots of great reference books and other interesting subjects.

Price: 1100 USD

Location: Farmington, Michigan

End Time: 2025-01-28T02:50:29.000Z

Shipping Cost: 25 USD