Page:Farmer - Slang and its analogues past and present - Volume 1.pdf/148

 her trade under the arches of bridges; ponton = pontoon, 'a bridge of boats'; pontonnier = 'a toll gatherer'); une polisseuse de tuyaux de pipe (literally 'a polisher of pipe stems'); une pompe funèbre (familiar: properly 'funeral pomp'); une polisseuse de mâts de cocagne en chambre (popular: an extremely degraded variety of prostitute; literally 'a polisher of greasy poles in a room'); une punaise (general: 'a bug'—a public woman of the lowest grade); une dessalée (popular: literally 'a knowing woman'); une mangeuse de viande crue (popular: 'a devourer of raw meat'); une cité d'amour (literally 'a city of love'); autel de besoin (popular: 'an altar of necessity'; Cf., English 'necessary'); une vésuvienne (familiar: literally 'a vesuvian,' either in allusion to the volcano or the well-known brand of matches; in either case the epithet comes very close to the old English slang 'fireship,' an old and diseased prostitute); peau, or peau de chien (popular: literally 'dog's skin'); un grenier a coups de sabre (a soldiers' term: grenier, a granary; coups de sabre, thrusts with a broad sword); une rempardeuse (a woman who frequents the ramparts); une femme de terrain (a draggletailed woman; femme, woman, terrain, ground); une saucisse (popular: i.e., 'a small sausage'); une trainée (familiar); une baleine (popular: 'a whale'); une lésébombe (popular); une fille en brème (a registered prostitute; la brème is the card given to such women by the police); une fille en carte (a registered woman: see preceding); une boutonnière à pantalons (familiar: a kind of semi-prostitute; a sempstress who walks the streets at night; in their own words, they 'work for their living, but do the naughty for their clothes'); une fille de maison or une fille à numéro (familiar: these names are given to girls in brothels; Cf., English 'dress-lodgers'); une fille de tournure (familiar: this also is applied to the inmate of a brothel; literally 'a girl of figure'); une poupée (popular: 'a doll'); une mouquette (popular); des poules (popular: the inmates of a brothel are so called; literally 'hens'); une galvaudeuse (popular: galvauder, 'to scold'); une planche à boudin (familiar: literally 'a slice of pudding'; in English harlotry 'to take one's pudding' or 'greens' is to have sexual connection); une blanchisseuse en chemise (blanchisseuse = laundress; être dans la chemise de quelqu'un is to be constantly with one); un lard (literally 'bacon' or body); une gadoue (properly 'street refuse' or 'mud'); un sommier de caserne (military: sommier means 'hair-mattress,' and caserne = 'barracks'; applied to girls who prowl about barracks); une grivoise (this term is now obsolete, but was formerly applied to a garrison town prostitute. It means, literally, 'a jolly canteen woman'); une paillasse à soldats (a barrack-hack; literally 'a straw mattress for soldiers'); un passe-lacet (properly 'a bodkin'—i.e., 'something to be threaded'); un chameau (the term was originally applied to a gaunt, ungainly woman; it now signifies a prostitute also); un membre de la caravane (a