Page:Farmer - Slang and its analogues past and present - Volume 1.pdf/34

 dirt; dooteroomus (or doot); dumps; dust; dye stuffs; feathers; family plate (silver); dollars; gent (silver,--from argent); gilt; haddock (a purse of money); hard stuff (or hard); horse nails; huckster; John; John Davis; loaver; lour (the oldest cant term for money); mopusses; muck; needful; nothings (money collected in a hat by street-performers); ochre (gold); oof; ooftish; pewter; palm oil; pieces; posh; queen's pictures; quids; rags (bank-notes); ready; ready gilt; ready John; redge (gold); rhino; rowdy; shadscales (or scales); shot; shekels; sinews of war; shiners (sovereigns); shin plasters (or plasters); skin (a purse of money); Spanish; spondulics; stamps; stiff (cheques, or bills of acceptance); stuff; stumpy; tin (silver); tow; wad; wedge (silver); wherewith; and yellow-boys (sovereigns). In the 17th century money was often called 'shells'--is this the origin of 'to shell out'?--and 'Oil of Angels' (q.v.).

French Argot. De l'artiche (thieves': retirer de l'artiche, is to pick the pockets of a drunkard); du morningue; du foin (lit. hay); du plâtre (thieves': lit. plaster); du poussier (thieves': lit. coal-dust; Cf., English 'coal' and 'dust'); des soldats (thieves': Falstaff, in Merry Wives of Windsor, ii., 2, says 'money is a good soldier'); de la mornifle (this thieves' term for money, whether good or counterfeit, originally signified false money only; there is a grim suggestiveness between the orthodox meaning of the word, 'a slap on the face,' and its slang signification); de la sauvette (also a basket used by rag-pickers and collectors of street refuse); de l'huile (lit. oil); du beurre (pop.: lit. butter); de la braise (pop.: ma braise is a term of endearment among the Lyonnais, and is equivalent to mon trésor, my treasure); du bath (thieves': the tip-top; the excellent. From a superior kind of Bath note paper, which, in 1848, was hawked about the streets of Paris, and sold at a low price. Thus papier bath became synonymous with excellent paper. In a short time the qualifying term alone remained, and received a general application.--Argot and Slang); du graissage (pop.: lit. grease, Cf., 'palm oil,' and 'greasing the palm' in English slang); de la thune (thieves': in old French cant the Roi de la Thune was the king of the beggars, and the old prison of Bicêtre, where free board and lodging was provided for many of the fraternity, was called La Thune. It is easy to see why the name of a place, where beggars congregated in considerable numbers and received relief, should pass into use to signify pecuniary alms); de la miche de profonde (pop. and thieves': this exactly corresponds to the English 'loaver'); de l'oignon pèse (pop.: lit. heavy onion. Cf., Fourbesque argume); du sable (pop.: lit. sand); des pimpions (thieves': Qy., from pimpant, fine, spruce, smart); de l'os (familiar: lit. bone); du nerf (lit. sinew. Cf., English 'sinews of war'); des pepettes (pop.: ([**superfluous (? P2]pepette, a coin of the value of fifty centimes); des achetoires (pop.: from acheter, to buy); de la galette (pop.: lit. sea biscuit); des picaillons (pop.: probably a corruption of picaron, a Spanish coin); de ce qui se pousse (pop.: that which pushes