Vocabulum, Or, The Rogue's Lexicon: Compiled from the Most Authentic Sources

George Washington Matsell

jan. 2005 · The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd.

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Reprint of first and only edition. Originally publsihed: New York: Published by George W. Matsell & Co., [1859]. vi, 130 pp. * As New York City's Chief of Police and an owner of the National Police Gazette Matsell [1811-1877] had an abiding interest in criminal speechways. Although Matsell compiled this dictionary for his colleagues in law enforcement, he recognized its value to the linguist. As he notes in the preface, criminal terms were beginning to enter general usage and appeared regularly in newspapers, court reports and other publications. Matsell's compilation includes such entries as "acorn" (a gallows), "hemp the flat" (choke a fool), "rumbo" (a prison) and "tyburn blossom" (a young thief). The appendix contains samples of criminal speech and writing (with translations) and the vocabularies of gamblers, billiard players, pugilists and stock brokers. Published just before the Civil War, this dictionary offers a fascinating glimpse into the American underworld in the first half of the nineteenth century.