Comments on: Types of vagabonds, 1566

By: Han van der Heide

Han van der Heide — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 17:01:00 +0000

A del in (informal) Dutch is just as described in the article, young ‘loose’ girl.

By: Han van der Heide

Han van der Heide — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 16:58:00 +0000

Lost their fire?
What does that mean? Certainly people weren’t carrying around fire as some tribes do nowadays. I iz confuzered.

By: estragon_nyc

estragon_nyc — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 00:38:00 +0000

Could the reason the “male beggar children” are listed under “Of Womenkind” because the reader is being warned about children who are being used as beggars by unscrupulous women? A gentleman who wouldn’t give to a harlot or slattern might be swayed by a poor urchin boy begging because his mother is too poor to support her children.

By: AlexG55

AlexG55 — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 15:32:00 +0000

American Civil War?
I’ve heard that they were originally called “Hooker’s Reserves” because of the large number of them who followed General Joe Hooker’s army.

A “hooker” is also a type of Irish fishing boat- the “Galway Hooker”…

By: AnthonyC

AnthonyC — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 01:04:00 +0000

What does it say about the crime rate that they had so many finely crafted words for different kinds of thieves and prostitutes?

I can’t remember where I read it, but, if you visit a place where the preachers constantly abjure against beastiality, that’s not a nation of animal rights activists.

By: Avram Grumer

Avram Grumer — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 20:40:00 +0000

Is this the world’s first D&D splatbook?

By: Sam Pourasghar

Sam Pourasghar — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 10:53:00 +0000

I wonder when hookers stopped stealing from windows using hooks and started down the mort and doxie route.

By: frozenintime

frozenintime — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 07:15:00 +0000

Rogues: McCain/Palin

By: jeligula

jeligula — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 04:27:00 +0000

Watching Starksy and Hutch at 7 years old, I thought that hookers were those who hooked people on drugs. So there’s another category for ya.

By: jeligula

jeligula — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 04:14:00 +0000

Gene Wolfe is hard to read. To reach that same vividness in something more contemporary yet Elizabethan, read Patricia Cornwall’s Jack the Ripper solution. Her fiction sucks rancid donkey balls, but in Case Closed or whatever it is called, she actually puts you with Saucy Jack and it is vivid. If nothing else. Five star abram. And always pass the port to the left.

By: jeligula

jeligula — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 04:01:00 +0000

I have lost my fire, good sir. Wouldst thou helpest me?

That’s a no brainer. I have but to reveal my bic.

As a student of the Art Institute of Seattle in 1987, forging Metro passes ’twas but of a moment and quite easily accomplished. The free ride zone downtown made this useless, but if you wanted to visit your brother in Everett, it saved you 65 cents both ways.

By: pjcamp

pjcamp — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 02:58:00 +0000

I had no idea you could subdivide species of hookers so finely.

By: hypersomniac

hypersomniac — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 02:39:00 +0000

Or what the aristocracy today call the middle class.

By: tristan eldritch

tristan eldritch — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 01:10:00 +0000

God, the Book of the Long Sun is such a fascinating book! There was a hundred things I didn’t like about it, but something about the vividness of the world it creates, and the complexity of the whole thing has stayed with ever since I read it. Wish I had the time to read through the whole of the Solar Cycle again.

By: jere7my

jere7my — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 23:46:00 +0000

And now I understand why “That’s abram!” means “That’s crazy!” in Gene Wolfe’s Book of the Long Sun. Also much more of Raymond Chandler.

By: Mahak Jain

Mahak Jain — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 23:28:00 +0000

I think “male beggar children” is under “of womenkind” because historically women and children have been conflated categories?

By: fergus1948

fergus1948 — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 22:19:00 +0000

I’m sure an example of each of these chaps lives within walking distance of my house!
Good job I’m a follygoggin!

By: Andy Simmons

Andy Simmons — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 22:14:00 +0000

Oddly enough, this also reads like a list of suggested names for that punk band you’ve been thinking of starting.

By: deSelby

deSelby — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 21:47:00 +0000

As I read these, all I could think of was Terry Pratchett. Surely all these trades exist in Ankh Morpork. At the very least, there must be a guild of priggers and prancers. Surely?

By: Joe The Wizard

Joe The Wizard — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 20:58:00 +0000

The whole book from which the list comes is on Project Gutenberg. http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/38850

By: Joseph Francis

Joseph Francis — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 20:43:00 +0000

Enumerated lists! It’s like the Cosmo Magazine of 1566! 8 Ways to Seduce Your Man. 60 Sex Tips That Will Amaze Him. 23 Types of Rogues. Which One is He?

By: Marko Raos

Marko Raos — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 20:39:00 +0000

Marvellous!

By: MrWednesday7

MrWednesday7 — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 20:29:00 +0000

2. Uprightmen (leaders of robber bands) David Cameron

By: Lupus_Yonderboy

Lupus_Yonderboy — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 20:26:00 +0000

It’s interesting to see how some of these slang words evolved into similar ones over the centuries – Grose’s “Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue” http://boingboing.net/2012/02/21/dirty-words-of-1811.html has “Abram Man” (if I remember correctly) with basically the same definition of “Abrams”. “Morts” remained much the same, though I do not recall “Walking Morts”.

By: Cicada Mania

Cicada Mania — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 19:46:00 +0000

The farmer should stay away from the Dell.

By: Sam Lindsay-Levine

Sam Lindsay-Levine — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 19:40:00 +0000

I think this was a chapter in one of John Hodgman’s books.

By: chupsahey

chupsahey — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 19:26:00 +0000

I remember Captain Haddock called someone a fresh-water mariner. Now I know what it means.