What "Twitter" meant in 1874

John Camden Hotten's The Slang Dictionary: Etymological, Historical and Anecdotal was published in 1874, and is available in Project Gutenberg's archive. It's a nice piece of work, as this post on EbookFriendly illustrates, with choice definitions from a bygone era for "Pin," "Twitter" and more.

pin: “to put in the pin,” to refrain from drinking. From the ancient peg tankard, which was furnished with a row of pins, or pegs, to regulate the amount which each person was to drink. Drunken people are often requested to “put in the pin,” from some remote connexion between their unsteadiness and that of a carriage wheel which has lost its linch-pin. The popular cry, “put in the pin,” can have no connexion with the drinking pin or peg now, whatever it may originally have had. A merry pin, a roysterer
twitter: ”all in a twitter”, in a fright or fidgety state
poll: a female of unsteady character; “polled up,” means living with a woman in a state of unmarried impropriety. Also, if a costermonger sees one of his friends walking with a strange woman, he will say to him on the earliest opportunity, “I saw yer when yer was polled up”
cool: to look

The Slang Dictionary from 1874 is hilarious (and you can download it for free) (Thanks, Piotr!)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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Bradley Robinson

You mean to tell me that I’ve been using these terms incorrectly all this time?

The mere notion has me in such a twitter that I feel the urge to pull out the pin.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  Well, now you’ve got me all twitterpated.
http://fallsastar.com Crashproof

Seems appropriate. Twitter is still pretty much a kind of fidgeting.
- jandrese
  
  Yeah, certainly people have heard a construction like “The ladies were all in a twitter.” before? It’s not an everyday usage, but it’s one most people should know I think.
  - chgoliz
    
    Totally agree. It was still very much in use in the 1960′s, as I recall, so anyone around 50 or older would certainly know it.
    
    Slightly OT: one time in the 1980′s I made a reference to myself as a “geek” to my parents, who both looked at me with the most quizzical expression. Turns out, they only knew the old definition — someone in a circus sideshow who bites the heads off chickens — and I only knew the contemporary one.
http://mattdm.org/ Matthew Miller

It also meant that in, oh, say, 1974. And 2004, 2005, and for at least a good part of 2006.
- xzzy
  
  Still means that here in 2013.
  
  Not that Twitter users would enjoy having their use of the service described in that manner. But it is pretty accurate.
retchdog

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twittering_Machine
C W

Also of interest is the “cantphrases” portion of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of crowds.

Archaic memes!
shay simmons

I saw that book and downloaded it yesterday. Gutenberg has at least two more slang dictionaries online.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Robert-Holmen/562023961 Robert Holmén

I didn’t know “slang” was a word that far back. Now i do.
timquinn

“cool: to look”

Okay, how do we know what “look” means?
- Wreckrob8
  
  Convention.
  
  The same one that should prevent us knowing what cool means ‘cos it’s Victorian, criminal back slang.
  - http://jackfear.blogspot.com Jack Feerick
    
    That was my thought as well — as with “reeb” for beer, “dab” for bad, et cetera.