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Coney-catching is Elizabethan slang for theft through trickery. It comes from the word "coney" (sometimes spelled conny), meaning a rabbit raised for the table and thus tame. [1] A coney-catcher was a thief or con man. [2]
Notes Works cited References External links 0-9 S.S. Kresge Lunch Counter and Soda Fountain, about 1920 86 Main article: 86 1. Soda-counter term meaning an item was no longer available 2. "Eighty-six" means to discard, eliminate, or deny service A abe's cabe 1. Five dollar bill 2. See fin, a fiver, half a sawbuck absent treatment Engaging in dance with a cautious partner ab-so-lute-ly ...
Cant is a common feature of rogue literature of the Elizabethan era in England, in both pamphlets and theatre.It was claimed by Samuel Rid to have been devised around 1530 by two vagabond leaders – Giles Hather, of the "Egyptians", and Cock Lorell, of the "Quartern of Knaves" – at The Devil's Arse, a cave in Derbyshire, "to the end that their cozenings, knaveries and villainies might not ...
Extensive research has been conducted since the 1930s to determine the origin of the Appalachian dialect. One popular theory is that the dialect is a preserved remnant of 16th-century (or "Elizabethan") English in isolation, [5] [6] though a far more accurate comparison would be to 18th-century (or "colonial") English. [7]
Late Elizabethan drama contains a profusion of minced oaths, probably due to Puritan opposition to swearing. Seven new minced oaths are first recorded between 1598 and 1602, including 'sblood for "By God's blood" from Shakespeare , 'slight for "God's light" from Ben Jonson , and 'snails for "God's nails" from the historian John Hayward.
"Huzzah" on a sign at a Fourth of July celebration. Huzzah (sometimes written hazzah; originally HUZZAH spelled huzza and pronounced huh-ZAY, now often pronounced as huh-ZAH; [1] [2] in most modern varieties of English hurrah or hooray) is, according to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), "apparently a mere exclamation". [3]
Slang dictionaries have been around for hundreds of years. The Canting Academy, or Devil's Cabinet Opened was a 17th-century slang dictionary, written in 1673 by Richard Head, that looked to define thieves' cant.
Nothing is also a double entendre: 'an O-thing' (or 'n othing' or 'no thing') was Elizabethan slang for "vagina", derived from women having 'nothing' between their legs. [ 6 ] [ 25 ] [ 26 ] The title can also be understood as Much Ado About Noting : much of the action centres on interest in others and the critique of others, written messages ...