GUTTING A QUART POT. Taking out the lining of it: i. e. drinking it off. Gutting an oyster; eating it. Gutting a house; clearing it of its furniture. See POULTERER.
A selection from Francis Grose’s “Dictionary Of The Vulgar Tongue” (1785)
How do writers become famous? It's clear that talent is not enough. Cass R. Sunstein looks at the factors and trends that lead to literary recognition, from Oprah's Book Club to premature death. This extract from his book, "How to Become Famous: Lost Einsteins, Forgotten Superstars, and How the Beatles Came to Be," appears on LitHub.
GRANNY. An abbreviation of grandmother; also the name of an idiot, famous for licking, her eye, who died Nov. 14, 1719. Go teach your granny to suck eggs; said to such as would instruct any one in a matter he knows better than themselves.
A selection from Francis Grose’s “Dictionary Of The Vulgar Tongue” (1785)
BANG UP. (WHIP.) Quite the thing, hellish fine. Well done. Compleat. Dashing. In a handsome stile. A bang up cove; a dashing fellow who spends his money freely. To bang up prime: to bring your horses up in a dashing or fine style.
A selection from Francis Grose’s “Dictionary Of The Vulgar Tongue” (1785)
HOSTELER, i.e. oat stealer. Hosteler was originally the name for an inn-keeper; inns being in old English styled hostels, from the French signifying the same.
A selection from Francis Grose’s “Dictionary Of The Vulgar Tongue” (1785)
PRICK-EARED. A prick-eared fellow; one whose ears are longer than his hair: an appellation frequently given to puritans, who considered long hair as the mark of the whore of Babylon.
A selection from Francis Grose’s “Dictionary Of The Vulgar Tongue” (1785)
“THE DYNAMITER is a hugely inventive & brilliant book, at once a political thriller, a blackly comic satire, & a female adventure”
Robert Louis Stevenson & Fanny Van de Grift Osbourne married #OTD, 19 May, 1880. In this article, Prof Penny Fielding explores the dangerous #collaboration between RLS & his wife: granting female agency on the page & in life
CAT CALL. A kind of whistle, chiefly used at theatres, to interrupt the actors, and damn a new piece. It derives its name from one of its sounds, which greatly resembles the modulation of an intriguing boar cat.
A selection from Francis Grose’s “Dictionary Of The Vulgar Tongue” (1785)
DRAGOONING IT. A man who occupies two branches of one profession, is said to dragoon it; because, like the soldier of that denomination, he serves in a double capacity. Such is a physician who furnishes the medicines, and compounds his own prescriptions.
A selection from Francis Grose’s “Dictionary Of The Vulgar Tongue” (1785)
—“Mr. Johnson, (said I) I do indeed come from Scotland, but I cannot help it.”
—“That, Sir, I find, is what a very great many of your countrymen cannot help.”
May 16 is Biographers Day – marking the 1st meeting of James Boswell & Samuel Johnson in 1763
VINCENT'S LAW. The art of cheating at cards, composed of the following associates: bankers, those who play booty; the gripe, he that betteth; and the person cheated, who is styled the vincent; the gains acquired, termage.
A selection from Francis Grose’s “Dictionary Of The Vulgar Tongue” (1785)
"John Milton’s handwritten annotations have been identified in a copy of Holinshed's Chronicles, a vital source of inspiration for the Paradise Lost poet."
“John Milton’s handwritten annotations have been identified in a copy of Holinshed’s Chronicles, a vital source of inspiration for the Paradise Lost poet.”