Skip to content

Monthly Archives: January 2011

The American Malefactor’s Dictionary: blowen and its variants

blowen – 1. a woman; 2. a thief’s mistress; 3. a prostitute; 4. a strange woman. blowen, a fine – lady. blowen of the ken – mistress of the house. blowen spenie or blowen mush – a thief’s girl. blowen, to do him of his – to rob him of his wife. Sources Barnes, Daniel […]

The American Malefactor’s Dictionary: blow a cloud

blow a cloud – smoke a cigar or pipe. Sources Farmer, John S. and W. E. Henley. A Dictionary of Slang and Colloquial English. Abridged from Slang and Its Analogues. London: George Routledge and Sons, 1912. Grose, Francis and Egan Pierce. Grose’s Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Revised and Corrected. London: Printed for Sherwood, […]

The American Malefactor’s Dictionary: blackleg

blackleg – 1. a gambler; 2. someone who bets without intending to pay his losses; 3. a swindler, a criminal. The term derives from criminals and swindlers who had black bruises on their legs from sitting in the stocks or from wearing fetters. Another possible origin comes from the black color on the legs of […]

The American Malefactor’s Dictionary: black ointment

Image via Wikipedia black ointment – pieces of raw meat (“It soothes dogs and men.”). Sources Barrère, Albert and Charles G. Leland. A Dictionary of Slang, Jargon, and Cant. [London]: The Ballantyne Press, 1889. Farmer, John S. and W. E. Henley. A Dictionary of Slang and Colloquial English. Abridged from Slang and Its Analogues. London: […]