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The American Malefactor’s Dictionary: antelope and antelope lay

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antelope

– a hog (ironic: “a hog’s ugliness and clumsiness are contrasted with an antelope’s beauty and grace”).

antelope lay

– hog stealing.

pigs_crop
Image by johnmuk via Flickr

Sources

  • Barnes, Daniel R. “An Early American Collection of Rogue’s Cant.” The Journal of American Folklore 79, no. 314 (Oct.-Dec., 1966), 600-607.
  • Partridge, Eric. A Dictionary of the Underworld. New York: Bonanza Books, 1961.

Note: See “Cant: The Language of the Underworld” to learn more about the background of the American Malefactor’s Dictionary.

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