Process: The Vulgar Tongue

My website was used as a source for the expression “tongue rug” on Termium Plus: La banque de données terminologiques et linguistiques du gouvernement du Canada.

Contexte: Le tapis à langues [...] fabriqué de morceaux de feutre ... au Québec et en Suède est similaire à une courtepointe mais formé de langues qui se chevauchent, souvent brodés avec des icônes symboliques. (Cuckoo Grafik)

I was happy to see this inclusion; that the humble rug was given a little recognition despite what Gordon Campbell describes as its utilitarian nature in The Grove Encyclopaedia of Decorative Arts (2006): "Pieces of fabric, cut with one end rounded, were sewn to a heavy foundation. Starting at the outside edge, each row of ‘tongues’ slightly overlapped the previous one, like tiles on a roof, until the centre was reached. Sometimes the ‘tongues’ were decorated with button-hole stitches." (298) Not sure I agree with the term? Though the object is useful in its capacity to recycle discarded materials, can it not also be an object of beauty ?

Out of curiosity, I searched Termium for other expressions: tongue of air (langue d’air); tongue on a buckle (ardillon); tongue in cheek (pince-sans-rire); tongue clucking (claquement de langue); tongue shaped (linguiforme); tongue and slot fixing (fermeture mâle et femelle); tongue twister (virelangue); and tongue land (langue de terre).

Though I had heard the term langue de terre before, I was not familiar with "tongue land". Looking over my maps, it is the perfect term for certain land formations in Quebec. The Legault Peninsula / Presqu’Île des Legaults (LE-8) does ressemble an emerald tongue jutting out into the water of the Outaouais. Other agricultural areas, such as Angers Bridge (A-9) in Sainte-Marie-Madelaine, Montérégie, Québec, recall the patchwork rug by the ordering of their tongue-like, long narrow strips of land, a result of the seigneurial system that was introduced to Nouvelle France in 1627.

 

View Tongue A-9 in a larger map Remnants of the seigneurial system can be seen today in maps and satellite imagery of Quebec, with the characteristic "long lot" (ribbon farm) land system still forming the basic shape of current farm fields and clearings, as well as being reflected in the historic county boundaries along the St. Lawrence River. (Wikipedia)

I also found older expressions in the 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue: A Dictionary of Buckish slang, University Wit, and Pickpocket Eloquence by Francis Grose, which was first published in 1785 as the Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue by Captain Grose. The first edition contained words that were tamed down or edited out in the latter edition. I was able to read both editions online in digitized format (Google), transcribed (Gutenberg Project) and even indexed by keyword.

 

British Library (Learning: Dictionaries and meanings) TONGUE enough for two sets of teeth: said of a talkative person. As old as my TONGUE, and a little older than my teeth; a dovetail in answer to the question, How old are you? TONGUE pad; a scold, or nimble-tongued person. It is all RUG; it is all right and safe, the game is secure. Asleep. The whole gill is safe at RUG; the people of the house are fast asleep.

Throughout the dictionary, the Cant Language is a prevalent term, one that I had not encountered before.

“The Vulgar Tongue consists of two parts; the first is the Cant Language, called sometimes Pedlar’s French, or St. Giles’s Greek; the second, those Burlesque Phrases, Quaint Allusion, and Nick-names for persons, things and places, which from long uninterrupted usage are made classical by prescription.”
— Preface, Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (1785)

 

French Canadian wood carving The tongue rug, often no bigger than a doormat, was traditionally displayed in the parlour.

 

The Canadian Oxford Dictionary defines “cant” as a language peculiar to a class, profession or sect; to speak jargon. It’s earlier meaning was of a musical nature, one of intonation and of beggar’s whining, probably from the Anglo-Norman cant, song, singing, from canter, to sing, from Latin cantre. In The Vulgar Tongue, cant is defined in a highly negative way: a CANT is defined as “ an hypocrite, a double tongue pallavering fellow” while CANT language is also known as GIBBERISH, that is, Pedlar’s French or St. Giles’s Greek. CANTERS, or THE CANTING CREW is defined as "thieves, beggars, and gypsies, or any others using the canting lingo".

The dictionary is rife with words of foreign origins , such as CHAPERON, CURTEZAN, CURMUDGEON (“a covetous old fellow, derived according to some, from the French term coeur méchant”), FOGEY ("Old Fogey. A nickname for an invalid soldier: derived from the French word fougeux, fierce or fiery"), and SAUNTERER (an idle, lounging fellow, said to be derived from the French sans terre), to name just a few. At the same time, the French language is considered “an outlandish lingo, a foreign tongue; the parlezvous lingo”. E. Cobham Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898) defines “Pedlar’s French” as the slang of the Romany folk. He explains that the word Frenchman was a synonym of foreigner. Anyone who could not speak English was labeled so.

Slang is a vernacular vocabulary that is not generally acceptable in formal usage and can included mundane terms (rain check) to obscure sexual practices. For instance, the dictionary reveals that TWIDDLE DIDDLES is slang for testicles.

“We need not descant on the dangerous impressions that are made on the female mind, by the remarks that fall incidentally from the lips of the brother or servants of a family; and we have before observed, that improper topics can with our assistance be discussed, even before the ladies, without raising a blush on the cheek of modesty. It is impossible that a female should understand the meaning of TWIDDLE DIDDLES or rise from tablet at the mention of BUCKINGER'S BOOT. — Preface, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (1811)

Much of the vernacular vocabulary reflects the racism and prejudices of that time, let alone misogynist sentiments. Many expressions seemed to be used to put someone in their place, to assign them to their correct station in life.

PISS-PROUD. Having a false erection. That old fellow thought he had an erection, but his - was only piss-proud; said of any old fellow who marries a young wife

Other words were used in the same way, to silence. The tongue is invariable female.

CHATTER BOX. One whose tongue runs twelve score to the dozen, a chattering man or woman.
CLACK, a tongue, chiefly applied to women, a simile drawn from the clack of a water mill.
GAB, or GOB, the mouth; gift of the gab, a facility of speech, eloquence, nimble tongued; to blow the gab, to confess, or peach.
GLIB, smooth, slippery; glib tongued, talkative.
POTATO TRAP; the mouth; shut your potato trap, and give your tongue a holiday, i.e. be silent.
PRITTLE PRATTLE, insignificant talk, generally applied to women and children.
QUAIL PIPE, a woman’s tongue.
RED RAG, the tongue; shut up your potatoe trap, and give your red rag a holiday, i.e. shut up your mouth and let your tongue rest […]
TITTLE TATTLE, idle discourse, scandal, women’s talk, or small talk
BONE BOX. The mouth. Shut your bone box; shut your mouth.

Many words such as dowdy and drab, at one time harsh judgments of women, have had their meaning watered down in today’s usage. Other words that were once considered slang have been incorporated into general use such as agog, blab, blast, blubber, bouncer, brat, brazen-faced, budge, buff, carouse, chap, chubby, clan, clout, coax, crone, disgruntled, elbow grease, equipt, eves dropper, feint, fidgets, fumble, gawkey, gingerly, glum, grub, hodge podge, jowl, lingo, lush, pimp, pommel, puny, quandary, quota, rigmarole, scamper, scarce, scoundrel, scraggy, seedy, sham, slang, slouch, smut, smirk, sneering, snicker, snivel, spree, swig, tipsey, wheedle, yelp, etc. However, the meaning of many of these words has shifted with time.

Though of course Twitter took its name from an existing word for bird chatter, it is nonetheless eery to stumble upon such a contemporary word in the world of social media in a dictionary that is more than 200 years old.

TWITTER, all in a twitter, in a fright; twittering is also the note of some small birds, such as the robin, etc.

What sort of slang and vernacular vocabulary will social media generate for future dictionaries?