The Reading Warehouse

'A Gem'

1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue;A runaway success when published in 1811 by soldier Francis Grose, but now the Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue is getting tongues wagging again after being published again.'
Daily Telegraph

1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue

Francis Grose

Explaining the book in the preface at the time, the author writes "The merit of Captain Grose's Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue has been long and universally acknowledged.

"But its circulation was confined almost exclusively to the lower orders of society: he was not aware, at the time of its compilation, that our young men of fashion would at no very distant period be as distinguished for the vulgarity of their jargon as the inhabitants of Newgate.

A dictionary of the slang of the British underworld

Francis Grose, b. before 11 June 1731 - 12 June 1791, was an English antiquary, draughtsman, and lexicographer. He was born at his father's house in Broad Street, St-Peter-le-Poer, London, son of a Swiss immigrant and jeweller, Francis Jacob Grose, d. 1769, and his wife, Anne, d. 1773, daughter of Thomas Bennett of Greenford in Middlesex. Grose was baptized on 11 June 1731 in the parish of St Peter-le-Poer.

Additionally, it is noted that he was the anonymous author of Advice to the Officers of the British Army: With the addition of some Hints to the Drummer and Private Soldier, which was published in 1783 as a mocking look backwards on the conduct of the war against the American Colonies. Every instance of corruption, disregard and vice are suggested for every rank of the army.

Tongue in cheek, but obviously rooted in truth, it is a great companion to Vulgar Tongue. It also contains a satirical portrait of Jeremiah Hodges, Grose's erstwhile commanding officer in the Surrey militia.