Note 41 — THE HISTORY OF SLANG, OR THE VULGAR LANGUAGE OF FAST LIFE.

The Gipseys use the word Slang as the Anglican synonyme for Romany, the continental (or rather Spanish) term for the Cingari or Gipsey tongue. Crabb, who wrote the Gipsies’ Advocate in 1831, thus mentions the word:—“This language [Gipsey] called by themselves Slang, or Gibberish, invented, as they think, by their forefathers for secret purposes, is not merely the language of one or a few of these wandering tribes, which are found in the European nations, but is adopted by the vast numbers who inhabit the earth.”