A Vocabulary of Criminal Slang With Some Examples of Common Usages (Classic Reprint)

It is noticeably true that our average law officer or advocate is necessarily a specialist in one or perhaps a few, at most, of the many recognized branches of professional crime. The limitation is occasioned in part by prescribed capacity and in part by inexperience or unfamiliarity with criminals of all types and their methods. Efficiency in general correctional labor may undoubtedly be promoted by a fuller understanding of the linguistic acquirements of subjects to be dealt with in every day practice. It is hoped that the publication of this vocabulary of criminal terms will render material advantages to the conscientious worlers in this large field. We are conscious of many errors of omission in the work and we request the co-operation of all who are interested in its utility. Only the essential and most pertinent or purely criminal vernacular usages have been selected from the mystical parlance of professional violators and their accomplices, for the reason that popular slang Is so extensively comprehended as to make its publication of doubtful value as a new contribution to our literature. An analysis of the four hundred and thirty terms included in the vocabulary reveals the interesting fact that criminal idiom is largely an ingenious combination of epithet suggested by similitude and a perverted construction of essential and accidental attributes of things and powers to imply or express the things and actions themselves. An occult jargon on its face, yet systematic enough when the key is acquired. Some of the terms seem to have been derived by simple partition of legitimate English words, occasionally with the addition of euphonious prefix or suffix. As a prime example of the transposition of an attribute for the thing itself, consider what is perhaps the most popular slang term in use today in the unregenerate world dope, at present signifying news,
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)