{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/whorl/608",
    "note": "Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright in each message remains with the person who wrote it.  Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact.",
    "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'"
  },
  "archive": "whorl",
  "thread": {
    "id": 608,
    "subject": "Brain back",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "1999-05-09T21:35:52+00:00",
    "last": "1999-05-09T21:35:52+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<whorl-v0009-0114@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Gordon Brain",
        "address": "gobrain at netcomuk.co.uk"
      },
      "date": "1999-05-09T21:35:52+00:00",
      "subject": "(whorl) Brain back",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Here's another one for the Canting Crew, i.e. anyone else who's been baffled\nbut fascinated by the patter of the Vironese criminal classes.\n\nHaving come across a new dictionary, I thought I'd have another look at\nMantis's booklet LS-2, Languages Of The Short Sun Whorl, to see if could\nplug a few of the remaining gaps.\n\nHere's what I came up with, mostly courtesy of: The Cassell Dictionary Of\nSlang, by Jonathan Green, 1998 (abbreviated JG below).\n\nBrick - \"a reliable, kind, selfless person, mid-19C+\" (JG)\n\nBuy him rope - sense: provide enough evidence to convict or condemn (c.f.\nthe old saying: 'give him enough rope and he'll hang himself')\n\nCandy - \"of a job, easy, undemanding, 'soft' 1930s+\" (JG)\n\nCard in a cart - sense of: I can afford to be generous, the cost will be\nrelatively low compared to our overall takings (as Orchid ups her offer,\nmistaking Silk's shocked speechlessness for him expecting   more).\nFrom: Card as in Whorl currency\nCart as in \"Cart-Load - many, a great quantity, esp. of a desirable\ncommodity, late 16C-late 18C\" (JG)\n(c.f. \"in for a penny, in for a pound\")\n\nDog's Right - two possibilities?:\nrhyming slang for \"a night\"\nor it may be related to \"Dog's Rig - sexual intercourse taken to exhaustion,\nfollowed by mutual disinterest, late 18C\" (JG)\n\nFlipper - \"the hand or arm, mid-19C+\" (JG)\n\nFlue - \"the anus, 20C\" (JG)\n\nHanger - not slang, this is Standard English for a \"short sword, orig. hung\nfrom belt\" (OED)\n\nHornboys - related to \"Horn-child - the offspring of an adulterous\nrelationship 20C, WI\" (JG) ?\n\nLiftin' (seals) -from \"Lift - to steal, late 16C+\" (JG)\n\nQuill - \"Pure Quill - something that is excellent or flawless, 1950s+\" (JG)\nfrom \"Quill - first rate whisky, the genuine thing as opposed to the\n'bathtub' or 'rotgut' versions produced during Prohibition, 1920s-30s\" (JG)\n\nRags and tags - from \"Rag, tag and bobtail - the whole lot, early 19C\" (JG)\n(i.e. Paca was good for all sorts of criminal activities)\n\nScut - not cant, Standard English for \"short tail, esp. of hare, rabbit or\ndeer\" (OED)\n\nShook: \"what shook last night\" - what was stolen last night, from \"Shook -\nrobbed, lost by robbery, 19C\" (JG)\nc.f. \"What shakes? - what chance is there of stealing something?, mid-19C\"\n(JG)\n\nSmoke up - from \"Smoke - to cheat, to deceive [one blows smoke in the victim\n's eyes], late 17C-18C\" (JG)\n.\nSmokin' - same meaning as in 'Smoke Up' above.\n\nSwop: \"lose swop\" = lose the exchange, from \"Swop = swap = an act of\nexchange, mid 19C+\" (JG)\n\nHope this is of use Mantis, too late for LS-2 but maybe to feed into Gate Of\nHorn?\n\nAnd here's hoping there'll be plenty of new cant to get our teeth into, when\nthe Book Of The Short Sun arrives.\n\nRegards,\nBrain\n\n\n*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun."
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}