Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day 116

The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue was first published at the end of the eighteenth century, and given that the current health crisis is giving too much time to read books, I thought I’d pick a daily word from it until I got bored….

Fakement

This word is defined by the dictionary as “a counterfeit signature. A forgery. Tell the macers to mind their fakements; desire the swindlers to be careful not to forget another person’s signature”. It’s a word that sounds like it should exist in English (adding ‘ment’ usually means to action the first part of the word), but it also sounds as though it has been recently been made up. It actually though dates back to at least the sixteenth century, although was more commonly used in the nineteenth century.