Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day 122

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….

Fire Shovel

This charming phrase is defined by the dictionary as “he or she when young, was fed with a fire shovel; a saying of persons with wide mouths”. I can’t find much evidence of this phrase being in common usage, but I still like it, an elegant way of describing a coarse person.