Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day 131

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….

Frog’s Wine

A lot of thought was put into the definition of this word in the dictionary, it’s listed solely as “gin”. Back in the early part of the eighteenth century, gin was causing all manner of problems in society, in a similar way to how Stella exists today. A ‘gin craze’ had developed and Parliament was forced to pass a series of laws to try and control how much was being drunk, with some success as its usage had fallen by the end of the century. I’m not sure of the etymology behind ‘Frog’s Wine’, but it was a derogatory slang term.

This is all a handy excuse to use one of my favourite images, Gin Lane by William Hogarth.