Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day 227

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….

Norway Neckcloth

Grose makes a lot of references to words and phrases relating to punishment, whether it’s the gallows or the pillories. This one relates to the latter, defined as “the pillory, usually made of Norway fir” and the phrase remained used until the mid-nineteenth century, pretty much when the pillory was banned in England and Wales in 1837.

There had been discussion in Parliament about whether the pillory should be abolished for some decades before the ban was enacted, with the problem that some found themselves rewarded by the public with flowers and refreshments, whereas in other cases the criminal was killed by mobs during the punishment, so the law failed in both ways.