Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day 242

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….

Paum

This is defined by Grose as “to conceal in the hand. To paum a die: to hide a die in the palm of the hand. He paums; he cheats. Don’t pretend to paum that upon me”. This is simply from the French word ‘paume’, which still means palm and it’s the same way that the palm tree got its name, which is because the leaves are shaped like an open palm. Anyway, the word survives in magic, magicians palm cards still today.

And here is the slow and steady fall out of usage of the word.