HENRY MAYHEW (1812-1887) AND

ecorded curious tams Iike "fenicadauzer'*:'"no fear of a femcodouzer fa the butcher.
How is it spelled, sir Well, if yau can't find it in the dictionary, you must use your own
judge. What dog it mean It mans a dewskitch (a good thrashing)."' '" Tk word
"bummaree**- 'the jobber a speculata on the fish-exchange** a fishmonger tdd
Mayhew. "was originally a bum-boat man, wb purchased of the wind-smacks at
Gravesend a the Nae. aad seat the fish up rapidly to the market by I d " M a w
concluded that the 'anpage spoken by this rambling class [tkstreet-fdlr] was peculiar
in its co~~~tructim" It consisted of "an odb Hdky of coclollevf;Pn ED@&, rude
provimialisms, and a large propmion of the slang c o d y used by gypsies and aher
'travelas,' in cunveying their ideas to those whom they wish to purchase tkir
c o ~ ~ e s 147 . -
"the years 1660 and 1670" (Mayhew, XI: 403). Mayhew mxxded that The noun Scavenger is said
by lexicographers to be derived ban the German schben, to shave or scrape, 'applied to those
who saape and clear away the filth fram public street a orha places* (Mayhew, 11: 205). Mayhew
documented that the word '%ug" was "a Celtic word signifying a ghost a gobtin." "It was applied
to them after Ray's time, most probably because they were considerexi as 'terrors by night'. Hence
our Englisb wad bug-kar. The wad in this sease often ocarrs in Shakespeare, Winter's Tale. act
iii, sc.2. 3; Henry XI. act v. sc. 2; Hder, act v. sc.2. See Douce's Illurrrations of Shakespeare, i.
329"' (Mayhew, IXI: 34).
'a Ibid., 470. Mayhew recalled that in "almost every instance novel information which I gave to
the public concerning the largest M y of the street-sellers, the ~06tennoagers, this word 'bunse'
(probably a caruptian of bonus, bone being the slang for good) first appeared in print" (Ibid).
14' Ibid., 478.