|
In 1845 George Matsell was appointed
first Chief of the police department. Later the highest ranking uniformed member of the Police Department was the Superintendent.
In 1859, or thereabouts, he published The Secret Language of Crim: Vocabulum or The Rouge’s Lexicon. His dictionary of street slang from the mid-19th Century has interesting terms from the era,
as well as some insights to our ‘street language’ today. As an example,
Matsell is likely printed the first reference to “Dukes” has meaning hands, as in “Put up your Dukes.” Or, he records that before the Civil War the word “crib” meant someone’s
residence, as it does today.
|
