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Getting
Started
with
Arduino
Massimo Banzi

Second Edition
Getting Started with Arduino
by Massimo Banzi

Copyright © 2011 Massimo Banzi. All rights reserved.

Printed in the U.S.A.

Published by Make:Books, an imprint of Maker Media,

a division of O’Reilly Media, Inc.
1005 Gravenstein Highway North, Sebastopol, CA 95472

O’Reilly books may be purchased for educational, business,

or sales promotional use. For more information, contact our
corporate/institutional sales department: 800-998-9938
or [email protected].

Print History:
October 2008: First Edition
September 2011: Second Edition

Executive Editor: Brian Jepson

Designer: Brian Scott
Indexer: Ellen Troutman Zaig
Illustrations: Elisa Canducci with Shawn Wallace

The O’Reilly logo is a registered trademark of O’Reilly Media, Inc.

The Make: Projects series designations and related trade dress
are trademarks of O’Reilly Media, Inc. The trademarks of third
parties used in this work are the property of their respective
owners.

Important Message to Our Readers: Your safety is your own

responsibility, including proper use of equipment and safety gear,
and determining whether you have adequate skill and experi-
ence. Electricity and other resources used for these projects are
dangerous unless used properly and with adequate precautions,
including safety gear. Some illustrations do not depict safety
precautions or equipment, in order to show the project steps
more clearly. These projects are not intended for use by children.

Use of the instructions and suggestions in Getting Started with

Arduino is at your own risk. O’Reilly Media, Inc., and the author
disclaim all responsibility for any resulting damage, injury, or
expense. It is your responsibility to make sure that your activities
comply with applicable laws, including copyright.

ISBN: 978-1-449-309879
[LSI]
Contents
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v

1/Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Intended Audience. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
What Is Physical Computing?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

2/The Arduino Way . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Prototyping. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Tinkering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Patching. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Circuit Bending. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Keyboard Hacks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
We Love Junk!. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Hacking Toys. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Collaboration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

3/The Arduino Platform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

The Arduino Hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
The Software (IDE). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Installing Arduino on Your Computer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Installing Drivers: Macintosh. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Installing Drivers: Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Port Identification: Macintosh. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Port Identification: Windows. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

4/Really Getting Started with Arduino . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Anatomy of an Interactive Device. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Sensors and Actuators. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Blinking an LED. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Pass Me the Parmesan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Arduino Is Not for Quitters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Real Tinkerers Write Comments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
The Code, Step by Step . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
What We Will Be Building . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
What Is Electricity? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Using a Pushbutton to Control the LED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
How Does This Work?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
One Circuit, A Thousand Behaviours. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

5/Advanced Input and Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Trying Out Other On/Off Sensors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Controlling Light with PWM. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
 Use a Light Sensor Instead of the Pushbutton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Analogue Input. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Try Other Analogue Sensors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Serial Communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Driving Bigger Loads (Motors, Lamps, and the Like). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Complex Sensors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

6/Talking to the Cloud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 1

Planning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Coding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Assembling the Circuit. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Here’s How to Assemble It. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

7/Troubleshooting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Testing the Board. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Testing Your Breadboarded Circuit. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Isolating Problems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Problems with the IDE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
How to Get Help Online. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Appendices. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Appendix A/The Breadboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Appendix B/Reading Resistors and Capacitors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Appendix C/Arduino Quick Reference. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 5
Appendix D/Reading Schematic Diagrams. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Preface

A few years ago I was given a very interesting

challenge: teach designers the bare minimum
in electronics so that they could build inter-
active prototypes of the objects they were
designing.

I started following a subconscious instinct to teach electronics the same

way I was taught in school. Later on I realised that it simply wasn’t working
as well as I would like, and started to remember sitting in a class, bored
like hell, listening to all that theory being thrown at me without any practical
application for it.

In reality, when I was in school I already knew electronics in a very empirical

way: very little theory, but a lot of hands-on experience.

I started thinking about the process by which I really learned electronics:

» I took apart any electronic device I could put my hands on.

» I slowly learned what all those components were.

» I began to tinker with them, changing some of the connections inside

of them and seeing what happened to the device: usually something
between an explosion and a puff of smoke.

» I started building some kits sold by electronics magazines.

» I combined devices I had hacked, and repurposed kits and other circuits
that I found in magazines to make them do new things.

As a little kid, I was always fascinated by discovering how things work;

therefore, I used to take them apart. This passion grew as I targeted any
unused object in the house and then took it apart into small bits. Even-
tually, people brought all sorts of devices for me to dissect. My biggest

Preface v
projects at the time were a dishwasher and an early computer that came
from an insurance office, which had a huge printer, electronics cards,
magnetic card readers, and many other parts that proved very interesting
and challenging to completely take apart.

After quite a lot of this dissecting, I knew what electronic components

were and roughly what they did. On top of that, my house was full of old
electronics magazines that my father must have bought at the beginning
of the 1970s. I spent hours reading the articles and looking at the circuit
diagrams without understanding very much.

This process of reading the articles over and over, with the benefit of
knowledge acquired while taking apart circuits, created a slow virtuous
circle.

A great breakthrough came one Christmas, when my dad gave me a kit

that allowed teenagers to learn about electronics. Every component was
housed in a plastic cube that would magnetically snap together with other
cubes, establishing a connection; the electronic symbol was written on
top. Little did I know that the toy was also a landmark of German design,
because Dieter Rams designed it back in the 1960s.

With this new tool, I could quickly put together circuits and try them out to
see what happened. The prototyping cycle was getting shorter and shorter.

After that, I built radios, amplifiers, circuits that would produce horrible
noises and nice sounds, rain sensors, and tiny robots.

I’ve spent a long time looking for an English word that would sum up that
way of working without a specific plan, starting with one idea and ending
up with a completely unexpected result. Finally, “tinkering” came along.
I recognised how this word has been used in many other fields to describe
a way of operating and to portray people who set out on a path of explora-
tion. For example, the generation of French directors who gave birth to the
“Nouvelle Vague” were called the “tinkerers”. The best definition of tinkering
that I’ve ever found comes from an exhibition held at the Exploratorium
in San Francisco:

Tinkering is what happens when you try something you don’t quite know
how to do, guided by whim, imagination, and curiosity. When you tinker,
there are no instructions—but there are also no failures, no right or wrong
ways of doing things. It’s about figuring out how things work and reworking
them.

vi Getting Started with Arduino

Contraptions, machines, wildly mismatched objects working in harmony—
this is the stuff of tinkering.

Tinkering is, at its most basic, a process that marries play and inquiry.

—www.exploratorium.edu/tinkering

From my early experiments I knew how much experience you would need
in order to be able to create a circuit that would do what you wanted start-
ing from the basic components.

Another breakthrough came in the summer of 1982, when I went to London

with my parents and spent many hours visiting the Science Museum.
They had just opened a new wing dedicated to computers, and by follow-
ing a series of guided experiments, I learned the basics of binary math
and programming.

There I realised that in many applications, engineers were no longer build-

ing circuits from basic components, but were instead implementing a lot
of the intelligence in their products using microprocessors. Software was
replacing many hours of electronic design, and would allow a shorter
tinkering cycle.

When I came back I started to save money, because I wanted to buy a

computer and learn how to program.

My first and most important project after that was using my brand-new
ZX81 computer to control a welding machine. I know it doesn’t sound like
a very exciting project, but there was a need for it and it was a great chal-
lenge for me, because I had just learned how to program. At this point, it
became clear that writing lines of code would take less time than modify-
ing complex circuits.

Twenty-odd years later, I’d like to think that this experience allows me to
teach people who don’t even remember taking any math class and to infuse
them with the same enthusiasm and ability to tinker that I had in my youth
and have kept ever since.

—Massimo

Preface vii
Acknowledgments

This book is dedicated to Luisa and Alexandra.

First of all I want to thank my partners in the Arduino Team:

David Cuartielles, David Mellis, Gianluca Martino, and Tom Igoe.
It is an amazing experience working with you guys.

Barbara Ghella, she doesn’t know, but, without her precious

advice, Arduino and this book might have never happened.

Bill Verplank for having taught me more than Physical Computing.

Gillian Crampton-Smith for giving me a chance and for all I have

learned from her.

Hernando Barragan for the work he has done on Wiring.

Brian Jepson for being a great editor and enthusiastic supporter

all along.

Nancy Kotary, Brian Scott, Terry Bronson, and Patti Schiendelman

for turning what I wrote into a finished book.

I want to thank a lot more people but Brian tells me I’m running
out of space, so I’ll just list a small number of people I have to
thank for many reasons:

Adam Somlai-Fisher, Ailadi Cortelletti, Alberto Pezzotti,

Alessandro Germinasi, Alessandro Masserdotti, Andrea Piccolo,
Anna Capellini, Casey Reas, Chris Anderson, Claudio Moderini,
Clementina Coppini, Concetta Capecchi, Csaba Waldhauser,
Dario Buzzini, Dario Molinari, Dario Parravicini, Donata Piccolo,
Edoardo Brambilla, Elisa Canducci, Fabio Violante, Fabio Zanola,
Fabrizio Pignoloni, Flavio Mauri, Francesca Mocellin, Francesco
Monico, Giorgio Olivero, Giovanna Gardi, Giovanni Battistini,
Heather Martin, Jennifer Bove, Laura Dellamotta, Lorenzo
Parravicini, Luca Rocco, Marco Baioni, Marco Eynard, Maria
Teresa Longoni, Massimiliano Bolondi, Matteo Rivolta, Matthias
Richter, Maurizio Pirola, Michael Thorpe, Natalia Jordan,
Ombretta Banzi, Oreste Banzi, Oscar Zoggia, Pietro Dore,
Prof Salvioni, Raffaella Ferrara, Renzo Giusti, Sandi Athanas,
Sara Carpentieri, Sigrid Wiederhecker, Stefano Mirti, Ubi De Feo,
Veronika Bucko.

viii Getting Started with Arduino

How to Contact Us

We have verified the information in this book to the best of our

ability, but you may find things that have changed (or even that
we made mistakes!). As a reader of this book, you can help
us to improve future editions by sending us your feedback.
Please let us know about any errors, inaccuracies, misleading
or confusing statements, and typos that you find anywhere
in this book.

Please also let us know what we can do to make this book more
useful to you. We take your comments seriously and will try
to incorporate reasonable suggestions into future editions.

You can write to us at:

Maker Media
1005 Gravenstein Highway North
Sebastopol, CA 95472
(800) 998-9938 (in the U.S. or Canada)
(707) 829-0515 (international/local)
(707) 829-0104 (fax)

Maker Media is a division of O’Reilly Media devoted entirely to

the growing community of resourceful people who believe that
if you can imagine it, you can make it. Consisting of Make
magazine, Craft magazine, Maker Faire, as well as the Hacks,
Make:Projects, and DIY Science book series, Maker Media
encourages the Do-It-Yourself mentality by providing creative
inspiration and instruction.

For more information about Maker Media, visit us online:

MAKE www.makezine.com
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Hacks: www.hackszine.com

To comment on the book, send email to

[email protected].

The O’Reilly web site for Getting Started with Arduino lists
examples, errata, and plans for future editions. You can find
this page at www.makezine.com/getstartedarduino.

For more information about this book and others, see the
O’Reilly website: www.oreilly.com.

For more information about Arduino, including discussion

forums and further documentation, see www.arduino.cc.

Preface ix
1/Introduction

Arduino is an open source physical computing

platform based on a simple input/output
(I/O) board and a development environment
that implements the Processing language
(www.processing.org). Arduino can be used
to develop standalone interactive objects
or can be connected to software on your
computer (such as Flash, Processing, VVVV,
or Max/MSP). The boards can be assembled
by hand or purchased preassembled; the
open source IDE (Integrated Development
Environment) can be downloaded for free
from www.arduino.cc.
Arduino is different from other platforms on the market because of these
features:

» It is a multiplatform environment; it can run on Windows, Macintosh,

and Linux.

» It is based on the Processing programming IDE, an easy-to-use

development environment used by artists and designers.

» You program it via a USB cable, not a serial port. This feature is useful,
because many modern computers don’t have serial ports.

» It is open source hardware and software—if you wish, you can

download the circuit diagram, buy all the components, and make your
own, without paying anything to the makers of Arduino.

Introduction 1
» The hardware is cheap. The USB board costs about €20 (currently,
about US$35) and replacing a burnt-out chip on the board is easy and
costs no more than €5 or US$4. So you can afford to make mistakes.

» There is an active community of users, so there are plenty of people

who can help you.

» The Arduino Project was developed in an educational environment and

is therefore great for newcomers to get things working quickly.

This book is designed to help beginners understand what benefits they

can get from learning how to use the Arduino platform and adopting its
philosophy.

Intended Audience
This book was written for the “original” Arduino users: designers and
artists. Therefore, it tries to explain things in a way that might drive some
engineers crazy. Actually, one of them called the introductory chapters
of my first draft “fluff”. That’s precisely the point. Let’s face it: most
engineers aren’t able to explain what they do to another engineer, let
alone a regular human being. Let’s now delve deep into the fluff.

NOTE: Arduino builds upon the thesis work Hernando Barragan did on
the Wiring platform while studying under Casey Reas and me at IDII
Ivrea.

After Arduino started to become popular, I realised how experimenters,

hobbyists, and hackers of all sorts were starting to use it to create beauti-
ful and crazy objects. I realised that you’re all artists and designers in
your own right, so this book is for you as well.

Arduino was born to teach Interaction Design, a design discipline that

puts prototyping at the centre of its methodology. There are many defini-
tions of Interaction Design, but the one that I prefer is:

Interaction Design is the design of any interactive experience.

In today’s world, Interaction Design is concerned with the creation

of meaningful experiences between us (humans) and objects. It is a
good way to explore the creation of beautiful—and maybe even contro-
versial—experiences between us and technology. Interaction Design
encourages design through an iterative process based on prototypes

2 Getting Started with Arduino

of ever-increasing fidelity. This approach—also part of some types
of “conventional” design—can be extended to include prototyping with
technology; in particular, prototyping with electronics.

The specific field of Interaction Design involved with Arduino is Physical

Computing (or Physical Interaction Design).

What Is Physical Computing?

Physical Computing uses electronics to prototype new materials for
designers and artists.

It involves the design of interactive objects that can communicate with

humans using sensors and actuators controlled by a behaviour imple-
mented as software running inside a microcontroller (a small computer
on a single chip).

In the past, using electronics meant having to deal with engineers all the
time, and building circuits one small component at the time; these issues
kept creative people from playing around with the medium directly. Most
of the tools were meant for engineers and required extensive knowledge.
In recent years, microcontrollers have become cheaper and easier to use,
allowing the creation of better tools.

The progress that we have made with Arduino is to bring these tools one
step closer to the novice, allowing people to start building stuff after only
two or three days of a workshop.

With Arduino, a designer or artist can get to know the basics of electronics
and sensors very quickly and can start building prototypes with very little
investment.

Introduction 3
2/The Arduino Way

The Arduino philosophy is based on making

designs rather than talking about them. It is
a constant search for faster and more power-
ful ways to build better prototypes. We have
explored many prototyping techniques and
developed ways of thinking with our hands.

Classic engineering relies on a strict process for getting from A to B;

the Arduino Way delights in the possibility of getting lost on the way and
finding C instead.

This is the tinkering process that we are so fond of—playing with the
medium in an open-ended way and finding the unexpected. In this search
for ways to build better prototypes, we also selected a number of soft-
ware packages that enable the process of constant manipulation of the
software and hardware medium.

The next few sections present some philosophies, events, and pioneers
that have inspired the Arduino Way.

The Arduino Way 5

Prototyping
Prototyping is at the heart of the Arduino Way: we make things and build
objects that interact with other objects, people, and networks. We strive
to find a simpler and faster way to prototype in the cheapest possible way.

A lot of beginners approaching electronics for the first time think that they
have to learn how to build everything from scratch. This is a waste of
energy: what you want is to be able to confirm that something’s working
very quickly so that you can motivate yourself to take the next step or
maybe even motivate somebody else to give you a lot of cash to do it.

This is why we developed “opportunistic prototyping”: why spend time

and energy building from scratch, a process that requires time and in-
depth technical knowledge, when we can take ready-made devices and
hack them in order to exploit the hard work done by large companies
and good engineers?

Our hero is James Dyson, who made 5127 prototypes of his vacuum
cleaner before he was satisfied that he’d gotten it right (www.international.
dyson.com/jd/1947.asp).

6 Getting Started with Arduino

Tinkering
We believe that it is essential to play with technology, exploring different
possibilities directly on hardware and software—sometimes without a
very defined goal.

Reusing existing technology is one of the best ways of tinkering. Getting

cheap toys or old discarded equipment and hacking them to make them
do something new is one of the best ways to get to great results.

The Arduino Way 7

Patching
I have always been fascinated by modularity and the ability to build complex
systems by connecting together simple devices. This process is very well
represented by Robert Moog and his analogue synthesizers. Musicians
constructed sounds, trying endless combinations by “patching together”
different modules with cables. This approach made the synthesizer look
like an old telephone switch, but combined with the numerous knobs, that
was the perfect platform for tinkering with sound and innovating music.
Moog described it as a process between “witnessing and discovering”.
I’m sure most musicians at first didn’t know what all those hundreds of
knobs did, but they tried and tried, refining their own style with no inter-
ruptions in the flow.

Reducing the number of interruptions to the flow is very important for

creativity—the more seamless the process, the more tinkering happens.

This technique has been translated into the world of software by “visual
programming” environments like Max, Pure Data, or VVVV. These tools
can be visualised as “boxes” for the different functionalities that they pro-
vide, letting the user build “patches” by connecting these boxes together.
These environments let the user experiment with programming without
the constant interruption typical of the usual cycle: “type program,
compile, damn—there is an error, fix error, compile, run”. If you are more
visually minded, I recommend that you try them out.

8 Getting Started with Arduino

The Arduino Way 9
Circuit Bending

Circuit bending is one of the most interesting forms of tinkering. It’s the
creative short-circuiting of low-voltage, battery-powered electronic audio
devices such as guitar effect pedals, children’s toys, and small synthesiz-
ers to create new musical instruments and sound generators. The heart
of this process is the “art of chance”. It began in 1966 when Reed Ghazala,
by chance, shorted-out a toy amplifier against a metal object in his desk
drawer, resulting in a stream of unusual sounds. What I like about circuit
benders is their ability to create the wildest devices by tinkering away with
technology without necessarily understanding what they are doing on the
theoretical side.

10 Getting Started with Arduino

It’s a bit like the Sniffin’ Glue fanzine shown here: during the punk era,
knowing three chords on a guitar was enough to start a band. Don’t let the
experts in one field tell you that you’ll never be one of them. Ignore them
and surprise them.

The Arduino Way 11

Keyboard Hacks

12 Getting Started with Arduino

Computer keyboards are still the main way to interact with a computer
after more than 60 years. Alex Pentland, academic head of the MIT Media
Laboratory, once remarked: “Excuse the expression, but men’s urinals
are smarter than computers. Computers are isolated from what’s around
them.”1

As tinkerers, we can implement new ways to interact with software by

replacing the keys with devices that are able to sense the environment.
Taking apart a computer keyboard reveals a very simple (and cheap) de-
vice. The heart of it is a small board. It’s normally a smelly green or brown
circuit with two sets of contacts going to two plastic layers that hold the
connections between the different keys. If you remove the circuit and use
a wire to bridge two contacts, you’ll see a letter appear on the computer
screen. If you go out and buy a motion-sensing detector and connect
this to your keyboard, you’ll see a key being pressed every time some-
body walks in front of the computer. Map this to your favourite software,
and you have made your computer as smart as a urinal. Learning about
keyboard hacking is a key building block of prototyping and Physical
Computing.

1
Quoted in Sara Reese Hedberg, “MIT Media Lab’s quest for perceptive computers,” Intelligent Systems and
Their Applications, IEEE, Jul/Aug 1998.

The Arduino Way 13

 Another Random Document on
Scribd Without Any Related Topics
than in the authorized language. Bartlett, the compiler of the
Dictionary of Americanisms, continually cites the Athenæum as using
Slang and vulgar expressions; but the magazine the American refers
to is not the literary journal of the present day,—it was a smaller,
and now defunct, “weekly.” The present possessor of the classic title
is, though, by no means behindhand in its devotion to
colloquialisms. Many other highly respectable journals often use
Slang words and phrases. The Times (or, in Slang, the “Thunderer”)
frequently employs unauthorized terms; and, following a “leader”[54]
of the purest and most eloquent composition, may sometimes be
seen another “article”[54] on a totally different subject, containing,
perhaps, a score or more of exceedingly questionable words. Among
the words and phrases which may be included under the head of
Literary Slang are, “balaam,” matter kept constantly in type about
monstrous productions of nature, to fill up spaces in newspapers;
“balaam-box,” the term given in Blackwood to the repository for
rejected articles; and “slate,” to pelt with abuse, or “cut up” in a
review. “He’s the fellow to slate a piece” is often said of dramatic
critics, especially of those who through youth, inexperience, and the
process of unnatural selection which causes them to be critics,
imagine that to abuse all that is above their comprehension is to
properly exercise the critical faculty. This is, however, dangerous
ground. The Slang names given to newspapers are curious;—thus,
the Morning Advertiser is known as the “Tap-tub,” the “’Tizer,” and
was until recently the “Gin and Gospel Gazette.” The Morning Post
has obtained the suggestive sobriquet of “Jeames;” whilst the
Morning Herald was long caricatured as “Mrs. Harris,” and the
Standard as “Mrs. Gamp.”[55]
The Stage, of course, has its Slang—“both before and behind the
curtain,” as a journalist remarks. The stage-manager is familiarly
termed “daddy;” and an actor by profession, or a “professional,” is
called a “pro.” It is amusing at times to hear a young actor—who
struts about padded with copies of all newspapers that have
mentioned his name—talking, in a mixed company, of the stage as
the profession. This is after all but natural, for to him “all the world’s
a stage.” A man who is occasionally hired at a trifling remuneration
to come upon the stage as one of a crowd, or when a number of
actors are wanted to give effect, is named a “supe,”—an
abbreviation of “supernumerary.” A “surf” is a third-rate actor, who
frequently pursues another calling; and the band, or orchestra
between the pit and the stage, is generally spoken of as the
“menagerie.” A “ben” is a benefit; and “sal” is the Slang abbreviation
of “salary.” Should no money be forthcoming on the Saturday night,
it is said that the “ghost doesn’t walk;” or else the statement goes
abroad that there is “no treasury,” as though the coffers themselves
had departed. The travelling or provincial theatricals, who perform in
any large room that can be rented in a country village, are called
“barn-stormers.” A “length” is forty-two lines of any dramatic
composition; and a “run” is the continuous term of a piece’s
performance. A “saddle” is the additional charge made by a manager
to an actor or actress upon his or her benefit night. To “mug up” is
to paint one’s face, or arrange the person, to represent a particular
character; to “corpse,” or to “stick,” is to balk, or put the other actors
out in their parts by forgetting yours. A performance is spoken of as
either a “gooser” or a “screamer,” should it be a failure or a great
success;—if the latter, it is not infrequently termed a “hit.” To
“goose” a performance is to hiss it; and continued “goosing”
generally ends, or did end before managers refused to accept the
verdict of audiences, in the play or the players being “damned.” To
“star it” is to perform as the centre of attraction, with your name in
large type, and none but subordinates and indifferent actors in the
same performance. The expressive term “clap-trap,” high-sounding
nonsense, is nothing but an ancient theatrical term, and signified a
“trap” to catch a “clap” by way of applause. “Up amongst the ‘gods,’”
refers to being among the spectators in the gallery,—termed in
French Slang “paradis.”
There exists, too, in the great territory of vulgar speech what may
not inappropriately be termed Civic Slang. It consists of mercantile
and Stock Exchange terms, and the Slang of good living and wealth.
A turkey hung with sausages is facetiously styled an “alderman in
chains,”—a term which has spread from the City and become
general; and a half-crown, perhaps from its rotundity, is often
termed an “alderman.” A “bear” is a speculator on the Exchange;
and a “bull,” although of an opposite order, follows a like profession.
There is something very humorous and applicable in the Slang term
“lame duck,” a defaulter in stock-jobbing speculations. The allusion
to his “waddling out of the Alley,” as they say, is excellent. “Breaking
shins,” in City Slang, is borrowing money; a rotten or unsound
scheme is spoken of as “fishy;” “rigging the market” means playing
tricks with it; and “stag” was a common term during the railway
mania for a speculator without capital, a seller of “scrip” in
“Diddlesex Junction” and other equally safe lines. At Tattersall’s a
“monkey” is 500l., and in the City a “plum” is 100,000l., and a
“marygold” is one million sterling. But before proceeding further in a
sketch of the different kinds of Slang, it may be as well to speak
here of the extraordinary number of Cant and Slang terms in use to
represent money—from farthings to bank-notes the value of
fortunes. Her Majesty’s coin, collectively or in the piece, is known by
more than one hundred and thirty distinct Slang words, from the
humble “brown” (a halfpenny) to “flimsies,” or “long-tailed ones”
(bank-notes).
“Money,” it has been well remarked, “the bare, simple word itself,
has a sonorous, significant ring in its sound,” and might have
sufficed, one would have imagined, for all ordinary purposes,
excepting, of course, those demanded by direct reference to specific
sums. But a vulgar or “fast” society has thought differently; and so
we have the Slang synonyms—“beans,” “blunt” (i.e., specie,—not
soft or rags, bank-notes), “brads,” “brass,” “bustle,” “coppers”
(copper money, or mixed pence), “chink,” “chinkers,” “chips,” “corks,”
“dibbs,” “dinarly,” “dimmock,” “dust,” “feathers,” “gent” (silver,—from
argent), “haddock” (a purse of money), “horse nails,” “huckster,”
“loaver,” “lour” (the oldest Cant term for money), “mopusses,”
“needful,” “nobbings” (money collected in a hat by street-
performers), “ochre” (gold), “pewter,” “palm oil,” “pieces,” “posh,”
“queen’s pictures,” “quids,” “rags” (bank-notes), “ready,” or “ready
gilt,” “redge” (gold), “rhino,” “rowdy,” “shiners” (sovereigns), “skin”
(a purse of money), “stiff” (checks, or bills of acceptance), “stuff,”
“stumpy,” “tin” (silver), “wedge” (silver), and “yellow-boys”
(sovereigns);—just forty-three vulgar equivalents for the simple word
money. So attentive is Slang speech to financial matters, that there
are seven terms for bad, or “bogus,” coin (as our friends the
Americans call it): a “case” is a counterfeit five-shilling piece; “half a
case” represents half that sum; “grays” are halfpence made specially
for unfair gambling purposes; “queer-soft” is counterfeit or lead
coin; “schofel” refers to coated or spurious coin; “sheen” is bad
money of any description; and “sinkers” bears the same and not
inappropriate meaning. “Snide” is now the generic term for all bad
money, whether coined or in notes; and “snide-pitching” or “schoful-
tossing” is the term in use among the professors of that pursuit for
what is more generally known as “smashing.” “Flying the kite,” or
obtaining money on bills and promissory-notes, is closely connected
with the allegorical expression of “raising the wind,” which is a well-
known phrase for procuring money by immediate sale, pledging, or
by a forced loan. In winter or in summer any elderly gentleman who
may have prospered in life is pronounced “warm;” whilst an
equivalent is immediately at hand in the phrase “his pockets are well
lined,” or “he is well breeched.” Each separate piece of money has its
own Slang term, and often half a score of synonyms. To begin with
that extremely humble coin, a farthing: first we have “fadge,” then
“fiddler;” then “gig,” and lastly “quartereen.” A halfpenny is a
“brown” or a “madzer (pronounced ‘medzer’) saltee” (Cant), or a
“mag,” or a “posh,” or a “rap,”—whence the popular phrase, “I don’t
care a rap.” The useful and universal penny has for Slang equivalents
a “copper,” a “saltee” (Cant), and a “winn.” Twopence is a “deuce,”
and threepence is either “thrums” or “thrups.” “Thrums” has a
special peculiarity; for while “thrums-buskin” represents threepence-
halfpenny, the term “buskin” is not used in connexion with any other
number of pence. Fourpence, or a groat, may in vulgar speech be
termed a “bit,” a “flag,” or a “joey.” Sixpence is well represented in
street talk, and some of the slangisms are very comical—for
instance, “bandy,” “bender,” “cripple,” and “downer;” then we have
“buck,” “fye-b’ck,” “half a hog,” “kick” (thus “two and a ‘kick,’” or 2s.
6d.), “lord of the manor,”[56] “pig,” “pot” (the price of a pot of ale—
thus half-a-crown is a “five ‘pot’ piece”), “snid,” “sprat,” “sow’s baby,”
“tanner,” “tester,” “tizzy,”—seventeen vulgar words to one coin.
Sevenpence being an uncommon amount has only one Slang
synonym, “setter.” The same remark applies to eightpence and
ninepence, the former being only represented by “otter,” and the
latter by the Cant phrase “nobba-saltee.” Tenpence is “dacha-saltee,”
and elevenpence “dacha-one,”—both Cant expressions. It is
noticeable that coined pieces, and sums which from their smallness
or otherwise are mostly in use, receive a commensurate amount of
attention from promoters of Slang. One shilling boasts eleven Slang
equivalents; thus we have “beong,” “bob,” “breaky-leg,” “deener,”
“gen” (from the back Slang), “hog,” “levy,” “peg,” “stag,” “teviss,” and
“twelver.” One shilling and sixpence is a “kye,” now and then an
“eighteener.” It is noticeable that so far the florin has escaped, and
only receives the shilling titles with the required numeral adjective
prefixed. Half-a-crown is known as an “alderman,” “half a bull,” “half
a wheel,” “half a tusheroon,” and a “madza (medzer) caroon;” whilst
a crown piece, or five shillings, may be called either a “bull,” a
“caroon,” a “cartwheel,” or a “coachwheel,” or, more generally than
either, a “wheel” or a “tusheroon.” The word “dollar” is in general
use among costermongers and their customers, and signifies exactly
five shillings. Any term representing this amount “takes in two,” and
represents the half-crown by the addition of the usual prefix. The
next advance in Slang money is ten shillings, or half-a-sovereign,
which may be either pronounced as “half a bean,” “half a couter,” “a
madza poona,” “half a quid,” or “half a thick ’un.” A sovereign, or
twenty shillings, is a “bean,” “canary,” “couter,” “foont,” “goldfinch,”
“James” (from Jacobus), “poona,” “portrait,” “quid,” “thick-un,” or
“yellow-boy.” Guineas are nearly obsolete, yet the terms “neds” and
“half neds” are still in use. Bank-notes are “flimsies,” “long-tailed
ones,” or “soft.” A “fin,” or a “finnuf,” is a five-pound note. Twenty-
five pounds is a “pony,” and a hundred a “century.” One hundred
pounds (or any other “round sum”), quietly handed over as payment
for services performed, is curiously termed “a ‘cool’ hundred.” Thus
ends, with several necessary omissions, this long list of Slang terms
for the coins of the realm which, for copiousness, it is not too much
to say, is not equalled by any other vulgar or unauthorized language
in Europe.
The antiquity of many of these Slang names is remarkable. “Winn”
was the vulgar term for a penny in the days of Queen Elizabeth; and
“tester,” a sixpence (formerly a shilling), was the correct name in the
days of Henry VIII. The reader, too, will have remarked the
frequency of animals’ names as Slang terms for money. Little, as a
modern writer has remarked, do the persons using these phrases
know of their remote and somewhat classical origin, which may,
indeed, be traced to a period anterior to that when monarchs
monopolized the surface of coined money with their own images and
superscriptions. They are identical with the very name of money
among the early Romans, which was pecunia, from pecus, a flock.
The collections of coin-dealers amply show that the figure of a “hog”
was anciently placed on a small silver coin; and that that of a “bull”
decorated larger ones of the same metal. These coins were
frequently deeply crossed on the reverse; this was for the
convenience of easily breaking them into two or more pieces, should
the bargain for which they were employed require it, and the parties
making it had no smaller change handy to complete the transaction.
Thus we find that the “half bull” of the itinerant street-seller, or
“traveller,” so far from being a phrase of modern invention, as is
generally supposed, is in point of fact referable to an era extremely
remote. This remark will safely apply to most descriptions of money;
and it must not be forgotten that farthing is but a corruption of
fourthing, or, literally, fourth part of a penny. The representative coin
of the realm was often in olden times made to break up,—but this by
the way. It is a reminder, however, that the word “smash,” as used
by the classes that speak Slang from motives other than those of
affectation, has nothing whatever to do with base coin, as is
generally supposed. It simply means to give change. Thus:—“Can
you smash a thick ’un for me?” means simply, “Can you give me
change for a sovereign?” We learn from Erizzo, in his Discorso, a
further illustration of the proverb “that there is nothing new under
the sun;” for he says that the Roman boys at the time of Hadrian
tossed up their coppers and cried, “Head or ship;” of which tradition
our “heads or tails,” and “man or woman,” or “a tanner I heads ’em,”
is certainly a less refined version. We thence gather, however, that
the prow of a vessel would appear to have been the more ordinary
device of the reverse of the brass coin of that ancient period. There
are many other Cant words directly from a classic source, as will be
seen in the dictionary.
Shopkeepers’ Slang is perhaps the most offensive of all Slang,
though this is not intended to imply that shopkeepers are perhaps
the most offensive of people. This kind of Slang is not a casual
eyesore, as newspaper Slang, neither is it an occasional discomfort
to the ear, as in the case of some vulgar byword of the street; but it
is a perpetual nuisance, and stares you in the face on tradesmen’s
invoices, on labels in the shop-windows, and placards on the
hoardings, in posters against the house next to your own—if it
happen to be empty for a few weeks—and in bills thrust into your
hand, as you peaceably walk through the streets. Under your door,
and down your area, Slang handbills are dropped by some “pushing”
tradesman; and for the thousandth time you are called upon to learn
that an “alarming sacrifice” is taking place in the next street; that
prices are “down again;” that, in consequence of some other
tradesman not “driving a roaring trade,” being in fact, “sold up,” and
for the time being a resident in “Burdon’s Hotel” (Whitecross-Street
Prison), the “pushing” tradesman wishes to sell out at “awfully low
prices,” to “the kind patrons, and numerous customers,” &c. &c.,
“that have on every occasion,” &c. &c. These are, though, very
venial offenders compared with those ghouls, the advertising
undertakers, who employ boys, loaded with ghastly little books, to
follow up the parish doctor, and leave their horrible wares wherever
he calls. But what can be expected of ignorant undertakers when a
London newspaper of large circulation actually takes out the death
records from the Times, and sends a circular to each address
therein, informing the bereaved persons that the “——” charges so
much per line for similar notices, and that its circulation is most
extensive? Surely the typical “death-hunter,” hardened though he
may be, is hardly down to that level. In shopkeeping Slang any
occupation or calling is termed a “line,”—thus, the “building line.” A
tailor usurps to himself a good deal of Slang. Amongst operatives he
is called a “snip,” a “steel-bar driver,” a “cabbage contractor,” or a
“goose persuader;” by the world, a “ninth part of a man;” and by the
young collegian, or “fast” man, a “sufferer.” If he takes army
contracts, it is “sank work;” if he is a “slop” tailor, he is a “springer
up,” and his garments are “blown together.” Perquisites with him are
“spiffs,” and remnants of cloth “peaking, or cabbage.” The per-
centage he allows to his assistants (or “counter jumpers”) on the
sale of old-fashioned articles is termed “tinge.” If he pays his
workmen in goods, or gives them tickets upon other tradesmen, with
whom he shares the profit, he is soon known as a “tommy master.”
If his business succeeds, it “takes;” if neglected, it becomes “shaky,”
and “goes to pot;” if he is deceived by a debtor (a by no means
unusual circumstance), he is “let in,” or, as it is sometimes varied,
“taken in.” It need scarcely be remarked that any credit he may give
is termed “tick.”
Operatives’ or workmen’s Slang, in quality, is but slightly removed
from tradesmen’s Slang. When belonging to the same shop or
factory, they “graft” there, and are “brother chips.” Among printers
the favourite term is “comps,”—not compositors, though the same
contraction is used for that word,—but companions, whether so in
actual fact, or as members of the same “companionship.” A
companionship is the number of men engaged on any one work, and
this is in turn reduced to “ship:” sometimes it is a “’stab ship,” i.e.,
paid by the week, therefore on the establishment; sometimes it is
“on the piece,” and anyhow it is an extremely critical organization, so
perhaps it would be better to broaden the subject. Workmen
generally dine at “slap-bang shops,” and are often paid at “tommy
shops.” At the nearest “pub,” or public-house, they generally have a
“score chalked up” against them, which has to be “wiped off”
regularly on the Saturday night. This is often known as a “light.”
When credit is bad the “light” is said to be out. When out of work,
they describe themselves as being “out of collar.” They term each
other “flints” and “dungs,” if they are “society” or “non-society” men.
Their salary is a “screw,” and to be discharged is to “get the sack,”
varied by the expression “get the bullet,” the connexion of which
with discharge is obvious, as the small lecturers—those at the
Polytechnic for instance—say, to the meanest capacity. When they
quit work, they “knock off;” and when out of employ, they ask if any
“hands” are, or any assistance is, wanted. “Fat” is the vulgar
synonym for perquisites; “elbow grease” signifies labour; and “Saint
Monday” is the favourite day of the week. Names of animals figure
plentifully in the workman’s vocabulary; thus we have “goose,” a
tailor’s smoothing-iron; “sheep’s-foot,” an iron hammer; “sow,” a
receptacle for molten iron, whilst the metal poured from it is termed
“pig.” Many of the Slang terms for money may have originally come
from the workshop, thus—“brads,” from the ironmonger; “chips,”
from the carpenter; “dust,” from the goldsmith; “feathers,” from the
upholsterer; “horse-nails,” from the farrier; “haddock,” from the
fishmonger; and “tanner and skin” from the leather-dresser.
If society, as has been remarked, is a sham, from the vulgar
foundation of commonalty to the crowning summit of royalty, then
do we perceive the justness of the remark in that most peculiar of
peculiarities, the Slang of makeshifts for oaths, and sham
exclamations for passion and temper. These apologies for feeling are
an addition to our vernacular, and though some argue that they are
a disgrace, for the reason that no man should pretend to swear or
curse who does not do so, it is some satisfaction to know that they
serve the purpose of reducing the stock of national profanity. “You
be blowed,” or “I’ll be blowed if,” &c., is an exclamation often heard
in the streets. “Blazes,” or “like blazes,” came probably from the
army, unless, indeed, it came from the original metaphor, afterwards
corrupted, to serve all turns, “to smoke like blazes.” “Blast,” too,
although in general vulgar use, may have had an engineering or
military origin, and the phrase, “I wish I may be shot, if,” smacks
much of powder. “Blow me tight” is a very windy and common
exclamation. The same may be said of “strike me lucky,” “never trust
me,” and “so help me Davy;” the latter being evidently derived from
the truer old phrase, “I’ll take my Davy on’t”—i.e., my affidavit,
“Davy,” and sometimes “Alfred Davy,” being a corruption of that
word. “By Golly,” “Gol darn it,” and “so help”—generally pronounced
“selp” or “swelp”—“me Bob,” are evident shams for profane oaths.
“Tarnation” is but a softening of damnation; and “od,” whether used
in “od drat it,” or “od’s blood,” is but an apology for the name of the
Deity. “Marry,” a term of asseveration in common use, was originally,
in Popish times, a mode of swearing by the Virgin Mary;—so also
“marrow-bones,” for the knees. “I’ll bring him down upon his
marrow-bones,”—i.e., I’ll make him bend his knees as he does to the
Virgin Mary. The Irish phrase, “Bad scran to yer!” is equivalent to
wishing a person bad food. “I’m sniggered if you will,” and “I’m
jiggered,” are other mild forms of swearing among men fearful of
committing an open profanity, yet slily nibbling at the sin. Maybe,
some day one of these adventurers will meet with the object of his
desires, and then when fairly “jiggered,” whatever it may ultimately
turn out to be, it is to be hoped he will prove a fearful example to all
persons with the will, but not the pluck, to swear fierce oaths. Both
“deuce” and “dickens” are vulgar old synonyms for the devil; and
“zounds” is an abbreviation of “God’s wounds,”—a very ancient oath.
In a casual survey of the territory of Slang, it is curious to observe
how well represented are the familiar wants and failings of life. First,
there is money, with one hundred and odd Slang terms and
synonyms; then comes drink, from small beer to champagne; and
next as a very natural sequence, intoxication, and fuddlement
generally, with some half a hundred vulgar terms, graduating the
scale of drunkenness, from a slight inebriation to the soaky state
which leads to the gutter, sometimes to the stretcher, the station-
house, the fine, and, most terrible of all, the “caution.” The Slang
synonyms for mild intoxication are certainly very choice,—they are
“beery,” “bemused,” “boozy,” “bosky,” “buffy,” “corned,” “foggy,” “fou,”
“fresh,” “hazy,” “elevated,” “kisky,” “lushy,” “moony,” “muggy,”
“muzzy,” “on,” “screwed,” “stewed,” “tight,” and “winey.” A higher or
more intense state of beastliness is represented by the expressions,
“podgy,” “beargered,” “blued,” “cut,” “primed,” “lumpy,” “ploughed,”
“muddled,” “obfuscated,” “swipey,” “three sheets in the wind,” and
“top-heavy.” But the climax of fuddlement is only obtained when the
“disguised” individual “can’t see a hole in a ladder,” or when he is all
“mops and brooms,” or “off his nut,” or with his “main-brace well
spliced,” or with the “sun in his eyes,” or when he has “lapped the
gutter,” and got the “gravel rash,” or is on the “ran-tan,” or on the
“ree-raw,” or when “sewed up,” and regularly “scammered,”—then,
and not till then, is he entitled, in vulgar society, to the title of
“lushington,” or recommended to “put in the pin,” i.e., the linch-pin,
to keep his legs steady.
 THE

SLANG DICTIONARY.
A 1, first-rate, the very best; “she’s a prime girl, she is; she is
A 1.”—Sam Slick. The highest classification of ships at Lloyd’s;
common term in the United States; also at Liverpool and other
English seaports. Another, even more intensitive form is “first-class,
letter A, No. 1.” Some people choose to say A I, for no reason,
however, beyond that of being different from others.
Abigail, a lady’s-maid; perhaps obtained from old comedies. Used in
an uncomplimentary sense. Some think the term is derived from
Abigail Hill (Mrs. Masham), lady-in-waiting to Queen Anne, and a
typical abigail in the way of intrigue.
About Right, “to do the thing about right,” i.e., to do it properly,
soundly, correctly; “he guv it ’im about right,” i.e., he beat him
severely.
Abraham-man, a vagabond, such as were driven to beg about the
country after the dissolution of the monasteries.—See bess o’ bedlam,
infra. They are well described under the title of Bedlam Beggars.—
Shakspeare’s K. Lear, ii. 3.

“And these, what name or title e’er they bear,

Jarkman, or Patrico, Cranke, or Clapper-dudgeon,
Frater, or abram-man; I speak to all
That stand in fair election for the title
Of king of beggars.”—Beaumont and Fletcher’s Begg.
Bush. II. 1.

It appears to have been the practice in former days to allow certain

inmates of Bethlehem Hospital to have fixed days “to go begging:”
hence impostors were said to “sham abraham” (the Abraham Ward in
Bedlam having for its inmates these mendicant lunatics) when they
pretended they were licensed beggars in behalf of the hospital.
Abraham-sham, or sham abraham, to feign sickness or distress. From
abraham-man, the ancient Cant term for a begging impostor, or one
who pretended to have been mad.—Burton’s Anatomy of
Melancholy, vol. i. p. 360. When Abraham Newland was Cashier to
the Bank of England, and signed their notes, it was sung:—

“I have heard people say

That sham abraham you may,
But you mustn’t sham abraham Newland.”

Absquatulate, to run away, or abscond; a hybrid American

expression, from the Latin ab, and “squat” to settle.
Acres, a coward. From Bob Acres, in Sheridan’s Rivals.
Adam’s Ale, water.—English. The Scotch term is adam’s wine.

Added to the List, a euphuism current among sporting writers

implying that a horse has been gelded. As, “Sabinus has been added
to the list.” Another form of expression in reference to this matter is
that “the knife has been brought into requisition.” “added to the list”
is simply a contraction for “added to the list of geldings in training.”
Addlepate, a foolish fellow, a dullard.
Admiral of the Red, a person whose very red face evinces a
fondness for strong potations.
Affygraphy. “It fits to an affygraphy,” i.e., to a nicety—to a T.
Afternoon Farmer, one who wastes his best opportunity, and
drives off the large end of his work to the little end of his time.
Against the Grain, in opposition to the wish. “It went against the
grain to do it, but I knew I must,” is a common expression.

Aggerawators (corruption of Aggravators), the greasy locks of hair

in vogue among costermongers and other street folk, worn twisted
from the temple back towards the ear. They are also, from a
supposed resemblance in form, termed newgate knockers, and
sometimes number sixes. This style of adorning the head is, however,
fast dying out, and the everyday costermonger or street thief has his
hair cut like any one else. The yearly militia drill may have had a
good deal to do with this alteration.
Akeybo, a slang phrase used in the following manner:—“He beats
akeybo, and akeybo beat the devil.”

Albertopolis, a facetious appellation given by the Londoners to the

Kensington Gore district. Now obsolete.
Alderman, a half-crown—possibly from its rotundity. Also a long
pipe.
Alderman, a turkey; “alderman in chains,” a turkey hung with
sausages.
All of a Hugh! all on one side; falling with a thump; the word hugh
being pronounced with a grunt.—Suffolk.
All my Eye, a remark of incredulity made in reference to an
improbable story; condensation of “all my eye and betty martin,” a
vulgar phrase constructed from the commencement of a Roman
Catholic prayer to St. Martin, “Oh, mihi, beate Martine,” which in
common with many another fell into discredit and ridicule after the
Reformation.
All out, by far;—“he was all out the best of the lot.” Old—frequently
used by Burton in his Anatomy of Melancholy.
All-overish, neither sick nor well; the premonitory symptoms of
illness. Also the feeling which comes over a man at a critical
moment, say just when he is about to “pop the question.”
Sometimes this is called, “feeling all over alike, and touching
nowhere.”
All-rounder, a shirt collar going all round the neck and meeting in
front. Once fashionable, but little worn now.
All Serene, an ejaculation of acquiescence. Some years back a
popular street cry. With or without application to actual fact, the
words all serene were bawled from morning to night without any
reference to the serenity of the unfortunate hearers.—See serene.
Alls, tap-droppings, refuse spirits sold at a cheap rate in gin-palaces.
All There, in strict fashion, first-rate, “up to the mark;” a vulgar
person would speak of a handsome, well-dressed woman as being
all there. An artisan would use the same phrase to express the
capabilities of a skillful fellow-workman. Sometimes all the way there.
Always used as a term of encomium.
All to Pieces, utterly, excessively; “he beat him all to pieces,” i.e.,
excelled or surpassed him exceedingly. Also a term much in use
among sporting men and expressing want of form, or decadence. A
boat’s crew are said to “go all to pieces” when they through distress
lose their regularity. A woman is vulgarly said to “fall to pieces,” or
“tumble to pieces,” when she is confined.
All to Smash, or “gone all to pieces,” bankrupt, ruined.
Almighty Dollar, an American expression representing the manner
in which money is worshipped. Modernly introduced by Washington
Irving in 1837. The idea of this phrase is, however, far older than the
time of Irving. Ben Jonson’s Epistle to Elizabeth, Countess of
Rutland, commences thus—

“Whilst that for which all virtue now is sold,

And almost every vice, almightie gold.”

It seems almost obvious that the term must have been applied, not
to dollars certainly, but to money, long before the time of Irving.
American Tweezers, an instrument used by an hotel-sneak which
nips the wards end of a key, and enables him to open a door from
the opposite side to that on which it has been locked.
Andrew Millar, a ship of war.—Sea.
Ain’t, the vulgar abbreviation of “am not,” “are not,” or “is not.”
Anointed, i.e., eminent; used to express great rascality in any one;
“an anointed scoundrel,” king among scoundrels.—Irish.
Anointing, a good beating. A case for the application of salve.
Anonyma, a lady of the demi-monde, or worse; a “pretty
horsebreaker.” Incognita was the term at first. Product of the
squeamishness of the age which tries to thrust away fact by the use
of fine words.
Antiscriptural, oaths, foul language. Anything unfit for ordinary
society conversation.
Apartments to Let, a term used in reference to one who has a
somewhat empty head. As, “He’s got apartments to let.”
Apostle’s Grove, the London district known as St. John’s Wood.
Also called grove of the evangelist.
Apostles, The Twelve, the last twelve names on the Poll, or
“Ordinary Degree” List at the Cambridge Examinations, when it was
arranged in order of merit, and not alphabetically, and in classes, as
at present; so called from their being post alios, after the others.—
See poll. The last of all was called St. Paul (or Saint Poll), as being
the least of the apostles, and “not meet to be called an apostle” (see
1 Cor. xv. 9). As in the “Honour” list (see Gulf), students who had
failed only slightly in one or more subjects were occasionally allowed
their degrees, and these were termed elegant extracts.—Camb. Univ.
Slang.
Apple-pie Bed, a trick played at schools on new comers, or on any
boy disliked by the rest. One of the sheets is removed, and the other
is doubled in the middle, so that both edges are brought to the top,
and look as if both sheets were there; but the unhappy occupant is
prevented getting more than half-way down, and he has to remake
his bed as best he can. This trick is sometimes played by children of
a larger growth.
Apple-Cart, the human structure, so far as the phrases with which
it is connected are concerned. As “I’ll upset your apple-cart,” “down
with his apple-cart.”
Apple-pie Order, in exact or very nice order.
Appro, contraction of approbation, a word much in use among
jewellers. Most of the extensive show of chains, watches, and
trinkets in a shop window is obtained “on appro,” i.e., “on sale or
return.”
Area Sneak, a thief who commits depredations upon kitchens and
cellars.
Argol-bargol, to bandy words.—Scotch.
Article, derisive term for a weak or insignificant specimen of
humanity.
Atomy, a diminutive or deformed person. From anatomy, or atom.

Attack, to carve, or commence operations; “attack that beef, and

oblige!”
Attic, the head; “queer in the attic,” intoxicated or weak-minded.
Sometimes attic is varied by “upper story.”
Attic Salt, wit, humour, pleasantry. Partly a reference to a
suggestive portion of Grecian literature, and partly a sly hit at the
well-known poverty of many writers.
Auctioneer, to “tip him the auctioneer,” is to knock a man down.
Tom Sayers’s right hand was known to pugilistic fame as the
auctioneer.

Audit Ale, extra strong ale supposed to be drunk when the

accounts are audited.—Camb. Univ.
Auld-Reekie, an affectionate term for the old town of Edinburgh.
Derived from its dingy appearance.
Aunt Sally, a favourite figure on racecourses and at fairs, consisting
of a wooden head mounted on a stick, firmly fixed in the ground; in
the nose of which, or rather where the nose should be, a tobacco-
pipe is inserted. The fun consists in standing at a distance and
demolishing aunt sally’s pipe-clay projection with short bludgeons,
very similar to the halves of broom-handles. The Duke of Beaufort is
a “crack hand” at smashing pipe noses; and his performances some
years ago on Brighton racecourse, which brought the game into
notoriety, are yet fresh in remembrance. Aunt Sally has, however,
had her day, and once again the inevitable “three shies a penny!” is
chief among our outdoor amusements.
Avast, a sailor’s phrase for stop, shut up, go away,—apparently
connected with the old Cant, bynge a waste; or from the Italian, basta,
hold! enough.
Awake, or fly, knowing, thoroughly understanding. “I’m awake,”
i.e., I know all. The phrase wide-awake carries a similar meaning in
ordinary conversation, but has a more general reference.
Awful, a senseless expletive, used to intensify a description of
anything good or bad; “what an awful fine woman!” “awfully jolly,”
“awfully sorry,” &c. The phrase is not confined to any section of
society.
Ax, to ask. Sometimes pronounced arks.
Babes, the lowest order of knock-outs (which see), who are
prevailed upon not to give opposing biddings at auctions, in
consideration of their receiving a small sum (from one shilling to
half-a-crown), and a certain quantity of beer. They can, however,
even after this agreement, be secured on the other side for a little
longer price. There is no honour among thieves—at all events not
among auction thieves—nowadays.
Back, to support by means of money, on the turf or otherwise.—See
lay.

Back, “to get one’s back up,” to annoy or enrage. Probably from the
action of a cat when preparing to give battle to an enemy.
Back-end, that portion of the year which commences with October.
This phrase is peculiar to the turf, and has its origin in the fact that
October was actually, and is now nearly, the finishing portion of the
racing season. Towards back-end the punters and “little men”
generally begin to look forward with anxiety to their winter
prospects, and “going for the gloves” is not only a frequent phrase,
but a frequently recurring practice.
Back Out, to retreat from a difficulty; reverse of go ahead. Metaphor
borrowed from the stables.
Back Slang It, to go out the back way. Equivalent to “Sling your
hook out of the back-door,” i.e., get away quickly.
Backslums, the byeways and disreputable portions of a town.
Back-Hander, a blow on the face with the back of the hand, a
back-handed tip. Also a drink out of turn, as when a greedy person
delays the decanter to get a second glass. Anything done slyly or
secretly is said to be done in a back-handed manner.
Backer, one who places his money on a particular man or animal; a
supporter of one side in a contest. The great body of betting men is
divided into bookmakers and backers.
Back Jump, a back window.—Prison term.
Bacon, the body, “to save one’s bacon,” to escape.
Bad, “to go to the bad,” to deteriorate in character, to be ruined.
Virgil has an almost similar phrase, in pejus ruere, which means, by
the way, to go to the worse.
Bad, hard, difficult. Word in use among sporting men who say, “He
will be bad to beat,” when they mean that the man or horse to whom
they refer will about win.
Bad Egg, a scoundrel or rascal.
Badger, to tease, to annoy by “chaffing.” Suggestive of drawing a
badger.
Bad Lot, a term derived from auctioneering slang, and now
generally used to describe a man or woman of indifferent morals.
Badminton, blood,—properly a peculiar kind of claret-cup invented
at the Duke of Beaufort’s seat of that name. Badminton proper is
made of claret, sugar, spice, cucumber peel, and ice, and was
sometimes used by the patrons of the Prize Ring as a synonym for
blood.
Bad Words, words not always bad of themselves but unpleasant to
“ears polite,” from their vulgar associations.
Baffaty, calico. Term used in the drapery trade.
Bag, to seize or steal, equivalent to “collar.”
Bagman, a commercial traveller. This word is used more in
reference to the old style of commercial travellers than to the
present.
Bags, trousers. Trousers of an extensive pattern, or exaggerated
fashion, have sometimes been termed howling-bags, but only when
the style has been very “loud.” The word is probably an abbreviation
of bumbags. “To have the bags off,” to be of age and one’s own
master, to have plenty of money. Bags of mystery is another phrase in
frequent use, and refers to sausages and saveloys. Bag of tricks,
refers to the whole of a means towards a result. “That’s the whole
bag of tricks.”
Baked, seasoned, “he’s only half-baked,” i.e., soft, inexperienced.
Baker’s Dozen, thirteen. Originally the London bakers supplied the
retailers, i.e., chandlers’ shopkeepers and itinerants, with thirteen
loaves to the dozen, so as to make up what is known as the
overweight, the surplus number, called the inbread, being thrown in
for fear of incurring a penalty for short weight. To “give a man a
baker’s dozen,” in a slang sense, sometimes means to give him an
extra good beating or pummelling.
Balaam, printers’ slang for matter kept in type about monstrous
productions of nature, &c., to fill up spaces in newspapers that
would otherwise be vacant. The term balaam-box has often been used
as the name of a depository for rejected articles. Evidently from
Scripture, and referring to the “speech of an ass.”
Bald-Faced Stag, a term of derision applied to a person with a
bald head. Also, still more coarsely, “bladder-of-lard.”
Bale up, an Australian term equivalent to our “Shell out.” A demand
for instantaneous payment.
Ballambangjang. The Straits of ballambangjang, though unnoticed
by geographers, are frequently mentioned in sailors’ yarns as being
so narrow, and the rocks on each side so crowded with trees
inhabited by monkeys, that the ship’s yards cannot be squared, on
account of the monkey’s tails getting jammed into, and choking up,
the brace blocks.—Sea.
Ballast, money. A rich man is said to be well-ballasted. If not proud
and over-bearing he is said to carry his ballast well.
Balmy, weak-minded or idiotic (not insane).
Balmy, sleep; “have a dose of the balmy.”

Bamboozle, to deceive, make fun of, or cheat a person;

abbreviated to bam, which is sometimes used also as a substantive—
a deception, a sham, a “sell.” Swift says bamboozle was invented by a
nobleman in the reign of Charles II.; but this is very likely an error.
The probability is that a nobleman then first used it in polite society.
The term is derived from the Gipsies.
Bandannah, originally a peculiar kind of silk pocket-handkerchief,
now slang used to denote all sorts of “stooks,” “wipes,” and “fogles,”
and in fact the generic term for a kerchief, whether neck or pocket.
Banded, hungry. From the habit hungry folks have of tying
themselves tight round the middle.
Bandy, or cripple, a sixpence, so called from this coin being
generally bent or crooked; old term for flimsy or bad cloth, temp. Q.
Elizabeth.
Bang, to excel or surpass; banging, great or thumping.
Bang-up, first-rate, in the best possible style.
Bank, to put in a place of safety. “Bank the rag,” i.e., secure the
note. Also “to bank” is to go shares.
Bank, the total amount possessed by any one, “How’s the bank?”
“Not very strong; about one and a buck.”
Bantling, a child; stated in Bacchus and Venus, 1737, and by Grose,
to be a cant term. This is hardly slang now-a-days, and modern
etymologists give its origin as that of bands or swaddling clothes.
Banyan-Day, a day on which no meat is served out for rations;
probably derived from the banians, a Hindoo caste, who abstain from
animal food. Quite as probably from the sanitary arrangements
which have in hot climates counselled the eating of banyans and other
fruits in preference to meat on certain days.—Sea.
Bar, or barring, excepting; in common use in the betting-ring; “Two
to one bar one,” i.e., two to one against any horse with the
exception of one. The Irish use of barrin’ is very similar, and the
words bar and barring may now be regarded as general.
Barber’s Cat, a half-starved sickly-looking person. Term used in
connexion with an expression too coarse to print.
Barber’s Clerk, an overdressed shopboy who apes the manners of,
and tries to pass himself off as, a gentleman; a term of reproach
applied not to an artisan but to one of those who, being below,
assume airs of superiority over, handicraftsmen.
Barge, a term used among printers (compositors) to denote a case
in which there is an undue proportion of some letters and a
corresponding shortness of those which are most valuable.
Bark, an Irish person of either sex. From this term, much in use
among the London lower orders, but for which no etymology can be
found, Ireland is now and then playfully called Barkshire.
Barker, a man employed to cry at the doors of “gaffs,” shows, and
puffing shops, to entice people inside. Among touting photographers
he is called a doorsman.
Barking-Iron, or barker, a pistol. Term used by footpads and
thieves generally.
Barnacles, spectacles; possibly a corruption of binoculi; but derived
by some from the barnacle (Lepas Anatifera), a kind of conical shell
adhering to ships’ bottoms. Hence a marine term for goggles, which
they resemble in shape, and for which they are used by sailors in
case of ophthalmic derangement.
Barney, an unfair race of any kind: a sell or cross. Also a lark,
jollification, or outing. The word barney is sometimes applied to a
swindle unconnected with the sporting world.
Barn Stormers, theatrical performers who travel the country and
act in barns, selecting short and tragic pieces to suit the rustic taste.
Barrikin, jargon, speech, or discourse; “We can’t tumble to that
barrikin,” i.e., we don’t understand what he says. “Cheese your
barrikin,” shut up. Miege calls it “a sort of stuff;” Old French, baracan.
Bash, to beat, thrash; “bashing a dona,” beating a woman; originally
a provincial word, applied to the practice of beating walnut trees,
when in bud, with long poles, to increase their productiveness.
Hence the West country proverb—

“A woman, a whelp, and a walnut tree,

The more you bash ’em, the better they be.”

The word bash, among thieves, signifies to flog with the cat or birch.
The worst that can happen to a brutal ruffian is to receive “a bashing
in, and a bashing out,”—a flogging at the commencement and
another at the close of his term of enforced virtue.
Baste, to beat, properly to pour gravy on roasting meat to keep it
from burning, and add to its flavour. Also a sewing term.
Bastile, the workhouse. General name for “the Union” amongst the
lower orders of the North. Formerly used to denote a prison, or
“lock-up;” but its abbreviated form, steel, is now the favourite
expression with the dangerous classes, some of whom have never
heard of bastile, familiar as they are with “steel.”
Bat, “on his own bat,” on his own account. Evident modification of
the cricket term, “off his own bat,” though not connected therewith.
—See hook.
Bat, to take an innings at cricket. To “carry out one’s bat” is to be
last in, i.e., to be “not out.” A man’s individual score is said to be
made “off his own bat.”
Bat, pace at walking or running. As, “He went off at a good bat.”

Bats, a pair of bad boots.

Battells, the weekly bills at Oxford. Probably originally wooden
tallies, and so a diminutive of bâton.—University.
Batter, wear and tear; “can’t stand the batter,” i.e., not equal to the
task; “on the batter,” “on the streets,” “on the town,” or given up to
roystering and debauchery.
Batty, wages, perquisites. Derived from batta, an extra pay given to
soldiers while serving in India.
Batty-Fang, to beat; batty-fanging, a beating; also batter-fang. Used
metaphorically as early as 1630.
“So batter-fanged and belabour’d with tongue mettle, that
he was weary of his life.”—Taylor’s Works.
Beach-Comber, a fellow who prowls about the sea-shore to
plunder wrecks, and pick up waifs and strays of any kind.—Sea.
Beak, originally a magistrate, judge, or policeman; now a
magistrate only; “to baffle the beak,” to get remanded. Ancient Cant,
beck. Saxon, beag, a necklace or gold collar—emblem of authority. Sir
John Fielding was called the blind-beak in the last century. Maybe
connected with the Italian becco, which means a (bird’s) beak, and
also a blockhead.—See walker.
Beaker-Hunter, or beak-hunter, a stealer of poultry.
Beans, money; “a haddock of beans,” a purse of money; formerly,
bean meant a guinea; French, biens, property.

Bear, one who contracts to deliver or sell a certain quantity of stock

in the public funds on a forthcoming day at a stated place, but who
does not possess it, trusting to a decline in public securities to
enable him to fulfil the agreement and realize a profit.—See bull.
Both words are slang terms on the Stock Exchange, and are
frequently used in the business columns of newspapers.
“He who sells that of which he is not possessed is
proverbially said to sell the skin before he has caught the
bear. It was the practice of stock-jobbers, in the year
1720, to enter into a contract for transferring South Sea
stock at a future time for a certain price; but he who
contracted to sell had frequently no stock to transfer, nor
did he who bought intend to receive any in consequence
of his bargain; the seller was, therefore, called a bear, in
allusion to the proverb, and the buyer a bull, perhaps only
 as a similar distinction. The contract was merely a wager,
to be determined by the rise or fall of stock; if it rose, the
seller paid the difference to the buyer, proportioned to the
sum determined by the same computation to the seller.”—
Dr. Warton on Pope.
These arrangements are nowadays called “time bargains,” and are
as fairly (or unfairly) gambling as any transactions at the Victoria
Club or Tattersall’s, or any of the doings which call for the
intervention of the police and the protestations of pompous City
magistrates, who, during their terms of office, try to be virtuous and
make their names immortal. Certainly bulling and bearing are as
productive of bankruptcy and misery as are backing and laying.
Be-argered, drunk. (The word is divided here simply to convey the
pronunciation.)
Bear-Leader, a tutor in a private family. In the old days of the
“grand tour” the term was much more in use and of course more
significant than it is now.
Bear-up and Bearer-up.—See bonnet.

Beat, the allotted range traversed by a policeman on duty.

Beat, or beat-hollow, to surpass or excel; also “beat into fits,” and
“beat badly.”
Beat, “dead-beat,” wholly worn out, done up.
Beater-Cases, boots. Nearly obsolete. Trotter cases is the term
nowadays.
Beaver, old street term for a hat; goss is the modern word, beaver,
except in the country, having fallen into disuse.
Bebee, a lady.—Anglo-Indian.
Be-Blowed, a derisive instruction never carried into effect, as, “You
be-blowed.” Used similarly to the old “Go to.” See blow me.
Bed-Fagot, a contemptuous term for a woman; generally applied to
a prostitute.—See fagot.
Bed-Post, “in the twinkling of a bed-post,” in a moment, or very
quickly. Originally bed-staff, a stick placed vertically in the frame of a
bed to keep the bedding in its place, and used sometimes as a
defensive weapon.
Bee, “to have a bee in one’s bonnet,” i.e., to be not exactly sane; to
have a craze in one particular direction. Several otherwise sensible
and excellent M.P.’s are distinguished by the “bee in his bonnet” each
carries.
Beef-Headed, stupid, fat-headed, dull.
Beefy, unduly thick or fat, commonly said of women’s ankles; also
rich, juicy, plenteous. To take the whole pool at loo, or to have any
particular run of luck at cards generally is said by players to be “very
beefy.”

Beeline, the straightest possible line of route to a given point.

When a bee is well laden, it makes a straight flight for home.
Originally an Americanism, but now general.
Beery, intoxicated, or fuddled with beer.
Beeswax, poor, soft cheese. Sometimes called “sweaty-toe cheese.”
Beeswing, the film which forms on the sides of bottles which
contain good old port wine. This breaks up into small pieces in the
process of decanting, and looks like bees’ wings. Hence the term.
Beetle-Crusher, or squasher, a large flat foot. The expression was
made popular by being once used by Leech.
Beetle-Sticker, an entomologist.
Beggars’ Velvet, downy particles which accumulate under furniture
from the negligence of housemaids. Otherwise called sluts’-wool.
Belcher, a blue bird’s-eye handkerchief.—See billy.

Bell, a song. Tramps’ term. Simply diminutive of bellow.

Bellows, the lungs. Bellowser, a blow in the “wind,” or pit of the
stomach, taking one’s breath away.
Bellowsed, or lagged, transported.
Bellows to Mend, a person out of breath; especially a pugilist is
said to be “bellows to mend” when winded. With the P.R., the word
has fallen into desuetude.
Belly-Timber, food, or “grub.”
Belly-Vengeance, small sour beer, apt to cause gastralgia.
Bemuse, to fuddle one’s self with drink, “bemusing himself with beer,”
&c.
Ben, a benefit.—Theatrical.
Ben Cull, a friend, or “pal.” Expression used by thieves.
Bend, “that’s above my bend,” i.e., beyond my power, too expensive
or too difficult for me to perform.
Bender, a sixpence. Probably from its liability to bend. In the days
when the term was most in use sixpences were not kept in the
excellent state of preservation peculiar to the currency of the
present day.
Bender, the arm; “over the bender,” synonymous with “over the
left.”—See over.
Bendigo, a rough fur cap worn in the midland counties, called after
a noted pugilist of that name. “Hard Punchers” are caps worn by
London roughs and formerly by men in training. They are a
modification of the common Scotch cap, and have peaks.
Bene, good.—Ancient Cant; benar was the comparative.—See bone.
Latin.
Benedick, a married man. Shakspeare.
Benjamin, coat. Formerly termed a joseph, in allusion, perhaps, to
Joseph’s coat of many colours.—See upper-benjamin.
Ben Joltram, brown bread and skimmed milk; a Norfolk term for a
ploughboy’s breakfast.
Benjy, a waistcoat, diminutive of benjamin.

Beong, a shilling.—See saltee.—Lingua Franca.

Bess-o’-Bedlam, a lunatic vagrant.—Norfolk.
Best, to get the better or best of a man in any way—not necessarily
to cheat—to have the best of a bargain. bested, taken in, or
defrauded, in reality worsted. Bester, a low betting cheat, a
fraudulent bookmaker.
Better, more; “how far is it to town?” “Oh, better ’n a mile.”—Saxon
and Old English, now a vulgarism.
Betting Round, laying fairly and equally against nearly all the
horses in a race so that no great risk can be run. Commonly called
getting round. See book, and bookmaking.
Betty, a skeleton key, or picklock.—Old Prison Cant.
B Flats, bugs.—Compare f sharps.

Bible-Carrier, a person who sells songs without singing them.—

Seven Dials.
Biddy, a general name applied to Irish stallwomen and milkmaids,
in the same manner that Mike is given to the labouring men. A big
red-faced Irish servant girl is known as a Bridget.
Big, “to look big,” to assume an inflated air or manner; “to talk big,”
i.e., boastingly.
Big-Bird, to get the, i.e., to be hissed, as actors occasionally are by
the “gods.” Big-bird is simply a metaphor for goose.—Theat. Slang.
Big House, or large house, the workhouse,—a phrase used by the
very poor.
Big-wig, a person in authority or office. Exchangeable with “great
gun.”
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