Re:A Dictionary of Modern Slang, Cant, and Vulgar Words (1860)
by crazygringo on Wednesday October 11, 2023 @09:45AM
(#37844318)
I second all of those. I'm American as well, and they're all similarly gibberish to me.
This meaning of “Hell” is defined in the linked dictionary: “a fashionable gambling house.” I learned “the Fancy” when I read this and other books by Pierce Egan, as it’s a term he often used to mean boxers. While I understood immediately that the “class of females” in the Theatres meant prostitutes, I might not have picked up on that if I hadn’t read this and other books from the Regency period.