REGULAR readers of this weekly perambulation through life’s joys and sorrows will have no doubt noted my peculiar interest in the quirkiness of the English language.

My most recent foray into the weird world of words followed a feverish search for a fascinating book I vaguely recalled owning.

I eventually found it at the bottom of a box of paperbacks among the dust and junk of the house loft – A Classical Dictionary Of The Vulgar Tongue.

It is, as the title implies, not a book for the faint-hearted. Originally compiled by Francis Grose in 1785, my facsimile reprint is packed with rude words and odd phrases and sayings that were used by rough types in the 18th Century.

Perhaps not surprisingly, a lot of swear words we have today were already well in use when the book was published. One word which did take me by surprise, however, is ‘punk’, which I’ve always considered a 20th Century word.

Not so, for Mr Grose tells us the word means ‘a little whore’ or a ‘soldier’s trull (female companion)’.

The vulgar compilation also attributes interesting meanings to other expressions in use today. ‘Old fogey’, for example, is a nick name for an invalid soldier, derived from the French word fougeux, which the book says means fierce or fiery.

Here following are more examples, some of which are truly vulgar – so those of a sensitive nature should turn the page now.

Cundum – the dried gut of a sheep, worn by men in the act of coition to prevent venereal infection; said to have been invented by one Colonel Cundum.

Nanny house – a brothel.

Shag bag – a poor sneaking fellow, a man of no spirit – a term borrowed from the cock-pit.

Victualling office – the stomach.

Nazie – a drunken rogue or harlot.

Nick Ninny – a simpleton.

Scandal broth – tea.

Short-heeled wench - a girl apt to fall on her back.