Pirate Word of the Day – Mob

From the  Dictionary of Nautical, University, Gypsy and Other Vulgar Tongues first published in 1859.

There’s the mobility for you.

Mob: Swift informs us, in his Art of Polite Conversation, that Mob was, in his time, the slang abbreviation of Mobility, just as Nob is of Nobility at the present day.

Mobility: the populous; or, according to Burke, the “great unwashed.” Johnson calls it a cant term, although Swift notices it as a proper expression.

Mobs: companions; Mobsmen, dressy swindlers.

(Interesting. I had no idea that Mob was slang for the lower classes. No wonder mobs are generally angry. I’d never really considered the class of people in an angry group, but I imagine you rarely see a mob of angry rich folks.)

 

Advertisements