Mushers Have the London Knowledge

You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it.

I’m Grant Barrett.

And I’m Martha Barnette.

Cab drivers in London are required to have an encyclopedic knowledge of that city.

And they also have a lot of slang that’s particular to their profession.

For example, a musher is somebody who owns their own cab.

A starving musher is somebody who’s still paying for their cab.

And musher’s lotion is another term that they use.

Any idea what that is, Grant?

I think it’s tips.

Well, it may result in tips.

Musher’s lotion is rain.

Oh, okay.

Because, of course, if it’s raining,

Then they’re going to pick up a lot of business and a lot of tips, right?

So besides the knowledge, as they call it,

The ins and outs of all the old streets in London

That you have to fully master before you become a cabbie.

They have to master all this slang.

A lot of slang.

And I learned those slang terms and a lot more

From a new book called Schott’s Significa,

A Miscellany of Secret Languages.

It’s by Ben Schott, who’s written similar books before,

And his name is spelled S-C-H-O-T-T.

And miscellany is a great word for this book

Because this is 300 pages of expressions from 53 subcultures, including things like professional

Santas and stunt performers, graffiti artists and sommeliers and fashion designers, gondoliers in

Venice, coffee baristas, and dozens more professionals and hobbyists who are in various

Pursuits.

There’s slang that he’s collected from dog walkers and typographers and the people who

Run fashion shows.

And he also has illustrated pages of gestures, for example, the hand signals

That are used by TV floor managers during live broadcasts.

And I have to say that there’s also

Some dark stuff in this book too, like the gallows humor that medical professionals use to relieve

Stress among themselves, and some of the grim vocabulary online from some of the darker corners

Of the internet.

And so if I were going to describe this book to somebody, I might say that

It’s pretty overwhelming.

I mean, you are going to want to pick up and put down this book.

You’re not going to want to read it all the way through in one sitting.

But it really is this fascinating

Reminder that every profession and every hobby, as you know so well, Grant, has a vocabulary that’s

All its own.

Outstanding work.

I love the book.

Fantastic stuff.

It’s a delight.

And we’ll link

To that book on our website.

We’d also love to hear what you’re reading.

Tell us about it.

Text or phone 877-929-9673 or go to our website and have a conversation, waywordradio.org.