The 1972 Parramatta Jail Glossary: An Edition with Commentary
Researchers Sue Butler and Vanessa Mack set out in the early 1970s, just after work began on the Macquarie Dictionary (first published in 1981), to find out how people used and manipulated English. They asked prisoners is residence at Parramatta Gaol to produce a list documenting language usage behind the facility’s walls … This is the first time that the Parramatta Jail Glossary has been published, in its entirety, as a stand-alone text.
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The 1972 Parramatta Jail Glossary:
An Edition with Commentary
Bruce Moore | 2023
Historians are very particular about the words we choose; our long days spent in archives and working through secondary sources has given us an appreciation of how some words carry a freight that can distract, even traumatise, our audiences. From social media posts through to full-length publications, we can fret over our search for the ‘right’ word for each of the key points we are trying to make. How will this statement be received now? How will this hold up over time?
Adding to the complexity of our work is how languages are in constant flux. In English, for example, words fall in and out of favour, they can change in definition, can have more than one meaning, and they can also be hijacked. It is the complete repurposing of words that can make life unnecessarily challenging for the historian but can also provide intriguing ‘word windows’ into another time or place.
One of the more interesting of these windows is with cant or flash language, often better known as the language of the criminal underworld. Perhaps the most famous example of documenting this type of language is the work of gentleman-turned-convict James Hardy Vaux who, in 1819, compiled A New and Comprehensive Vocabulary of the Flash Language. This early Australian dictionary was initially utilised by members of the legal profession, but it was soon circulated more broadly, as many were curious about slang and how it adds understanding (and a bit of colour!) to the way different groups of people talk to each other.
Just over 150 years after the efforts of Vaux, researchers Sue Butler and Vanessa Mack set out in the early 1970s, just after work began on the Macquarie Dictionary (first published in 1981), to find out how people used and manipulated English. They asked prisoners is residence at Parramatta Gaol to produce a list documenting language usage behind the facility’s walls. Their request was rewarded with eleven typewritten pages (two of which are reproduced in Moore’s volume) containing 362 entries.
Some of the words and phrases from these typescript pages were used as citation references in the Macquarie Dictionary (noted above), in the Australian National Dictionary (first published in 1988) as well as the Dictionary of Australian Underworld Slang (1993). This, however, is the first time that the Parramatta Jail Glossary has been published, in its entirety, as a stand-alone text.
Those who collected and typed up the original glossary are unknown, but the value of their work is clear, with Moore noting that:
Many of the entries provide the earliest evidence for Australian words and phrases and for special Australian senses of more widely known words. For these reasons the material in the glossary is of great importance to the history of Australian English …
Some terms are very familiar today; with most people I know appreciating that a ‘grand’ is a $1,000. I did not know that a ‘spot’ is $100 and that, logically, a ‘half spot’ is $50. Some terms are quite cute, with a cup of tea being represented by that great female figure of Australian crime and sly-grog ‘Kate Lee [sic]’. Unsurprisingly, a lot of the terms are vulgar and have nothing to do with drinking tea. A person who does lots of short-term stints in prison because they are continually committing minor offences is ‘In & Out Like a honeymoon Prick’. A few terms can be a little too evocative, with sideburns known as ‘Lice Ladders’ (all those photos of men in the 1970s will never look quite the same).
All the terms are brought vividly to life through careful annotations and references that have been appended to each listing in the glossary. Some words are, inevitably, imported from America and England but most are instantly recognisable as Australian, with quite a few terms showcasing a familiar irreverence for authority and a dark sense of humour.
As editor of the Australian National Dictionary (2016), Bruce Moore brings his expertise in, and his passion for, language to the task of this gaol glossary. Indeed, apart from using the American spelling ‘jail’ rather than the Australian spelling ‘gaol’ there is little that could be said to fault Moore’s work. The spelling issue is a distraction, but Moore made a deliberate choice and notes ‘gaol’ as an ‘older spelling’, using ‘jail’ for a more contemporary feel. This despite the facility being known as the Parramatta Gaol from 1798 until 1992, when it was re-named the Parramatta Correctional Centre. The complex closed its doors in 2011 without ever being officially known as a ‘jail’.
Split into two sections, the first part of this work offers Introductory Material. This includes a background to the glossary, some notes on the Parramatta Gaol, an important overview of the functions of the slang used by criminals who are both ‘outside’ and on the ‘inside’, a brief exploration into where the documented words come from, how the glossary was edited, and a very useful bibliography. The second part of this work is the glossary (followed by appendices that can help readers see how the glossary was originally produced and quickly appraise its contents).
We learn, too, about patterns in how we play with language. When US-based television personality and domestic entrepreneur Martha Stewart served a short custodial sentence for fraud at Camp Alderson in the early 2000s, the minimum-security federal prison became colloquially known as Camp Cupcake. Decades earlier, Australian inmates knew that ‘bed and breakfast’ referred to seven days of imprisonment, and were calling Long Bay Gaol the ‘Seabreeze Hotel’. If there’s honour among thieves, there might be a shared sense of comedy as well.
This book is most overtly a glossary, but it is also a history of how we use language to communicate – or perhaps more accurately, obscure what we are trying to say – and gives great insights into prison life in Australia. This is an essential text for anyone who researches our criminal pasts and anyone who is interested in how we have talked to (or yelled at) each other.
The 1972 Parramatta Jail Glossary: An Edition with Commentary is published by Australian Dictionary Publications.
Reviewer: Rachel Franks, PHA (NSW & ACT)