A new dictionary of the terms ancient and modern of the canting crew

B. E.'s A New Dictionary of the Terms Ancient and Modern of the Canting Crew is a vigorous lexicon of the underworld, cataloguing the speech of "gypsies, beggars, thieves, cheats, &c." alongside proverbs and figurative expressions. Far more than a word-list, it preserves the linguistic texture of marginal communities while revealing how criminal, itinerant, and popular speech circulated in early modern England. Its style is brisk, observational, and often entertaining, combining practical definition with the curiosity of Restoration and Augustan lexicography. Within the history of English dictionaries, it stands as an important document of nonstandard language and social taxonomy. Though the compiler remains obscure under the initials B. E., the work reflects the period's fascination with classifying speech, policing disorder, and exposing hidden social worlds. The dictionary emerges from a culture shaped by urban growth, expanding print, and anxieties about vagrancy and crime. B. E.'s effort to gather both "ancient and modern" terms suggests an antiquarian as well as practical impulse: to record a shifting vernacular before it vanished or changed beyond recognition. This book is especially recommended to readers of linguistic history, early modern literature, and the sociology of language. It offers rare access to the verbal life of the excluded and elusive, making it invaluable for anyone interested in how words map power, identity, and survival.