1664 Les Miserables
a whole language within a language, a sort of sickly excres-
cence, an unhealthy graft which has produced a vegetation,
a parasite which has its roots in the old Gallic trunk, and
whose sinister foliage crawls all over one side of the lan-
guage. This is what may be called the first, the vulgar aspect
of slang. But, for those who study the tongue as it should be
studied, that is to say, as geologists study the earth, slang
appears like a veritable alluvial deposit. According as one
digs a longer or shorter distance into it, one finds in slang,
below the old popular French, Provencal, Spanish, Ital-
ian, Levantine, that language of the Mediterranean ports,
English and German, the Romance language in its three va-
rieties, French, Italian, and Romance Romance, Latin, and
finally Basque and Celtic. A profound and unique forma-
tion. A subterranean edifice erected in common by all the
miserable. Each accursed race has deposited its layer, each
suffering has dropped its stone there, each heart has con-
tributed its pebble. A throng of evil, base, or irritated souls,
who have traversed life and have vanished into eternity, lin-
ger there almost entirely visible still beneath the form of
some monstrous word.
Do you want Spanish? The old Gothic slang abounded in
it. Here is boffete, a box on the ear, which is derived from
bofeton; vantane, window (later on vanterne), which comes
from vantana; gat, cat, which comes from gato; acite, oil,
which comes from aceyte. Do you want Italian? Here is
spade, sword, which comes from spada; carvel, boat, which
comes from caravella. Do you want English? Here is bichot,
which comes from bishop; raille, spy, which comes from