Portraits of London's 19th century poor

[doctorow]

[Permalink]

[Ratel]

What is a “mackarel”? Google and Wikipedia aren’t helping me.

[psychonaut]

Probably a variant spelling of “mackerel”, a kind of fish. According to the OED the word can also mean “one who ministers to sexual debauchery; a bawd, pimp, procurer or procuress”. So the person in the picture is either a fishmonger or a pimp.

[Ratel]

Judging by the wicker basket on his/her head, I’m going to guess they’re a minister of sexual debauchery.

[anon62122146]

“MACKEREL. A bawd: from the French maquerel. Mackerel−
backed; long−backed.”

The 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue is actually really entertaining in it’s own right, in addition to being an invaluable companion to the above books:
http://www.munseys.com/diskone/dcvgr.pdf