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Today's Word "billingsgate"

Profane language on

Published in Vocabulary

billingsgate \BIL-ingz-gayt; -git\ (noun) - Coarsely abusive, foul, or profane language.

"These are the people who make life a burthen to the tourist. Their tongues are never still. They talk forever and forever, and that is the kind of billingsgate they use. -- Mark Twain, 'The Innocents Abroad'

 

Billingsgate is so called after Billingsgate, a former market in London celebrated for fish and foul language.


 

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