Talk:Surat
Latest comment: 2 years ago by Equinox in topic Possible missing sense in obsolete slang
Possible missing sense in obsolete slang[edit]
John Camden Hotten's Slang Dictionary (1873) defines it as:
- an adulterated article of inferior quality. This word affords a remarkable instance of the manner in which slang phrases are coined. In the report of an action for libel in the Times, some few years back, it was stated “that, since the American civil war, it has been not unusual for manufacturers to mix American cotton with surat, and, the latter being an inferior article, the people in Lancashire have begun to apply the term SURAT to any article of inferior or adulterated quality. The plaintiffs were brewers, and the action was brought to recover special damages resulting from the publication of an advertisement in these words:—‘All in want of beerhouses must beware of Beaumont and White, the SURAT brewers.'”