Australia's early convicts devised their own slang language so they could talk freely without the guards understanding and today, some of these 1800s terms still ring true.
Many of the terms were bastardisations of Londoner criminal slang, but in the isolation of Australia, they took on their own accent and, eventually, meanings.
Three-time convict James Hardy Vaux documented what he called 'Flash language' words in a book published in 1812 and today, some of his dictionary is on display in Hyde Park Barracks.
Visitor services coordinator Scott Cumming told The Huffington Post Australia convicts at Hyde Park Barracks weren't prisoners as such but were living at the barracks, and working on government infrastructure-building gangs all day.
"It's best to think of them as an underclass," Cumming told HuffPost Australia.
"They were very much wanting to operate their own community among themselves without the involvement of the authorities and an excellent way to do that is to develop your own language, cant or slang and that's exactly what they did."
He said a favourite term of his was a 'lushy cove' which meant 'a drunk man'.
"Or the gendered equivalent the lushy covess," he said.
"It holds to a degree. Maybe not in the 21st century but up until quite recently one would call someone a lush."
Flash language
bad
a convict who cooperates with police and officials
bit-faker
a coiner, maker of counterfeit money
bolter
one who runs away or leaves a place suddenly
boned
taken into custody
breech'd
flush with money, 'in town'
brisket-beater
a Roman Catholic
bug
nickname given to Englishmen by the Irish
bush'd
poor, without money
buz cove
a pickpocket
buz covess
a female pickpocket
charley
a watchman
cly-faker
a pickpocket
crap'd
hanged
file
a person who has had a long course of experience in the arts of fraud
floor'd
so drunk as to be incapable of standing
fly
vigilant, cunning, not easily duped
galloot
a soldier
horney
a constable
in town
flush with money, 'breech'd'
kinchen
a young lad
knuckler
a pickpocket
lushy cove
a drunken man
lushy
drunk, intoxicated
mollisher
a woman
nibb'd
taken into custody
nibbler
a pilferer or petty thief
pall
a partner, companion, associate or accomplice
pebble
a convict whose behaviour is incorrigible
prig
a thief
pulled up
taken into custody, in confinement
queer
bad, counterfeit, false, unwell in health
qock'd
forgetful, absent in mind
rump'd
flogged or scourged
scamp
a highwayman, man who commits robbery on the highway
scrag'd
hanged
scurf'd
taken into custody
slang'd
wearing chains or irons
sneaksman
a man or boy who 'goes upon the sneak' (robs houses or shops)
sharp
a gambler, cheat or swindler
swell
a gentleman or any well-dressed person
swish'd
married
toddler
an infirm elderly person
top'd
hanged
up in the stirrups
a man who is 'in Swell Street', that is, having plenty of money
Source: Sydney Living Museums