shoful

English

Etymology

From German Schofel (“worthless stuff, rubbish”), substantive use of schofel (“base, mean, worthless”), representing the German-Jewish pronunciation of Hebrew שפל (shāphēl, “low”).^[1]

Noun

shoful (countable and uncountable, plural shofuls)

(obsolete, UK, slang, countable) A Hansom cab.
(obsolete, UK, slang, uncountable) Counterfeit money.
- 1863, Blanchard Jerrold, Signals of Distress in Refuges and Homes of Charity (etc.), page 2:
  To discover […] how the honest poor are compelled to hob-and-nob with the “shoful pitcher” and the “gun,” it is necessary to visit the vast nursery-grounds of crime.

Alternative forms

(counterfeit money): schofel

References

John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary

^ James A. H. Murray et al., editors (1884–1928), “Shoful”, in A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (Oxford English Dictionary), volume VIII, Part 2 (S–Sh), London: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 726, column 2.

Anagrams

floush

[1] James A. H. Murray et al., editors (1884–1928), “Shoful”, in A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (Oxford English Dictionary), volume VIII, Part 2 (S–Sh), London: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 726, column 2.

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