The cant database seems to be popular. Welcome to everyone from around the world (29 countries so far this month) - even those of you who were lost.

I’m still working on it. I’ve just categorised another 400-500 terms which will now appear in their proper subject headings. I’ve also removed a few duplicates which crept in there somehow. You may still find the odd duplicate with an entry in both the categorised and uncategorised sections. I’ll get to them shortly.

The database now has nearly 6,000 entries of which about half have been put into categories. Nearly of the uncategorised ones are from 1811.

I need to update the fixed category pages (the ones listed on the menu in the Cant section) as they still only contain the old lists and have very little of the later material. Shouldn’t be too big a job - really it’s more a matter of making sure their aren’t any terms on those pages which somehow haven’t made it into the database.

If all this sounds a bit dodgy, it has been a very manual process and mistakes do creep in. If you do spot any problems, please contact me and let me know. All help is appreciated.

I’ve added the thieves’ cant database search I mentioned last time. It allows you to do a string search on either the cant term, the plain language description or the subject category.

The good news is, I’ve included all (or nearly all - I still have one or two bits to deal with) the terms from both 1736 and 1811. You can search either date or both together.

The bad news is, most of the 1811 terms are in a category called "Uncategorised". You still get to see them - they just won’t be divided up neatly like the ones that have already been categorised. I’ll get around to fixing this but it is a slow, manual task so don’t expect miracles too soon.

Anyway, give it a go. I’m open to any suggestions for improvements. I hope it proves useful.