E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Pedlars’ French.
The slang of the Romany folk. Even Bracton uses the word Frenchman as a synonym of foreigner, and it is not long since that everyone who could not speak English was called a Frenchman. The Jews, with a similar width, used the word Greek.
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“Instead of Pedlars French, gives him plain language.”—Beaumont and Fletcher: Faithful Friends, i. 2.
