Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a shabby dirty individual; also as a collective n. and as adj.; thus blackguardism n.

1608		Dekker Belman of London B3: As yet I saw no body but this Band of the Black Guard.
1616		Webster Duchess of Malfi II ii: ’Twas credibly reported by one o’ the blackguard.
1623		Jonson Masque of Mercury Vindicated line 75: So the black guard are pleased with a toy, a lease of life, [...] especially those of the boiling house.
1678		S. Butler Hudibras Pt III canto 1line 1403: Thou art some paltry, blackguard sprite, Condemn’d to drudg’ry in the night.
1683		MS in Lord Steward’s Office Windsor Castle 7 May n.p.: A sort of vicious, idle, and masterless boys and rogues, commonly called the black-guard [F&H].
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Black-guard Dirty, Nasty, Tatter’d roguish Boys, that attend (at the Horseguards) to whip Shoes, clean Boots, water Horses, or run Errands.
1705		E. Hickeringill Priest-Craft II (1716) 110: This Black-guard is the only Life-guard of a High-flown Persecuting, Fierce, Proud, Covetous and revengeful Ceremony-monger.
1728		J. Dalton Narrative of Street-Robberies 16: One John Hulks [...] was very desirous of going with them; but he being a Black-guard Thief, and having neither Courage nor Conduct, they would fain have dismiss’d him.
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict.
1740		Ordinary of Newgate His Account 6 Aug. 12/1: The Deceased asked her whether she was not ashamed to lend the Pot to such a Black-Guard Fellow as I was.
1754		E. Burt Letters from Scotland I 23: A very useful Black-guard, who attends the Coffee-Houses and public Places to go on errands; though they are Wretches, that in Rags, lye upon the Stairs, and in the Street at Night, yet are often considerably trusted.
1762		Smollett Sir Launcelot Greaves II 181: My husband, though he is become a blackguard jail-bird, must be allowed to be a handsome fellow still.
1780		‘Grubstreticus’ Parody on the Rosciad 13: Like him I’m a blackguard and sot.
1785		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Black guard, a shabby dirty fellow, a term said to be derived from a number of dirty tattered and roguish boys, who attended at the horse guards in St James’s Park, to black the boots and shoes of the soldiers, or to do any other dirty offices, these were nick-named the black guards.
1797		‘T.B. Junr.’ Pettyfogger Dramatized I i: The Blackguards have been robbing me all the morning.
1803		C.K. Sharpe letter 23 July Correspondence (1888) I 178: His friends were ill natured, and behaved like blackguard beasts.
1816		Gifford Johnson’s Plays II 170: Note. In all great houses, but particularly in the Royal Residences, there were a number of mean dirty dependents, whose office it was to attend the wool-yard, sculleries etc. Of these, the most forlorn wretches seem to have been selected to carry coals to the kitchens, halls, etc. To this smutty regiment, who attended the progresses, and rode in the carts with every other article of furniture, were then removed from palace to palace, the people, in derision, gave the name of black guards; a term since become sufficiently familiar, and never properly explained [F&H].
1818		‘A. Burton’ Adventures of Johnny Newcome IV 258: It is said that in the starboard birth of the queen’s cockpit, young officers used formerly to pass a regular examination in slang and blackguardism.
1822		R. Nares Gloss. (1888) I 82: The black-guard. Originally a jocular name given to the lowest menials of the court, the carriers of coals and wood, turnspots, and labourers in the scullery, who all followed the court in its progresses, and thus became observed. Such is the origin of this common term.
1826		Bell’s Life in London 24 Dec. 2/5: He call’d his own partner a ‘blackguard informer’.
1837		R. Nicholson Cockney Adventures 9 Dec. 44: I don’t fight that way, you blackguard.
1842		S. Lover Handy Andy 289: Associated with these worthies were a couple of ill-conditioned country blackguards, who, for the sake of a bottle of whisky, would keep company with Old Nick himself.
1844		Essex Standard 30 Aug. 4/6: It’s a low, blackguard, dirty, mean action.
1849		C. Kingsley Alton Locke (1850) 56: I was awakened by being shoved through the folding-doors of a gin-shop, into a glare of light and hubbub of black-guardism.
1850		F.E. Smedley Frank Fairlegh (1878) 130: We came suddenly upon a covey of juvenile blackguards.
1859		H. Kingsley Recollections of G. Hamlyn (1891) 195: ‘And fine young blackguards they’ll turn out,’ I said; in which I was right in those two instances.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor III 31/1: I won’t go with the big boy you saw ’cos he’s such a blackgeyard; [...] he’ll go up to a lady and say, ‘Want a fly-paper, marm?’ and if she says ‘No,’ he’ll perhaps job his head in her face.
1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1879		C.J. Kickham Knocknagow 326: Gir-r-r-r-r out, you bla’guard!
1880		Henley & Stevenson Deacon Brodie II tab.IV v: I must thieve for my daily bread like any crawling blackguard in the gutter.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 7 Mar. 17/1: The News describes a nude man, who was shocking public morals by bathing at Bondi, as a ‘well-dressed blackguard.’.
1893		P.H. Emerson Signor Lippo 19: Bad cess to the dhirty blackguards.
1901		Bulletin (Sydney) 10 Aug. 14/1: Mrs. O’Ragan: ‘Ain’t them Foley’s hens in the gar-r-den, Mike? If wan is hurted by you drivin’ ’em out divil a scrap more ’n a leg an’ a bit o’ the breast will you get, you bla’guard.’.
1913		C. Mackenzie Sinister Street I 205: ‘What do you mean by it?’ roared the Headmaster to Michael. ‘What do you mean by it, you young blackguard?’ [...] ‘you abominable little loafer.’.

2. a foul-mouthed person, a slanderer, also attrib.; thus blackguarding n. and adj.

1750		Newcastle Courant 28 July 2/1: They are known by the Name of Black-guards, and do commit great Disorders in blaspheming the Names of God.
1788		G.A. Stevens Adventures of a Speculist I 59: As black-guards at Newmarket meeting bawl about the lists of horses.
1804		H.H. Brackenridge Modern Chivalry (1937) Pt II Vol. I 340: The objection is that it is a blackguard press. But while there are blackguards to write, must they not have a press?
1815		H.H. Brackenridge Modern Chivalry (1937) Pt II Vol. IV 775: A blackguard will always have de last word; dey may call me opossum or racoon.
1822		Egan Life and Adventures of Samuel Hayward 23: ‘None of your gammon,’ replied the angry host. ‘You are a saucy, impudent blackguard,’ said Hayward.
1832		Poor Man’s Guardian 7 Apr. 7/1: The whole bench of black-guards had sworn by their generalissimo, the Devil, to subscribe no longer to the Guardian; so yours is not a black-guard publication.
1843		T. Carlyle Past and Present (1897) Pt II 63: A blustering, dissipated human figure with a kind of blackguard quality [...] talking noisy nonsense.
1848		Era (London) 12 Mar. 9/1: The foul-mouthed and wayward set of precocious and neglected street-boys who haunt our thoroughfqres [...] the shopkeepers of Westminster complain bittewrly of the loss of business [...] ‘for a lot of young blackguards’.
1843		N.Y. City Subterranean 22 July n.p.: Ignorant blackguards, illiterate blockheads, besotted drunkards, drivelling simpletons, ci devant mountebanks, vagabonds, swindlers and thieves make up, with but few exceptions, the disgraceful gang of pettifoggers [R].
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor III 389/2: Many used to sing indecent songs; they’re impudent blackguards.
1874		E.K. Wood Johnny Ludlow I 61: I must request you to be a little more careful in your language. You have come amidst gentlemen here, not blackguards.
1880		‘Ouida’ Moths I 231: The man is a blackguard. There are things one can’t say to a woman.
1880		Bulletin (Sydney) 16 Oct. 8/1: Lingard called an Auckland reporter a ‘blackguard’ for ‘slating’ the production of ‘Pinafore’.
1900		Marvel 21 Dec. 1: If you ain’t the biggest blackguard in Louisiana, tar an’ feather me!
1908		Magnet 22 Feb. 2: You cheeky young blackguard.
1918		‘Sapper’ Human Touch 160: ’Op it, yer bla’guard, ’op it ’ard!
1953		Randolph & Wilson Down in the Holler 227: One of my foul-mouthed visitors was described as ‘the blackguardin’est feller that ever set foot in this town’.