Green’s Dictionary of Slang

richard snary n.

a dictionary.

1630		J. Taylor ‘Taylors Motto’ in Works (1869) II 52: [note] In my English Latine Richard Swary [sic] I finde or coynd this worthy word.
1761		Nancy Dawson’s Jests 9: An ignorant booby lived with a gentleman at Oxford, who sent him to a friend’s room to borrow a Dictionary [...] he gave his master’s service, and [...] begged the gentleman to lend him Mr Richard Snary.
c.1786		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions .
1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (3rd edn) n.p.: A country lad, having been reproved for calling persons by their christian names, being sent by his master to borrow a dictionary, thought to show his breeding by asking for a Richard Snary.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1796].
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict. 120: DICK, abbreviation of ‘Dictionary,’ but often euphemistically rendered ‘Richard’.
1873		Sl. Dict.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues VI 21/2: Richard [...] A dictionary: also Richard Snary and Richardanary.
1929		D. Hammett Red Harvest (1965) 3: The meaningless sort of humor the thieves’ word for dictionary.