author
Albert Barrère
1846–1921
Best known for lively dictionaries of slang and cant, this French scholar turned the language of streets, soldiers, and everyday speakers into surprisingly readable reference books. His work still offers a vivid window into how French and English were really used in the late 19th century.
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About the author
Albert Barrère (c. 1846–1921) was a French professor and philologist. Reliable library and public-domain sources connected with his work identify him as a scholar of language, and he is chiefly remembered for books that collected and explained slang, jargon, and nonstandard speech.
His best-known book is Argot and Slang, a French and English dictionary of cant words and informal expressions used in Parisian life. In the preface, Barrère describes the project as the result of many years of philological study and note-taking, which helps explain why the book feels both scholarly and full of curiosity about everyday speech.
Catalog and library records also link him to educational editions such as Jeanne d'Arc and to later collaborative reference works on slang and jargon. Taken together, those books suggest an author interested not just in formal literature, but in the living, shifting language people actually spoke.