Documents 

The modern circus has been around for almost 250 years. It has recently been the subject of a whole variety of writing - children's books, adult novels, thrillers, biographies and autobiographies, modern histories and research, not to mention specialist newspapers and journals, films and television documentaries. The technical words of the circus are therefore reaching a wider audience, among students, especially at the various circus schools, and circus enthusiasts, who wish to understand more about the origins, history or purpose of the technical aspects of what they see and enjoy in the circus ring, or in the case of transport enthusiasts, on the ground. The technical words are largely unchanged, and many easily cross the language barriers. The 'circus slang', however, is dying out rapidly in British circus, and is now spoken only among the old-established circus families, because of the influx of new non-circus-born promoters or entrepreneurs, and of artistes and workers from the former Eastern Bloc countries. This dictionary is an attempt to record and explain those words, at the start of the 21st century, to offer some highlights and to point the reader towards further sources of information.