A Dictionary of Epithets and Terms of Address
This word is not usually a vocative.
It occurs in Henry the Fourth Part Two (3:ii) only because it is the name of Thomas Wart, one of Falstaff’s recruits. There are of course punning references to the name: ‘Is thy name Wart?’ ‘Yea, sir.’ ‘Thou art a very ragged wart’ James Pennethorne Hughes later wrote a book called Is Thy Name Wart? for the benefit of those who bear unusual family names, one at which others are prone to comment on for their own amusement.
True vocative use of the word is found in The Choirboys, by Joseph Wambaugh. A Los Angeles policeman says to a prisoner: ‘You think you can whip my ass, you wrinkled wart.’ ‘Yeah,’ says the man, and knocks him out with a left hook.
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