Oh, the Rabelaisian buffet
that is the 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar
Tongue! What’s your favorite word or phrase this time? I’m personally torn
between Friday face and cow-handed, though betwattled is just lovely.
Friday-face: A dismal countenance. (My sisters have been wearing Friday faces ever since Papa declared they
could only invite fifty gentlemen to their ball next month.)
Fubsey: plump. (Aunt Sophronia
is as fubsey as a sofa...and as comfortable and welcoming.)
Nazy: Drunken. (Did you hear
about how Farmer Skintle’s goats broke into his cider barrels and got thoroughly
nazy?)
Mace: to swindle or cheat. (Lord
Lootbury was delighted to help fund a new gaming hell...but less pleased when his
partners maced him by absconding with his bank draft.)
Dog in a doublet: A daring, resolute fellow. (My cousin Jerome rather fancies himself the veriest dog in a doublet,
but I expect his knees were knocking together as he went to call on Lady Louisa
yesterday.)
Cow-handed: Awkward. (Jerome
may look like a modern Adonis, but his proposal to Lady Louisa was so thoroughly
cow-handed that it’s a wonder she accepted him.)
Betwattled: Surprised, confounded, out of one’s senses. (The fact that she accepted him might explain
why he was betwattled enough to ride off for home in quite the wrong direction.)
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