Such Language! Part 30

More fun with 19^th century slang and cant, courtesy of that compendium of all bygone bad language, the 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue.*

Enjoy!

Snoach: To speak through the nose; to snuffle. (I do wish Uncle Mortimer would not insist on reading aloud to us after dinner when he is having an attack of catarrh; his snoaching sometimes has devastating effects on the text.)

Caw-handed: Awkward, not dexterous, ready, or nimble. (Miss Hurlingame is an indefatigable walker and a fearless rider to hounds, but when it comes to embroidery, she’s positively caw-handed.)

Done to a cow’s thumb: Done exactly. (Her younger sister Prudence, on the other hand, just finished embroidering an exquisite whitework waistcoat for her papa that is done to a cow’s thumb.)

Squeeze-wax: a good-natured foolish fellow. (Sir Henry may be the veriest squeeze-wax and the worst whist player in London, but he always asks the wallflowers to dance at every ball he attends.)

School butter: Cobbing, whipping. (My obstreperous little brother has received so many helpings of school butter that it’s a wonder he still knows how to use a chair.)

Peepy: Drowsy. (After attending three balls every evening for the last sennight, is there any wonder that I’m too peepy to go to the opera tonight?)

Pelt: A heat, chafe, or passion. (Young Lord Limpnoodle’s in an absolute pelt to be the best blindfolded juggler in London, which is why his mother will no longer allow him in her drawing room.)

*That’s a link to a PDF of the book on Project Gutenburg, which you can download for free and have your own fun browsing through all the imaginative, amusing, and occasionally scurrilous entries.