Such Language! Part 26

More wordly wonderment and wackiness, with some help from the 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. What's your favorite word this week?

Cream-pot love: Such as young fellows pretend to dairy-maids, to get cream and other good things from them. (My brother Augustus brings a posy every week to our cook and swears eternal devotion, but we all know it’s simply cream-pit love.)

Plump currant: I am not plump currant; I am out of sorts. (Overindulgence in Cook’s strawberry rhubarb curd tarts might explain why he is not in plump currant this evening.)

Inexpressibles: Breeches. (Augustus swore he hadn’t had a single tart, but suspicious red stains on his inexpressibles told a different tale.)

Fire shovel: He or she when young, was fed with a fire shovel; a saying of persons with wide mouths. (Augustus’s long devotion to Cook might explain why he appears to have been fed with a fire shovel, but Papa’s mouth is similarly wide.)

Gallied: Hurried, vexed, over-fatigued, perhaps like a galley slave. (Poor Cook tends to look more than a little gallied when Augustus is home from school during holidays.)

May bees: May bees don’t fly all the year long; an answer to anyone who prefaces a proposition with, It may be. (Augustus hopes that maybe the strawberries will have a longer season this year; in response, Cook was heard to mutter something about May bees.)

Hum durgeon: An imaginary illness. (Grandmama’s latest hum durgeon involves an infirmity in her spleen; her liver is undoubtedly relieved to have the week off.)

Such Language! Part 26

More lexigraphic levity and laughter, courtesy of the 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Enjoy!

Mulligrubs: Low-spirited, having an imaginary sickness. My sister has a  thorough case of the mulligrubs since she found out that she wasn’t invited to the Duchess of Glubley’s ball.

Sing small: To be humbled, confounded, or abashed: to have little or nothing to say for one’s self. She’s having to sing small now after she told all her friends that the duchess’s son had asked her to open the ball with him.

Low tide: When there is no money in a man’s pocket. I had planned to buy you a splendid birthday gift, but alas! It is low tide with me this month.

Peery: Inquisitive, suspicious. Rich young Miss Colquhon’s guardian is so excessively peery that no one may dance more than once with her at any ball in a given week.

The Go: The dash. The mode. He is quite the go, he is quite varment, he is prime, he is bang up, are synonymous expressions. Young Mr. Mortimer thinks himself quite the go, but I fear none of his more fashionable friends share his opinion.

Ribroast: To beat. My grandmother gave Papa such a ribroasting at chess once that he still winces at the sight of black-and-white tiled floors.

Altitudes: The man is in his altitudes, i.e. he is drunk. Uncle Seymour may have retired from mountain-climbing years ago, but he regularly achieves his altitudes at his club of an evening with the help of the brandy decanter.

Such Language! Part 25

More lexigraphic levity and laughter, courtesy of the 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Enjoy!

Bottle-headed: Void of wit. (I was so tongue-tied when introduced to that handsome young earl at Almack’s last night that I could scarce utter a word, and I’m sure he thinks me completely bottle-witted.)

Trap sticks: Thin legs, gambs: from the sticks with which boys play at trap-ball. (Uncle Simon’s tailor is so skilled at making trousers that he can even make uncle’s trap sticks look shapely and muscular.)

Clunch: An awkward clownish fellow. (My new horse is such a clunch that I don’t dare ride him in Rotten Row, lest my friends all mistake him for a circus pony.)

Scaly: Mean, sordid. (Great-aunt Agatha’s tips are so scaly that there’s not a single crossing-sweeper in London who’ll sweep a way for her.)

Long Meg: A jeering name for a very tall woman: from one famous in story, called Long Meg of Westminster. (My statuesque friend Alice complains that the worst part of being such a Long Meg is that her dresses need an extra half-yard of fabric and therefore cost more than everyone else’s.)

Gilly Gaupus:  A Scotch term for a tall, awkward fellow. (Fortunately, Alice’s betrothed, Lord Maclathy, is not only himself a Gilly Gaupus, but also a very wealthy man.)

Laid up in lavender: Pawned. (This is the seventeenth time my brother’s watch-chain and fobs have been laid up in lavender; I think he’s run out of friends to help him retrieve them.)

Such Language! Part 24

It’s definitely time for 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!

Addle plot: A spoil-sport, a mar-all. (Jane insisted on wearing a heavy veil to Richmond Park because of an outbreak of spots on her chin, and was a horrid addle plot at what was supposed to be a lovely spring day’s picnic.)

Grig: A fellow as merry as a grig: an allusion to the apparent liveliness of a grig, or young eel. (But she was as merry as a grig after she read that rubbing lemons on them would make then vanish.)

Duke of limbs: A tall awkward fellow. (Cousin Ralph has grown eight inches since last Easter, and is the veriest duke of limbs.)

Bell swagger: A noisy bullying fellow. (Ernest, Ralph’s bell swagger of an elder brother no longer dares to try to thrash him during school holidays.)

Crabbed: Sour, ill-tempered, difficult. (My Great-aunt Agatha’s toy spaniel is so dreadfully crabbed that even Uncle Fred’s gamekeeper is afraid of it.)

All the crack: The fashionable theme, the go. (Of course, the only reason Aunt Agatha even has a spaniel is because she had heard that lap-dogs were all the crack, and she never passes up a chance to demonstrate just how fashionable she is.)

Rum Ned: A very rich silly fellow. Cant. (Lord Lucre’s waistcoat buttons set with pigeon’s blood rubies have earned him a reputation as a very rum Ned indeed.)

Such Language! Part 23

Oh, the Rabelaisian banquet that is the 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue! Here’s a sampling of some of the less salty words that might amuse you:

Clanker:  A great lie. (Don’t try to tell a clanker like that to Mama; she can sniff out the tiniest lie at fifty paces.)

Tears of the tankard: The drippings of liquor on a man’s waistcoat. (My younger brother Robert came home from his club insisting that he hadn’t had a drop to drink, but he was sporting quite a display of tankard tears.)

Juniper lecture: A round scolding bout. (Mama gave him quite the juniper lecture for his clumsy clanker.)

Looby:  A awkward, ignorant fellow. (Robert is a good boy at heart, but he can be the veriest looby at times.)

Trap sticks: Thin legs, gambs; from the sticks with which boys play at trap-ball. (Old Sir Matthew always wears padded stockings to cover up his trap sticks and make the ladies think he still sports a fine calf.)

Jessamy: A smart jimmy fellow, a fopling. (Of course, he’s been wearing them for the last sixty years, ever since he was a young jessamy just out on the town.)

Bienly: Excellently. (Our governess is teaching us to speak French most bienly; I am quite fluent already, don’t you think?)

What’s your favorite word or phrase this time?  I'm rather taken with tears of the tankard myself. ☺

Such Language! Part 22

Oh, the Rabelaisian buffet that is the 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue! What’s your favorite word or phrase this time? Muckworm is soooo very evocative, as is old toast--can't you just picture a spry, dapper old gentleman? What do you think?

Arch Duke: A comical or eccentric fellow. (I see no reason why my younger brother should be called an arch duke just because he prefers gravy to whipped cream on his strawberries.)

Caudge-pawed: Left-handed (Being caudge-pawed made remembering which hand to use when being presented to the queen something of a nightmare for Lucinda.)

Gabey:  A foolish fellow. (Sir Arnold is enough of a gabey to think that his purple and gold waistcoat is the height of fashion.)

Slamkin:  A female sloven, one whose clothes seem hung on with a pitchfork. (To see her now fluttering her fan and swishing her skirts, you’d never suspect my sister Ermentrude was an utter slamkin before her come-out.)

Peccavi: To cry peccavi; to acknowledge one’s self in an error, to own a fault: from the Latin peccavi, I have sinned. (Ermentrude won’t cry peccavi, but I know she’s the one who borrowed my new parasol and left it at Gunter’s.)

Muckworm: A miser (That old muckworm Mr. Pauncefort must be rolling in his grave to see how open-handed and generous his young nephew and heir has been toward his tenants.)

Old Toast:  A brisk old fellow. (Great-Uncle Gilbert walks three times up and down Rotten Row each day, just to hear the ladies whisper about what a lively old toast he is.)

Such Language! Part 21

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.)

Such Language! Part 20 (seriously!)

Another installment of colorful verbal shenanigans from the 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Enjoy!

Article: A wench. A prime article; a handsome girl. She’s a prime article (Whip slang), she’s a devilish good piece, a hell of a goer.  (When my insufferable brother and his equally insufferable friends begin talking about the girls they see driving or riding in Rotten Row as prime articles, I have been known to lay about me with a riding crop.)

Grumble in the gizzard: To be secretly displeased about something. (My sister, on the other hand, smiles and laughs at them, but secretly I know she’s grumbling in her gizzard about it.)

Kidney: Disposition, principles, humour.  Of a strange kidney; of an odd or unaccountable humour. A man of a different kidney; a man of different principles. (As you might have guessed, my sister and I are of a very different kidney.)

Totty-headed: Giddy, hare-brained. (Totty-headed Clarice Smedley may be—she tends to promise to dance with twice as many gentleman as there are dances at any given ball—but she’s also exceedingly kind.)

Yam: to yam; to eat or stuff heartily. (Cousin John’s tendency to yam at all meals has made him the despair of my aunt and the favorite customer of his tailor.)

Maggotty: Whimsical, capricious. (Did you hear that Lady Smythe-Flittery had the maggoty idea of dyeing the champagne green at her first party of the season, as a way to celebrate the coming of spring?)

Flustered: Drunk. (Of course, everyone at her party was so flustered that I’m not even sure they noticed the verdant hue of the champagne they were guzzling...or no longer cared.)

Richard Snary:  A dictionary. A country lad, having been reproved for calling persons by their christian names, being sent by his master to borrow a dictionary, thought to shew his breeding by asking for a Richard Snary. (No more from me--I don’t think I can top that!)

Such Language! Part 19

Another installment of colorful verbal shenanigans from the 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Enjoy!

Hatches: Under the hatches; in trouble, distress, or debt. (As usual, my brother Thomas returned from university well under the hatches; you don’t want to know what he owes his tailor alone!)

Inlaid:  Well inlaid; in easy circumstances, rich or well to pass. (Thomas often bemoans the fact that he isn’t as well inlaid as his best friend Cecil.)

Varment: (Whip and Cambridge.) Natty, dashing. He is quite varment, he is quite the go. He sports a varment hat, coat, &c.; he is dressed like a gentleman Jehu. (Part of why Thomas owes his tailor so much is his insistence on dressing in the most varment of togs.)

Jehu: To drive jehu-like; to drive furiously: from a king of Israel of that name, who was a famous charioteer, and mentioned as such in the Bible. (He fancies himself quite the jehu as a result, but this is definitely a case of the clothes not making the man.)

Owl in an ivy bush, anyone?

Owl in an ivy bush:  He looks like an owl in an ivy bush; frequently said of a person with a large frizzled wig, or a woman whose hair is dressed a-la-blowze. (My Aunt Lucinda gets so wrapped up in her water-color painting of dramatic scenery that she never notices how she comes home looking like an owl in an ivy bush.)

Paper scull:  a thin-scull’d foolish fellow. (Reggie may be the handsomest young man in London; ‘tis a pity he’s such a paper scull.)

Buffle-headed: Confused, stupid. (Buffle-headed as he can be, though, he’s always kind to dogs and old ladies.)

Disguised:  drunk. (Unfortunately, when disguised he does tend to tip his hat to dogs and pat old ladies on the head.)

Such Language! Part 18

A bit of 19^th century slang and cant silliness, courtesy of the 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Enjoy!

Belly Timber: Food of all sorts. (My little brother swore to Cook that unless he was provided with some belly timber at once, he would perish of hunger.)

Uppish: Testy, apt to take offence. (Cousin Lucretia is apt to be uppish whenever anyone mentions the fact that all of her suitors from last season are now engaged elsewhere.)

Znees: Frost or frozen. Zneesy weather; frosty weather. (It has been such zneesy weather these last weeks—do you think there will be a frost fair on the Thames?)

Baker-knee’d: One whose knees knock together in walking, as if kneading dough. (George thought he looked very fine in his go-to-Almack’s black silk breeches, but his being baker-kneed rather ruined the effect.)

Pogy: Drunk (We adore our Uncle Fred, but he does have a lamentable habit of crashing Mama’s dinner parties when he’s pogy.)

Waggish: Arch, gamesome, frolicsome. (But his waggish behavior when he does usually saves him from one of Mama’s scolds.)

Shabbaroon: An ill-dressed shabby fellow; also a mean-spirited person. (Cyril, who is fabulously rich, often affects the appearance of an utter shabbaroon to keep all the fortune-hunting misses at bay.)

*Cake, or Cakey: A foolish fellow. (I do wish George’s Oxford friends weren’t such cakes; it’s embarrassing to be forced to acknowledge them at our local assemblies.)

*Aha! Readers of Georgette Heyer will recognize this term, which she famously used in the expression "making a cake of himself" in The Unknown Ajax and The Nonesuch and others of her books.

Such Language! Part 17

Time for more 19th century verbal shenanigans, courtesy of the 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Enjoy!

Cork-brained: lightheaded, foolish. (My friend Eliza was cork-brained enough to order all her spring dresses in the same shade of purple because someone once said it suited her, and her mother was even more cork-brained to agree.

Chub: A foolish fellow, easily imposed on. (Eugene may be a silly chub who thinks that Australia doesn’t really exist, but his friends love him anyway.)

Gutfoundered: Exceedingly hungry. (My little brother was gutfoundered enough to eat two of Aunt Agatha’s beet-and-celery scones without blinking, but that’s twelve-year-olds for you.)

Bubble: to cheat. (No, I shan’t ever play croquet with Miss James again as she bubbles her opponents shamelessly by kicking their balls into the shrubbery.)

Square-toes: An old man: square-toed shoes were anciently worn in common, and long retained by old men.  (Great-uncle Ambrose was so annoyed when my little brother called him Uncle Square-toes that he went to Hoby’s and ordered the pointiest-toed pair of top-boots you’ve ever seen.)

Royster: A rude, boisterous fellow. (Mr. Clark was such an appalling royster at Lady Hume’s ball—did you hear what he said about the dowager countess’s nose?—that I doubt he’ll ever be invited back.)

Fly: Knowing, acquainted with another’s meaning or proceeding. (Our old nurse was so fly when it came to Henry’s lapses of plague that he seemed to suffer at the end of his holidays from school that she would often remind him when it was time for him to start manifesting symptoms.)

Such Language! Part 16

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

Apothecary: To talk like an apothecary; to use hard or gallipot words: from the assumed gravity and affectation of knowledge generally put on by the gentlemen of this profession, who are commonly as superficial in their learning as they are pedantic in their language. (It’s easy to tell from his apothecary speechifying that Edward is very conscious of the fact that he has just finished his first term at Oxford.)

Chitty-faced: Baby-faced; said of one who has a childish look. (My cousin Chester is desperate to be considered one of the Corinthian set, only he’s so chitty-faced that he usually gets mistaken for someone’s tiger.)

Chirping merry: Exhilarated with liquor. (By the time he arrived at Covent Garden last night for the opera, Chester was chirping merry enough to try to sing along with la Catalani, and almost started a riot in the pit.)

Chouse: To cheat or trick. (Isabel always keeps a few extra fish up her sleeve as she always chouses at lottery tickets.)

Dangle: To follow a woman without asking the question. (Uncle Norbert has dangled after Lady Lavinia so long that he’s acquired the nickname, “the Tassel.”)

Fresh milk: Newcomers to the university. Cambridge slang. (The pickpockets in Trumpington Street are always on the lookout for fresh milk come September.)

Tweague: In a great tweague: in a great passion. (Chester was in an enormous tweague that his little sister used watercolors to black his books; Isabel was in an even more enormous one because they were her watercolors.)

Such Language! Part 15

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!

Mulligrubs: Low-spirited, having an imaginary sickness.

When she heard that Madame Poulade had sold six identical copies of her new ball dress, Griselda was seized by an acute case of the mulligrubs and refused to go to Almack’s on Wednesday night.

Billingsgate Language: Foul language, or abuse. Billingsgate is the market where the fishwomen assemble to purchase fish; and where, in their dealings and disputes, they are somewhat apt to leave decency and good manners a little on the left hand.

From what I heard, Griselda expressed her opinion of Madame Poulade’s perfidy in the veriest Billingsgate language.

Collogue: To wheedle or coax.

Do not offer to take my little brothers for a drive in the park, unless you are agreeable to being collogued into a trip to a sweet shop as well.

Dandy Prat. An insignificant or trifling fellow.

William may be a bit of a dandy prat, but no one shows to more advantage in satin knee breeches.

Hog grubber: A mean stingy fellow.

Our Uncle Gilbert is such a hog grubber that when he gave my brother a sixpence on his birthday, he asked for change.

Lathy: Thin, slender.

Millicent told me that her elder sister is so lathy that she must purchase bath sponges by the dozen in order to fill out her corsets.

Pickthank: A tale-bearer or mischief maker.

Of course, one must keep in mind that Millicent can be a dreadful pickthank.

Upper story or Garret: Figuratively used to signify the head. His upper story or garrets are unfurnished; i.e. he is an empty or foolish fellow.

You know, the example given in the original is so much fun that I don’t need to write a new one. Unfurnished upper story indeed! ☺