'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; Call it 8 Bells (Nautical).

black death – The plague.

e.g., He tumbled to the truth of the matter. Learn how your comment data is processed. It was basically a specially-built treadmill, from which the unfortunate bastard on it could not escape. Understanding of the condition turned puberty and virginity into medical problems, and proposed to cure the girls suffering from it by bloodletting, diet, exercise, and marriage. Imperial Yeomanry – British volunteer cavalry force recruited from locals for the Boer war.

Name for the British common soldier, top-hole – first class, first rate, the very best, trap – a two-wheeled carriage often pulled by a pony and called a “pony trap” or a “pony and trap”. Beerage (Soc., 19 cent. V By shooting (hot) or by bayonet (cold), hoyden – a boisterous girl or young woman, hummock – a knoll, small hill, or mound of earth. Not many people seem to remember them as they are rare in places but in some areas it is a common activity for children to go round swatting them with tennis racquets.

The term is derived from Charles Pooter who is the main character in The Diary of a Nobody (1892) by George and Weedon Grossmith. hanger – a copse or wooded area on the side of a steep hill, havelock – Cloth cap cover that hung on the back to protect the neck from sunlight (named after Sir Henry Havelock), heliograph – a device which sends messages (usually in morse code) by means of flashes of reflected sunlight, hoarding – a display case or area to place advertisements or advertised products; a wooden fence or barrier, hot or cold – Ways of attacking. })(); V&A Museum helps develop a new game from a William Morris furnishing fabric. e.g., He has got the hump over it. With several thousand entries, there are quite a few great bits of slang on all subjects. Vulgar slang was the daily staple of a commoner's vocabulary. It is assumed that the Victorians were quite a prudish lot.

clergyman’s daughter – slang for a prostitute or woman with loose morals. These slang terms are all from a book published in 1909 called Passing English of the Victorian Era: A Dictionary of Heterodox English, Slang, and Phrase, which I learned about from The Public Domain Review’s Twitter feed (@publicdomainrev). Also commonly known meanings are sunflowers, which can indicate either haughtiness or respect – they were the favourite flower of St. Julie Billiart for this reason. cockchafer – the beetle Melolontha melolontha.

taken the knock – to be betrayed or jilted by a lover. Have you proved your Downton Abbey knowledge of Downtonisms.

doss house – a cheap lodging house. _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-230305-2']); function utmx_section(){}function utmx(){} Privacy Policy | Cookie Policy | UGC Image Use Agreement. Abbess: Female brothel keeper.

Keep your hair on! Words such as "devil" and "damned" were blanked out in books. Zool. Ticker – Soldier who owned his own personal watch (early usage), tiffin – Lunch or snack (obsolete English tiff to eat between meals). Heck, even looking at how differently folks in different parts of our country refer to the same objects is pretty intriguing, not to mention how that changes when you fly over to the UK or make a trip north to Canada. Playing off “morbid,” this phrase was used for those feeling sad or melancholy. consumption – Pulmonary tuberculosis or any other wasting-away disease that “consumed” its victims. The term FRUITFUL VINE was used to refer to a woman's private parts, i.e. Gardner Gun (machine gun) – A one- to five-barreled machine gun used by the British Army from 1880. And so I says to him, “I’m headed to the Lion’s Pub, why don’t you come and have a pickle?”.

In my kitchen, brought in and mangled by my cats, the one we had last week lasted less than ten minutes (and I was very glad). (See Hasty pudding and Turn-roundpudding.). clemming – consumptive, emaciated; necessitous, in want, pinched; in shoemaking, the binding together of soles, clergyman’s daughter – slang for a prostitute or woman with loose morals, cockchafer – the beetle Melolontha melolontha, college – Prison (as in, “I’ve been to college.”). Contributed by the University of Toronto. It is referred to in the U.K as a 'May Bug'. Polite gentlemen would also have been pretty familiar with sexual Victorian slang. – roughly means “How severe is your hangover?”, wizard – Excellent, as in “a wizard time”. A large basket or container carried on the back of an animal or on the shoulders of a person (13th century, Latin, panis, bread), peg – a soup kitchen, a place where free meals are given out, P. and O. It was either carried by men or set atop an elephant.

_gaq.push(['_setDomainName', 'none']); the most gets 10pts. Published 1909], © Copyright 1996-2016, Victoriana Magazine. Courtesy of The Institute of Edwardian Studies, Askew’s Glossary of Victorian Colonial Terminology, Vita Sackville-West’s The Edwardians and Ronald Pearsall’s Edwardian Life and Leisure. – Peninsular and Oriental Steamship Company. (After the inventor, Henry Shrapnel [1806]). You would use this to describe someone who is secretive and shady.

Probably from “dog” [1893], dog cart – a two-wheeled vehicle of often simple design and decoration drawn by a smallish horse or a pony, donkey walloper – Infantry disparaging term for cavalry. (function() { ‘. First used in the 1880’s. ). Kill the canary (shirking work) and join a chuckaboo (favorite friend) to become half-rats (partially intoxicated) so you can enjoy our entertaining list of Victorian slang terms. Vintage fashion magazine to read on iPad geared toward those who have a love of vintage clothing and accessories. AKA “Poor Mary on the terrace”, pipe off – lose interest in something, especially a lover, pippin – an outstanding person; a variety of apple. Its symptoms included weakness, dietary disturbance, lack of menstruation and most significantly, a change in skin colour.

Early drink. fossick – To search for gold or gemstones typically by picking over abandoned workings (Australian and New Zealand), footle – nonsense; to talk nonsense or to waste time, French – to be French is to be disingenuous or unserious, frou-frou – the rustling or swish of a dress or gown, furze – also known as gorse or whin.

They're not the same as cockroaches. The easiest way to tell the difference is that they're smaller, louder, and have very pointy backsides. '&utmxhash='+escape(h.substr(1)):'')+'" type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8">')})(); Everything2 ™ is brought to you by Everything2 Media, LLC. – a command not to get excited, equivalent to “Keep your hat on!”, kip – place to sleep; Bed (Danish kippecheap tavern), knut – an idle upper-class man-about-town, kopje – Afrikaans word for a small hill, especially one with steep sides, limber – horse-drawn, two-wheeled wagon used to transport artillery pieces; the action of transporting artillery pieces in a limber; the driver of a limber, linctus – in medicine it refers to a medicinal preparation or mixture, malaria – A disease transmitted by mosquitoes that causes periodic severe attacks of chills and fever, thought at one time to be caused by miasma (Italian [1740], from mala aria, bad air), matlow – Self-adopted name of British sailors (blue-jackets)[1880](from French matelot, sailor). A diseased prostitute was called a FIRESHIP and an infected young man was called a FIREPLUG.

In 2016, much of the passage above might not make sense. [About 1679]). tiled – included in, covered with guilt or responsibility; in the same situation. ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? cholera belt – A body wrapping of flannel worn to supposedly prevent cholera.

As I understand the device, think of a paddle-wheel on a steamboat. The nuances of the language are now mostly forgotten, but red roses still imply passionate, romantic love and pink roses a lesser affection; white roses suggest virtue and chastity and yellow roses still stand for friendship or devotion. baize – a coarse, woolen material resembling felt, barnbrack (barmbrack) – a spice cake-like bread usually made with currants.

A WASP was an infected prostitute, who like a wasp, carries a sting in her tail.There was also a medical condition known as GREEN SICKNESS, which was the disease of maids occasioned by celibacy. Victorian slang is full of colourful terms for all sexual matters. This was used for something that is way too fancy, which one might argue about Queen Victoria’s fine jewelry in this photo. The iris, being named for the messenger of the gods in Greek mythology, still represents the sending of a message.

drugget – a floor covering made of a coarse fabric, dyspepsia – Indigestion (Latin, from Greek, from dys- + pepsis digestion), fallalish – pertaining to an article of clothing or piece of dress that is excessively showy or fancy (from fallal). wrangler – a debater; at the University of Cambridge, one of those who have attained the first grade in the second (until 1909 in the first) part of the examination for honors in mathematics.