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56 Delightful Victorian Slang Terms You Should Be Using

Nilgiri

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@waz @Indus Pakistan @Joe Shearer @VCheng @Hamartia Antidote @Vergennes @Retired Troll @Signalian LOL:

http://mentalfloss.com/article/53529/56-delightful-victorian-slang-terms-you-should-be-using

In 1909, writing under the pseudonym James Redding Ware, British writer Andrew Forrester published Passing English of the Victorian era, a dictionary of heterodox English, slang and phrase. "Thousands of words and phrases in existence in 1870 have drifted away, or changed their forms, or been absorbed, while as many have been added or are being added," he writes in the book's introduction. "‘Passing English’ ripples from countless sources, forming a river of new language which has its tide and its ebb, while its current brings down new ideas and carries away those that have dribbled out of fashion." Forrester chronicles many hilarious and delightful words in Passing English; we don't know how these phrases ever fell out of fashion, but we propose bringing them back.

1. AFTERNOONIFIED
A society word meaning “smart.” Forrester demonstrates the usage: "The goods are not 'afternoonified' enough for me.”

2. ARFARFAN'ARF
A figure of speech used to describe drunken men. “He’s very arf’arf’an’arf," Forrester writes, "meaning he has had many ‘arfs,’” or half-pints of booze.

3. BACK SLANG IT
Thieves used this term to indicate that they wanted “to go out the back way.”

4. BAGS O’ MYSTERY
An 1850 term for sausages, “because no man but the maker knows what is in them. ... The 'bag' refers to the gut which contained the chopped meat.”

5. BANG UP TO THE ELEPHANT
This phrase originated in London in 1882, and means “perfect, complete, unapproachable.”

6. BATTY-FANG
Low London phrase meaning “to thrash thoroughly,” possibly from the French battre a fin.

7. BENJO
Nineteenth century sailor slang for “A riotous holiday, a noisy day in the streets.”

8. BOW WOW MUTTON
A naval term referring to meat so bad “it might be dog flesh.”

9. BRICKY
Brave or fearless. “Adroit after the manner of a brick," Forrester writes, "said even of the other sex, 'What a bricky girl she is.'”

10. BUBBLE AROUND
A verbal attack, generally made via the press. Forrester cites The Golden Butterfly: "I will back a first-class British subject for bubbling around against all humanity."

11. BUTTER UPON BACON
Extravagance. Too much extravagance. “Are you going to put lace over the feather, isn't that rather butter upon bacon?”

12. CAT-LAP
A London society term for tea and coffee “used scornfully by drinkers of beer and strong waters ... in club-life is one of the more ignominious names given to champagne by men who prefer stronger liquors.”

13. CHURCH-BELL
A talkative woman.

14. CHUCKABOO
A nickname given to a close friend.

15. COLLIE SHANGLES

Quarrels. A term from Queen Victoria’s journal, More Leaves, published in 1884: “At five minutes to eleven rode off with Beatrice, good Sharp going with us, and having occasional collie shangles (a Scottish word for quarrels or rows, but taken from fights between dogs) with collies when we came near cottages.”

16. COP A MOUSE
To get a black eye. “Cop in this sense is to catch or suffer," Forrester writers, "while the colour of the obligation at its worst suggests the colour and size of the innocent animal named.”

17. DADDLES
A delightful way to refer to your rather boring hands.

18. DAMFINO
This creative cuss is a contraction of “damned if I know.”

19. DIZZY AGE
A phrase meaning "elderly," because it "makes the spectator giddy to think of the victim's years." The term is usually refers to "a maiden or other woman canvassed by other maiden ladies or others.”

20. DOING THE BEAR
"Courting that involves hugging."

21. DON’T SELL ME A DOG
Popular until 1870, this phrase meant “Don’t lie to me!” Apparently, people who sold dogs back in the day were prone to trying to pass off mutts as purebreds.

22. DOOR-KNOCKER
A type of beard "formed by the cheeks and chin being shaved leaving a chain of hair under the chin, and upon each side of mouth forming with moustache something like a door-knocker."

23. ENTHUZIMUZZY
"Satirical reference to enthusiasm." Created by Braham the terror, whoever that is.

24. FIFTEEN PUZZLE
Not the game you might be familiar with, but a term meaning complete and absolute confusion.

25. FLY RINK
An 1875 term for a polished bald head.

26. GAL-SNEAKER
An 1870 term for "a man devoted to seduction.”

27. GAS-PIPES
A term for especially tight pants.

28. GIGGLEMUG
“An habitually smiling face.”

29. GOT THE MORBS
Use of this 1880 phrase indicated temporary melancholy.

30. HALF-RATS
Partially intoxicated.

31. JAMMIEST BITS OF JAM
“Absolutely perfect young females,” circa 1883.

32. KRUGER-SPOOF
Lying, from 1896.

33. MAD AS HOPS
Excitable.

34. MAFFICKING
An excellent word that means getting rowdy in the streets.

35. MAKE A STUFFED BIRD LAUGH
“Absolutely preposterous.”

36. MEATER
A street term meaning coward.

37. MIND THE GREASE
When walking or otherwise getting around, you could ask people to let you pass, please. Or you could ask them to mind the grease, which meant the same thing to Victorians.

38. MUTTON SHUNTER
This 1883 term for a policeman is so much better than "pig."

39. NANTY NARKING
A tavern term, popular from 1800 to 1840, that meant great fun.

40. NOSE BAGGER
Someone who takes a day trip to the beach. He brings his own provisions and doesn’t contribute at all to the resort he’s visiting.

41. NOT UP TO DICK
Not well.

42. ORF CHUMP
No appetite.

43. PARISH PICK-AXE
A prominent nose.

44. PODSNAPPERY
This term, Forrester writers, describes a person with a “wilful determination to ignore the objectionable or inconvenient, at the same time assuming airs of superior virtue and noble resignation.”

45. POKED UP
Embarrassed.

46. POWDERING HAIR
An 18th century tavern term that means “getting drunk.”

47. RAIN NAPPER
An umbrella.

48. SAUCE-BOX
The mouth.

49. SHAKE A FLANNIN
Why say you're going to fight when you could say you're going to shake a flannin instead?

50. SHOOT INTO THE BROWN
To fail. According to Forrester, "The phrase takes its rise from rifle practice, where the queer shot misses the black and white target altogether, and shoots into the brown i.e., the earth butt."

51. SKILAMALINK
Secret, shady, doubtful.

52. SMOTHERING A PARROT
Drinking a glass of absinthe neat; named for the green color of the booze.

53. SUGGESTIONIZE
A legal term from 1889 meaning “to prompt.”

54. TAKE THE EGG
To win.

55. UMBLE-CUM-STUMBLE
According to Forrester, this low class phrase means "thoroughly understood."

56. WHOOPERUPS
A term meaning "inferior, noisy singers" that could be used liberally today during karaoke sessions.

This piece originally ran in 2013.
 
.
I knew only cat-lap and mafficking, although copping a mouse is straightforward, and you don't have to 'know' it to know what is meant.

Since this is a defence forum, I hope readers might know the back-story to mafficking. It relates to the aftermath to the Siege of Mafeking, where the hero of the Siege was Baden-Powell, the father of the Scouts and Guides movement world-wide. After the siege was raised, back in the UK, people vented their feelings in riotous celebration:

|| The resistance to the siege was seen as one of the positive highlights in the media, and it and the eventual relief of the town excited the liveliest sympathy in Britain. There were immense celebrations in the country at the news of its relief (creating the verb to maffick, meaning to celebrate both extravagantly and publicly). "Maffick" was a back-formation from Mafeking, a place-name that was treated humorously as a gerund or participle. Promoted to the youngest major-general in the army, and awarded the CB, Baden-Powell was also treated as a hero when he finally returned to Britain in 1903. ||

The other famous siege, of course, was the siege of Ladysmith. Here the back-story is not about the siege, but about the lady. Those who haven't read up about Sir Harry Smith's Spanish bride had better do that immediately; unless I misremember, to use my own Brit lower class slang, Georgette Heyer had an historical romance based on her story.

Naturally, I expect that everyone here will know of Sir Harry himself, made a baronet with the title 'of Aliwal' attached to his title (unusual for Baronets, I believe; it is rather more common at the higher levels of nobility, from the Baron onwards).

@waz @Indus Pakistan @Joe Shearer @VCheng @Hamartia Antidote @Vergennes @Retired Troll @Signalian LOL:

http://mentalfloss.com/article/53529/56-delightful-victorian-slang-terms-you-should-be-using

In 1909, writing under the pseudonym James Redding Ware, British writer Andrew Forrester published Passing English of the Victorian era, a dictionary of heterodox English, slang and phrase. "Thousands of words and phrases in existence in 1870 have drifted away, or changed their forms, or been absorbed, while as many have been added or are being added," he writes in the book's introduction. "‘Passing English’ ripples from countless sources, forming a river of new language which has its tide and its ebb, while its current brings down new ideas and carries away those that have dribbled out of fashion." Forrester chronicles many hilarious and delightful words in Passing English; we don't know how these phrases ever fell out of fashion, but we propose bringing them back.

1. AFTERNOONIFIED
A society word meaning “smart.” Forrester demonstrates the usage: "The goods are not 'afternoonified' enough for me.”

2. ARFARFAN'ARF
A figure of speech used to describe drunken men. “He’s very arf’arf’an’arf," Forrester writes, "meaning he has had many ‘arfs,’” or half-pints of booze.

3. BACK SLANG IT
Thieves used this term to indicate that they wanted “to go out the back way.”

4. BAGS O’ MYSTERY
An 1850 term for sausages, “because no man but the maker knows what is in them. ... The 'bag' refers to the gut which contained the chopped meat.”

5. BANG UP TO THE ELEPHANT
This phrase originated in London in 1882, and means “perfect, complete, unapproachable.”

6. BATTY-FANG
Low London phrase meaning “to thrash thoroughly,” possibly from the French battre a fin.

7. BENJO
Nineteenth century sailor slang for “A riotous holiday, a noisy day in the streets.”

8. BOW WOW MUTTON
A naval term referring to meat so bad “it might be dog flesh.”

9. BRICKY
Brave or fearless. “Adroit after the manner of a brick," Forrester writes, "said even of the other sex, 'What a bricky girl she is.'”

10. BUBBLE AROUND
A verbal attack, generally made via the press. Forrester cites The Golden Butterfly: "I will back a first-class British subject for bubbling around against all humanity."

11. BUTTER UPON BACON
Extravagance. Too much extravagance. “Are you going to put lace over the feather, isn't that rather butter upon bacon?”

12. CAT-LAP
A London society term for tea and coffee “used scornfully by drinkers of beer and strong waters ... in club-life is one of the more ignominious names given to champagne by men who prefer stronger liquors.”

13. CHURCH-BELL
A talkative woman.

14. CHUCKABOO
A nickname given to a close friend.

15. COLLIE SHANGLES

Quarrels. A term from Queen Victoria’s journal, More Leaves, published in 1884: “At five minutes to eleven rode off with Beatrice, good Sharp going with us, and having occasional collie shangles (a Scottish word for quarrels or rows, but taken from fights between dogs) with collies when we came near cottages.”

16. COP A MOUSE
To get a black eye. “Cop in this sense is to catch or suffer," Forrester writers, "while the colour of the obligation at its worst suggests the colour and size of the innocent animal named.”

17. DADDLES
A delightful way to refer to your rather boring hands.

18. DAMFINO
This creative cuss is a contraction of “damned if I know.”

19. DIZZY AGE
A phrase meaning "elderly," because it "makes the spectator giddy to think of the victim's years." The term is usually refers to "a maiden or other woman canvassed by other maiden ladies or others.”

20. DOING THE BEAR
"Courting that involves hugging."

21. DON’T SELL ME A DOG
Popular until 1870, this phrase meant “Don’t lie to me!” Apparently, people who sold dogs back in the day were prone to trying to pass off mutts as purebreds.

22. DOOR-KNOCKER
A type of beard "formed by the cheeks and chin being shaved leaving a chain of hair under the chin, and upon each side of mouth forming with moustache something like a door-knocker."

23. ENTHUZIMUZZY
"Satirical reference to enthusiasm." Created by Braham the terror, whoever that is.

24. FIFTEEN PUZZLE
Not the game you might be familiar with, but a term meaning complete and absolute confusion.

25. FLY RINK
An 1875 term for a polished bald head.

26. GAL-SNEAKER
An 1870 term for "a man devoted to seduction.”

27. GAS-PIPES
A term for especially tight pants.

28. GIGGLEMUG
“An habitually smiling face.”

29. GOT THE MORBS
Use of this 1880 phrase indicated temporary melancholy.

30. HALF-RATS
Partially intoxicated.

31. JAMMIEST BITS OF JAM
“Absolutely perfect young females,” circa 1883.

32. KRUGER-SPOOF
Lying, from 1896.

33. MAD AS HOPS
Excitable.

34. MAFFICKING
An excellent word that means getting rowdy in the streets.

35. MAKE A STUFFED BIRD LAUGH
“Absolutely preposterous.”

36. MEATER
A street term meaning coward.

37. MIND THE GREASE
When walking or otherwise getting around, you could ask people to let you pass, please. Or you could ask them to mind the grease, which meant the same thing to Victorians.

38. MUTTON SHUNTER
This 1883 term for a policeman is so much better than "pig."

39. NANTY NARKING
A tavern term, popular from 1800 to 1840, that meant great fun.

40. NOSE BAGGER
Someone who takes a day trip to the beach. He brings his own provisions and doesn’t contribute at all to the resort he’s visiting.

41. NOT UP TO DICK
Not well.

42. ORF CHUMP
No appetite.

43. PARISH PICK-AXE
A prominent nose.

44. PODSNAPPERY
This term, Forrester writers, describes a person with a “wilful determination to ignore the objectionable or inconvenient, at the same time assuming airs of superior virtue and noble resignation.”

45. POKED UP
Embarrassed.

46. POWDERING HAIR
An 18th century tavern term that means “getting drunk.”

47. RAIN NAPPER
An umbrella.

48. SAUCE-BOX
The mouth.

49. SHAKE A FLANNIN
Why say you're going to fight when you could say you're going to shake a flannin instead?

50. SHOOT INTO THE BROWN
To fail. According to Forrester, "The phrase takes its rise from rifle practice, where the queer shot misses the black and white target altogether, and shoots into the brown i.e., the earth butt."

51. SKILAMALINK
Secret, shady, doubtful.

52. SMOTHERING A PARROT
Drinking a glass of absinthe neat; named for the green color of the booze.

53. SUGGESTIONIZE
A legal term from 1889 meaning “to prompt.”

54. TAKE THE EGG
To win.

55. UMBLE-CUM-STUMBLE
According to Forrester, this low class phrase means "thoroughly understood."

56. WHOOPERUPS
A term meaning "inferior, noisy singers" that could be used liberally today during karaoke sessions.

This piece originally ran in 2013.

I knew only cat-lap and mafficking, although copping a mouse is straightforward, and you don't have to 'know' it to know what is meant.

Since this is a defence forum, I hope readers might know the back-story to mafficking. It relates to the aftermath to the Siege of Mafeking, where the hero of the Siege was Baden-Powell, the father of the Scouts and Guides movement world-wide. After the siege was raised, back in the UK, people vented their feelings in riotous celebration:

|| The resistance to the siege was seen as one of the positive highlights in the media, and it and the eventual relief of the town excited the liveliest sympathy in Britain. There were immense celebrations in the country at the news of its relief (creating the verb to maffick, meaning to celebrate both extravagantly and publicly). "Maffick" was a back-formation from Mafeking, a place-name that was treated humorously as a gerund or participle. Promoted to the youngest major-general in the army, and awarded the CB, Baden-Powell was also treated as a hero when he finally returned to Britain in 1903. ||

The other famous siege, of course, was the siege of Ladysmith. Here the back-story is not about the siege, but about the lady. Those who haven't read up about Sir Harry Smith's Spanish bride had better do that immediately; unless I misremember, to use my own Brit lower class slang, Georgette Heyer had an historical romance based on her story.

Naturally, I expect that everyone here will know of Sir Harry himself, made a baronet with the title 'of Aliwal' attached to his title (unusual for Baronets, I believe; it is rather more common at the higher levels of nobility, from the Baron onwards).

Baden-Powell was a pretty lousy soldier, btw.
 
. .
Forrester chronicles many hilarious and delightful words in Passing English; we don't know how these phrases ever fell out of fashion, but we propose bringing them back.

Such changes in vocabulary remind me that English reached its position of overwhelming dominance as the global language by being dynamic and ever evolving, a process that is perhaps accelerating. The new additions to the dictionary each year are a testament to that dynamism.
 
.
Such changes in vocabulary remind me that English reached its position of overwhelming dominance as the global language by being dynamic and ever evolving, a process that is perhaps accelerating. The new additions to the dictionary each year are a testament to that dynamism.

I like smoking my hookah on the verandah of my bungalow...wearing my pyjamas!
 
. .
I like smoking my hookah on the verandah of my bungalow...wearing my pyjamas!

Not to annoy you or provoke you, but I've done this. On the second floor of an old bungalow assigned to my Dad as quarters, overlooking a small lawn with floral borders. An old family retainer used to load the hookah and fire it up, and I pulled away at the nozzle perfectly at peace with the world.

Yeah, I got the hookah, verandah, bungalow and pajamas. Just getting nostalgic.

I've also had my Dad walk into the old Jalpaiguri Club, clap his hands and shout 'Koi hai?' And somebody actually turned up, complete with faded uniform and broad leather brass-buckled belt.
 
.
I've also had my Dad walk into the old Jalpaiguri Club, clap his hands and shout 'Koi hai?' And somebody actually turned up, complete with faded uniform and broad leather brass-buckled belt.

Bwahaha. Made my morning, thanks ole chum.
 
.
Bwahaha. Made my morning, thanks ole chum.

....and there was old Brigadier Hugh Stevens, lunching with us at the Bengal Club, and slowly turning a deeper and deeper shade of red while his grilled fish with boiled veg and toast and butter slowly cooled. Finally he was asked, "Everything all right, Hugh?" and he finally unburdened himself,"There's no bloody butter knife!"
 
. . .

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