Victorian Slang!

As I was browsing over many an Internet page, I came across a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore – Victorian Slang!

Many fans of author Georgette Heyer will recall with fondness her characters’ delightful use of Regency-era slang, but I haven’t found too many resources dedicated to the particular lingo of the mid-to-late Nineteenth Century. So it was with great pleasure that I began to read J. Redding Ware’s “Passing English of the Victorian Era” http://publicdomainreview.org/collections/a-dictionary-of-victorian-slang-1909/

Here are some of the cool slang words that this intrepid lexicographer collected:

Adam and Eve’s togs – Naked

Adam’s Ale – Water

Back-hairing – Female fighting, in which a woman had her back hair pulled down out of its bun or chignon. The hair around the face could be arranged in curls or smooth wings, but for much of the Victorian era, the hair on the back of the head had to be tucked up.

Bad Hat – A disreputable person. Said to have originated from a comment by the Duke of Wellington, when he first appeared before the House of Commons: “I never saw so many shocking bad hats in all my life,” meaning that the commoners wore poor-quality headgear. But eventually the phrase lost all political meaning.

Bally – Excessive, great. May be a euphemism for “bloody”

Batty-Fang – To thrash thoroughly. From the french battre a fin (to beat to the end?)

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.”

Climb the Mountain of Piety – To pawn something. Related to the Italian phrase Monte de Pieta, where the first Roman pawnshop was opened.

Doing the Bear – Courting that involves hugging

Got the Morbs – Temporary melancholy. Coined from the word “morbid”

Mops and Brooms – Drunk. Probably suggested by the hair getting disorderly and like a mop.

Mother – Water. From the rhyming slang, “mother and daughter.”

Mutton Shunter – The police

Nanty Narking – Great fun

Orf Chump – No appetite. “Orf” meaning “off”. From a stable man’s reference to horses being off their food.

Play camels – To get drunk (Anglo-Indian). Said to be from camel’s ability to store their drink

Popsy wopsy – A smiling, doll-like, attractive girl

Porridge-hole – Mouth

Put a steam on the table – To earn enough money to obtain a hot Sunday dinner. A figure of speech. Refers chiefly to boiled food, the phrase having been invented before domestic ovens.

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.”

Skilimalink – Secret, shady, doubtful.

Smothering a parrot – Drinking a glass of absinthe neat; named for the green color of the booze.

So if you’ve got the morbs, don’t drink Adam’s ale — go somewhere skilimalink and smother a parrot!