A list of sorely missed Victorian-era slang…
Got the morbs = temporary sadness
Gigglemug = always smiling
Scandal water = tea
Bitch the pot = pour the tea
Sauce-box = mouth
Cupid’s kettle drums = breasts
Dash my wig = OMG
Tight as a boiled owl = drunk
Poked up = embarrassed
Not up to dick = unwell
Got the morbs = temporary sadness
Gigglemug = always smiling
Scandal water = tea
Bitch the pot = pour the tea
Sauce-box = mouth
Cupid’s kettle drums = breasts
Dash my wig = OMG
Tight as a boiled owl = drunk
Poked up = embarrassed
Not up to dick = unwell
Comments
I got tight as a boiled owl and felt
not up to dick. Tried to kiss my wife on the sauce-box and fondle her Cupid’s kettle drums. But instead of putting on her gigglemug, she got the morbs and bitched the pot with the scandal water with her girlfriend. 😳
*wink wink*
Also boasting was ‘high cockalorum’ and the boaster must ‘think he is the Great Panjandrum.’
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panjandrum
The word is Hindi (meaning High Official) in origin and first appears in English in 1755, in a nonsense rhyme by Samuel Foote with the meaning of ‘less important than he thinks he is.’
Shute no doubt enjoyed the irony.
The collywobbles = upset tummy
A queer cog = a rotten tooth
The horrors = depression
Dropsy = oedema
Strangery = rupture
A churchyard cough = one likely to be fatal
Scrivener’s palsy = writer’s cramp
The unpleasantness = nothing good
I also adore old expressions like these in German novels from the 19th/early 20th century, vaguely describing any sort of illness 🤭:
Killing the canary = avoiding work
Afternoonified = smart
Mutton shunter = police
That dab’s in quod = that ruffian’s in prison
Chuckaboo = a close friend
Muff = a silly man
Gropusses = pockets
Daddles = hands
Bacon-faced blunderbuss = full-faced ignoramus
Off your chump = unhinged
Dying duck in a thunderstorm = unattractive
Parish pick-axe = a prominent nose
Death’s head upon a mopstick = a gangly, miserable-looking man
Put your flute away = shut up
Go fry your face and play with the gravy = go away
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/nov/02/donald-trump-is-a-superspreader-for-a-craziness-that-has-split-america-in-two?CMP=share_btn_url
I keep re-reading that paragraph & I can't for the life of me process what you just said even with your translation key.
Feeling like a bit of a chook right now.
Excellent bit of nominative determinism there, too. I shall have to check out Grose.
"Thanks! It has gropusses!"
Tickity-boo - all OK fully recovered we still use in our family.
Unless it's from morose I guess, which has different roots.
Uncle Son used the whole rhyming slang which was impossible to decipher as many used old music hall acts. 😂
☕️🫖☕️
Boom boom!
So "tea" for "scandal" has a history after all. And "got the morbs" could belong with "holibobs" and "no carbs before Marbs ".
Also,
Barnacles = glasses
Beaker-hunter = a stealer of poultry
Beetle-crushers = large feet
Bosh-faker / catgut-scraper = violinist
Buffle head = silly person
Clapper = tongue
Colly-wobbles / mollygrubs= stomach ache
Down the road = fashionable
I could go on 😂
https://www.madhattersfancydress.com/product/50s-red-suede-creeper-shoes-punk-rock-n-roll-beetle-crushers/
It was all DMs in my teens, which made things easy but same-y.
And you are very much pressing my button with kennings. One of the really vibrant corners of language 🙂
"with his hands upon his hips as if a young hobbit had 'offered him sauce'."
🫢
Lop-eared = Dim-witted, clumsy
Infernal machine = improvised or concealed weapon
Bone orchard = Graveyard
Dinky= Small and shoddy, generally associated with railroads
Now you have me all curious, how did that start and when?.. off to dive down a rabbit hole to see what I can find.
Back in the 18th century, this phrase was linked to the ladies that picked the tea, and their constant gossip and tales of ner-do-well's.
This spread to "The ladies who take tea" of the Victorian age, who often gathered, and gossiped about the latest scandals of the age.
Well, you do have to consider the early Coffee House trade, and olden Pubs, where Men gathered, and did exactly the same, which just goes to show, things aint changed that much?
We all share the latest gossip, and who doesnt love a good scandal?
The king sits on his face buttons all askew
All wrapped up the same
All wrapped up the same
They can't have it
You can't have it
I can't have it too
Until I learn to accept I’ve got the morbs
Digging up the stiffs = cramming for a test, originating among medical students
Swooning for a sweet Sweeney = being sexually attracted to a suspected murderer with a nice haircut
Love this!
'"Spud grinder"?
"Spud grinder"!?
Use the Queen's English, man.
If you mean 'cake hole' then say 'cake hole'!"
Sorry if that was grouchy, I’m just not up to dick
- Skilamalink: a shady character
- Death's head upon a mop-head: a poor, emaciated man
- Blowseabella: an unkempt woman
- Duke of limbs: a tall, awkward fellow
- Tatterdemallion: a ragged fellow
- Hell born babe: a youth of wicked disposition
- Gollumpus: a large, clumsy fellow
- Mumbling cove: a mean/deceitful landlord
- Flapdoodle: a sexually incompetent man
- Hornswoggler: a fraud/cheat
- Jolterhead: stupid
- Pigeon-livered: a coward
- Whooperup: a bad singer
- Vazey: stupid
- Ratbag: a rogue
- Gibface: ugly
Getting scrooged = being visited by 3 apparitions at night
A bit of a Congress Of Berlin = sharing out something that doesn't belong to any of you
How did they get that ? 🤔
(P'raps we should discuss it over a cuppa ...)