Not Up To Dick: 100 Wonderful Victorian Slang Words You Should Be Using →
This is pure unadulterated gold.
including some highlights:
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.
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.’”
11. BUTTER UPON BACON - Extravagance. Too much extravagance. “Are you going to put lace over the feather, isn’t that rather butter upon bacon?”
14. CHUCKABOO - A nickname given to a close friend.
15. COLLIE SHANGLES - Quarrels.
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.”
23. ENTHUZIMUZZY - “Satirical reference to enthusiasm.” Created by Braham the terror, whoever that is.
25. FLY RINK - An 1875 term for a polished bald head.
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.
32. KRUGER-SPOOF - Lying, from 1896.
35. MAKE A STUFFED BIRD LAUGH - “Absolutely preposterous.”
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.
43. PARISH PICK-AXE - A prominent nose.
46. POWDERING HAIR - An 18th century tavern term that means “getting drunk.”
47. RAIN NAPPER - An umbrella.
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.”
