35 Slang Terms from the Victorian Era That Are Real Humdingers
It proves they really did have a sense of humor after all.
We think of the Victorians as buttoned up and staid, but there were a few areas in which they really let their hair down, so to speak. The lingo of the 1800s was colorful, clever, and sometimes quite crude. The Industrial Revolution, combined with other societal changes like readily accessible international travel and the blurring of class lines, made for a wildly entertaining set of slang employed on both sides of the Atlantic. Here are 35 slang terms from the Victorian era that are fascinating if nothing else.
Admiral of the red: someone who is fond of the drink (and has a red face to show for it)
Bone box: mouth
Cold coffee: bad luck or misfortune
Colt’s tooth: an old person who wants to live life over, perhaps someone having what we would call today a midlife crisis
Crook the elbow: indulge in alcoholic beverages
Cupboard love: affection or promises of love given only in the aid of obtaining a home-cooked meal
Draw the long bow: to tell a long and interesting story
Fimble-famble: a nonsense excuse
Follow-me-lads: seductive curls draped over a woman’s shoulder (at this time women would have nearly always worn their hair up in public)
Gentleman of 4 outs: a man without the following 4 traits- credit, wit, money, or manners
Gullyfluff: the lint, crumbs, and/or other debris that accumulates inside of pockets
Half mourning: one black eye (2 would have been full mourning)
Hobbledehoy: an awkward male youth, not yet a man
Honor bright: an abbreviation of “by my honor, which is bright”; another way of saying “on my honor”
Joab’s turkey: an underfed or poor subject, the underdog
Keep a pig: a college term meaning to let a room to a freshman (new students were often called pigs)
Killing the canary: shrugging off work duties
Klondike fever: the Yukon Gold Rush which occurred between 1896 and 1899
Knickerbocker: the upper crust of society
Lay down the knife and fork: to die
Mafficking: making a ruckus or getting rowdy
Month of Sundays: a long time
Nanty narking: having a grand old time
Nose in the manger: having a meal, pigging out
Off the horn: a very hard cut of beef, jokingly suggested to be cut from near the horns
Out of print: a deceased person
Skilamalink: secretive, deceitful person or interaction
Sneezer: a handkerchief
Take the egg: to win at something
Tie up your stocking: finish your drink
Tune the old cow died of: an out-of-tune or horrible song
Turn-ups: rejected suitors or contestants- from the 19th century practice of “turning up” the hospital bedstead of someone who had just died
Underdone: someone with a pale complexion
Whooperups: loud and disorderly people engaged in discordant song
Village blacksmith: a traveling entertainer who never stays anywhere long
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