Passing English of the Victorian era : a dictionary of heterodox English, slang and phrase

19.7 MB·English

by  Ware, James Redding

I

PASSING ENGLISH
STANDABD REFERENCE LIRRARY.
Large 8vo, half red-morocco gilt.
Dictionary of Slang and Colloquial English. By J. S.
FARMER and the late W. E. HENLEY. Abridged from
the seven-volume work. 542 pp.
Passing English of the Victorian Era. By J. BEDDING
WARE. (FormingaSupplementtotheabove.)
Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words, Obsolete
Phrases, &c. ByJ. 0. HALLIWELL. 998pp.
Glossary of Words, Phrases, Names and Illusions. By
Archdeacon NARES. Edited by J. 0. HALLIWBLL and
T. WRIGHT. 992pp.
English Quotations. By ROBINSON SMITH.
The Eosicrucians. By HARGRAVE JENNINGS. With 300
illustrations and 12 plates.
Shakespeare Word-book. By JOHN FOBTBR, M.A.
Prof. E. DOWDEN, writes:
'Oneofthespecialdistinctionsofthebookliesinitstracings
oftheramificationsofmeaning,andIthink thereisadelight-
fultrainingof themind in following its guidancehere. But,
apart from this, asamereswiftaid ingettingpastdifficulties
inreadingShakespeare,itwillbemostuseful,andallthemore
usefulbecauseofitscondensation.'
PASSING ENGLISH
OF THE VICTORIAN ERA
A DICTIONARY OF HETERODOX
ENGLISH, SLANG, AND PHRASE
BY
BEDDING WARE
J.
999
\
Asforestsshedtheirfoliagebydegrees,
Sofadeexpressionswhichinseasonplease. BYRON.
7
LONDON
GEORGE ROUTLEDGE & SONS, LIMITED
NEW YORK E. P. DUTTON & CO.
:
P
373,1
This Work forms a Companion Volume to
FARMER AND HENLEY'S
'DICTIONARY OF SLANG
AND COLLOQUIAL ENGLISH'
IN THE SAME SERIES.
PREFACE
i
HERE is a numerically weak collection of instances of 'Passing
English'. It may be hoped that there are errors on every page,
and also that no entry is 'quite too dull'. 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. '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. Not only is 'Passing
English' general; it is local; often very seasonably local.
Careless etymologists might hold that there are only four divisions
offugitive language in London west, east, north and south. But
the variations are countless. Holborn knows little of Petty Italia
behind Hatton Garden, and both these ignore Clerkenwell, which is
equally foreign to Islington proper; in the South, Lambeth
generally ignores the New Cut, and both look upon Southwark
as linguistically out of bounds; while in Central London, Clare
Market (disappearing with the nineteenth century) had, if it no
longer has, a distinct fashion in words from its great and partially
surviving rival through the centuries the world of Seven Dials,
which is in St Giles's St James's being practically in the next
parish. In the East the confusion of languages is a world of
'variants' there must be half-a-dozen of Anglo-Yiddish alone
all, however, outgrown from the Hebrew stem. 'Passing English'
belongs to all the classes, from the peerage class who have always
adopted an imperfection in speech or frequency of phrase associated
with the court, to the court of the lowest costermonger, who gives
the fashion to his immediate entourage. Much passing English
becomes obscure almost immediately upon its appearance such
as 'Whoa, Emma !' or 'How's your poor feet?' the first from an
inquest in a back street, the second from a question by Lord
Palmerston addressed to the then Prince of Wales upon the
Preface
return of the latter from India. 'Everything is nice in my
garden' came from Osborne. 'O.K.' for 'orl kerrect' (All
Correct) was started by Vance, a comic singer, while in the
East district, 'to Wainwright' a woman (i.e. to kill her) comes
from the name of a murderer of that name. So boys in these
later days have substituted 'He's a reglar Charlie' for 'He's
a reglar Jack' meaning Jack Sheppard, while Charley is a
loving diminutive of Charles Peace, a champion scoundrel of our
generation. The Police Courts yield daily phrases to 'Passing
English while the life of the day sets its mark upon every hour.
',
Between the autumn of 1899, and the middle of 1900, a Chadband
became a Kruger, while a plucky, cheerful man was described
as a 'B.P.' (Baden Powell). Li Hung Chang remained in London
not a week, but he was called 'Lion Chang' before he had gone
twice to bed in the Metropolis. Indeed, proper names are a
great source of trouble in analysing Passing English. 'Dead
as a door nail' is probably as O'Donnel. The phrase comes
from Ireland, where another fragment Til smash you into
Smithereens' means into Smither's ruins though no one seems
to know who Smithers was. Again, a famous etymologist has
assumed 'Right as a trivet' to refer to a kitchen-stove, whereas
the 'trivet' is the last century pronunciation of Truefit, the
supreme Bond Street wig-maker, whose wigs were perfect hence
the phrase. Proper names are truly pitfalls in the study of
colloquial language. What is a 'Bath Oliver,' a biscuit invented
by a Dr Oliver of Bath again there is the bun named after
;
Sally Lunn, while the Scarborough Simnel is a cake accidentally
discovered by baking two varying superposed cakes in one tin.
In Scarborough, some natives now say the cake comes down
from the pretender Simnel, who became cook or scullion to
Henry VII. Turning in another direction, it may be suggested
that most exclamations are survivals of Catholicism in England,
such as 'Ad's Bud' 'God's Bud' (Christ); 'Cot's So' 'God's
oath'; 'S'elp me greens' meaning groans; more blue (still
heard in Devonshire) morbleu (probably from Bath and the
Court ofCharles II.) the 'blue death' or the 'blue-blood death'
the crucifixion. 'Please the pigs' is evidently pyx ; while the
dramatic 'sdeath is clearly 'His Death'; even the still common
'Bloody Hell'is 'By our lady, hail', the lady being the Virgin.
There are hundreds of these exclamations, many wholly local.
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