For the Word Nerd & Others baffled by Regency terms:
English
“The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don’t just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.”
James D. Nicoll
NOTE: The dates refer to when the word was first noticed in common usage, either spoken or written.
Ape leader
In the bible, a virgin who dies without marrying and producing children is sentenced to lead apes in hell. Therefore, a spinster in the Regency period was referred to in rather a scathing fashion as an “ape-leader,” a reminder that a woman’s worth was directly in proportion to her ability to bear.
Bite the dust
In ancient Greek, this was a favorite cliché of Homer. The phrases “bite the ground”, “bite the sand”, and/or “bite the dust” have been used in almost every English translation of the Iliad since 1697. “Lick the dust” is in the Bible.
Blink
Amazingly, this didn’t mean “briefly close the eyes” until 1858. (To blink away tears is first recorded in 1905.) In Shakespeare’s time the word meant “twinkle”, and the original sense seems to be the same word as “blench”, to flinch or turn away. Cf. “see who blinks first” to describe a tense confrontation.
Blonde lace
Originally (about 1745) this extremely expensive delicate French lace (dentelle blonde) was indeed blonde in color, being made from unbleached silk. By 1800 the silk threads were almost always , and the term was used for any fine silk lace woven with tiny hexagonal cells. These days it is usually called Chantilly lace.
PS — Blonde and blond are used almost interchangeably these days, particularly in the US, but technically
Bloody
All too many historical novelists seem to think this is a mild expletive — I can’t think how many books I have read where Our Hero uses the word in front of Ye Gentle Heroine, and several where YGH says it herself when provoked. From about 1750 through the early 20th century this was not mild in Britain; it was a filthy obscenity, and a person with any sort of manners would no more have said “bloody” in mixed company than he or she would have said “fucking”. As late as 1913, Shaw caused a minor riot when he had the semi-transformed Eliza Doolittle say “Walk! Not bloody likely!” in Pygmalion. Amusingly, when the play was made into the movie My Fair Lady fifty years later, the word had lost all its shock value, and Alan Jay Lerner had Eliza shout “Move your bloomin’ arse!” to a horse at Ascot instead.
Bosoms (plural)
Not used as a euphemism for “breasts” (“Stop staring at my bosoms!” she said.) until 1959.
Bun
1894 as a bundle of hair at the nape of the neck. The older term was “chignon”, which does mean “nape” in French. (The original meaning of “bun” seems to have been “rounded mass”, leading to the bakery sense, the tail of the bunny rabbit, bunch, etc., but not bundle, which is a “bind” word.)
Bust
1819 as a euphemism for a woman’s breasts. The sense of a sculpture consisting of head, shoulders, and chest is over a hundred years older in English. Bustline was not recorded until 1939, and busty until 1944.
Captain Sharp
A cheating bully, or one in a set of gamblers, whose office it to bully any pigeon, who, suspecting roguery, refuses to pay what he has lost.
Che sera sera
1558, in Marlowe’s Faustus. (That version is Italian; the 1950’s popular song changed it to French Que sera sera. Either way, it’s “What will be will be”.
Chemise
An old word for a shirt or smock. The current sense of “undergarment” dates from about 1840; it was a euphemism for the suddenly-vulgar “shift”.
Cent per centers
Lenders who took advantage of their clients by lending at uxorious rates.
Climax
1918 as a noun meaning an orgasm. Not until 1975 as a verb “to achieve orgasm”.
Come
In the sense “achieve sexual orgasm” or “ejaculate”, this looks like modern vulgar slang, but it was first used with that meaning about 1650.
Corinthian
Not used in the sense of an elegant man about town until 1819. Corinthians replaced “dandies” and were in turn replaced by “swells”. The earlier definition, to quote the Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, was “a frequenter of brothels; also an impudent brazen-faced fellow”. All this goes back to the ancient reputation of Corinth for wealth and licentiousness.
**Author’s note: When used in Husband For Hire, the definition used is that of the somewhat later understanding of 1819, that of an elegant man about town.
Cudgel
A short, thick stick used as a weapon, e.g., a baton or nightstick, a club.
Dashed
1881 as a euphemism for “damned”, perhaps from the practice of printing the word as d----d to avoid the censors. The exclamation “Dash it!” is recorded for 1800, though.
Dick
In the 19th century, it meant “riding whip”; the first slang use for “penis” isn’t until 1890. (Both the latter sense and its synonym “dork” are probably from “dirk”, dagger. Note those /R/s aren’t pronounced in propuh British.)
Dildo
Despite the “look and feel” of being a 20th-century implement, it has meant “representation of a phallus” since 1593. The batteries are recent, though.
Disguised
Half-Drunk. Somewhat the worse for the over-consumption of drink. Tipsy
Double chin
1832.
Elope
The first unequivocal use to mean “run away with the intent of being married“ is in 1813. Before that, it originally meant for a wife to desert her husband (a legal term), and to abscond or run away in general. Dickens mentions a valet eloping with all the valuables. To lope meant to escape long before it was generalized to simply “run”.
Egalitarian
Relating to or believing in the principle that all people are equal and deserve equal rights and opportunities regardless of circumstances of birth. “Laborers deserve the same treatment as Lords.”
Escheat
The reversion of property to the state, or (in feudal law) to a lord, on the owner's dying without legal heirs. Since the legal proceedings to transfer such property back to the Crown were necessarily involved and prolonged, a popular wit of the day referred to them as “peregrinations through escheat” or “wandering through the laws of reversion”.
Farthing
A division of money. In 1814 the pound was divided into shillings and pennies. The pennies (or pence) were further divided:
2 farthings = 1 halfpenny (or “ha’penny”)
2 halfpence = 1 penny
3 pence = 1 thruppence
6 pence = 1 sixpence (a “tanner”)
12 pence = 1 shilling (a “bob”)
2 shillings = 1 florin (a “two bob bit”)
2 shillings and a sixpence = 1 half crown
5 shillings = 1 crown
20 shillings = 1 pound
Fiancée
1853. The masculine fiancé appeared in 1864.
Foreplay
Although the practice itself might be of greater antiquity, the word was invented in 1929. It replaced “forepleasure”, coined by Freud (vorlust) in 1910.
Fountain pen
1710 in English; even earlier in French.
Gorgeous
It now is a synonym of beautiful, but until the 20th century, the only meaning was showy or extremely colorful, and it was only used to describe inanimate objects — usually clothing but occasionally other showy things like a gorgeous sunset or carriage. It was never applied to people.
Jiffy
1785.
Kerfuffle
This looks like relatively modern slang for an agitated disturbance, but as kafuffle or curfuffle it goes back to 1583. The simple fuffle, to disorder, is even earlier.
Lingerie
1835 as “linen garment” in general; 1850 as women’s underclothing.
Math/maths
Math is American and maths British as short forms of “mathematics” as a course of study. The former term was first recorded in 1847 as the explicit abbreviation “math.”; it didn’t lose the period and become a standalone word until almost 1900. The British form is found in 1911 as an abbreviation (maths.), which it lost in 1917. Both are therefore anachronistic for Regency or early Victorian times.
Merry widow
Although the phrase is famous because of Franz Lehár“s international sensation Die Lustige Witwe in 1905, it had been a cliché for hundreds of years. The first dictionary citation is in 1567, with the same sense of an amorous widow that it continued to have up to the present. Someone said that Shakespeare should have followed up The Merry Wives of Windsor with “The Merry Widows of Windsor”. (The sense of a strapless corset with garters attached is from Lana Turner wearing one in the 1952 movie of the operetta.)
Mews
A group of stables, typically with rooms above, built around a yard or along an alley.
Molly house
Establishments for homosexuals in the 18th and 19th centuries. These establishments were typically coffee houses, taverns or simply private rooms where only male homosexuals met, frequently for sex. At the time of this story, homosexuality was a capital offense, i.e., if one were found guilty, you would be tried and hanged. Very little is written or known about “sapphic pleasure houses,” or houses for female homosexuals although they certainly did exist. Surprisingly, while there are many records of men being put to death for the crime of buggery, sodomy or “unnatural intercourse”, there is no record of any Woman in England, Scotland, Ireland or Wales, being executed for the crime of lesbianism as it was not considered a crime.
Below is an 1800s illustration of a “molly.”
On a side note: A modern swear word one frequently hears (particularly in the UK) is “bugger”. It is the equivalent of our “fuck” although having the meaning of anal fucking. I have frequently heard this from the mouths of innocents and wondered if they realized what they were saying.
Mule
As a soft shoe or slipper, often made of velvet, 1565. (Both sexes could originally wear mules around the house, by the way — they were particularly recommended for men suffering from gout.)
Novels [popular]
Even though Jane Austen’s novels and Walter Scott’s Waverly stories of the Scottish border were indeed published during the 1811–1818 period of the Regency, they were published anonymously so nobody could curl up in the parlor with Miss Austen’s new novel. The authorship of Austen’s books was not known until after her death in 1818; Northanger Abbey and Persuasion were published posthumously, in fact. The earlier books were attributed to “A Lady of Quality”. Scott was a well-known high-brow poet who didn’t want the literary establishment to know he also wrote popular novels to make lots of money, and although some people suspected, he didn’t come clean until 1827. After the first one, by “Anonymous”, the rest were by “The Author of Waverly”. (“Sir Walter Scott” was an anachronism until 1820 when he received a baronetcy for his poetry.)
Orgasm
1936 in the modern sense. Before that, it had to be qualified — sexual or venereal orgasm.
Peregrinations
Technically, peregrinations means a long, meandering journey. Used in Husband for Hire, it refers to the long legal convulsions that accrued when a titled estate reverted to the Crown.
Pub
This clipped version of “public house” for a tavern was recorded as underworld slang about 1860 but wasn’t fully acceptable until 1890.
Sex
1929 as a synonym for “sexual intercourse”, as in “have sex”, “sex before marriage”, “great sex”, etc. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the first known use of the word in this sense was by D.H. Lawrence. Before that, the only noun usage was in phrases like “the female sex”.
So-so
This synonym of “mediocre” or “passable” looks like 20th-century slang, but the first recorded use as an adverb was in 1530 and as an adjective (soso wine) in 1542. (In 1768, Fanny Burney described a disappointing party as “so so-so“.)
“Too high in the instep”
A person overly impressed with his own consequence; pompous; arrogant; snobbish; pretentious
Traveling Chariot—also referred to as a “post-chaise” when fitted for more than two people.
Note the 19th-century illustration of a traveling chariot with passengers. It looks like the gentleman is leaning out the window of the chariot exhorting the postilions (the men in red coats riding the two horses on the left) to whip the team to greater effort. These vehicles were the “ultra-lights,” the Ferraris, of their day. Very wealthy people such as Eleanor owned their own vehicle(s) along with teams of horses that were temporarily stabled at various posting inns along the routes. The less wealthy could hire one of these vehicles complete with the horses and postillions though the quality of the horses varied wildly depending upon the wealth of the owner of the posting house. The traveling chariots were commonly painted yellow. Below is a scene painted in 1881 by Samuel Waller (1850-1903) titled “Success”. The scene is that of the survivor of a personal duel and his seconds assisting the rather shaken looking young man into his chariot. In the background you can see a figure huddling over another prone on the ground. (One assumes the doctor and loser of the duel?) The painting was presented in 1894 by Sir Henry Tate to the Tate Museum Note the two postillion riders and the optional elevated seat in the rear for grooms or extra passengers.