Designing Your Character & Other Handy Things

Victorian Slang

AFTERNOONIFIED

A society word meaning "smart." Forrester demonstrates the usage: "The goods are not 'afternoonified' enough for me."

ARFARFAN'ARF

A figure of speech used to describe drunken men. "He's very arf'arf'an'arf," Forrester writes, "meaning he has had many 'arfs,'" or half-pints of booze.

BACK SLANG IT

Thieves used this term to indicate that they wanted "to go out the back way."

BAGS O' MYSTERY

An 1850 term for sausages, "because no man but the maker knows what is in them. ... The 'bag' refers to the gut which contained the chopped meat."

BANG UP TO THE ELEPHANT

This phrase originated in London in 1882, and means "perfect, complete, unapproachable."

BATTY-FANG

Low London phrase meaning "to thrash thoroughly," possibly from the French battre a fin.

BENJO

Nineteenth century sailor slang for "A riotous holiday, a noisy day in the streets."

BOW WOW MUTTON

A naval term referring to meat so bad "it might be dog flesh."

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.'"

BUBBLE AROUND

A verbal attack, generally made via the press. Forrester cites The Golden Butterfly: "I will back a first-class British subject for bubbling around against all humanity."

BUTTER UPON BACON

Extravagance. Too much extravagance. "Are you going to put lace over the feather, isn't that rather butter upon bacon?"

CAT-LAP

A London society term for tea and coffee "used scornfully by drinkers of beer and strong waters ... in club-life is one of the more ignominious names given to champagne by men who prefer stronger liquors."

CHURCH-BELL

A talkative woman.

CHUCKABOO

A nickname given to a close friend.

COLLIE SHANGLES

Quarrels. A term from Queen Victoria's journal, , published in 1884: "At five minutes to eleven rode off with Beatrice, good Sharp going with us, and having occasional collie shangles (a Scottish word for quarrels or rows, but taken from fights between dogs) with collies when we came near cottages."

COP A MOUSE

To get a black eye. "Cop in this sense is to catch or suffer," Forrester writers, "while the colour of the obligation at its worst suggests the colour and size of the innocent animal named."

DADDLES

A delightful way to refer to your rather boring hands.

DAMFINO

This creative cuss is a contraction of "damned if I know."

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."