Jan 2, 2012

And it's 2012!


Well, another year has rolled around!

I'd like to wish you all a safe and happy New Year -- and at the same time share some Regency slang from The 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue.


Gin cocktails
H    Heart's Ease = gin

A    Abbess = mistress of a brothel

P     Piss down someone's back = to flatter someone

P     Peculiar = a mistress

Y     Yaffling = eating

Yaffling

The other kind of nutmegs

N     Nutmegs = a man's testicles

E      Earth Bath = a grave

W    Wasp = an infected prostitute, who like a wasp carries a sting in her tail
The other kind of wasp

Horses yoked to a plough

Y      Yoked = married

E      Eternity box = a coffin

A      Apple dumpling shop = a woman's bosom

R      Resurrection men = persons employed by students of anatomy to steal dead bodies out of church-yards

A resurrection man
Here's wishing that 2012 brings you good health, much laughter, success in your ventures, and plenty of good books to read! 






(All images courtesty of WPClipart.)

14 comments:

  1. Happy New Year Everyone!

    Emily thanks for the slang. I knew about half of the expressions. Didn't know the flattery one and it seems a weird definition.

    I've read all the blogs from this past week just haven't had a chance to leave a comment on them.

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  2. Happy New Year, Kaelee -- I hope 2012 is an excellent year for you! Yes, the pissing-down-someone's-back is a strange piece of slang, isn't it? Rather unsettling imagery!

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  3. Happy New Year, Em! Know I've done some serious yaffling over the last few days!

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  4. Loved this, Em! And, like Robyn, I've been doing some serious yaffling over Christmas / New Year. =)

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  5. Happy New Year, Robyn -- I'm very impressed to see you using Regency slang!

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  6. Ditto, Rachel! That mango-and-champagne you mentioned in your blog post had my mouth watering.

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  7. Emily, a thousand apologies for posting ahead of your blog - I must have had a little time wrinkle because I was convinced it was my job to do today!

    Picture a big speech bubble with EEEK in it when I finally registered the dates on our posts were the same. A quick look at the calendar and I realised my breech of etiquette! Mmm, I wonder what your wonderful dictionary would call that! Do I want to know! Though I should be safe since cyber-etiquette wasn't needed back then! LOL

    I love reading these new words and terms - I can see that yaffling would be quite easy to slide into everyday use. Like Robyn, we've done more than our fair share of that over the last week or so!

    Thanks, Emily! And Happy New Year to you too!
    :)
    Sharon

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  8. Oh, Em, these are fabulous! Am wondering if we can bring a few of those expressions back into vogue? After all, if I don't stop yaffling soon my apple dumpling shop will start expanding at a scarily increasing rate!

    :-)

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  9. You know I am going to be including these into my vocab as often as possible right?

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  10. There's been lots of yaffling and heart's ease in my house this weekend. Happy New Year, Emily (and fellow LoveCats and LoveCats readers)!

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  11. Sharon, I love the image of you with a big speech bubble saying EEEK! If I could draw, I'd draw us a picture of it. Alas (or should that be fortunately) I can't draw to save my life! Happy New Year!

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  12. Michelle, you made a whole sentence! Very clever -- I'm impressed! And yes, now might be a time to decrease the yaffling a little for said reason!

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  13. Hi Marybelle -- have fun adding Regency slang into your vocab! Happy New Year!

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  14. Lots of yaffling and heart's ease -- sounds like you've had a good weekend, Anna! (And isn't it strange to think that people might have said that exact same sentence two hundred years ago?)

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