The Secret of Words

The Regency language is for those who know how to unlock its encryption. Some of the words used during that time are quite humorous.

Inexpressibles – Pants 

Necessary - the bathroom

Maggot Pie – the lowest form of human         

Deuced - screwed over, damned

Imp - devil    

Dad shamed - shamed by God 

Dickens - hell or damnation      Dafted – dumb                          

Redneck - a poor person in the country

Dun territory – in debt                

Tarnation - a popular sub for damnation      

Abigail – lady’s maid                    

Contemptible - terrible, looked down upon  

Sit down upons - underpants

Strumpet - a lady of the night

Ape-leader– old maid or spinster

Affair of honor – a duel.

Apoplexy – stroke

Batman- an orderly assigned to a military officer

Blue ruin - gin                             

Blue-stocking – a derogatory word for intelligent women. Originally used to describe a man who wore blue stockings and who was a great conversationalist.

Bow Street Runner- a precursor to policemen

Chit – a young girl                        Cut direct – a public snub

Follow the drum – follow the army         

Foolscap – writing paper

Foxed - drunk                              

Hell- a gambling establishment

High in the instep – snobbish    

Hoyden – a girl who is boisterous and tomboyish

Laudanum – a small bit of opium used as a painkiller or sedative

Mayfair – the most desirable neighborhood to live in, reaching Piccadilly on the south, Oxford to the north, Park Lane on the west and Regent Street on the east. It includes Berkeley Square, Grosvenor Square and Hanover Square.

Rake – is somewhat of a libertine.

Rout – A crowded cocktail party often in homes where all the furnishings have been removed in order for more people to fit in. No cards, entertainment, food or conversation.

Season – A time in early spring lasting until the end of June. It coincides with Parliament meetings.

At sixes and sevens – a state of confusion

Special License – A license obtained by the Archbishop of Canterbury granting the right to marry. Otherwise marriages could take place only between 8:00 a.m. and noon where one of the parties would have lived for over 3 months and the banns had been read in church for three consecutive Sundays.

I desire to do your will, my God; your law is within my heart. Psalm 40:8