Victorian vernacular: come and ‘ave a pickle

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Reading a 1909 dictionary of Victorian slang was a kind of time travel. Guided by its author, the chuckling snoot, down grim London streets. I saw them as inky sketches made from adjectives. Ever foggy or rainy, going by the language. Which was filthy with bigotry. Pungent with dark humour and wordplay.

Back then, cheeses were superlatives. So many words for umbrella and sausages. For toffs and pretension. Women's desirability. For booze, boozers and boozing. Poverty, violence and crime.

I was glad to return home largely unscathed, bringing a few sweeter words with me. Small delicacies fresh from the gorblimery. This blog’s title is an invitation for a quick informal meal. Hope you enjoy.

All their buttons on – describes somebody hard to deceive.

Birds may roost in my bonnet – to insist you’re speaking truly and fairly.

Bloomeration – illuminations, as in fairy lights.

Blue-o’clock – just before dawn.

Blue roses – anything unobtainable.

Can you feel the shrimps – can you smell the sea? Day trips from the city were rare joys, also called eating the sunshine.

Carachtervankerous – so cross you’ve lost all decorum (the internet denies all knowledge of this).

Carriwitchett – a puzzling question.

Chickaleary – clever and artful.

Cupboardy – describes stuffy air.

Dimber-damber – smart and adroit (though the internet says leader of rogues).

Hookum snivey – nobody (though the internet says trickery, so perhaps the dictionary’s author was a victim).

Lapsy-lingo – slip of the tongue.

Lemoncholy – melancholy.

Michin-malacho – mischief.

Pickles – a cry of good-natured disbelief.

Pinnacles – a pair of spectacles.

Pull your ear – to remember something.

Rortyness – boisterous vitality.

Scripturience – the strong urge to write.

Umble-cum-stumble – to understand.

As a side dish, here's a medley of euphemisms for drunkenness. Not to everyone's taste, but I can't resist a cheeky little sample:

altogethery, alf-alf-an-alf

breath strong enough to carry coal

buffy

can’t see a hole in a forty-foot ladder

disguised, mops and brooms

shipwrecked, translated

too numerous to mention

Thank you for reading. This was my time machine (enter with caution): Passing English of the Victorian era, a dictionary of heterodox English, slang, and phrase by J. Redding Ware

And, if you're still peckish:

A quiz of obsolete words

Old-fashioned invective to shout at the telly