Tuesday, August 29, 2006
HOWTO speak 19th century
Eric Furguson combed the 1830 book Private Yankee Doodle to develop a glossary of early 19th century vocabulary. He picked out the words that are no longer in common usage, "words that have disappeared, words that have changed meanings, and a few that haven't changed but could be mistakenly thought too modern to use." I'm glad he included the word "gripe" because I have a new baby boy and we've had to administer the miracle of gripe water a few times. From How To Speak 19th Century:
The pinch of the game; the determining moment, the crucial point. "But the pinch of the game had not arrived yet..." P.6Link (Thanks, Mark Dery!)
Covert; used as a noun, means a hiding place "I then came out of my covert and went on..." P.37
Elbow relation; distant relation, like a cousin-in-law. P.60
Seasoning; drunkenness. "...some of our gentlemen officers, happening to stop at a tavern, or rather a sort of grogshop, took such a seasoning that two or three of them became "quite frisky"..." P.146
Gull; fool, trick. "...and the men seeing they could no longer gull the officers, gave up the business likewise." P.152
Gripe; noun, meaning a grasp, perhaps literally a pain in the bowels. Describing a bout of nightmares---"I recovered partly from the first attack, but before I could fully overcome it, it took a second gripe upon me more serious than the first." P.160
posted by David Pescovitz at 01:00:27 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments
