bitching pots and smothering parrots

"Good book," Mandy told me, as she handed over Passing English of the Victorion Era: A Dictionary of Heterodox English, Slang, and Phrase by J. Redding Ware (London: Routledge, 1909). "Lots of words for 'drinking'."

To be fair, there's also a smattering of words for fist fights, loose women, counterfeiting ("queer-shoving"), domestic abuse, and tea.

Incident (Amer.—accepted in England). An illegitimate child.
Ganymede (University). Freshman, or man in his second or even third year, of an effeminate tendency.
Do the graceful (Peoples'). A paraphrase: to fascinate, to charm by elegance of attention or behaviour.
Introduce shoemaker to tailor (Peoples'). Evasive metaphor for fundamental kicking.
Bang up to the Elephant (London, 1882). Perfect, complete, unapproachable.
Not the cheese (Peoples', Hist.). Not satisfactory.
Revolveress (Soc., 1885). A woman who uses a pistol.
Arkansas toothpick (Amer.). A bowie-knife. Arkansas is notorious for sudden blood-letting.

Git the sads (Peoples'). Vulgar synonym for 'to have the vapours'. (See 'Smokes'.)
Smothering a parrot (French). Draining a glass of absinthe neat.
Brandy-shunter (L. Class). He that swalloweth frequent eau-de-vie.
Bitch the pot (University, down to 1850). Amongst a tea-drinking party of men it was asked, 'Who'll bitch the pot?'—meaning who will pour out the tea.
Slosh the burick (Common London Life). Beating the wife.
Slosh the old gooseberry (Low. London). Beat the wife.
Bricky (Peoples'). Brave, fearless, adroit—after the manner of a brick; said even of the other sex, 'What a bricky girl she is.' (See 'Plucky, 'Cheeky'.)
Call it 8 Bells (Nautical). Early drink. It is not etiquette in good nautical circles to have a drink before high noon; 8 Bells. So the apology before alcoholics before that hour takes this form: 'Come along -- I fancy the bar is this way. Call it 8 bells.' And they do.
Boy (Bolton). There are no men in Bolton—all are boys, even at ninety. This quality they share alone, throughout England, with post-boys—who never grow up.
Bayreuth Hush (Soc., 1890). Intense silence. From the noiselessness of the opera house at Bayreuth (Bavaria) when a Wagner festival is about to commence.
Irish draperies (Peoples', England). Cobwebs.
Groping for Jesus (Peoples'). Public prayer.

These two, in particular, do nothing for my confidence in Mr. Ware's scholarship:

Sent to Coventry (Rural). Cut—not spoken to. Origin so obscure as not to be within view of any known etymologist.
Couscousou (Algerian French, 1840). The native rendering of qu'est-ce que c'est, the enquiry a French soldier always puts upon every possible occasion, and which the Algerian has supposed to be the name of a stew.

Comments

[nara]

If it's a stew, I want to try some!

[gwynne]

The phrase "bitch the pot" is the best excuse I've heard for a tea party since the phrase "elegant gothic lolita."

[oboreruhito]

I always thought the Arkansas toothpick = blood issue was a reference to unhealthy gums. Go figure.

[slim]

"Do the Graceful" lights up my temporal lobes. Now I want to see you use it in a sentence.

[sushiesque]

"The revolveress was bang up to the Elephant, and when she did the graceful even the bricky ganymede wanted to grope (for Jesus). There was, consequently, an incident."

OWNED

[gus]

indeed, we are owned. But I want to point out the true origin of the word "couscous" as it refers to the pasta. There is a slothlike animal called the Couscous which lives somewhere abouts Africa. (I am not kidding, it was on those "Teach your children about animals" freebie card packs you used to get in the mail; it is reddish with orangish patches or vice versa.) This animal runs around the forest shrieking "COUSCOUS! COUSCOUS!" until it is hit upon the head by an enterprising hunter and all its teeth fall out. The teeth are collected, boiled, and served for dinner. Henceforth the animal revives runs around shrieking "COUTHCOUTH! COUTHCOUTH!" until its teeth grow back in.

I swear. My dad told me this. Are you calling my dad a liar?