I was part of a Facebook party this last week and posted a fun little doo-dad entitled “Literally the Best Words Ever”. It was a list of words most of us have used at some time or another, and they’re fun words besides. I’ve blogged about cowboy slang and old west sayings, but there is also Victorian slang and phrases that many of us have never heard. So for fun, I decided to dig up a few. Believe it or not, a fellow by the name of James Redding Ware wrote a book of these words and sayings (in 1909) in hopes of preserving them. Let’s look at a few.
Afternoonified: A society word meaning “smart.” Such as, the goods are not ‘afternoonified’ enough for me.”
Bags o’ Mystery: An 1850 term for sausages, “because no man but the maker knows what is in them. … The ‘bag’ refers to the gut which contained the chopped meat.”
Daddles: A delightful way to refer to your rather boring hands.
Doing the Bear: Courting that involves hugging.
Enthuzimuzzy: A reference to enthusiasm. Created by a fellow named Braham the terror, whoever that is.
Fly rink: An 1875 term for a polished bald head.
Gas-Pipes: A term for especially tight pants.
Got the morbs: This 1880 phrase indicated temporary melancholy.
Half-rats: Partially intoxicated.
Nanty Narking: A tavern term, popular from 1800 to 1840, that meant great fun.
Podsnappery: This describes a person with a “wilful determination to ignore the objectionable or inconvenient, at the same time assuming airs of superior virtue and noble resignation.”
Now that I’ve shared a few of these, let’s take a look at the word list I posted in my recent Facebook party. We had a lot of fun with these and so, I wanted to share them with you! We’ve all used these and they’re probably more familiar than the above list. Now, for the fun. Try using at least three words from the list below in a sentence along with one from the list above and see what you come up with! I’ll pick a random winner from the comments to receive a copy of my latest release, A Match for the Adventurer!
Whatchamacallit, Flummoxed, Dingleberry, Gobbledygook, Canoodle, Codswallop, Discombobulated, Cattywampus, Malarkey, Brouhaha, Skedaddle, Doohickey, Persnickety, Whatnot, Gobsmacked, Flibbertigibbet, Tenterhooks, Poppycock, Whippersnapper, Flabbergasted, Shenanigans, Lollygag, Kerfuffle, Nincompoop, Pumpernickel, Thingamajig, Whatsit, Whatchamacallit, Flummoxed, Dingleberry, Gobbledygook, Canoodle, Codswallop.
A little more about A Match for the Adventurer:
A Man in Search of a Wife
A Woman in Search of her Freedom
And the greed that seeks to keep them apart …
Nell Elliott thought she had a good life. But when her stepmother begins acting strangely, she’s not so sure anymore. She’s coming to her wit’s end and doesn’t know what to do. Then the famous Mrs. Pettigrew comes to town and instead of helping, seems to make matters worse. Toss in the handsome Bennett Heston, and it’s all she can do to keep her heart in check. So what if she only met him a couple of times before now? He makes her days brighter and her heart sing!
Mrs. Pettigrew is keeping a close eye on them, hoping to make a match. But she’s not the only one. And a match isn’t in the making if they have their way.
USA Today bestselling author Kit Morgan is the author of over 180 books of historical and contemporary western romance! Her stories are fun, sweet stories full of love, laughter, and just a little bit of mayhem! Kit creates her stories in her little log cabin in the woods in the Pacific Northwest. An avid reader and knitter, when not writing, she can be found with either a book or a pair of knitting needles in her hands! Oh, and the occasional smidge of chocolate!
My Chuckaboo and I better skedaddle so we can continue with our shenanigans for the evening.
That’s great, Sabrina!
That young whippersnapper was so flummoxed and discombobulated that he banged his noggin, almost putting it cattywampus, and had his poor mother on tetherhooks.
LOL!!!!! That’s a good one, Janice!
My thingamajig got all discombobulated and left me flummoxed.
What’s scary, is that my sister talks like that, Debra!
I’m not playing because I just won a book from this site, but I agree with you that language can be fascinating. I’m especially amused by the way we “borrow” from other venues, lifetsyles and interests. How many people use the term “burned out” when they have never done drugs? Or “full court press” when they wouldn’t be caught dead on a basketball court? Or “head em up and move em out” when you have no intention of going on a cattle drive? You get the point…
I do! Language and etymology has always fascinated me. I just love words!
Such a fun post today, Kit. I love interesting words, and those Victoria sayings were fabulous.
“That young whippersnapper better cease his shenanigans and skedaddle out of here before I kick up a kerfuffle,” said the persnickety gentleman with the pumpernickel toast. (I couldn’t resist playing along. 🙂 )
LOL! That’s awesome, Karen!
A young whippersnapper and a pretty young girl were sitting on her front porch in the swing doing the bear and a little canoodling. Her father, thinking it was about time the young man went home, came out of the house and told him it was time to skedaddle.
Wow, Connie! That was fantastic!
My chuckaboo is a dingleberry that likes to cause a brouhaha with his shenanigans.
You know, I’ve been using the word dingleberry since I was a kid and thought my dad made it up.
Opening the mustard with a thingamajig, she spread it on pumpernickel, which caused a kerfuffle because her chuckaboo wanted mayo, which left her gobsmacked at the thought of it on the sandwich.
While usually the bee’s knees, her friend could be persnickety over poppycock and lucky she didn’t throw the whatchamacallit at her.
Hahahaha, Denise. Those are good ones! I love seeing what everyone comes up with!
Braham’s daddles were doing the bear with enthuzimuzzy.
LOL! That one sounds like you’re talking in code!
My husband decided he wanted a fly rink so he picked up the doohickey and soon left me flumoxxed at the results so much so that I was discombobolated.
LOL!!! Another good one. I bet if you showed that to a teenager, they’d think it was another language entirely.
Why don’t you Skedaddle with that whatchamacallit , you nincompoop half-rats!
Hahaha! I’ll have to remember the term, nincompoop half-rats!
these are fun. some of them I still use today LOL how about: “He Got the Morbs when he ate the Bags o’ Mysteries and his Gas-Pipes appeared to pop its seams
LOL! That’s a great one, Lori!
I was all in a kerfuffle when that whippersnapper told me that the whatchamacallit I had for sale was not afternoonified enough for him!
That’s actually a good sentence. I can see someone saying that back in the day!
The collision and resulting brouhaha left me flabbergasted and my auto sitting cattywampus in the street, so I skedaddled posthaste to the police station to blow the whistle on the half-rats villain responsible.
Love it!!!
Bob was Gobsmacked and Nanty Narking from being Haf-Rats and watching his Persnickety cat being Discombobulated and causing a Brouhaha while trying to Skedaddle from a Dingleberry hanging on his Thingamajig.
Hahahaha!
It was utter poppycock how discombobulated I felt when my chucaboo was so persnickety over not having plans for Saturday night.
Another sentence that could have been used back in the day!
The doohickey was cattywampus in the pocket of his gas-pipes.
The whippersnapper decided to skedaddle when the brouhaha started.
I am familiar with most of the words in the second group and still use most of them occasionally. The first group is really unusual. “Got the morbs” is the only one from that group I had heard.
The whippersnapper decided to skedaddle when the brouhaha started because so many were half-rats.
(Forgot to use a word from the first group)
I wasn’t familiar with most of the first list. I’d only heard of a few.
Bag ‘o Mystery is the worrisome one! Yikes! I may never look at sausage the same way again.
I was enthuzimuzzy doing the bar with the whippersnapper who bacame so flabbergasted over the whatchamacullit.
LOL! That’s great, Debbie!
I was flummoxed by the whippersnapper’s malarkey.
Another good one! Some of these I’m going to have to write down!
Look out for that bunch of scallywags and their wayward attempts to bumfuzzle things.