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DIRECTORY OF SAUCY SLANG
Where Did That Expression Really Come From?
Know Your Onions! A Jumble of Random Slang

THE QUEEN’S ENGLISHVICTORIAN ENGLISH AMERICAN ENGLISH ​AUSTRALIAN ENGLISH
​View Slang and Curses WordMap
A cheeky collection of all slang, insults, curses and idioms available from all categories

THE VICTORIAN’ S
​Bricky Bags O’ Mystery

VULGAR VICTORIAN SLANG
The Victorian Play of Bricky Old Bags
The Victorian Bag of Beer and Skittles
Is That English? Victorian Gibberish or Slang?
​V is for Vulgar Victorian Vagabonds
Insulted by a Clanging Church Bell
Victorian literature was published during the reign of Queen Victoria (1837–1901) (the Victorian Era). It was preceded by Romanticism and followed by Edwardian. The era produced literary works from the likes of Dickens, Thackeray, Tennyson, the Bronte sisters, and the poetic lovebirds, Elizabeth Barrett Browning and her man, Robert. England was bursting with language and words in both prose and poetry but it was also a time that gave birth to a little movement known as Rhyming Slang. Read more on that here.

A VULGAR REFERENCE
Francis Grose's A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, first published in 1785 and available in the Public Domain Review.
Author of Vulgar Tongues (2016), Max Décharné called Grose's dictionary, “A declaration in favour of free speech, and a gauntlet thrown down against official censorship, moralists and the easily offended.”

TYPES OF SLANG
​The lingo of the 1800s was colorful, clever, and sometimes quite crude. The Industrial Revolution, combined with other societal changes like readily accessible international travel and the blurring of class lines, made for a wildly entertaining set of slang employed on both sides of the Atlantic.
​Most Victorian slang, was used only by the lower class (mostly the lowest class).

There are six different kinds of slang :

CANT: jargon or a group often implying its use to exclude or mislead people outside the group. Groups that often used this kind of slang where gypsies, thieves and beggars. It was meant to represent a type of vernacular.

COCKNEY BACK SLANG: secret language in which each word is pronounced as if it was spelled backwards.

COCKNEY RHYMING SLANG: type of slang in which words are replaced by a word or a phrase they rhyme with.

SHELTA/TINKER: type of slang used by Irish travelers. Much like a cant it is meant to be spoken among people of the same group to exclude or mislead others outside the group.

ROMANY: slang used by gypsies.

JUMBLE OF VICTORIAN SLANG


​BEER AND SKITTLES - good times
  • BENJO - a riotous holiday, a noisy day in the streets.
  • COLLIE SHANGLES – squabbles or quarrels.
  • MAFFICKING - getting rowdy in the street’s
  • SCHLEMOZZLE – a riot, quarrel, or noise of any kind.
  • SHAKE A FLANNIN’– to fight.

BOW WOW MUTTON - a naval term referring to meat so bad “it might be dog flesh.”
  • BAGS O’ MYSTERY - sausages
  • BITCH THE POT - to pour the tea

BANG UP THE ELEPHANT – perfect, complete, and unapproachable.”

CARRIWITCHETT - a perplexing and puzzling question, probably a made up word as it conveys puzzlement in its pronunciation.

DESCRIPTIONS OF PEOPLE
  • BUTTER UPON BACON - someone who is grossly extravagant
  • CHUCKABOO - a close friend
  • CHURCH BELL - a talkative woman
  • DIRTY PUZZLE - a promiscuous woman
  • GAL SNEAKER - a seducer of women
  • JAMMIEST BITS OF JAM - Absolutely perfect young female
  • MEATER - a coward.
  • MUTTON SHUNTER - a police officer
  • Pickled dog – what one might call a cheating ex-boyfriend.
  • PIGEON-LIVERED - someone who behaves cowardly
  • PODSNAPPERY - someone who refuses to recognize unpleasant facts
  • PUMBLECHOOK - greedy swindler
  • TOT-HUNTING - someone prowling for women
  • SKILAMALINK – shady or dubious.

DYING DUCK IN A THUNDERSTORM - Lackadaisical, unattractive.

EXPRESSIONS
  • DAMFINO - “damn if I know!”
  • DON’T SELL ME A DOG - “don’t lie to me!”
  • DASH MY WAG - an exclamation. “Dash my wag I can’t squeeze into my corset!”
  • NOT UP TO DICK - “I’m not feeling well.”

CHARACTERS/FEELINGS/DESCRIPTIONS
  • BRICKY - brave or fearless
  • ENTHUZIMUZZY - a satirical reference to enthusiasm.
  • FIFTEEN PUZZLE - complete and absolute confusion.
  • GOT THE MORBS - depressed
  • HALF-HOUR GENTLEMAN - a man whose apparent good breeding is only superficial.
  • MAD AS HOPS - excited
  • NOT UP TO DICK - not feeling well
  • POKED UP - embarrassed

HUMAN BODY
  • COP A MOUSE - a black eye.
  • CRINKUM-CRANKUM - a vagina. “Careful how you sit. You don't want to expose your crinkum-crankum."
  • CUPID’S KETTLE DRUMS - boobs. Also: BUBBIES
  • DADDLES - hands
  • DOOR-KNOCKER - a beard shaped into something like a door-knocker.
  • FLY RINK - a polished bald head
  • GIGGLE MUG - a cheerful smiling face
  • PARISH PICK-AXE - a prominent nose.
  • QUAIL PIPE - a woman’s tongue
  • SAUCE BOX - the mouth. Also TATUR-TRAP - “Shut your tatur-trap you PUMBLECHOOK!”
  • TALLYWAGS - testicles

INEXPRESSIBLES - trousers
  • GAS PIPES - wearing really tight trousers

MAKE A STUFFED BIRD LAUGH - something absolutely preposterous
  • SKILAMALINK - something secret, shady, doubtful.
  • BUBBLE AROUND - a verbal attack, generally made via the press.

NARK THE TITTER – Watch the woman. Titter was a derogatory term for women.

NANTY NARKING - having a hoot; something that is great fun.

SHOOT I TO THE BROWN - to fail. Comes from target practice. When you miss the target you hit the brown ground.
  • TAKE THE EGG - to win.

SLING A SLOBBER - to kiss, or rather sling a kiss—the salute itself being the slobber.

TICKLE ONE’S INNARDS - to have a drink
  • HALF RATS - partially drunk
  • NECK OIL - beer
  • POWDERING HAIR - getting drunk
  • TIGHT AS THE BOILED OWL - drunk
  • SMOTHERING A PARROT - drinking a glass of absinthe neat; named for the green color of the booze

TOAST YOUR BLOOMING EYEBROWS – a nice way of telling a man to go fuck himself.

UP THE POLE - drunk, completely inebriated; derived from an inebriated person’s need to cling to anything to remain upright.

WOODEN SPOON - a thick head, an idiot; some one who displays astounding stupidity.
Know Your Onions! A Journey of Slang
​Kiss a hare’s foot? Raggabrash in the Middle Ages
The Victorian’s Bricky Bags O’ Mystery
Two Whoops and a Holler in the Wild West
The British Love Their Bits N’ Bobs
The Rhythm of Rhyming Slang ~ History and form
​of Cockney and Australian Rhyming Slang
​
​WALKABOUT OF AUSSIE SLANG - (Home)
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