A 19th Century Slang Dictionary
Compiled & Edited by Craig Hadley
PERIOD SLANG
Humbug? Shecoonery? Useless
truck or gum? Hornswoggling? Honey-fuggling? Not in this book, dear sir! I swan
to mercy, a huckle- berry above anyone's persimmon. Some pumpkins, a caution,
100 percent certified by a Philadelfy lawyer. If not, dad-blame it, I'll hang up
my fiddle, and you can sass me, knock me into a cocked hat, give me jesse, fix
my flint, settle my hash, ride me out on a rail and have a conniption fit,
you cussed scalawag. Now ain't that the beatingest language you ever did
hear? Sure beats the Dutch! Pshaw! Do tell! Bully for you!
This is
just a small example of the period slang of the 19th century that you
would hear during the Civil War. This
will help you build your first person character if you learn some of the lingo
of the time.
WARNING:
We have also included period curse words and obscenities in here as well.
While the Civil War soldier was not supposed to curse in front of
officers or NCOs, he certainly used them, so we felt it was important to include
these as well. These are located at
the end of the regular slang dictionary under a separate heading.
Many of
these slang terms were taken from a book entitled “Writing for the 19th
Century: A Writers Guide for all
things Victorian”. It is
filled with wonderful information regarding slang terms and other wonderful
details of 19th century life. We
have also included, when we could, when the first recorded time this phrase was
known to be used, as well as a brief definition of the word.
And so, dear reader, here be but a microcosm of America's nineteenth-century colloquialisms and slang, some from the upper class, some from the lower, and much from the strata in between.
absquatulate: to take leave, to disappear.
1843: A can of oysters was discovered in our office by a friend, and he absquatulated
with it, and left us with our mouth watering.
Missouri Reporter, February 2
1862- Rumor has it that a gay bachelor, who has figured in Chicago for nearly a year, has
skedaddled, absquatulated, vamosed, and cleared out. Rocky Mountain News, Denver,
May 10
accelerator: a velocipede. (See also Bicycling in Amusements, p. 19 1.)
acknowledge the corn: to admit the truth; to confess; to acknowledge one's own obvious
lie or shortcoming.
1840: David Johnson acknowledged the corn, and said that he was
drunk. Daily Pennant,St. Louis, July 14
1846: I hope he will give up the argument, or, to use a familiar phrase, acknowledge the
corn.
Mr. Speight, Mississippi, U.S. Senate, Congressional Globe,
January 28
1850: He has not confessed the corn, as the saying is, that he did preach disunion? Mr.
staniy, North Carolina, House of Reps., congressional Globe
across lots: to push on straight through despite obstacles.
1853: "Go to hell across lots."
Brigham Young, journal of Discourses, March 27
1869: 1 came cross lots from Aunt Sawin's and I got caught in those pesky blackberry
bushes in the graveyard.
Harriet Beecher Stowe, Old Town Folks
algerine: a pirate.
1844: They have called the law for punishing treason an Algerine law; they have
denominated us the Algerine party; and they have talked a great deal about Algerine
cruelties.
Mr. Potter, Rhode Island, House of Reps., Congressional
Globe, March 12
all creation, all nature, all wrath: everything or everybody.
1819: Father and I have just returned from the balloon - all nature was there, and More
too. Massachusetts Spy, November 3
1833: I could eat like all wrath ... I'll be down on him like all wrath anyhow. J.K. Paulding, Banks of the Ohio
1839: He pulls like all creation, as the woman remarked when the horse ran away with
her. Yale Literary Magazine
all-fired: hell-fired.
1835: His boss gin him a most all-fired cut with a horsewhip.
Boston
Pearl, November 28
1852: In my opinion, Dan Baxter would make an all-fired good deacon. Knickerbocker
Magazine, August
1866: 0 Sall, did you ever see such an all-fired sight of shoes?
Seba Smith, Way Down East, p.289
1872: You were too all-fired lazy to get a stick of wood.
J.M. Bailey, Folks in Danbury, p.80
all on one stick: a conglomeration or combination.
1830: He kept a kind of hotel and grocery store, all on one stick, as we say. N. Dana, A Mariner's Sketches, p.18
all-overish: uncomfortable.
1855: 1 grew - all-overish - no other phrase expresses it.
Putnam's Magazine, December
allow: to admit; to be of the opinion.
1840: She said she would allow he was the most beautiful complected child she had ever seen. Knickerbocker Magazine
1866: Where is Hamlin? I allow that he is dead, or I would ask him too. C.,H. Smith, Bill
Arp, p.23
all possessed, like: like someone or something possessed by the devil.
1857: He'd carry on like all possessed -dance and sing, and tell stories,
jest as limber and lively as if he'd never hefted a timber.
Putnam's Magazine, January
1878: She dropped a pan o' hot oysters into the lap of a customer and set him to swearin'
and dancin' like all possessed.
J.H. Beadle, Western Wilds, p.184
all to Pieces: completely; absolutely.
1839: "I know him all to pieces," replied the gentleman.
Charles Biiggs, Harry Franco
1847: 1 knew him all to pieces as soon as I caught sight of him.
Charles Briggs, Tom Pepper
almighty: huge.
1848-. 1 felt almighty blue. Stray Subjects, p.109
amalgamation: the mixing of blacks and whites.
1839: The Senator further makes the broad charge that Abolitionists wish to enforce the unnatural system of amalgamation. We deny the fact. Mr. Morris, Ohio, U.S. Senate, Congressional Globe
1847: Amalgamation, even by marriage, is not at all dreaded [in Texas]. Parties of white and coloured persons not unfrequently come over from Louisiana. Life of Benjamin Lundy, p. II 7
anti-fogmatic: raw rum or whiskey.
1829: The takers of anti-fogmatics, juleps, or other
combustibles. Savannah Mercury, July 1
1852: Tom Nettles [was] mixing a couple of rosy anti-fogmatics.
As Good as a Comedy, p.134
1855: A thirsty throat, to which anything like delay in an anti-fogmatic is almost certain bronchitis. W.G Simms, Border Beagles, p.55
Arkansas toothpick: a long knife. Also known as a California or Missouri toothpick.
1855: We mistrust that the author of that statement saw a Missouri toothpick, and was frightened out of his wits.
Herald of Freedom, Lawrence, Kansas, June 9
1869: A brace of faithful pistols in his belt, and a huge Arkansas tooth- pick, or bowie knife, in a leather sheath.
A.K. McClure, Rocky Mountains, p.377
backing and filling: Literally, the alternate movements of a steamboat. Metaphorically, changing one's mind; waffling.
1848: The steam was well up on both boats, which lay rolling, and back- ing and filling,
from the action of the paddles, at the dock.
Stray Subjecm p. 1 74
1854: Men will be sent to Congress who will not back and fill, and be on one principle for one week, one month, and one moon, and upon another principle another week, and month, and moon.
Mr. Stephens, Georgia, House of Reps., Congressional Globe, December II
bad egg: a bad person; a good-for-nothing person.
1864: A bad egg-a fellow who had not proved to be as good as his promise. The Atheneum, p.559
balderdash: nonsense; foolishness; empty babble.
bar, barr: the popular pronunciation and spelling of bear, as used prolifically in the South.
1843: They say you've no barr nor turkey out thare in Filledelfy?
R. Carlton, The New Purchase
1847: All the marks left behind showed me that he was the bar.
T.B. Thorpe, The Big Bear of Arkansas, p.25
beans, don't know, don't care: anything; something; nothing.
1857: "Well, then," said the General, "I don't care beans for the railroad, not a single old red-eyed bean, not a string-bean."
Knickerbocker Magazine, February
beat the Dutch: to beat all or beat the devil.
1840: Of all the goings on that I ever did hear of,
this beats the Dutch. Knickerbocker Magazine, February
1854: Well, it does beat the Dutch, and the Dutch, you know, beat the d --- 1. Knickerbocker Magazine, May
beatingest, beatemest, beatenest: anything or anyone that beats the competition.
1874: I reckon I am the beatin'est man to ax questions
in this neck of timber. Edward Eggleston, The Circuit Rider, P. 119
bee: a gathering of friends, family and neighbors to carry out a specific, time consuming job, e.g., a cornhusking or quilting bee.
1829: This collection of neighbors is called a Bee, and is the common custom to assist each other in any great piece of labor, such as building a house, logging, etc. The person who calls the bee is expected to feed them well, and to return their work day for day. Basil Hall, Travels in North America, pp.311-312
b'hoy: a rowdy young man; reveler; ruffian. See also G'hal.
1847: [He] had lived too long in the wire grass region to misunderstand the character of that peculiar class of b'hoys who dwell there.
Knickerbocker Magazine, March
1852: [The occupants of the sleigh] are of not-to-be-mistaken Bowery cut - veritable b'hoys. Charles A. Bristed, The Upper Ten Thousand, p.29
1853: My off-handed mannerjust suited the b'hoy, on whom any superfluous politeness would have been thrown away.
Knickerbocker Magazine, July
biddy: a hen.
1874: [The English hens] had a contented cluck, as if they never got nervous, like Yankee biddies. Louisa May Alcott, Little Wives
big bugs: bigwigs; important people.
1853: Who is that walking there
with the big bugs in front? he eagerly asked. Why, don't you know? That is the
Governor. Daily Morning Herald, St.
Louis, May 10
1856: Hiram was beloved by many of the big bugs at Washington. Knickerbocker Magazine, March
1856: She's one of the big bugs
here -that is, she's got more money than almost anybody else in town. Widow
Bedott Papers, No.25
biggest toad in the puddle: the most important person in a group.
bodaciously: an exaggeration of "bodily."
1833: It's a mercy that the
cowardly varmints hadn't used you up boda- ciously. James Hall, Legends of
the West, p.38
1878: 1 saw a man in Stockton, California, who had been bodaciously chawed up to use his own language, by a grizzly bear.
J.H. Beadle, Western Wilds, p.118
body: a person.
1798: This hot weather makes a body feel odd. How long would a body be going to Washington? Davis, Travels in America, p.223
boodle: a crowd of people.
1833: He declared he'd fight the whole boodle of 'em.
Seba Smith, Major Jack Downing, p. 183
border ruffians: those living outside the civilized settlements.
1857: A great majority of the
people of the West, on the borders, may be emphatically termed Border ruffians.
The Eastern people call them by that name. John Taylor at the Bowery, Salt
Lake City, August 9
1860: I only wanted to convince gentlemen . . . that Indianians made better border ruffians than we did.
Mr. Craig, Missouri, House of Reps., Congressional
Globe, January 4
born days, in all one’s: In all one's: lifetime; since one was born.
1840s:
Where have you been all your born days, not to know better than that? Sam Slick
in England, ch.ii
[not] born In the woods to be scared by an owl: refers to one who is experienced and therefore unafraid.
brick in one's hat, to have: to be drunk.
1854: A seedy-looking old negro, with a brick in his old hat, and a weed ‘round it. Knickerbocker Magazine, August
bub and sis: brother and sister, especially applied to children.
1872: Many eminently genteel persons, whose manners make them at home anywhere, are in the habit of addressing all unknown children by one of the two terms, bub and sis, which they consider endears them greatly to the young people. Poet at the Breakfast Table, ch.i
bucket Shop: a gin mill; a distillery.
188 1: A bucket-shop in New York is a low gin-mill or distillery, where small quantities of spirits are dispensed in pitchers and pails [buck- ets]. When the shops for dealing in one-share or five-share lots of stocks were opened, these dispensaries of smaller lots then could be got from regular dealers and were at once named bucket-shops.
New York Evening Post, October
buckskin: a Virginian.
1824: We suspect that Capt. Tribby Clapp doodled the
Buckskins. Franklin Herald, April 13
bully for you!: well done; good for you.
1861: Bully for youl alternated
with benedictions, in the proportion of two bullies to one blessing. Atlantic
Monthly, June, p. 745
1864: The freckles have vanished, and bully for you.
Daily Telegraph, November 18
bummer: the original word for bum. A lazy hobo or drunk.
1857: The irreclaimable town bummer figured in the police court.
San Francisco Call, April 28
1860: Another great sham connected with our social life is that of spreeing or bumming. Yale Literary Magazine
1862: A great majority of the
bummers, who so long infested this city, have either left or gone to work. Rocky
Mountain News, Denver, May 10
bunkum: claptrap.
1827: This is an old and common saying at Washington,
when a member of Congress is making one of those hum-drum and unlistened-to long
talks which have lately become so fashionable.... This is cantly called talking
to Bunkum: an honorable gentleman, long ago, having said that he was not
speaking to the house, but to the people of a certain county [Buncombe] in his
district, which, in local phrase, he called Bunkum. Niles' Weekly Register, September
27
1843: Mr. Weller of Ohio thought the question had been
sufficiently debated, for nearly all the speeches had been made for Buncombe. Mr.
Underwood, Kentucky, House of Reps., Congressional Globe, December II,
p.43
candle-lighting: dusk.
1810: From dinner to dark I give
to Society; and from candle-light to early bed-time I read. Thomm Jefferson,
from Monticello, Februaiy 26
1824: The Rev. Mr. Kidwell, a Unitarian Universalist, will preach at the courthouse at early candle light on Sunday evening.
Liberty Hall and Cincinnati Gazette, March 26
1853: The dancing commenced at early candle-lighting, and continued until long after midnight. Turnover, A Tale of New Hampshire, p.80
1888: The meeting was appointed for early candle-lighting.
American Humorist, August
cap the climax: to beat all; to surpass everything.
1804: Your correspondent caps the climax of Misrepresentation.
Lancaster Intelligencer, Febrwty 21
1811: It caps the climax of French arrogance and turpitude.
Massachusetts Spy, September
18
1821: To cap the climax of his
infamy and barbarity, he severed the head from the body of the infant.
Pennsylvania Intelligencer, March 21
1860: All that was wanting to cap the climax to this
absurd (Lincoln] nomination was the selection of Hannibal Hamlin as a candidate
for Vice-Presidency. Richmond Enquirer, May 25, pp.4-5
carryings-on: frolicking, partying, etc.
1840s: Everybody tuck Christmas,
especially the niggers, and sich carry- ins-on-sich dancin' and singin'-and
shootin' poppers and sky- rackets -you never did see. Major Jones's Courtship
catawamptiously chewed up: utterly defeated, badly beaten. An expres- sion largely confined to the South and West, from at least the 1840s on.
catch a weasel asleep, to: referring to something impossible or unlikely, in regard to someone who is always alert and is seldom or never caught off guard, e.g., You can't trick old Joe any sooner than you can catch a weasel asleep.
caution, a: a warning. Also a ludicrous example, or someone or some- thing striking.
1839:
Off we hied to the prairie, and the way the feathers flew was a caution. John
Plumbe, Sketches in Iowa, p.56
1840:
The way Mrs. N. rolls up her eyes when the English are mentioned is certainly a
caution. Mrs. Kirkland, A New Home, p.259
1851: The way he squalled, rolled, kicked, puked, snorted, and sailed into the air, was a caution to old women on three legs.
An Arkansaw Doctor, p.151
cavort: to frolic or prance about.
1834: Government's bought their land, and it's wrong for them to be cavorting around quiet people's houses any more.
C.F. Hoffman, A Winter in the Far West, p.28
1845: She better not come a
cavortin''bout me with any of her carryins on. W. T. Thompson, Chronicles
of Pineville, p. 1 78
chance: a quantity.
1819: A considerable quantity is expressed by a smart chance; and our hostess at Madison said there was a smart chance of Yankees in that village. David Thomas, Travels, p.230
1833: "There's a smart chance of cigars there in the bar, stranger, if you'd try some of them," said one of the hooshiers.
C.F. Hoffman, A Winter in the Far West, p.219
1833: There was a right smart
chance of sickness when she came to the settlement. jameshall, Legends of the
West p.88
chirk: cheerful. Synonyms: chirp, chirpy.
1843: She is not very chirk, but more chirkier than she had been; and all our folks appear more chirkier than they really feel, in order to chirk her up. Yale Literary Magazine, p.26
1857: Chirk and lively we both were. Knickerbocker Magazine, janua7y 1878: 1 didn't feel real cherk this week, so't I didn't go to sewin' s'ciety. Rose T. Cooke, Happy Dodd
1878: Ef there's a mortal thing I can do to help ye, or chirk ye up, I want to do it right off.
Rose T. Cooke, Happy Dodd
circumstance: anything to speak of
1836: [The new hotel] will be a
smasher, to which the Astor House will be no circumstance. Philadelphia Public
Ledger, November 16
1854: You'd better think of all the pretty girls you
ever seed, all at once, and then it won't be a circumstance. Elvira takes the
rag off everything there's about these parts. Knickerbocker Magazine, December
1856: To be beaten by a mere circumstance of a gal-child.
W.G. Simms, Eutaw, p.394
1857: I've travelled on the cars in my day, but that kind of going wasn't a circumstance to the way we tore along.
S.H. Hammond, Wild Northern Scenes, p.62
cocked hat: To knock someone senseless or to shock him completely. To knock into a cocked hat.
1833: I told Tom I'd knock him into a cocked hat if he said another
word. J.K. Paulding, Banks of the Ohio, p.217
1840: Why pummel and beat over again that which is already beaten to a jelly, jammed into a cocked hat, and flung into the middle of next week?
Mr. Wick, Indiana, House of Reps., Congressional
Globe, July 20, p.545
1848: It has completely knocked us into a cocked hat.
Seba Smith, Major Jack Downing, p.306
1852: We will knock [the groggeries] into a cocked hat.
Ezra T. Benson, at the Tabernacle, Salt Lake
City, journal of Discourses, September 12
Cockneyisms: speaking in a Cockney dialect or pronouncing words with a Cockney accent, a popular speech affectation in Philadelphia from the beginning of the century to 1860. Some of the Cockneyisms were influenced by the writings of Charles Dickens.
1800: [In Philadelphia, Noah Webster) will find the London Cockneyisms flourish in perfection - veal - here converted into "weal," - and
wine into "vine," -the hot-water-war he will find described as a "hot vater var," etc. Aurora, June 20
1830: It is almost impossible to distinguish Americans
from English, especially Philadelphians, who like Cockneys talk about "wery
good weal and winegar." N. Dana, A Mariner's Sketches, p.16
codfish aristocracy: a contemptuous term for people who have made money in business.
1850: We should regard it as somewhat strange if we should require a codfish aristocracy to keep us in order.
Mr. Butler, South Carolina, U.S. Senate, Congressional
Globe, July 9, p. 1248
1853: D. is evidently a retainer of the codfish aristocracy, who will only go where the price will match with his dignity.
Daily Morning Herald, St. Louis, April 22
1860: The defender of genius against vulgar money
bags, alias codfish aristocracy. Richmond Enquirer, May 15
cold as a wagon tire: dead.
1833: If a man was as cold as a
wagon tire, provided there was any life in him, she'd bring him to. James
Hall, Legends of the West p.88
coloured person, person of color: a Negro.
1812: Christopher Macpherson is a man of color, brought up as bookkeeper by a merchant, his master, and afterwards enfranchised.
Thomas
Jefferson to John Adams, April 20
conniption fit: a fit of hysteria.
1833: Ant Keziah fell down in a conniption fit. Seba Smith, Major Jack Downing, p.218
1842: The Vermont papers are going into conniption fits, because their state is in debt
$150,000. Philadelphia Spirit of the Times, August 23
1859: She went into a conniption at the sight of the poor Snap.
Harper's Weekly, November 19
considerable: no small specimen.
1816: He is considerable of a surveyor. Pickering, Vocabulary
1843: Wall You're considerable of a critur, you are, by thunder! You eternal, great, green-eyed, black-devil! Yale Literary Magazine
1852: He is really. worth knowing, and considerable of a man, as we say- no fool at all. Charks A. Bristed, The Upper Ten Thousand, p.142
Continental: the money issued by Congress during the Revolutionary War. It eventually became synonymous with anything worthless.
1874: I tole him as how I didn't keer three continental derns fer his whole band. Edward Eggleston, The Circuit Rider, p.120
1888: 1 am not worrying about
the nomination. I don't care a Continental if I don't receive it. Missouri
Republican, February 16
coon's age: a long time.
1845: We won't hear the end of this bisness for a
coon's age: you see if we do. W. T. Thompson, Chronicles of Pineville, p.
72
1848: 1 never did like this Yanky way of married people livin' all over creation without seein' one another more'n once in a coon's age.
W.E. Burton, Waggeries, p.16
1851: This child hain't had that much money in a coon's age.
Adventures of Captain Simon Suggs, p.155
coot: an idiot; a simpleton; a ninny.
1856: He's an amazin' ignorant old coot, tew.
Widow Bedott Papers, No.9
1857: It is a poor coot, let me tell you, that will make such excuses.
H.C. Kimball, Salt Lake City, journal of
Discourses, September 20, v, p.251
corned: drunk.
1840: William McG. brought a
load of corn to market, and got corned on the strength of it. Daily Pennant St.
Louis, May 27
cotton to: to take a liking to, a popular expression throughout the South and West from early in the century on.
cow-hide, cow-skin: a whip made of cowhide. Also used as a verb, to whip or flog.
1801: Dinah was armed with a
cow-skin, while Cloe had nothing but the simple weapons of nature. Massachusetts
Spy, June 24
1818: The enraged barrister, with a hand-whip, or cow-hide as they are called ... actually cut his jacket to ribbons.
M. Birbeck, Letters ftom Illinois, p.60
1855: His lady had cow-hided him in the streets of his native city.
Th,mo B. Gunn, New York Boarding Houses, p.21-5
cracker: a poor white of the South, named after the crackling whips used by rural Southerners.
1842: We saw many of the country people coming into town; some on horseback, some in waggons, and some on foot.... Single-breasted coats without collars, broad-brimmed and low-crowned hats, and gray hair floating in loose locks over their shoulders, were among their perculiarities .... They are called by the townspeople, Crackers, from the frequency with which they crack their whips.
J.S. Buckingham, Slave States, p.210
1847: I met one of the country crackers, as the backwoodsmen are called, who, having been to Wetempka with a load of shingles, was on his way home. Knickerbocker Magazine, May
crazy as a loon: very crazy.
1854: The old man'll run as crazy as a loon a-thinkin' 'bout his house- hold affairs. H.H. Riley, Puddleford, p.140
critter: creature; varmint; a contemptible person.
1833: It would be ridiculous if it should be a bar; them critters sometimes come in here, and I have nothing but my knife.
Knickerbocker Magazine, p.90
1836: My little critter [a
mustang], who was both blood and bottom, seemed delighted. Colonel Crockett in
Texas, p. 149
1836: The old critter says he is
married, and makes his wife work in the printing office. Philadelphia Public
Ledger, September 24
1842: One of the clerks in the Baltimore Post Office,
on opening a bag of letters, discovered a live garter-snake in the same. The
critter bore no postmark or frank. Philadelphia Spirit of the Times, July 28
dang: euphemism for damn, e.g., dang it all or dang you.
dash!: euphemism for damn, e.g., dash it all.
dashing: showy, elegant or spirited, especially in dress.
dead meat: a corpse, from 1860 on.
death on: very fond of or very talented at.
1847: A long, lanky, cadaverous lawyer, who was death on a speech, powerful in chewing tobacco, and some at a whisky drinking.
Robb, Streaks of Squatter Life, p.30
deef: deaf
1896: You're a-goin' to do what? I reckon I'm a-goin' a little deef.
Ella Higgimon, Tales from Puget Sound, p.68
designs: plans; schemes; intentions. Commonly used throughout.
1846: 1 like gentlemen's society when I know they have no designs upon
my heart and when I know any cordiality of mine will not be misinterpreted. Mary
Butterfield, letter to fiance, October 31
didoes: to cut up didoes was to get into mischief.
1835: Must all the world know all the didoes we cut up in the lodgeroom? D.P. Thompson, Adventures of Timothy Peacock, p. 170
1838: If you keep a cutting didoes, I must talk to you like a Dutch uncle. J.C. Neal, Charcoal Sketches, p.201
diggings: one's home; lodgings; community.
1838: It's about time we should go to our diggings.
J.C. Neal, Charcoal Sketches, p.119
1842: With whom did the idea
originate? It's novel in these diggins at least. Philadelphia Spirit of the
Times, May 6
1853: How dare you talk thus in these days, and above
all in these diggings. Fun and Earnest, p.239
dipping: chewing snuff.
1853: This horrible practice, called in lower Virginia and North Caro- lina dipping, is of respectable standing.
Putnarn's Magazine, February,
p.142
1857: She was suspected of a mysterious habit denominated in Southern parlance dipping-in other words, of chewing snuffi
Thomas B. Gunn, New York Boarding Houses, p.221
dirk: to stab with a dirk or dagger.
1825: He had changed his mind as to the dirking.... [He] swore the fellow ought to be dirked, the usual phrase for the punishment of slight offences among these humane republicans.
J.K. Paulding, John Bull in America, pp.39,146
1830: The assassin determined to dirk him in the street on his return. Massachusetts Spy, June 2
doggery: a cheap drinking establishment; in modern lingo, a dive.
1848: The drunkard, while reeling homeward from the doggery, is at- tracted by both sides of the street, which accounts for his diagonal movements. Dow, Patent Sermons, p.99
1850.- A doggery is too
contemptible for any man who has a soul more elevated than the swine to
condescend to. Frontier Guardian, March 20
1854: And then the doggery-keepers got to sellin' licker by the drink, instead of the half-pint, and a dime a drink at that.
J.G. Baldwin, Flush Times in Alabama, p.65
1855: Some say that this fellow-feeling between him and the marshal results from the fact that he was a doggery-keeper in the states.
Weekly Oregonian, April 7
doings: "fixins" for a meal.
1843: A snug breakfast of chicken fixins, eggs, ham-doins, and even
slapjacks. R. Carlton, The New Purchase, p.58
1847: Flour doins an' chicken fixins, an' four
uncommon fattest big goblers rosted I ever seed. Billy Warwick's Wedding, p.104
1859: Tell Sal to knock over a chicken or two, and get out some flour, and have some flour-doins and chicken fixins for the stranger. Knickerbocker Magazine, March
done gone: a pleonasm (redundancy) used frequently by Negroes of the period.
1836: He had done gone three hours ago.
"A Quarter Race in
Kentucky, " New York Spirit of the Times, p.22
do tell: phrase used to express fascination with a speaker's subject. 1842: Among the peculiar expressions in use in Maine we noticed that,
when a person has communicated some intelligence in which the hearer feels an interest, he manifests it by saying: "I want to know"; and when he has concluded his narrative, the hearer will reply: "0! do telll " J.S. Buckingham, Eastern and Western States, p. 177
1853: Do tell! I want to know!
Did you ever! Such a powerful right smart chance of learning as you have is
enough to split your head open right smack. Daily Morning Herald, St. Louis,
April 11
1853: At last sez I, "Jidge, did you ever have your portrait tuck?" "No," sez he, as ugly as you please. "Dew te," says I.
Knickerbocker Magazine, September
dram shop: a small drinking establishment, from early in century.
dude: a dandy.
1883: The new coined word dude ... has travelled over
the country with a great deal of rapidity since but two months ago it grew into
general use in New York. North Adams Transcript, June 24
1888: If the term dude had been invented [in 1866] it would have been applied to a Texas horseman.
Mrs. Elizabeth Custer, Tenting on the Plains, p.212
1891: Joe then went east, and married a young dudine out there.
A. Welcker, Woolly West p.69
elephant, to see the: to see it all, to experience it all. Sometimes pertaining to war, to see battle.
1840: That's sufficient, as Tom Haynes said when he saw the elephant. A.B. Longstreet, Georgia Scenes, p.10
1851: I think I have seen the elephant, as far as public life is concerned.
Mr. Hale, New Hampshire, U.S. Senate, Congressional
Globe, janua7y 22, p.304
1854: I am a miner, who wandered away from down-east, and came to sojourn in a strange land, and see the elephant.
Knickerbocker Magazine, April
1873: He had lost all his money, consisting of seven twenty-dollar gold
pieces, and a bundle containing a valuable steam gauge. He had seen the elephant (rather too close a view, he thought), was many hundred miles from home, among strangers, and without a dollar in his pocket. Edward Savage, Police Records and Recollections, p.121
exfluncticate: to utterly destroy.
1839: The mongrel armies are
prostrate-used up-exfluncticated. Chemung (New York) Democrat November
30
1840: ... the Administration is bodaciously used up, tetotaciously ex- flunctified.
Mr. Wick, Indiana, House of Reps., Congressional
Globe, July 20, p.545
express: the mails; a mail stage.
1851: The religious papers which have the greatest circulation are pa- pers of a small size, and are transmitted mostly by express.
Mr. Dunean, Massachwetts, House of Reps., Congressional Globe, January 15, p.245 1854: There are two large express companies, Adams & Co. and Wells,
Fargo & Co., which carry mail matter by Nicaragua, charging from twenty-five to fifty cents on a letter.
Mr. Lathan, California, Congressional Globe, April
7, p.872
F.F.V.: First Families of Virginia, of which many claimed to be members to gain special treatment, but eventually used in jest.
1850: [He was] the first of his
race to acknowledge that he was not an F.F.V. Odd Leaves, p. 178
1857: Mr. Floyd, as everybody knows, as an F.F.V., and the soul of honor accordingly. Harper's Weekly, April 11
1861: They must do better down in Virginia than they have done, or EF.V., instead of standing for First Families of Virginia, will get to mean the Fast Flying Virginians. Oregon Argus, August 10
fice, fiste, tyst: a worthless dog; a mongrel.
1843: Did you ever see a pack
composed of five or six little fice dogs, barking furiously? Missouri Reporter, St.
Louis, June 29
1863: What other Pete can I mean but your dirty little fice dog?
J.B. ]ones, Wild Western Scenes,
p. 15
1874: [The barking ranged] all the way from the contemptible treble of an ill-mannered fice to the deep baying of a huge bulldog.
Edward Eggleston, The Circuit Rider, p. 72
1890: All the dogs of the regiment were with us, apparently, from the lofty and high-born staghounds down to the little feist, or mongrel, of the trooper. Mrs. Elizabeth Custer, Following the Guidon, p.78
fist, make a: to succeed at something.
1834: A chap would make a blue fist of takin'a dead aim through double sights, with the butt end of a psalm in his guzzle.
The Kentuckian in New York, p.25
1838: He reckoned he should make a better fist at farming than edicating. Caroline Gilman, Recollections of a Southern Matron, p.46
1841: You made a poor fist of this business.
W.G. Simms, The Kinsmen, p.24
fit: popular slang for fought.
1835: Any body can get in, if only he fit big battles
enough. I'd give a year's sellary in a minute, if Mr. Van Buren had ever fit a
great battle so as to be called a hero. Bucks County Intelligencer, November
4
1839: Here's a going to be one of the peskiest battles
that ever was fit. Chemung (New York) Democrat, April 17
1845: There's a mighty chance of lawyers' lies in the
papers ... but some of it is true. I did strike the old lady, but she fit me
powerfully first. Cornelius Mathews, A Court Scene in Georgia, p.140
1869: He hadn't fit the Arminians and Socinians to be beat by a tom- turkey. Harriet Beecher Stowe, Old Town Stories
fix: a dilemma; a problem; a jam.
183 3: When a man has head religion, he is in a bad fix to die -cut off his head, and away goes his body and soul to the devil.
James Hall, Legends of the West, p.43
1839: The Americans are never at a loss when they are in a fix.
Marryat, Diary in
America, p. 106
fixings: trimmings, accessories, etc.
1825: The veteran trapper was
furnished with such other appliances, or fixens, as he would term them, as put
him in plight again to take the field. New Hampshire Patriot, Concord, May 23
1842: Our friends who love oysters and sparkling rosy wine, and other little fixens in the eating way, will do well to drop in at the Bath House Refectory. Philadelphia Spirit of the Times, January 22
1842: People can't afford to purchase the rich golden and rosy beef- steaks, as formerly. They keep soul and body together with greens and onions, shad, and such like fixins.
Philadelphia Spirit of the Times, April 16
1845: Our ladies are sadly in want of the little fixins made by the milliners. Letter to the Bangor Mercury
1848: [He] makes a heap of money by selling Yankee
made Ingin fixins, sich as moccasins, bead-bags, card-cases, and a heap of fancy
articles, sich as the Ingins themselves never dreamed of makin.
Major Jones's Sketches of Travel p.
167
fix one's flint: to settle a matter.
1837: 1 thought I had fiked your flint yesterday.
Knickerbocker Magazine, April
1843: "Take it easy, Sam," says 1, "Your flint is fixed."
Sam Slick in England
1847: Stranger, if you don't shet your mouth a little closer than a Gulf clam, I'll fix your flint in short order.
J.K. Paulding, American
Comedies, p.197
fleshy: fat.
1807: A large, fleshy, rugged, strong, active child.
Massachusetts Spy, August 26
1840: Mrs. Ferret is what we call a fleshy or lusty woman; she weighed two hundred and twelve, in Neal Hopper's new scale at the mill.
John P. Kennedy, Quodlibet, p.110
frolic: a celebration; a party; a wild time. Also, a fight.
1815: He happened to get both eyes gouged out yesterday in a frolic. J.K. Paulding, John Bull in America, p.218
1833: They meant to have a
reaping frolic when the corn should be ripe. Harriet Martineau, Briery
Creek, p. 18
full chisel: at full speed; executed with everything you've got.
1832: 1 met an express coming on full chisel from Philadelphia.
Seba Smith, Major Jack Downing, p. 168
1878: The only way to get that fellow to heaven would be to set out to drive him to hell; then he'd turn and run up the narrow way full chisel. HaiTiet Beecher Stowe, Poganuc People
funeral, not one's: not one's business; none of one's concern.
1875: Wanted: A nice, plump, healthy, good-natured,
good-looking domestic and affectionate lady to correspond with, object
-Matrimony. She must be between 22 and 35 years of age. She must be a believer
in God and immortality, but no sectarian. She must not be a gad about or given
to scandal.... Such a lady can find a correspondent by addressing ... Post
Office Box 9, Yuma, A.T. Photographs exchanged! If anybody don't like our way of
going about this ... business, we don't care. It's none of their funeral.
Lonely hearts classified ad in the Arizona Sentinel, July 10
1896: It ain't any of your
funeral, I guess, if I did turn (the clock] back. Ella Higginson, Tales
from Puget Sound, p.184
gallnipper: a large mosquito.
1842: The gallnippers of Florida
are said to have aided the Seminoles in appalling our armies. Mrs. Kirkland, Forest
Life, p.184
1888: Our rainwater was full of
gallnippers and pollywogs ... banks of mud all bred mosquitoes, or gallnippers,
as the darkies call them. Mrs. Elizabeth Custer, Tenting on the Plains, pp.
76-77
g'hal: a rowdy girl; a reveler or ruffian girl. See also B'hoy.
1848: Go it, all ye g'hals, and ye b'hoys, as much as you can, while you are young. Dow, Patent Sermons, P.167
gone coon, gone sucker: a goner.
1840: 1 was afeared you were a gone coon.
C.F. Hoffman, Greyslaer, p.221
1845: The acquisition of Canada
... is put down on all sides as a gone coon. Mr. Giddings, Ohio, in Congress
185 1: I feared that I should lose my way, and then I knew I was a gone sucker. An Arkansaw Doctor, p.109
Gotham: New York City.
1836: An Albany or Newark dog is
well worth fifty cents, if brought to Gotham's authorities, as if actually
killed in Gotham's streets.... We understand that a dog's flesh is quite a
luxury in Gotham market. Philadelphia Public Ledger, August 5