Vocabulary from "Venetia", 1/2

[x_los]

I read the first half of Heyer's Venetia last night, and as I went I made a list of terms I was unfamiliar with or simply not completely comfortable with. This afternoon I looked them up, so here are definitions and sources for pretty much everything that might strike you odd as a modern English speaker (by order of appearance).

***




french cambric https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambric
Dimity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimity
Hunt the Squirrel https://www.regrom.com/2016/07/08/regency-pastimes-hunting-the-squirrel/
Paphians: 2. of or relating to Aphrodite; 3.  Literary, of sexual love
two-to-one shop: https://words.fromoldbooks.org/Grose-VulgarTongue/t/two-to-one-shop.html
Banbury story: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Banbury_story_of_a_cock_and_a_bull
chicken-nabob: https://words.fromoldbooks.org/Grose-VulgarTongue/c/chicken-nabob.html
Roadster: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roadster_(horse)
More bottom than sense!: I think it might be “capacity (as of a horse) to endure strain”
You silly gudgeon!: https://www.wordnik.com/words/gudgeon (so like calling someone a guppy)
you know you ride a feather!: I can’t find this exactly, presumably ‘feather-weight’?
“isn’t a horse in the stables I can’t back”: ‘What do we mean by 'backing your horse'? Well, at a top level it means to teach a horse to wear a saddle and bridle, and to carry someone on their back.’ So a less aggressive form of ‘break’, which can simply include successfully riding a horse?
The use of ‘quizzing’ as teasing a few times here, I do know that one.
jonquil muslin: https://findwords.info/term/jonquil so either a daffodil colour or pattern
crammed him: not super clear, equestrian
Cawker!: idiot? I can’t find much more about it
Nonpareil: an unrivalled or matchless person or thing
Complaisance: disposition to please or comply : affability.
Inching: perhaps miserly? https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/inching or just grudging, over-cautious
“putting me in a bad skin!”: can’t find much on it
Piquet: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piquet
Tytler’s “Essay on the Principles of Translation”: https://benjamins.com/catalog/acil.13 ; https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/64890/pg64890-images.html
Cytherean: In mythology, pertaining to the goddess Aphrodite (Venus).
percipient mind: ‘a person on whose mind a telepathic impulse or message is held to fall’, https://www.hilotutor.com/archives_percipient.html ; perceptive, but to a supernatural degree
curst rum touch: an odd or eccentric fellow, https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/307350.html
Neck-or-nothing: An attempt at success that risks losing or ruining everything; with complete abandon and recklessness ; Desperate. A racing phrase; to win by a neck or to be nowhere—i.e. not counted at all because unworthy of notice
Turkish treatment: very sharp or ill dealing in Business.
pad-groom: A mounted groom who follows his master when on horseback.
Jack-pudding: Originally: a clown or jester who entertains people with antics and buffoonery; specifically one who assists a mountebank; compare "merry-andrew". Later more generally: a foolish or stupid person; an idiot.
hoaxing tale: just tall tale?
“I had need to be a Dives”:  The traditional name Dives is not actually a name, but instead a word for "rich man", dives, in the text of the Latin Bible, the Vulgate.
an experienced Tulip to the callow tuft: can’t find much about it
Deloped: Delope (French for "throwing away") is the practice of throwing away one's first fire in a pistol duel, an attempt to abort the conflict.
down-the-road looking man: from context, exceptional. Can’t find much more about it.
first-rate driver: Guessable, https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=8n4cWUiqtWYC&pg=PA172&lpg=PA172&dq=first-rate+driver+regency&source=bl&ots=LtCdYiBI_u&sig=ACfU3U2w3FY2ShIaN4NGeJkh9cGcbWTg8g&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj68tXJ6_TyAhXIUMAKHWfoCbEQ6AF6BAgjEAM#v=onepage&q=first-rate%20driver%20regency&f=false for more
top-sawyer: a distinguished person.
a Corinthian: a merry profligate man
more squeak than wool: A great deal of fuss, noise, fanfare, or protestation over something of little or no substance, importance, or relevance. (https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=t4wZOj46HBoC&pg=PT298&lpg=PT298&dq=more+squeak+than+wool&source=bl&ots=RFVmFGnFKt&sig=ACfU3U0stUIBZkb6WFgY1FWmNvEp3DBMkg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi_tMKo6vTyAhUID8AKHak3BA8Q6AF6BAgiEAM#v=onepage&q=more%20squeak%20than%20wool&f=false)
bracket-faced: Ugly, hard-featured
Sententious: given to moralizing in a pompous or affected manner.
cutting a wheedle: to deliberately lead astray or decoy by flattery and insinuation
Holland covers: https://janeausteninvermont.blog/2010/08/01/so-what-the-heck-are-holland-covers-anyway/
sit in their pockets: Guessable from context, but not precisely so in its etymology.
loose in the haft: To have many vices and little respect for propriety. 
too fly to the time of day: wise to the ways of the world, but I don’t know the etymology
Half-sprung: Drunk, mildly drunk, or nearly drunk. https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/half-sprung
his old grinder: tutor, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grinds
Tatting: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatting
floored by the hammer: “ It means floored by the auctioneer's hammer, Tattersall's is a major auctioneer of racehorses.

"I haven't yet been floored by the hammer, if that's what you mean!"

Venetia was asking whether he was in Yorkshire because of "that thing at Tattersall's"
I think Damerel was joking he's not yet in such dire financial circumstances that he's had to sell himself on the auction block. Venetia clarifies that by "that thing at Tattersalls" she means "Black Monday" or the "Settling Day"(the day after a big race when everyone has to settle their accounts) she's implying he's come back to his Yorkshire estate because he's lost a bunch of assets gambling, or sold all his racehorses.” https://www.goodreads.com/questions/610442-what-does-floored-by-the-hammer-mean
Settling Day: I found the painting ‘Epsom Races: Settling Day at Tattersalls, by James Pollard’, but not much more about the concept. Fairly guessable.
Dun territory: To be in dun territory is an old fashioned way of saying that someone is heavily in debt. To dun someone, or to write them a dunning letter, means to demand payment of a debt, possibly with the threat of court action.
shoot the crow: ‘nineteenth century Scottish term meaning to leave hastily, with outstanding obligations’
Antidotes: supposedly ‘an unattractive woman’, but the etymology could be clearer
Fubsy-faced: chubby and somewhat squat, in the face
Squeeze-crab: A sour-looking, shrivelled, diminutive fellow. (https://words.fromoldbooks.org/Grose-VulgarTongue/s/squeeze-crab.html)
clutch-fisted: miserly (https://words.fromoldbooks.org/Grose-VulgarTongue/t/to-clutch-the-fist.html)
pinkest of Pinks, a swell of the first stare
butter-toothed: Originally: an incisor (front) tooth, especially when large or prominent (now historical and rare). In later use also (in plural): teeth that are yellowish or uncared-for; https://www.lexico.com/definition/butter_tooth
Ape-leader: An old maid or spinster. An old English adage said that a spinster's punishment after death, for failing to procreate, would be to lead apes in hell. (https://candicehern.com/regency-world/glossary/ape-leader/)
Fashionable squeezes; calf-love—think I’ve seen both before; just hopping assemblies (https://angelynschmid.com/2015/07/03/regency-hazards-a-squeeze/) and puppy love (https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/calf+love)
A weird use of consequential: momentous and weighty, but Heyer’s being sarcastic about it
Skirter: One who skirts around something. (hunting) A hound that runs wide rather than chasing the quarry.
ames-ace: https://www.lexico.com/definition/ames-ace
Fustian: pompous or pretentious speech or writing."a smokescreen of fustian and fantasy”; Middle English: from Old French fustaigne, from medieval Latin fustaneum, from ( pannus) fustaneus ‘cloth from Fostat’, a suburb of Cairo; fustian (sense 2) perhaps from the fact that fustian was sometimes used to cover pillows and cushions, implying that the language was ‘padded’; compare with bombast.
Cheltenham tragedy: ‘
To make a Cheltenham tragedy out of something is to make a big deal out of nothing, or blow a situation out of proportion. This may be a reference to the melodramas that were performed at Cheltenham spa.’ https://vanessariley.com/RegencyDefinitions.htm
Blue Pill: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_mass#:~:text=by%20Abraham%20Lincoln-,Description,and%20the%20pains%20of%20childbirth.
Bilious: affected by or associated with nausea or vomiting; spiteful; bad-tempered.
“My withers are slightly wrung”: https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/wring+my+withers#:~:text=wring%20someone's%20withers,%2C%20our%20withers%20are%20unwrung'.
Nod-cock: https://www.lexico.com/definition/nodcock
Execration: the act of cursing or denouncing also : the curse so uttered; an object of curses : something detested.
Douceur: French, literally ‘sweetness’; a financial inducement; a bribe.
Dunghill cock: Every cock will crow upon his own dunghill ; Everyone is confident or at ease when on home ground. Cf. Seneca Apocolocyntosis vii. gallum in suo sterquilinio plurimum posse 
rodomontade: early 17th century: from French, from obsolete Italian rodomontada, from Italian rodomonte, from the name of a boastful character in the medieval Orlando epics.
“a slip on the shoulder”: https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/a-slip-on-the-shoulder.409504/
All a rig: “she’s too innocent to know it’s all a rig”; https://words.fromoldbooks.org/Grose-VulgarTongue/r/rig.html
Don’t care a rush: a literal rush? Clearly ‘don’t give a fuck’, but it’s unclear where it comes from.
Nab the rust: To take offense ; to become upset ; https://words.fromoldbooks.org/Grose-VulgarTongue/t/to-nab.html (so what’s ‘rust’ in this figuration?)
“unless you have a fancy for eating your dinner with your plate on the mantelpiece for the next few days”: really not clear. Suggestion of injury?
Bellows to mend with you: A person out of breath; especially a pugilist is said to be “bellows to mend” when winded.
“flicked Damerel on the raw”: guessable
On the cut: drinking?
Making indentures: ways to describe getting drunk (1650: "go to the scriveners and learn to make indentures").
Close as wax: Adjective. close as wax (not comparable) (simile, colloquial) miserly, tight, or secretive.
Friday-face: https://words.fromoldbooks.org/Grose-VulgarTongue/f/friday-face.html
Blue devils: https://thesaurus.plus/related/having_blue_devils/in_bad_mood
Second Autumn Meeting: unclear
“King of Babylon, or an Ethiopian”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebed-Melech , though I don’t really get the upshot of the comparison
Do I owe you any blunt: noun, Cant, Money; https://www.wordnik.com/words/blunt
What he should bestow in veils: unclear
Dugald Stewart: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dugald_Stewart
Fluting: none of the definitions I can find match this usage, “I know how a man looks when he is fluting”
totty-headed notion: Giddy, hare-brained.
Pelisse: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pelisse

Comments

[solo]

Reading historical fic is such a great way to learn stuff! \o/

[x_los]

Yeah, and not just the slang of a given era, there's a lot of neat embedded material culture stuff as well.