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Sep 4, 2022 · These old-fashioned put-downs have a flair that modern insults lack — they’re clever, nuanced, descriptive, and quite amusing (at least to the issuer and those who overhear, if not to the receiver!).
- Brett And Kate Mckay
- ABYDOCOMIST. Abydos was a city in Ancient Egypt whose inhabitants, according to one 19th century dictionary, “were famous for inventing slanders and boasting of them.”
- BEDSWERVER. An adulterer. Another of Shakespeare’s inventions that became popular in Victorian slang.
- BESPAWLER. To bespawl means to spit or dribble. A bespawler is a slobbering person, who spits when he talks.
- BOBOLYNE. An old Tudor English word for a fool. Coined by the 15th-16th century poet John Skelton (who was one of Henry VIII’s schoolteachers).
Oct 30, 2015 · But burns like "flapdoodle" and "mumbling cove," on the other hand, don't have quite the same bite. Back in the 19th century, though, throwing one of these insults could get you challenged to a...
- Kirstin Fawcett
- Addle Pate. “An inconsiderate foolish fellow.”
- Back Biter. “One who slanders another behind his back, i.e. in his absence.”
- A Blowse, or Blowsabella. An unkempt woman: “A woman whose hair is dishevelled, and hanging about her face; a slattern.”
- Blunderbuss. “A stupid, blundering fellow.”
- Loathly. This alternate form of loathsome, meaning “repulsive,” had an impressive run as an insult for nearly 900 centuries, starting in 1099 and not falling out of public favor until 1945.
- Purblind. According to the Merriam-Webster entry, purblind originally meant “blind” during the 1400s, and later became a way to indicate shortsightedness or lack of insight.
- Poltroon. The next time you encounter an “utter coward,” you can call them a poltroon. They’re probably too much of a poltroon to ask you what poltroon means.
- Slugabed. Though this term for “a person who stays in bed late” hasn’t been used much since the early 20th century, it’s the perfect insult for your roommate who perpetually hits the snooze button.
May 13, 2021 · Victorian Era Slang Words. For such a proper point in history, Victorian English included some quite shocking slang terminology. Would you have expected such cheeky terminology from Victorian ladies and gentlemen? Where were their good manners and etiquette?
Slumgullion. Definition: a meat stew. Slumgullion is a nasty-sounding word, and for most of its time on earth it has been what we might refer to as eponymous (“suitably named”), for the things it has described have been similarly unpleasant.
