Edwardian Catchphrases

[Jim Kalafus]

Poor poor Daisy! Still, it could have been worse: witness poor Mrs George Keeler found dead and eaten by rats in Wilkes Barre.

So much for Victorian squeamishness....

 

[Jim Kalafus]

Bertie Was a Bogus Boy: How an accident disclosed the sex of young Algernon Speer's room mate whom he introduced in his father's house at Maplewood New Jersey.

Algernon got thrown out of college, and returned home with his inseperable best friend, Bertie. They were closer than close, shared a room,and then it was discovered that Bertie, in fact, was a she.

 

[Brandon McKinney]

Of another sort, O Lemonians! are those representatives whom you send us with the little black glazed carpet bags; and we spew them out of our mouths.Non tali auxilio! Better bereft of lemon-drops forever than moisten thirsty lips with bitter draughts. For what is it in those uncanny carpet bags? Needles and thread and sewing-silk and pins and brooches, they say; but we know it is burglars' tools - jimmies, and false keys, and all things which do not make for peace. We will have none of them...

And look well, Lemonia, we country folk pray you, to the ways of the agents whom you send down upon us like frogs and lice and locusts for multitude. Send us women, if you like, or send us men, but let them be ignorant. A little learning is such a dangerous thing. The people who come around with apple-parers and pencil sharpeners, dress-making systems and new fashioned lamp-chimneys, are well enough. We do not object to being reminded by such tokens that we are within twelve miles of the Lemon; but when the religious newspaper-agents bore into your house like worms of the dust that they are, and ask your housekeeper about your way of life and your personal history, why, you would like to grill them over a slow fire...


Found while looking up my two cautionary tales (Fighting the Traffic in Young Girls and another book I have yet to mention, The Masque Torn off) I found one of my favorite books of all my collection: Gail Hamilton's 1874 book, Twelve Miles From a Lemon. A really wonderful book by a very forward and assertive lady author about the trials and tribulations of having a house in the country, and the things one encounters with traveling salesmen.


The Lemon refers to the town market - and Lemonians refer to those who inhabit said market. Lemon-drops are traveling salesmen and peddlers, one of them who:

[Turns] over his whole stock for your pleasure, and has explained to you all the mysteries of his improvements and patents, and you have selected a freezer for the ice that you cannot get, and a new-fangled egg-beater for the eggs that no hen lays, and a lemon grater for the fruit that is twelve miles off.


Digression, I know, but I really love this book as its filled with all sorts of period phrases and catchwords. I wish everybody could read it.


Now... back to voluptuaries and prostitutes...

 

[Brandon McKinney]

Ah! Police Gazette woodcuts.

And here is something like that: Nobody can resist the down-to-earth-charms of A Wretched Home (TM)

 

[Jim Kalafus]

SHOCKING YOUTHFUL DEPRAVITY: The Discovery That Public School Children Frequent Immoral Places Creates a Startling Sensation at Columbus Ohio.

...stricken with horror in the past few days when they were told that public school children- boys and girls- had been for several weeks previous engaged in the pastime of visiting a resort on Town Street which sails under the front name of restaurant and saloon, but has rear embellishments with stalls and booths and all the paraphernalia to make up an improvised place of assignation where drinking and intoxication may be imagined as among the milder crimes indulged in.

~December 22, 1888.

 

[Brandon McKinney]

Yay! Drunk immoral Victorian Muchachos! Speakeasies for the kids! Probably the best Police Gazette story yet!

 

[Brandon McKinney]

On a similar note:

One wonders, after reading the Columbus Ohio story, how many children, like the little stinkers in Columbus, actually indulged in some of the sin and shame of the awful dens of the infernal region. (Which is another brilliantly period sounding phrase: "infernal region.")

 

[George L. Lorton]

SHOCKING YOUTHFUL DEPRAVITY: The Discovery That Public School Children Frequent Immoral Places Creates a Startling Sensation at Columbus Ohio.

Those kids grew up and by the 20's started their own speakeasies. The American Dream.

 

[Jim Kalafus]

Another sweet Victorian moment. The Gazette enjoyed exposing The Clergy and The Wealthy. If a minister, or priest, got a member of his congregation....in trouble....it was a guaranteed feature story- usually the cover story, and if the woman was a minor, so much the better. Similarly, if a member of the small class who DID wear white dresses affect the vapors and insert improperly pronounced French phrases into their conversation for that extra touch of refinement got involved in a scandal, it was a "Stop the presses!" moment. Here see a small segment of the acrimonious Walker divorce of 1888. Mr. Walker had his wife arrested for taking up with a handsome young Scotsman. Mrs. Walker then filed a countersuit for divorce....she moved out on her husband AFTER their 20-something daughter gave birth to his second child, and with no place to stay ended up cohabiting....

The divorce SHOULD have been kept quiet, but someone fed the news to the Police Gazette, and suddenly.....

 

[Jim Kalafus]

So, on the one hand we have a rather restrictive culture as evidenced by novels and etiquette books (one of which, a frank-no nonsense guide for girls, advises that sex is something that should be faced with fortitude and dignity....rather like an execution~ conjuring up a mental image of wives singing "Rule Brittania" or reciting The Lord's Prayer for the duration) and on the other we have TONS of evidence that suggests A) few, if any, READ the etiquette books or took them seriously, and B)the larger part of the population found the vaporings and simperings of the upper classes irritating.

All of which poses a challenge to an aspiring author. If one wants to circumvent the dreaded Merchant/Ivory trap, yet at the same time create characters who do not seem like 1990s mall ratz dropped down in a period setting (Jack and Rose)it requires a great deal of research AND restraint.

 

[Ben Lemmon]

Hello, everyone. I have a question somewhat concerning Edwardian catchphrases. However, these questions are explicitly reserved for anyone who has grown up speaking the British form of English, or who is incredibly knowledgeable in that regard. I was recently searching through a British Slang Site (which I found by surfing the internet), and I found something that caught my interest. On the food section of that particular site, they list "bickie" as a word used in childhood to reference a cookie (or biscuit to you Brits

). I searched for the origin of this word using Google, as Bob has suggested in the past. I came up with what seemed to be an American version of a slang dictionary. It defined a "bickie" as part of the unmentionable parts, particularly around the hindquarters.

My question is threefold. One, is the word "bickie" still in use by British children to refer to a cookie? Two, would it have been used in the Edwardian Era to reference a cookie or biscuit? Three, if I used in writing, do you think it would be misconceived as what a "bickie" is in the American Slang Dictionary?

I guess the last part of my question is universal. Americans can answer as well as the British, I suppose. I look forward to reading any remarks on the subject.

 

[monica e. hall]

'Bickie' is well understood here, Ben, but it seems confined to (a) small children and parents who infantilise their childrens' vocabulary development, and (b)satirists infantilising adult habits as in "FOREIGN OFFICE SPENDS £1m A YEAR ON TEA AND BICKIES". I've no idea if Edwardian children used the word - probably.
I can't comment on the American usage of the word, as I've always found US slang for the nether regions fraught with pitfalls for a Brit. This is not the only word that can cause a flutter in the dovecote in polite society.

Happens in all languages. In France as a young teenager once, when offered more food when I was full up, I replied,
"Merci, je suis en pleine."
Which I thought was a reasonable translation for being full, and which I augmented with hand gestures. Turned out I'd just informed the entire company that I was pregnant, and not in a particularly tactful way. Luckily, the father was a nearly fluent English speaker and he explained my mistake, much to the relief of the Catholic granny present who thought that all her prejudices about young English girls had just been confirmed.

 

[Bob Godfrey]

'Bicky' or 'bikky' was certainly in common use in the 1920s, so probably goes back a bit further. Oddly enough I recently saw a Crawfords' biscuit tin in the shape of a thatched cottage with the name 'Bicky House' above the door, and the style of the tinplate artwork looked to be 1920s (check out your Robert Opie scrapbooks, Mon).

In the UK certain foodstuffs which have achieved the status of old friends tend to get their names abbreviated as endearments! Thus even adults often refer informally to bickys (or biccys), choccies, taties, sarnies, etc. Personally I don't worry too much about American interpretations of British colloquialisms, or I'd be more wary of enjoying a f~~ (as well as a bicky) with my tea.

 

[Ben Lemmon]

I'd be more wary of enjoying a f~~ (as well as a bicky) with my tea.

I wouldn't expect you to do anything less, Bob. And don't worry, I know precisely what you are saying. The wonders of the Information Super Highway (you know, I think I said that before). Who else agrees that it would have been hilarious to see the audience's reaction if Jack had said, "Can I bum a f~~?" instead of "Can I bum a smoke?" Hey, someone who is clever with video editing could provide us with such a treat.

Anyone want to join me in eating a plate of f~~~~~~? I hear they're a British delicacy, especially when topped with gravy!

I found that the Slang dictionary is the only place that I could find "*nus" as the definition of "bickie/bicky/biccy." Maybe they like to make things up. I've never heard my captain's quarters referred to as a "bicky." I sure hope to never hear that either. It's stupid.

 

[Marilyn Lena Penner]

From Monica: 'Bickie' is well understood here, but it seems confined to (...) (b)satirists infantilising adult habits as in "FOREIGN OFFICE SPENDS £1m A YEAR ON TEA AND BICKIES".

Monica, Was that from a 'Rumpole of the Bailey' episode? I'm a Rumpole fan.

I've looked above my head at the signs in grocery stores, to find the location of the sweets and cookies. There appears to be a definite shift from 'biscuits' to 'cookies' since Wal-Mart Canada has added food to their inventory. Zellers is iffy. Loblaws uses 'biscuits'. Dominion: 'biscuits' but now that its stores here are changed to 'Metro', 'cookies' are taking over.
The British specialty stores stick to 'biscuits'. Most non-British born Canucks say 'cookies'. I always have. I think it started out as a childish and anglicized version of 'kuchen', from the Dutch.