Maggie MacKeever, Novelist

I love language. Because I wrote so many Regencies, I have a huge collection of Regency slang. However, my current series is set in Gilded Age New York.

Early 19th century English slang and late 19th century American slang are very different. So are late 19th century English and American slang. Since I have a horror of anachronisms, I went on a quest. Here are some of the results:

All-overish: uncomfortable.
The biggest toad in the puddle: the most important person in a group.
You’re as like to catch a weasel sleeping: expression of disbelief.
Carrying water on both shoulders: playing a double part.
Fiddler: a cheat or sharper.Gone goose: one lost beyond recovery.
Rumbumptious: pompous, haughty.
Shrieking sisterhood: group of female suffragists.
Skin your own skunk: do your own dirty work.
To wake snakes: to get into trouble.
Tune the old cow died of: any discordant music.
Those who took a drink or two too many might find themselves foggy, swipey, glorious, top-heavy, obfuscated — or, my favorite, in a state of mops and brooms.

To be continued…