In our research for the Regency Cant dictionary, we discovered many expressions that were too delightful not to include…so in addition to words you also get a collection of dozens of phrases fresh from the Regency era.
Here are a couple of our favorites:
“looking as if one could not say boo to a ghost” means looking like a simpleton, and is a variation of the expression “wouldn’t say boo to a goose” which has apparently been in the lexicon since the 1500s.
“land of nod” means someone is asleep or going to sleep. Although its been popularized by a store as a term, its actually Biblical in origins. Biblical scholars suggest the Hebrew interpretation of “nod” would have been “to wander”, therefore the land of nod would have implied a nomadic life. Nod also may have meant, in the Bible, exile. Scholars trace the usage as meaning asleep to Dean Jonathan Swift in the 1738 “A complete collection of genteel and ingenious conversation”, who made the term “nodding off” to mean sleep as a linguistic joke. By the Regency era, the land of nod was understood to mean being asleep.
We noticed a trend of lots of publishing related puns in the era’s expressions, and this one is clever: “out of print” was taken to mean dead.
Finally, when you are in a prime twig, you may also tell someone you are “rumtitum”. While its more commonly understood to mimic the sound of a drum roll, it also meant something or someone was in a fine order or condition.
We hope you enjoyed a look at some more obscure Regency expressions. Share your favorites below in the comments!
