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Passing English of the Victorian Era

Kay

Aug 9, 2024 — 1 min read

If you've ever come across the meme about the Victorian slang phrase, "got the morbs" (a "temporary melancholia"), you've been introduced to James Redding Ware's Passing English of the Victorian Era, a dictionary of slang published in 1909.

You don't have to go far before encountering entries descriptive (an "academy headache" is what you get at an art gallery), passive-aggressive ("after you with the push" calls out someone who's jostled you), and fashionable (ladies imitating the Princess of Wales', who had a bad knee, walked with an "Alexandra limp").

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