Glossary
Adventuress – Regency slang for prostitute.
Bit of muslin – Regency slang for prostitute.
Cheltenham Tragedy – Regency slang for making a big deal out of something or blow a situation out of proportion.
Deuced – refers to rolling a two in dice, which is the lowest possible score one might get. In this way the word is used to refer to things of less-than-ideal luck and has the same meaning as ‘damned’ or ‘cursed’.
Foozler – Regency slang for one who does things clumsily, a bungler.
Gobble-cock – Regency slang for turkey.
Gundigut –a Regency insult, meaning a fat, pursy fellow.
Hexworthy Races – traditional moorland races where thoroughbreds and not so thoroughbreds raced side by side.
Hornswoggler – Regency slang for a fraud or cheat.
Hoydenish – saucy, boisterous or carefree behaviour.
La – Regency exclamation or equivalent of ‘like/totally’, often overused as a verbal crutch by young women.
Lawks – vulgar Regency exclamation.
Miss Sarah Siddons (1755–1831) – British actress and tragic heroine, daughter of English Theatre’s Roger Kemble and Sarah Ward. Would have been sixty-five years old when Phoebe crossed her path. Sarah was the eldest of thirteen children, so Phoebe could have passed as a younger widowed cousin (with the assistance of spectacles and powdered hair).
Ninnyhammer – Regency slang for a person who is stupid or foolish.
Pigeon-livered – Regency slang for cowardly.
Salmagundi – a Regency dish of chopped meat, anchovies, eggs, onion, and seasoning.
Short-drawers – short Regency underwear (unlike long-drawers) for gentlemen, much like boxer shorts today.
Questions And Commands – a popular game in British households in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the precursor to Truth or Dare.