So to celebrate my return from the @#A$# storm, I have prepared for you a list of the Top Ten Victorian Swear Words, which I've selected from the must-have research guide The Writer's Guide to Everyday Life in the 1800s by Marc McCutcheon.
One of my readers asked the question in the comments whether this is American or English, which is a very important difference for research, so I just want to point out that this book is focused on America in the 1800s. In the comments I also included a list of chapters so you can see exactly what else is covered in the book.
WARNING: This blog post contains SWEAR WORDS!!! Probably not suitable for children.
Just so you know, I'm going for historically unique, but for clarification purposes let me say that words like fuck, bitch, cunt, and shit were all used back then too. Only problem is I don't know if you readers will believe it.
Top Ten Swear Words
1. Balls - shortened from ballocks
2. Bootlicker - same as ass-licker
3. Cherry - vulgar term for a young woman
4. Quim - female genitalia
5. Strumpet - a whore
6. Blazes - hell or the devil
7. Cussed - cursed or mean
8. Dratted - expletive or used for damned
9. Lickfinger/Lick-spittle - kiss-ass
10. Tarnation/Nation - used for damnation
BONUS: Top Five Surprisingly Naughty Words
1. Bull - taboo word because it was associated with sexual potency so polite people said cow brute, a gentleman cow, a top cow, or a seed ox.
2. Dad - euphemism for God as in dad-blame it.
3. Dickens - devil as in what the Dickens are you doing?
4. Inexpressibles - a euphemism for pants or trousers. This was due to the fact that the legs were considered extremely private. People usually said limb instead of the word leg. Also very awkward to use in your writing without explaining and even more awkward for your character to stop and explain it. Have to admit I tried to avoid it in my novel.
5. Mary - homosexual.
Want to know more commonly used words or see some real examples of how these words were used? Check out The Writer's Guide to Everyday Life in the 1800s by Marc McCutcheon. He's also written another one The Writer's Guide to Everyday Life from Prohibition to World War II by Marc McCutcheon.
Someone commented below, curious about finding the British equivalent of these books. I think What Jane Austen Ate and What Charles Dickens Knew by Daniel Pool might be of use but keep in mind that I haven't personally read it so I can't guarantee anything.
Show me you're out there and leave a comment! Anyone know any other interesting naughty historical words they can share? Or good books for such research? Feel free to shoot me some questions too!
If you like this post, make sure to sign up for my newsletter, which has all kinds of writing and publishing advice, plus lots on history! Subscribers are considered VIPs, so you are the first to know about freebees, giveaways, sales, and opportunities to become beta readers, not to mention new books!
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About Stephanie Carroll
Stephanie Carroll is the author of A White Room and "Forget Me Not" featured in Legacy: An Anthology. She blogs about magical realism, her research into the Victorian Era and Gilded Age, writing, and life in general at www.stephaniecarroll.net and at The Unhinged Historian. She also founded Unhinged and Empowered, a blog for Navy wives and girlfriends.
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| photo credit: brizzle born and bred via photopin cc |
Just so you know, I'm going for historically unique, but for clarification purposes let me say that words like fuck, bitch, cunt, and shit were all used back then too. Only problem is I don't know if you readers will believe it.
Top Ten Swear Words
1. Balls - shortened from ballocks
2. Bootlicker - same as ass-licker
3. Cherry - vulgar term for a young woman
4. Quim - female genitalia
5. Strumpet - a whore
6. Blazes - hell or the devil
7. Cussed - cursed or mean
8. Dratted - expletive or used for damned
9. Lickfinger/Lick-spittle - kiss-ass
10. Tarnation/Nation - used for damnation
BONUS: Top Five Surprisingly Naughty Words
1. Bull - taboo word because it was associated with sexual potency so polite people said cow brute, a gentleman cow, a top cow, or a seed ox.
2. Dad - euphemism for God as in dad-blame it.
3. Dickens - devil as in what the Dickens are you doing?
4. Inexpressibles - a euphemism for pants or trousers. This was due to the fact that the legs were considered extremely private. People usually said limb instead of the word leg. Also very awkward to use in your writing without explaining and even more awkward for your character to stop and explain it. Have to admit I tried to avoid it in my novel.
5. Mary - homosexual.
Want to know more commonly used words or see some real examples of how these words were used? Check out The Writer's Guide to Everyday Life in the 1800s by Marc McCutcheon. He's also written another one The Writer's Guide to Everyday Life from Prohibition to World War II by Marc McCutcheon.
Someone commented below, curious about finding the British equivalent of these books. I think What Jane Austen Ate and What Charles Dickens Knew by Daniel Pool might be of use but keep in mind that I haven't personally read it so I can't guarantee anything.
Show me you're out there and leave a comment! Anyone know any other interesting naughty historical words they can share? Or good books for such research? Feel free to shoot me some questions too!
If you like this post, make sure to sign up for my newsletter, which has all kinds of writing and publishing advice, plus lots on history! Subscribers are considered VIPs, so you are the first to know about freebees, giveaways, sales, and opportunities to become beta readers, not to mention new books!
Subscribe Right F@$&* Now!
About Stephanie CarrollStephanie Carroll is the author of A White Room and "Forget Me Not" featured in Legacy: An Anthology. She blogs about magical realism, her research into the Victorian Era and Gilded Age, writing, and life in general at www.stephaniecarroll.net and at The Unhinged Historian. She also founded Unhinged and Empowered, a blog for Navy wives and girlfriends.
Join her journey with her quarterly newsletter (only four emails a year) for VIP Readers!
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Great post, Stephanie, but are we talking USA or English Speaking World? Good to see you're back to blogging. I rely on my weekly visit!
ReplyDeleteThanks Malcolm for the welcome back! It means the world to me to me to know that you look forward to my weekly posts! Yay! =)
ReplyDeleteAlso thanks for the question US vs. English! That's an important difference. The book "The Writer's Guide to Everyday Life in the 1800s," where I pulled the words from, is about America in the 1800s. I’ll make sure to go back and clarify that in the blog post itself too.
Related to your questions - the book does a good job of showing how some American slang words derived from the British - for example people would use the "balls" as a shortened version of the British word "ballocks."
Several chapters are specific to America including Money and Coinage, Slavery and Black Plantation Culture, Out on the Range, and The Civil War, which includes customs, practices, language of the armies of the North and South, Music, Weaponry, Uniforms, Rations, and Battlefield Health and Medicine. I would definitely recommend seeking out a different book for European 1800s. They were ahead of America is some ways, like fashion, they outlawed slavery earlier, and obvious language and money was different.
For anyone who is now curious about all the chapters, here is a listing:
1. Slang and Everyday Speech
2. Getting Around (transportation)
3. Around the House
4. Clothing and Fashion
5. Occupations
6. Money and Coinage
7. Health, Medicine and Hygiene
8. Food, Drink and Tobacco
9. Amusement
10. Countship and Marriage
11. Slavery and Black Planation Culture
12. The Civil War
13 Out on the Range
13. Crime
The Appendices include:
Chronology of Events
Chronology of Noted Books and Novels
Chronology of Selected Magazines
Chronology of Innovations
Chronology of Popular Songs
References
poo
ReplyDeleteExcellent post! I'm writing a blog called Writers in London in the 1890s and just added that book to my amazon wish list because I loved your post so much. My question is: how much of the book is exclusively about the United States?
ReplyDeleteHi Tine,
DeleteThank you for commenting and for your question. That book is all based on America but Americans were still heavily influenced by Europeans at the time. Still, if you are looking for something specifically for Britain, I think "What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew" by Daniel Pool might be just the thing for you.
Let me know if I can be of any more assistance and looking forward to reading your blog. Feel free to post the link once it is up and running! =)
This was really useful to me when writing a story based in Victorian times
ReplyDeleteThanx a million =)
Thank you for commenting anonymous! I'm really glad you found it helpful.
DeleteSincerely,
Stephanie Carroll
googled "1800s swear words" for high school newspaper article... very pleased with findings!
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear it hope. Good luck with the article!
DeleteSincerely,
Stephanie Carroll
Author of "A White Room"
www.stephaniecarroll.net
I am currently plotting out a SF book that begins in the late 1800's. My main character loves to swear. It will be a comedy-SF, so having him swear with everything in God's creation is going to be a fun task. Looking for Victorian swear words, I found yours as well as these:
ReplyDeleteBeardsplitter (or beard-splitter): A Victorian word for “penis.”
Rantallion: A weirdly specific Victorian word meaning “one whose scrotum is longer than his penis.” Aka: when a man's testicles are larger than his penis shaft.
Cacafuego: This word, which means “braggart,” is Spanish in origin, literally translating as “shitfire.” It was the nickname of a ship captured by the Pirate Sir Francis Drake, who is presumably the braggart referenced by the word.
Fopdoodle: A dumbass.
I have several other links to go through as well to find more swear words. My question to you if you don't mind answer and if you know: How would an upper crust man or woman react if they heard:
1. a strumpet swearing?
2. a soldier (non-officer) swearing?
3. a dock worker swearing?
4. an officer swearing (rank of Captain or higher)?
5. a educator swearing?
6. a scientist swearing?
7. a police officer swearing?
And finally: would their reactions be different if in England vs. America in 1880?
Thanks!
Steve
jwbandsb2@yahoo.com
Postscript: I am still trying to link into your website. Links aren't working at this moment.
Hi Steve,
DeleteI'm so glad that you found this article helpful and I wish you luck on your continued search. Language is one of the more difficult things to research and write so it's good that you are taking the time to look into it.
As for your questions, the answers are dependent on a variety of things including:
- Characters
- Situations
- Genres
For example:
In the historical crime mystery “The Secret Life of Anna Blanc” the upper class woman who sneaks around acting as a detective isn’t offended when she hears police officers curse as she is pretending to be on equal footing with them as a police matron. She even begins cursing herself. However this particular novel is a comedy and the character has a naivety to her that makes her trying to use the word “cock” like the other officers hilarious.
Another example:
In my novel “The Binding of Saint Barbara” (currently in progress) I have a character who is a prison warden. He’s upper/middle class but he doesn’t flinch when he hears curse words because of his work in a prison and his own backstory, which has him growing up in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. His wife doesn’t flinch at the f-word either because she volunteers with the prisoners and is determined to show the world she is up to snuff.
In General:
If they were to hear such a thing in passing, or if you read how they should respond in an etiquette manual, it would likely suggest that they respond by pretending to ignore it, but at the same time avoiding that individual or situation again. They would probably consider it a sign of a poor upbringing and would hold inner judgments. However, if it was someone who was directly working for or serving them, they would likely impose a consequence, if not a stern scolding, and in some cases of strict upper class masters, dismiss them all together.
As far as differences between the US and UK:
I am more of an expert in the American Victorian/Gilded Age period but I've been doing research for a possible book set in England and from that research, I'd say that the institutions of upper and lower classes were far stronger and backed by a lot more history than in the US, which was mostly backed by a desire to be equal with the English upper classes. For this reason, I think that swearing among the lower classes in front of an upper class person would be less common than in the US and thus more offensive.
However this can still be manipulated by character and situation. For example in “Fingersmith” an upper class woman doesn’t react to the lower class people who curse around her in the English countryside/London, but she has been raised in a strange situation where she is exposed to the crudest of books, and she has also been taken into the house of a lower class family through deceit, so she already holds the utmost contempt and judgment for them.
This was a fun question. I’m glad you asked it and I hope you find my answer helpful! I think you too will also find more examples in the period novels you read so keep up that good work as well. Let us know if you come across anything interesting.
Sincerely,
Stephanie Carroll
Author of A White Room
www.stephaniecarroll.net
Thanks! I found this very helpful. I'm working on a novel set in 1881 in Thousand Islands, NY.
DeleteSo glad it was helpful. I'm going to do some more like this soon. What kind of language researching are you doing for ur book?
DeleteSincerely
Author Stephanie Carroll
www.stephaniecarroll.net
Do you have any idea of a replacement for the phrase "wtf" would be?
ReplyDeleteI personally liked to use "What in tarnation?" However I'm sure there are many more. I would have to do some research to find more but I'm sure they are out there. Let me know what you find!
DeleteStephanie Carroll
www.stephaniecarroll.net
loved your writing
ReplyDeleteThank you! Glad you enjoyed it. =)
Delete