Victorian Times is back!

Free monthly E-magazine
Find Out More
Sign up today!


   

Explore over 12,000 Victorian articles
BY TOPIC / BY MAGAZINE

Discover thousands of Victorian images in our CLIP ART section!

Search
VictorianVoices.net:



America
America - Regional
Architecture
Britain
Business
Children
Christmas
Civil War
Cooking
Crafts
Education
Etiquette & Entertaining
Fashion
FASHION IMAGES
Folklore
Garden
Health
History
Holidays
Home
Inventions
Issues
Life
London
Military
Music
Native Americans
Nature
Objects
People
Pets
Recreation
Royalty
Science & Technology
Servants
Sports
Statistics
Transportation
Women
Work
World

VICTORIAN FICTION COLLECTION

Welcome
HOMEABOUTSTORECLIP ARTCONTACT


Just in Time for the Holidays:
Check Out Our
Victorian Christmas Cards!


Victorian Folklore:
Slang, Dialect, Sayings & Proverbs

Home > History, Archaeology & Folklore > Folklore > Slang, Dialect, Sayings & Proverbs

Months Long and Short (Leisure Hour, 1860)
Rhymes and other tricks to help one remember how many days are in each month.

Proverbial Comparison (Leisure Hour, 1868)
A look at popular sayings and similes, such as "drunk as a Lord" or "drunk as David's sow."

Americanisms, by Richard Grant White (Atlantic Monthly, 1878)

Proverbs and Old Sayings (Collier's Cyclopedia, 1882)
This includes scriptural proverbs, Latin proverbs, and a fascinating selection of English and Scottish proverbs.

Speeches (Collier's Cyclopedia, 1882)
A selection of toasts and short speeches for common social occasions.

Toasts and Sentiments (Collier's Cyclopedia, 1882)
One-line toasts for a variety of occasions.

An Englishman on Americanisms (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1887)
"It is impossible to take up an American newspaper without reading of certain persons who are designated by such terms as scallawags, kickers, bolters, mud-slingers, cranks, dudes, bulldozers, dead-heads, loafers, roustabouts, mugwumps, etc."

Some Things We Say and Do in America, by Deliverance Dingle (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1888)

The English Language in America, (Century Magazine, 1889A)
"There is no divine right in matters verbal vested in English speakers on the other side of the sea. Our language is not lent us by them on the condition that it shall not be tampered with, but is our own to mold or forge to all the purposes of our multifarious and peculiar practical and intellectual life."

American Slang, Catchwords and Abbreviations, by Dora de Blaquière (Girl's Own Paper, 1894)
No common language? Brits found American terms like "greased lightning," "tangle-leg" and "pan out" to be quite entertaining!

Wild Flowers of English Speech in America, by Edward Eggleston (Century Magazine, 1894A)

Folk-Speech in America, by Edward Eggleston (Century Magazine, 1894B)

The Origin of "O.K.", by Prof. W.S. Wyman (Century Magazine, 1894B)
Debunking the myth that "OK" was the result of Andrew Jackson's illiteracy, and suggesting instead that the word came to us from Jackson through his knowledge of the Choctaw language.

Rhymed Memory Aids, by Maud Morrison (Girl's Own Paper, 1895)
Some classic memory poems, such as red sky at night, kings of England, and books of the Bible.

Southern Dialect, by Val Starnes (Century Magazine, 1895B)

Gallicized English, by Rupert Hughes (Century Magazine, 1898)
From "rostbif" to the "ha-i-la-i-fe," a look at how Victorian French publications adopt and adapt the popular English phrases of the day.

Modern Slang, by Darley Dale (Girl's Own Paper, 1898)

A Book of Tongues [The Dialect Dictionary], by Leonard W. Lillingston (Good Words, 1902)
Visit Our Victorian Shop
for:


Books


Coloring Books


Beautiful Spiral Journals


Holiday Greeting Cards

Find out more about the magazines used on this site
PDF files on this site are best viewed with Adobe Reader 9.0 or later. Download Acrobat Reader free.
Copyright © 2024 by Moira Allen. All rights reserved.
Please read our Privacy Statement.