by Daniel Pool
slops—The word referred to loose clothing bought by sailors. Also, slopwork was cheap, slapped-together sweatshop work, e.g., slop furniture. Slops was also the name for a feeble kind of broth given to sick people. “Have you given him any nourishment?” Mr. Brownlow asks his housekeeper when poor Oliver Twist is ill. “Any slops, eh?” “He has just had a basin of beautiful strong broth,” she replies haughtily. Slops was also household waste water.
small beer—A kind of weak, low-quality beer.
small clothes—Knee breeches.
smalls—See small clothes.
smelling bottle—A bottle filled with smelling salts (usually a compound containing ammonia) to be used in case of fainting.
smock—The original term for a “shift” or “chemise.”
snob—Until Thackeray got hold of the term and changed its meaning in his Book of Snobs in 1846, it meant someone of no social standing, as opposed to a “nob.”
smock frock—As an outer garment a smock frock was worn by the agricultural working poor till well into the century. It was like an ordinary smock, except heavier. Hardy observes in Tess (1891) when the ubiquitous Alec Durberville turns up in one that it is “now worn only by the most old-fashioned of labourers.”
snipe—A bird with a long bill that lives in marshes.
snuffers—Scissorslike instruments used for periodically trimming the wicks on tallow candles, which would otherwise start burning poorly. To “snuff” a candle was to trim its wick to make it burn better. To extinguish it was to “snuff it out.” The snuff was the burning or burnt part of the wick. “The candles went on flickering and guttering, and there were no snuffers,” says Esther Summerson of a visit she makes to the chambers of Conversation Kenge in Bleak House, “until the young gentleman by and by brought a very dirty pair.”
solicitor—A lawyer who handled such matters as wills and estate problems and hired barristers to represent his clients in the Chancery Court when courtroom work was called for. Solicitors lacked the prestige of barristers and could not, themselves, appear in court, but like Mr. Tulkinghorn, “attorney-at-law and eke solicitor of the High Court of Chancery,” could develop a good deal of influence and make a nice living. When paying for a barrister’s services, one always paid the solicitor—never the barrister directly.
Somerset House—A building in the Strand in London that housed various government offices, most notably the Board of Inland Revenue, the tax office.
Southwark—The area immediately across the Thames south of London, known sometimes as “the Borough.”
sovereign—A gold coin worth a pound, first issued in 1817.
spade guinea—See guinea.
spatterdashes—Basically long gaiters. Spatterdashes came up high on the leg. Extremely short spatterdashes fastened under the feet were called “spats.”
special pleader—Someone who wrote up “pleadings” or petitions submitted in a court case by a lawyer, an occupation sometimes followed by a student at the Inns of Court who had not yet been “called to the bar.”
spencer—For women, a kind of short jacket. For men, an overcoat without tails, also on the short side.
splinter bar—The crossbar at the end of the pole hitched in front of a carriage to which the horses were attached so that they could pull it.
sponging house—A house maintained by a sheriff’s officer where debtors were put up after they had been arrested for debt and where they were given a chance to pay it before going to prison. Also spelled “spunging house.”
spooney—A fool, sometimes with the connotation of a person made foolish by love.
sprat—A baby herring; also, a small seafish; also, slang for a sixpence.
spring van—Vans were generally used for hauling around goods and sometimes poor or working people. A spring van was so elegant that it actually had springs to smooth the ride. “The modern spring van,” wrote a mid-century observer, “is, as it were, the landau, or travelling carriage of the working classes. . . . They were about 14 feet long, with removable seats, an awning on top and side curtains that could be rolled up or kept down depending on the weather and could be pulled by anywhere from one to four horses.”
spunging house—See sponging house.
squadron—Part of a fleet of ships in the navy detached from the main fleet. The navy was divided into the red, white, and blue squadrons, each with its own complement of admirals, rear admirals and vice admirals; thus, one would refer to “an Admiral of the Blue.” In the army, a squadron was the unit in the cavalry corresponding to a battalion in the infantry, that is, the next biggest unit down from a regiment. It had anywhere between 100 and 200 men in it.
squire—Simply a term of courtesy for a member of the gentry whose family had lived for generations in an area and who had tenant farmers on his property. Squires were often justices of the peace.
staddle—A platform made out of stone or wood on which hay or corn was put after it was cut or harvested to keep it away from moisture and rats.
stagecoach—A coach that traveled in stages, i.e., stopping periodically to change horses or to allow the passengers to eat or rest. They were commercial vehicles, usually running on some kind of regular schedule.
stair rod—The metal rods clamped along the base of each riser on stairs to keep the stair carpet in place.
stake—To stake a horse—as Dunstan Cass does in Silas Marner—was to impale it on a fence or hedge of some kind.
stall—Metonymy at work. Since prebendaries sat in a cathedral stall, a stall came to signify the position that a prebendary held. “Dr. Grant,” we learn at the end of Mansfield Park, “through an interest on which he had almost ceased to form hopes, succeeded to a stall in Westminster.”
standard—The first attempt to establish a nationwide system of requirements for the education of elementary school children was made with the minute passed in the Privy Council’s committee on education in 1846. It created six standards—one for each age, beginning with six- and seven-year-olds up through age twelve (standards I-VI), at the end of which children had to show that they could read a simple paragraph and take dictation of a simple paragraph, plus do some arithmetic. The girls also had to demonstrate some facility in needlework as well. Tess Durbeyfield, Hardy says at one point, had passed her sixth standard.
stand up—To stand up with someone was to dance with them.
stanhope—A light, two- or four-wheel carriage that had no top, named after the Honourable and Reverend Fitzroy Stanhope (1787–1864).
statute fair—See hiring fair.
stay—A stay was one of the two halves of a corset; hence, stays, or a “pair of stays,” were an entire corset.
staylace—One of the laces used to tighten a corset. They were sold on the streets of London by elderly poor women (it required little capital to start the business), whose customers were servant girls, working-class girls, and the daughters and wives of small shopkeepers. On occasion staylaces were cut by doctors after ladies had fainted away from wearing them too tight—the desirable female waist measurement was at one time very modest, although probably not the eighteen inches sometimes spoken of as the theoretical ideal.
steamers—In 1848 there were 33,000 sail boats and 1,100 steamships in Britain. The river steamers in the Thames at first disturbed people with their large wakes (they averaged eight to nine miles per hour). They were used in large part by middle class and working people to commute to work from the suburbs.
steeplechase—Some gentlemen socializing together one night apparently decided to ride for sport straight toward a distant steeple—letting nothing get in their way. Hence, steeplechase became the term for a horseback ride or race that went straight across country over all obstacles.
sterling—As in “one pound sterling.” The term came from the old Norman penny made of silver that was known as a sterling. Thereafter any object of the same degree of purity was called “sterling.”
steward—In very elaborate households, the steward
was the head of the male servants or at times chief of the male and female servants alike. He presided over the running of the entire establishment—keeping the accounts, ordering supplies, supervising staff. In a less grand establishment a butler headed the male staff. There were also land stewards in the eighteenth century, who managed the farming and pasturage of the great estates. In the 1800s they were generally superseded by professional agents.
stewpond—A special fishpond kept by manor houses in medieval days so as to have a supply of fresh food.
stile—A set of steps in a fence through or over which a human could climb to get out of a field or pasture but which would be impassable to sheep or cattle.
stillroom—The place in a house—if not still used as a still—where preserves and wine were kept and where coffee or tea was made.
stoat—The ermine. Most of the year he was brownish and was called a stoat. In the winter he turned white and was called an ermine.
stock—A tightish, stiff collar worn by men, especially soldiers (a character in The Return of the Native refers to a “stock sawing my jaws off”). In clerical dress it was the black shirtfront over which the white bit of collar was fastened. Horticulturally speaking, stocks were tall flowers that grew in cottage gardens.
stole—A long narrow scarf worn by clergymen that was draped over the shoulders so that it hung down to the knees in front on either side.
stone—A measurement of weight equal to fourteen pounds.
stovepipe hat—A top hat (a/k/a chimneypot hat).
strait waistcoat—A straitjacket.
strand—The shore of a river or ocean. There was a three-quarter-mile-long street in London running from Charing Cross to Temple Bar that was one of the two big east-west thoroughfares in London called the Strand because it had originally marked the northern boundary of the Thames.
straw plaiting—Weaving together straw into the straw bonnets then fashionable; a cottage industry for many years among the rural poor.
stud—A collection of horses kept for a special purpose such as breeding or racing.
stuff—A name for different kinds of fabrics, but most commonly those made of wool.
subaltern—In the army, a subaltern was a junior officer. Subalterns were ensigns (a rank later redesignated as second lieutenant) and lieutenants. They were the young officers who assisted a captain in running his company.
suet pudding—Suet was the hard fat of an animal around its kidneys and loins, which, in some conditions, could be turned into tallow. Suet pudding was a pudding made of flour and suet that was generally boiled in cloth.
sugarloaf—The hardened, crusty form in which sugar was generally available for much of the 1800s. It had the shape of a cone—a shape it acquired when the sugar was stacked up to dry and the liquid drained away from it during the production process.
sugarplum—A roundish piece of flavored candy made mostly out of sugar.
sunk fence—See ha-ha.
surgeon—A man who fixed broken bones, wounds, and any other kind of external injury—something which physicians did not do. Surgeons were of lower social status than physicians. They were generally addressed as “Mr.” rather than “Dr.,” a title usually reserved for physicians.
surplice—A loose, flowing, ankle-length garment with big droopy sleeves, generally worn over the cassock by clergymen when conducting a service.
Surrey—The name of the county on the southern side of the Thames opposite London where Southwark was.
surtout—A man’s overcoat that looked like a frock coat.
swallowtail coat—A man’s coat, so called from the shape of the long tails that tapered down in back.
Swede—Also called the Swedish turnip. A root crop grown for winter fodder.
sweep—A chimney sweep. They treated their “climbing boys” abysmally in the early part of the century, presumably one reason for the grim characterization of the sweep Gamfield, who seeks to acquire Oliver Twist as an apprentice.
sweetmeat—A sweetmeat was a candy, particularly a candied fruit, although also a hard, fruit-flavored candy.
swing glass—A mirror similar or identical to a cheval glass.
tags—Little hanging ornaments of dress.
take orders—To become a clergyman of the Church of England.
take silk—A barrister could wear a silk gown once he became, according to the gender of the reigning monarch, either King’s Counsel or Queen’s Counsel.
take up—To pay an obligation like a bill of exchange.
tallow—Fat from oxen or sheep, which was used for making soap or candles and for various other purposes.
tambour—A hoop filled with material on which embroidery was done.
tandem—A team of two horses harnessed one behind the other (as opposed to side by side) were said to be driven in “tandem.” Like the bicycle.
tankard—A big drinking mug, usually for beer, often with some kind of cover on it.
tanner—Slang for a sixpence.
taper—A small wax candle.
taproom—The room in a tavern or inn where ordinary laborers or working people were served, as opposed to the parlor, which often had fancier decor and was for the genteel.
tar—Colloquial word for a sailor. Also, an ingredient mixed into cold water with a supposed medicinal aim. Mrs. Gargery doses Pip with it at the beginning of Great Expectations.
tarts—In addition to being the little fruit pastries one thinks of, they could also apparently be deep-dish pielike foods.
tea caddy—A box that tea was kept in. They were sometimes locked in the days when tea was very costly.
teapoy—A three-legged stand that became a table used for serving tea, in part apparently through a misapprehension of the word’s origins, which lie actually in Persian and Hindu words that in conjunction mean “three-legged.”
Temple—An area in London once the site of buildings occupied by the Knights Templar, and, by the 1800s, by two of the four Inns of Court, i.e., the Inner Temple and Middle Temple.
Temple Bar—It stood north of the Temple at the eastern end of the Strand where the Strand became Fleet Street. It was a gate that marked the formal entrance to the City of London. The sovereign had to request the right from the lord mayor of London to pass through it when he or she wanted to enter the city.
tenant—Many exceedingly prosperous farmers farmed as tenants of greater landowners rather than as landowners on their own. Thus, the term in agricultural circles was by no means synonymous with reduced economic circumstances. Both Farmer Boldwood and Bathsheba Everdene in Far from the Madding Crowd, for example—together disposing of some two thousand acres and a good many farm workers—were tenant farmers.
tenner—A ten-pound note.
term—The name given to the academic sessions of Oxford and Cambridge, e.g., Michaelmas, Easter; also given to the periods during which the law courts were formally in session in London. In 1873 the law terms were redesignated “sessions” or sittings. To “eat one’s terms” was to be a law student at the Inns of Court, since for many years to dine there a certain number of times was the only requirement for becoming a barrister.
terrace—A row of houses along a slope, usually of the same style and all attached to one another; more or less synonymous with cheap middle-class housing.
Test Act—Legislation passed prior to 1800 which kept Catholics from holding public office, including Parliament. Repealed in 1828 by the Tory administration led by the duke of Wellington.
thimblerigger—The man who worked the old shell game where the spectator tries to figure out which one of the three shells the pea is under.
third class—The lowest class of railroad travel (except the parliamentary). Third-class cars were originally without roofs or seats.
third-rate—See rate.
Thirty-nine Articles—The thirty-nine different statements, which, taken together, made up the basic credo of the Church of England. Adherence to them was required of all students entering
Oxford until the 1850s, and a clergyman “read himself in” to a new parish congregation by reading the articles aloud from the pulpit.
thorn tree—Often a reference to the hawthorn.
throne—The seat of a bishop in his cathedral.
throstle—The song thrush, a popular caged bird.
ticket-of-leave man—Certain convicts were excused from having to serve their whole sentence under an “order of license,” known colloquially as a ticket-of-leave. If they misbehaved, they went back in jail.
ticket porter—A porter in London “licensed” to carry goods, parcels, etc. Originally, as with many London occupations, being a porter was a regulated monopoly (like belonging to a guild), so the porters carried small badges or tickets to show that they had an official right to carry things.
tidewaiter—A customs official who boarded boats after waiting for them to come in on the tide.
tiffin—A light, midday snack customary in India that involved chutney, etc. Joe Sedley, collector of Boggley Wallah for the East India Company, buys a pineapple in Vanity Fair, ever mindful of his stomach’s needs. “Let’s have it for tiffin,” he says, “very cool and nice in this hot weather.”
tights—The thin skintight pants worn by gentlemen in the early part of the century, so tight that they had to carry separate purses in which to keep their money. Marley, old-fashioned spook that he is, shows up to visit Scrooge dressed in “his pig-tails, usual waistcoat, tights and boots” with “heavy purses wrought in steel” among the impedimenta he drags after him in punishment for his misdeeds.
tilbury—A two-wheel, rather light carriage with no top, popular before 1850.
tilt—In a waggon or cart, the tilt was the cloth covering the “covered” part of a “covered waggon.”
Times—Ultimately the most influential newspaper of its day. It started life as a fairly feisty, rough-and-tumble paper—at one point not atypically calling a competing paper a “squirt of filthy water.” Then it became respectable and magisterial—Trollope parodies it in several novels as the “Jupiter” in allusion to its nickname of the “Thunderer.” It was supposed to be nonpartisan, and it published the entire text of parliamentary debates and reports. It had a circulation of about 60,000 in 1861 and was read by the movers and shakers of its day.