Blast Your Timbers and other Regency Slang by Nina Benneton
Bite your vulgar tongue, sir!
Think you can spot a word or a phrase that doesn’t ring ‘Regency’ to you?
As a devoted, long-time reader of Jane Austen’s, Georgette Heyer’s, and numerous other contemporary Regency authors’ books, I thought I was rather good at picking up anachronistic words or phrases that do not seem to belong to ‘Regency’ period.
Then, I started writing a Regency novel, and a writer friend alerted me to online etymology site a few years ago, and before I know it, I’m buying and perusing books with titles like ‘Dictionary of Vulgar Tongue’ by F. Grose, ‘Regency Thesaurus and Slang’ by M. Jones, and ‘Dictionary of Historical Slang’ by J. Hotten.
Want to take a test? (I promise, it will be a fun test. No failing grades here.)
Yes or No?
Yes or No these Regency (up to 1820) word or phrase:
1. Bad show!
2. Balderbash!
3. Blast it!
Blast your timbers!
4. What the blazes! (Blazes= a very hot place.)
Mad as blazes!
Go to blazes!
5. Blimey!
6. Bloody!
Bleeding!
7. Bless my soul!
Bless his heart!
8. Oh bother!
Oh brother!
9. By Heavens!
By Jupiter!
By George!
10. Darn!
Da-mit! (2 m’s)
Da-n (as a noun),
Da-n ( as a verb),
Not give a da-n!
Not worth a da-n!
11. Dang it!
12. Dash it!
13. Go to the dickens!
The dickens you are!
What the dickens!
14. Drat!
Dratted!
15. Do tell!
Ready for the answers? Take out your Oxford English Dictionary (OED!), don’t worry about the other sources. OED is all you need, mostly.
The trusty OED!! Don’t leave home without it.
Answers:
1. Bad show! (Disapprobation)
No. According to OED this expression doesn’t show up until 1916.
2. Balderbash! (Meaning nonsense!)
Yes. 1674 OED.
3. Blast it!
Yes, 17th Century OED (Blast you! Blast them! Blast your eyes!—all are okay. )
And my favorite find: Blast your timbers. (A sailor’s curse! Hmmm. Would Wentworth say this? I’ll have to use this somehow in a story.)
Yes. Battle of Trafalgar. Laurence Halloran 1806.
4. What the blazes! (Blazes: a very hot place.)
No. Didn’t show up until 1838 in the OED, but
Yes for Mad as blazes! 1818 OED.
Though, no for Go to blazes! 1858 OED.
5. Blimey! (God blind me!)
No. That’s a Victorian expression, apparently. 1889 OED.
6. Bloody!
My favorite word. And it has been in the OED since 1755 as an extremely vulgar slang. 
But, you can’t substitute ‘Bleeding!’ for ‘Bloody!‘ if you’re in the Regency period, since it doesn’t show up in the OED until 1858.
7. Bless my soul!
Yes. (Thomas Lister’s ‘Granby: A Novel ).
Bless his heart! (From our own Jane Austen!)
Bite your vulgar tongue! This is a family friendly blog!
8. Oh bother!
No. 1840 OED.
But, interestingly, Yes for Oh brother! (The Memoirs of DeCastro 1824)
Tongue twister reading material.
9. By Heavens!
Yes. From Spenser Hudson’s Almack’s published in 1826
By Jupiter!
Yes.(Georgette Heyer’s fans will recognize this. Although, Heyer made up some of the Regency words/slang). Since 1600′s. Dictionary of Historical Slang 1974.
By George!
Yes, (This surprised me for some reason) OED 1598.
10. Darn!
Yes, OED 1791 (But mostly US)
Dam-it! (2 m’s)
No. OED 1908.
But ‘ Da-n it’ two words is supposedly in Jane Austen’s NA/Sandition/Susan/Watson’s.
Da-n (as a noun). As in ‘Hot D—n!’ didn’t show up until 1929 in OED
Da-n ( as a verb), a resounding ‘Yes’ in many, many sources. (Even in Jane Austen’s as noted. John Thorpe, anyone?)
How about the phrase ‘Not give a da-n!’?
Nope. That didn’t show up until 1895 OED.
But the phrase, ‘Not worth a da-n!‘ is Yes, 1817 OED.
What the dickens are you looking at?
11. Dang it!
Surprisingly to me, Yes, it’s a Regency expression. According to ‘History of Pugilism‘ 1812.
12. Dash it!
Yes. 1800 OED.
13. Go to the dickens! No—1877 OED.
The dickens you are! Also No —1884 OED.
But, ‘What, where, why, when the dickens’ are all okay—17th century OED.
14. Drat! As an expletive is Yes, 1815 OED.
Dratted! As an adjective is ‘No’ as it didn’t show up until 1857 in OED.
15. Do tell! Is a No for our period, as it didn’t show up until 1824-1874) according to Grose’s ‘Dictionary of Vulgar Tongue’.
Are your tongue all twisted now?
I want you all to know I haven’t spent all my time perusing books with naughty words. 
I have also been busy with other writing projects. I’m happy to announce that one of my short stories, ‘Sass,’ is published in an anthology called ‘Death Sparkles’ this month. It’s a contemporary piece that had nothing to do with Jane Austen or Regency time, but all proceeds from the anthology ($1.99 ebook only) go to adult literacy project. More details will be forthcoming on my website: www.NinaBenneton.com
Also, on Friday this week, I will be guest on Austen Callers on author Amy Elizabeth Smith of All Roads Lead to Austen. Amy asked me about the response to my debut novel, Compulsively Mr. Darcy, and what and how I would (cheekily) modernize Austen’s other works. Come by and check it out.
Do Tell how you did on the test? Did you learn anything from this blog? I’ve only got to the D’s in my diligent studying of the slang. Would you like to read more? Or should I go and clean my tongue out with soap?
Nina Benneton
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18 Responses to Blast Your Timbers and other Regency Slang by Nina Benneton
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Lol, love it
Oooh, someone who loves the irreverent topic as I do! Thank you.
This is interesting. I have a hard time recognising which is used in Regency and not.
Thanks for sharing it, Nina and do continue with your studies.
I confess I read Regency novels for years before I even cared what is used in Regency or not. If a story is gripping, I couldn’t care less because I read for the stories. As a writer, though, I need to make sure it’s all historical accurate, even the expletives. Sometimes I wondered why did I tackle the challenge, then I realize I just love a Regency man in tight breeches.
Nina, this was fabulous (and exactly what I like to dig up in my spare time). Thanks so much for the reading list – I’m off to hunt those gems down on Amazon.
Susan,
I’m afraid it’s going to be mostly other writers who think etymology is a fascinating subject. LOL.
Thanks for this, Nina. It was a fun challenge — I found myself going by instinct and guessing right for most of them, but had a few surprises. Thanks to your explanations, I now have a few words to add to my novels.
Monica,
You got GREAT instinct! I was pleasantly surprised at how much I knew, too, though not enough to celebrate.
This was so much fun, Nina!! Thank you for sharing it, and congrats on your short story being out in the anthology this month, too
.
See, another writer thinking this is fun! Geeks, that’s what we are!
I did fairly well but was surprised by “dang it!” and “do tell”. I figured it was close enough to “pray tell”. I love learning these kinds of things! And I must say that “what the blazes” is one of my favorite things to say. My nieces have started using it, too, from hearing me so often.
Thanks Nina! Keep making your way through the alphabet. And congratulations on your short story in the anthology!
What the blazes! Man, you’re a cool auntie!
I say ‘dang it’ all the time, and it sounds so modern to me. Kinda hard imagining Regency Darcy saying ‘Dang it’ though, huh?
I love learning about words and their origins. I’m going to have to look up the expression “By George.” I wonder who George was! Thanks for a fun post.
See, another writer-geek! I wondered who George was, too. It predated the Georgian period… so I’m really curious.
This was really interesting! Thanks for sharing this with us.
Chelsea,
You are officially now have joined the rank of writer-geeks. We expect a novel from you soon, okay?
I’m fascinated by this, please keep going. So often I come across words in JAFF that don’t seem quite right and its hard sometimes to explain why. This sort of info helps put it all in perspective.
Cheers, Kat
Too much fun! I’ll admit to being a geek, but not a writer one (I wish!) I live in Appalachia, so I hear things (that sound like they should be in Regency England) in use all the time. I had 4 answers wrong- keep sharing your research Nina!