Page 29 of The Mismatch of the Season

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.