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Glossary

What did I say?
Below is a glossary of terms from the Phryne novels.

Act The Angora

act the goat, play up, be irrational

ANZACs

Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. Also biscuits.

Art silk

artificial silk which brought silk stockings within a working class budget

Away with the Pixies/Fairies

insane

Axe-Handles

ie two axe-handles across the shoulders, broad in the beam.

Ballyragged

Harassed, perstered

Bastard

Australian usage: a term of familiarity rather than abuse ie "not a bad poor bloody old bastard". However, a Bad Bastard is a person who really should be pushed off the nearest cliff. OR, "It was a bastard" means it was very hard, dirty work.

Barbola Work

A form of modelling clay used exclusively by amateurs.

Barley Water

A refreshing lemon drink.

Bandicoot

"Miserable as a bandicoot" - very miserable indeed, even though these marsupials are generally considered markedly cheerful.

Bandoline

A very strong ladies' hair lacquer.

Banned

Excluded from the pub. A terrible fate indeed.

Bee In The Bonnet

An obsessional idea.

Beeby

Mr Justice Beeby was the judge who handed down an iniquitous labour award for longshoremen in Australia in 1928.

Besom

A twig broom or an old woman.

Belting

Being beaten up by one or more assailants.

Berlin Wool

Thick embroidery wool used for tapestry fire-screens.

Beauty! or You Beaut!

wonderful, excellent.

Bijou

French for jewel; dainty and precious.

Blanky

Self-censored form of bloody used in polite company.

Blighter

Reprehensible person.

Blighty

England, the Old Country etc

Block

Doing One's Block means to lose one's temper completely.

Bloody

Can mean almost anything, but mostly an emphatic form of punctuation.

Bludger

Always a fighting insult, workshy and lazy.

Blue

Blue humour is rude, someone called Blue has red hair, to make a blue is to make an error and a blue can also be a fight.

Bluestone College

Pentridge (a notoriously rough jail in Melbourne).

Bob

A shilling (dime).

Bodgy

Flawed, faulty.

Bonce

Head.

Buggered

Completely exhausted, ruined or broken. NEVER used in connection with sodomy.

Cachous

small sweets, favoured by old ladies

Carnies

carnival people, proprietors of side shows.

Cat-wash

to wash the face, armpits, groin and feet in a kettle of water: also known as an APC (armpits and crotch) which acronym also meant aspirin, phenacetin and coedine, a headache remedy. A fast wash. See 'a lick and a promise'

Calsomime

coloured whitewash, a cheap form of paint.

Chocolate Paper Pictures

also called 'tinsel pictures' pictures made of the coloured silver paper from chocolates.

Cloche

a close fitting felt hat, globular in shape.

Chin Chin

a toast: reply to 'mud in your eye'.

Companionate Marriage

a 'white marriage' with no sexual contact.

Corporation

( inclining to a) respectable gentleman who is growing what, in a working man, would be called a beer belly.

Cold Collation

a salad with cold meat

Colonial/My Colonial Oath

'bloody right'

Corker/Corking

wonderful

Crook(going)

go crook is to complain loudly. A crook is a criminal.

To be Crook

is to be sick. A crook tin of meat has gone bad.

Crown

to crown someone is to hit them over the head.

Crust

cheek; 'he had the crust so say...' Also 'earn a crust' earn a living.

Dingbat

a mad person

Docket

a criminal record

Doctor Nikola

the arch-villain in Guy Boothby's novels. Always seen with his black cat on his shoulder. It sneered.

Diggers

Australian soldiers

Dob

to dob someone in is to inform on them to authority

Dog

only a dog dobs someone in

Dowie/Doo

Scottish usage for 'dove'

Elinor Glyn

wrote steaming novels of throbbing passion.

Eat More Fruit

a campaign by Railways Commissoner Clapp to support growers

Epergne

large silver or china bowl which obstructs cross the table conversation. Usually filled with flowers.

Ek saal en plan maak

quote from John Buchan's Peter Pienaar. Transvaal Africaans for 'sit down and make a plan'

Fantan

Chinese gambling game.

Fast

a girl who may find herself in trouble; a flirt.

Flat Stony Motherless

entirely without capital of any kind

Feejee Mermaid

a palpably false creature made of a mummified fish and a really dead monkey, foisted on the public by P.T.. Barnum. Who was right about suckers.

Flapper

originally a schoolgirl with her hair in a braid down her back; later a fashionable woman with short skirts, short hair, and no corset.

Fitrzroy cocktail

methylated spirits(wood alcohol) ginger and brown boot polish, or red wine and methylated spirits. Not recommended. Fitzroy was a slum.

Food reform

movement towards fresh fruit and vegetables, low fat and salt and no alcohol. Heavy on carrot.

Gallimaufry

a collection of different fish or meats, set in aspic

Game (on the)

A prostitute

Gees

horses

Gelt

money

Ghosts

Chinese slang for white people

Glory-Box

a trousseau made by a young woman while she is waiting to be married. Contained all her household linen.

Giggle-Juice

alcohol

Grues

'gives me the grues' makes me shiver.

Gussied-up

dressed for a party

Guineas

a coin worth one pound and one shilling.

Half pi full of ink

half-drunk

Half-inch

rhyming slang for 'pinch' to steal

Heart Starter

a shot of alcohol to begin the new daya shot of alcohol to begin the new day

Half-cut

Half Drunk

Hellenic beverage

Phryne's very strong Greek coffee

His Majesty's Pleasure

committed to a lunatic asylum rather than jail for as long as necessary; an indefinite sentence.

Houshold supply

large sized packet or bottle for household use

Jack Robinson

'before you can say Jack Robinson' means instantly, immediately. As even Brewer isn't sure where it came from, your imagination can range freely, as mine did.

Jacks

police

Jazz coloured

pink, black and silver, green, black and gold. Usually in stripes.

Jaeger suit

as worn by G B Shaw, a 'hygenic' suit. Looked tweedy.

Jenny Hanniver

a fish which when dried can be modelled into the frightful underwater denizen of your choice.

Jo Jo the Dog Faced Boy

a ' freak' working for P T Barnum; his face was covered with hair.

Keeled over

fell over slowly.

Kero tin

was used for domestic heating and lighting, so a kerosene tin was part of the furniture, and was used, for example, as the wicket in every street game of cricket.

Knut

a dandy

King hit

the one beautiful punch which ends the fight.

koko-for-the-hair

a popular shampoo which, if used once a month, instilled coconut oil into dry hair.

Ladies' Travelling Necessities

disposable sanitary pads

Lair

a lair is an apprentice villain with too much hair oil and no brains; a mug lair is a gullible one.

Lantern lectures

slide shows.

Loose in the hilts

A lady who might be 'fast'

louis heel

a curved heel, very elegant but not high. Perhaps an inch.

Mad as a cut snake

very mad indeed.

Mate

very significant male relationship. Your mate would die for you. Without asking.

Mash

brew the tea.

Maskeleyne

very skilled English stage magician.

Megrims

similar to the vapours. Need to go and lie down for an hour.

Mental

'she's mental' she's insane'.

Mickey/Mickey Finn

good solid dose of fast acting soporific in a drink.

Mrs Mopps

a domestic cleaner.

Mommets

dolls; used of children.

Moleskins

very stout canvas trousers, usually to be found standing at the foot of a worker's bed.

Mug

a gullible fool

Muscle in

shove yourself bodily into a conversation or situation

Mutt and Jeff

rhyming slang 'deaf'

Murder in the chookhouse

screaming and panic, used esp of massed female expostulations; derived perhaps from a fox in the hen house.

Murphies

potatoes

Nark

an informer

Natural

a 'natural' is a child with some congenital cognition fault; also used as emphasis ' a natural-born bastard'

Night Soil

sewage

Nosy-parker

an inquisitive person

On for young and old

the fight in the pub has just included the barman.

Old fashioned look

disapproving glare.

Old man

father, husband or boss.

OP rum

over proof rum, much stronger than usual.

Out of the top drawer

from the best families

Paddy

An Irish person. Also, a fit of bad temper.

Pattens

boots on high rings to keep feet out of mud or water.

Pat Malone

rhyming slang; on my own, alone.

Plackets

petticoat pockets, separate from the garment, or the slits in skirts made so that they could be reached

Phiz-gig

an informer ( from phiz, face, gig, to look; one who looks at people and tells the police what they have been doing.)

Plates of Meat

rhyming slang: feet

poke borak

to swear or jeer (19th century usage and aboriginal word)

Primus stove

a spirit stove for boiling a kettle without lighting the main stove.

Punter

a person who wagers money on anything - also called a mug.

Q.T.

'on the QT' means quietly, without attracting notice.

Queered

to 'queer our pitch' is to foil our plan

Quid

one pound - a note.

Raree show

a carnival or side show

Ratbag

literally a mad person, but can be affectionate.

Red-ragger

a communist (because of the red flag)

Red biddy

ruby port and methylated spirits.

Rusticated

for a student, sent down for a term.

Rye buck on a straight wire

an honest deal. 'rye buck' means 'good'

Scab

killing insult even today. One who breaks a strike.

Shill

a person who entices the crowd to try, ie, a shooting gallery.

Shirty

angry

Skin

a bank note

Skint

totally broke

Skipping Girl

famous neon sign advertising vinegar.

Silver-tail

a rich person.

Six oclock swill

when the pubs closed at six, there was a rush to down as much as possible before the doors closed. This explained why sly grog (q.v) flourished until the licencing hours were relaxed.

Sly grog

illegal sales of alcohol outside drinking hours.

Staling

urinating ( agricultural) 

Standover men

those who extract money by threats of arson or injury

S.P

starting price bookmakers - very illegal.

Stoush

A fight

Soul-case

the body, but 'he beat the soul case out of him' is a very bad beating indeed.

Suss 

suspicious 

Sugar Sacks 

calico sacks, used for clothing the poor. 

Sundowner 

a swagman, a tramp. 

Swaggie 

one who carries a rolled blanket 'drum' and walks from farm to farm, seeking work and handouts. 

Tanner 

sixpence 

Tar brush

'a touch of the tar brush' implies black or coloured ancestry. 

Thimble-rigger

offers a game with three cups and a ball which you cannot win.

Three card trick

also known as find the lady; guess which one of these cards is the queen. See 'thimble rigger' for your chances of success.

Thomas Atkins

'Tommy' the name for any English soldier.

Tickety boo

excellent.

Two Bob Watch

not a reliable source of information.

Turkey lolly

spun sugar or fairy floss.

Turps

alcohol, implies alcoholism or a Fitzoy cocktail (q.v.)

Virgin Sturgeon

student song 'caviar comes from the virgin sturgeon, the virgin sturgeon's a very fine fish. The virgin sturgeon needs no urgin', that's why caviar's a very rare dish'.

Wallaby

the wallaby's track - tramping the outback (see swaggie)

Wet arse and no fish

an unsuccessful venture.

Wharfie 

a longshoreman.

White Slavery 

an urban legend about young women going, i.e. into a theatre toilet and later waking up confined to a Turkish brothel.  

Whiz bang 

WW1 slang for high explosive shells. 

Winceyette 

a cheap and nasty knitted material for underclothes, etc. 

Zinc 

the counter in a French bistro 

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