glossary

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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