My kids didn’t know what I was talking about over the weekend with my old-fashioned slang. But fair’s fair, I don’t understand most of today’s slang. And it’s nothing new. My Dad didn’t understand me and I’m sure his did not really get what he was saying back in the days of words like “groovy”. Here are some slang terms that we really need to start using again:
⇒ Hurkle-Durkle: 200 years ago, this meant “To lie in bed, or to lounge after it is time to get up or go to work.” (I just had a few rooms full of hurkle-durkling teenagers this morning!)
⇒ Poke Bogey: A 19th-century term for tricking someone. (Did they also go “Poke Bogey-or-Treating”?)
⇒ Lizzie Lice: A 1930s term for a policeman who patrols in cars. (I’m sure they’d tell you that they’ve been called worse…)
⇒ Got the Pants: A Victorian phrase meaning “panting from over-exertion.” (After you take the stairs, you get the pants!)
⇒ Peerie-Winkie: ‘Peerie’ is an old Scottish word meaning “little,” and a ‘peerie-winkie’ is the little finger or toe.
⇒ Abstain from Beans: As far back as the year 100, it meant “to desist from politics”. (Beans and politics do both tend to create a certain smell…)
⇒ Whooperups: A Victorian term for “inferior, noisy singers”. (And they hadn’t even heard Miley Cyrus yet!)
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