Those aggravating bits of hair that whip and whirl loose around the face were called âaggerawatorsâ (now aggravators) by Charles Dickens in 1836. Apparently, in those days, ladies and gents loved to tame choice cowlicks with grease by pasting them âtoward the ear, or conversely toward the outer corner of the eye.â How stylish.
Cat-sticks, a term described in the 18th-century Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, are “skinny legs.” Weâre not sure if it was a male-biased termâbased on the fact that itâs inspired by a boyâs game called tip-catâor if the slang was equal-opportunity and applied to gals as well. Weâre going with the latter for equality’s sake.
Dew-beaters are attached to your cat-sticks (or your stumps, cheese-cutters, rose stems, barn silos, whatever). At 7:30am, when you race across the lawn, jump in your car, and speed to work, youâre running with your dew-beaters. Your feet are just pummeling that dew.
But, considering you probably wear nice loafers or pumps, today you would likely take a paved route to your car. Maybe, thatâs what todayâs equivalent of feet should be: pavement-stompers.
was an early pagan fertility celebration to welcome the blooming blushes of Spring and . . . other things. And, wouldnât you know, centuries later, the word maypole would become a slang reference to theâuhâtrowel that helps fertilize the soil.
Other horticulture euphemisms for the “staff of lifeâ wereâwell, that one right there, and also the pioneer of nature as well as the generating tool.
No, peerie-winkie is not another slang sibling of âpeenie-weenie,â though itâs a heck of a good lookalike.
Instead, peerie-winkie refers to the little finger or toe. Peerie is an old Scottish word for âtiny.â And, pee-wees once described small marbles, which are what the peerie-winkies on a precious little babyâs dew-beaters look like (of course, the infantâs tiny feet canât brush, let alone beat, the dew yet, but you get the idea).
Phizâand its friends fizzog and physogâhave the sensical nonsense quality that clop, creech, and droog have in A Clockwork Orange. And, thatâs because, thereâs actually some sense behind them.
For Clockwork, a lot of the words were inspired by sensical words in other languages, but thatâs another story! Phiz and friends made sense in the 1700s because theyâre abbreviations of physiognomy, the $64,000 11-letter word for âface.â
Ever seen old slapstick comedy? The kind where grown menâusually men, maybe not so grown (sorry Charlie)âwaddle around in baggy clothes and fall down all the time? Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin were masters of the most fundamental act in slapstick: falling wham-bam-thank-you-maâam on their prats. The name of the act, of course, is the pratfall. ±Ê°ùČčłÙâs been a slang term for âbuttâ since the 1500s. But, it hasn’t always been funny; a prat-digger was the term for a pick-pocket skilled in the art of removing back-pocket booty.
Thereâs something musical about trillibubs. șÚÁÏÍűever could they be? Fluttery, flirty, long-lashed peepers? Maybe. But, then thereâs the coarse screech of trolly-bagsâand nobody wants eye baggage.
No, trillibubs and trolly-bags (also trotty-bags) are located further down, deeper in the body. Theyâre the things you figuratively spill to people when youâre having relationship problems. Or, the things that literally squelch out too often in slasher movies (those movies are nothing but âtrillibubs and gore.â) Yep, these bags ân bubs are your guts.
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