A Regency Era Lexicon – “A” and “B” Are Followed By “C,” specifically for this post by “Ca.” 

In the singular form the lexicon of a particular subject is all the terms associated with it. The lexicon of a person or group is all the words they commonly use. As a plural noun, a lexicon is an alphabetical list of the words in a language or the words associated with a particular subject. To distinguish lexicon from a dictionary, it is an alphabetical list of the words in a language or the words associated with a particular subject.

These examples are a mix of what one might hear upon the lips of the aristocracy, as well as examples of Cant used upon London’s streets and those terms used by farmers and like in the country.

cadet – the youngest son or branch of a family

cadge – to beg, i.e., “cadge the swells” being “beg of the gentleman” 

cag (to be cagged) – to be sulky or out of humour

to cagg – a military term used by the private soldier, signifying a solemn vow or resolution not to get drunk for a certain time; or, as the term is, “till their cagg is out”

cake – a foolish fellow

called to the bar – authorized to practice law as a barrister

Calves Head Club – The Calves Head Club was purportedly established to ridicule the memory of Charles I of England. Toward the end of the seventeenth century, rumors began circulating in print about the club and its annual meeting held on 30 January, the anniversary of the execution of Charles I by decapitation. Supposedly, the club was instituted by the Independents and Presbyterians. Their chief fare was calves heads, and they drank their wine and ale out of calves skulls. 

cambrade – a chamber fellow; a Spanish military term, for soldiers in that country were divided into chambers, five men making a chamber, when it was generally used to signify companionship

camisole – a woman’s undershirt worn between the dress and the corset

camp candlestick – a soldier’s bayonet

Candlemas – a church festival celebrated on February 2; celebrates the purification of the Virgin Mary and Jesus’s presentation in the Temple

cant – a kind of gibberish used by thieves and gypsies, called likewise pedlar’s French, slang, etc.

canticle – a parish clerk; a hymn or chant, typically with a Biblical text, forming a regular part of a church service

canting – preaching with a whining, affected tone, perhaps a corruption of the word “chaunting”; some derive it from Andrew Cant, a famous Scottish preacher, who used that whining manner of expression

cap – a woman who endeavors to attract the notice of a particular gentleman is said to set her cap for him (think Miss Bingley in Pride and Prejudice)

to cap – to take off one’s hat or cap. To cap the quadrangle is a lesson of humility, or rather servility, taught to undergraduates at the university, where they are obliged to cross the area of the college cap in hand in reverence to the fellows who sometimes walk there

cap acquaintance – persons only slightly acquainted or only so far as mutually to salute with the hat on meeting

cap à la Charlotte Corday: Directoire and First Empire (1790–1815 C.E.). France. Woman’s soft cap with frill around face and worn tied with ribbon at neck. Named for Charlotte Corday. NOTE: On 17 July 1793, four days after Marat was killed, Corday was executed by the guillotine in the Place de Grève wearing the red overblouse denoting a condemned traitor who had assassinated a representative of the people.

capping – to follow up with something better in a conversation (Think Darcy and Elizabeth to understand this concept.)

capping verses – repeating Latin verses in turn, beginning with the letter with which the last speaker left off

led captain – led captain; a humble dependent in a great family, who for a precarious subsistence and the distant hopes of deferment, suffers every kind of indignity, and is the butt of every species of joke or ill humour. The label comes from the small provision made for officers of the army and navy in time of peace. Their lack of funds obliges many in both services to occupy this wretched station in life. The idea of the appellation is taken from a “led horse,” many of which for magnificence appear in the retinues of great personages on solemn occasions, such as processions, etc.

Captain Cooperthorne’s Crew – a group or team without a stated hierarchy, where everyone concerned wishes to lead

Staying with “Captains,” Window Through Time, provides us several other “terms” found in Francis Grose’s Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue:

“Here are a motley collection of Captains culled from Francis Grose’s A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (1785).

“Captain Tom was “the leader of the mob; also the mob itself”, to be differentiated from Captain Copperthorne’s crew, where everyone is an officer. “A saying of a company”, says Grose, “where everyone strives to rule”. I have met a few of those in my time, as well as Captain Hackums, “blustering fools”.

“A Captain Sharp was “a cheating bully or one in a set of gamblers, whose office is to bully any pigeon, who, suspecting roguery, refuses to pay what he has lost”.

“If you fancied a bit of meat for your supper, be wary of  Captain Lieutenant, “a meat between veal and beef, flesh of an old calf”. Grose claims that it is a military term, used to describe someone who has the rank of a Captain but the rank of a Lieutenant, being betwixt and between the two.

“My favourite captain is Captain Queernabs, “a shabby, ill-dressed fellow”.

“Captain Podd was “a celebrated master of a puppet-show, in Ben Jonson’s time, whose name became a common one to signify any of that fraternity”. It is fascinating to see how professions became synonymous with a famous personage who excelled in the field.”

carbuncle face – a red face; full of pimples

cardinal – a short cloak, fashionable from about 1760 to the 1790s

carking – to worry someone

carouse – to drink freely and deeply; Sixteenth-century English revelers toasting each other’s health sometimes drank a brimming mug of booze straight to the bottom—drinking an “all-out,” they called it. German tipplers did the same and used the German expression for “all out”—gar aus. The French adopted the German term as carous, using the adverb in their expression boire carous (“to drink all out”). That phrase, with its idiomatic sense of “to empty the cup,” led to carrousse, a French noun meaning “a large draft of liquor.” And that’s where English speakers picked up carouse in the 1500s, using it first as a direct borrowing of the French noun, which later took on the sense of a general “drunken revel,” and then as a verb meaning “to drink freely.” 

carrion hunter – an undertaker; also referred to as a cold cook or death hunter

carrotty-pated – ginger-hackled; red-haired

carry witchet – a sort of conundrum, puzzle wit, or riddle

carter – the driver of a cart or wagon

casting up one’s accounts – vomiting

castor – a hat; “to prig a castor” meant to steal a hat

to live under the cat’s foot – being henpecked

cat of nine tails – a scourge composed of nine strings of whipcord, each string having nine knots

The Science Museum Group Collection tells us: “Cat o’nine tails, whip-cord with wooden handle, reputedly British Navy, 1700-1850

“A cat-o-nine tails is a whip. It consists of nine pieces of cord each tied with a series of knots. The device traditionally punished sailors in the British Royal Navy by whipping their bare backs. It is thought the cat-o-nine tails got its name from the ‘scratches’ it left on a man’s back. Ship captains could only order up to 24 whips of the cat-o-nine tails. The device was suspended by the Royal Navy in 1879 but it had fallen out of use long before this date.

“The cat-o-nine tails created some English expressions: “Not enough room to swing a cat” referred to the whip; “Letting the cat out of the bag” refers to the device being kept in a special bag on board.”

catarrh – mucus fills up the head, nose, and throat

catch fart – a footboy; so called from such servants commonly following close behind their masters or mistresses

caterpillar – a nickname for a soldier and comes from this tale: In the year 1745, a soldier quartered at a house near Derby was desired by his landlord to call upon him. Whenever he came that way, the landlord claimed the man a “pillar of the nation.” The rebellion being finished, it happened the same regiment was quartered in Derbyshire. The soldier again resoled to accept his landlord’s invitation and, accordingly, obtained leave to go to him. However, he was surprised to find a very cold reception this time. The soldier reminded his landlord of the man calling the military “the pillar of the nation,” to which the landlord responded, “If I did, I meant caterpillars.”

caudge-pawed – left-handed

cauliflower – a large white wig, such as is commonly worn by the dignified clergy and formerly by physicians

caveats for inheriting money – If a man leaves his widow any sum whatsoever in his will or otherwise, the sum would her from receiving her dower, which is one third of his estate. The thing to remember is that if the contingency to inherit broke the law or went against public policy, or was immoral, or impossible to achieve, the contingency could and most likely would be challenged and be set aside.

caw-handed or caw-pawed – awkward, not dextrous or nimble

caxon – an old weather-beaten wig

Other Sources: 

Candice Hern

Donna Hatch

18th Century Vocabulary 

Georgette-Heyer: Regency Cant and Expressions 

Jane Austen Organization

Kathleen Baldwin

Messy Nessy Chic

Regency Reader

Sara Ramsey

Sharon Lathan