Most unfortunate phrase in an old novel

Cori · Post by **Cori** » February 21st, 2013, 9:20 am

Our poor innocent hero of the Mysteries of London is being arrested! And more!

"That's no business of mine," returned the principal officer: then, addressing his companion, he said, "Jem, you'll stay here and take a survey of the premises; while I get off with the prisoner."

RuthieG · Post by **RuthieG** » February 21st, 2013, 3:44 pm

And yet another instance of how the meaning of words has changed: our hero (a decidedly heterosexual gent, and eminently 'fanciable' himself)...

found the Honourable Mrs. Carruthers a sweet, gentle, dovelike little woman for whom he did not care in the least degree, and he found Lady Essington’s son a rollicking, bubbling, overgrown boy of two-and-twenty, whom, in spite of frivolous upbringing and a rather pronounced brusqueness toward his mother, he fancied very much indeed.

Oh dear...

Ruth

wildemoose · Post by **wildemoose** » February 23rd, 2013, 7:59 pm

I'm kind of ashamed of my dirty mind...but this made me giggle.

And she must live on here—petting and soothing Dick, pinching and saving for a mere existence

wildemoose · Post by **wildemoose** » February 25th, 2013, 5:42 pm

I found another one from Anne's House of Dreams. Heehee.

Leslie was quite as foolish over him as Anne was. When their work was done and Gilbert was out of the way, they gave themselves over to shameless orgies of love-making

gypsygirl · Post by **gypsygirl** » February 25th, 2013, 6:57 pm

wildemoose wrote:I found another one from Anne's House of Dreams. Heehee.

Leslie was quite as foolish over him as Anne was. When their work was done and Gilbert was out of the way, they gave themselves over to shameless orgies of love-making

Made much worse by the knowledge that the object of their affections is an infant.

Mike001 · Post by **Mike001** » March 3rd, 2013, 9:09 am

ChuckW wrote:... I always have to suppress a chuckle when I stumble across phrases like "I/he/she ejaculated" in public domain texts.

George Herbert published a book of poetry containing in its subtitle the now unfortunate phrase Private Ejaculations.

Nathaniel Hawthorne, who has an execrable style, was a great user of the word "intercourse" where a simpler word would usually have been better. That often reads unfortunately these days:

Whatever was morbid in his mind and experience she ignored; and thereby kept their intercourse healthy ...

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/77/77-h/77-h.htm

Mike001 · Post by **Mike001** » March 3rd, 2013, 9:34 am

Actually, here's another gem from Nathaniel Hawthorne.

This one turns not so much on the vocabulary as on the (surely) unintentional appearance of what would nowadays be called a "phallic symbol":

As Alice came into the room, her eyes fell upon the carpenter, who was standing near its centre, clad in green woollen jacket, a pair of loose breeches, open at the knees, and with a long pocket for his rule, the end of which protruded ... A glow of artistic approval brightened over [her] face

PatrickLondon · Post by **PatrickLondon** » March 3rd, 2013, 10:58 am

A glow of artistic approval brightened over [her] face

Oh, artistic - that makes it all right, then.

Mike001 · Post by **Mike001** » March 3rd, 2013, 11:15 am

Mr. Hawthorne again (although I can't blame him for this one):

Clifford, as the company partook of their little banquet, grew to be the gayest of them all.

Hobbit · Post by **Hobbit** » March 3rd, 2013, 12:29 pm

Mike001 wrote:Mr. Hawthorne again (although I can't blame him for this one):

Clifford, as the company partook of their little banquet, grew to be the gayest of them all.

Oh, there's a lot of that in old books, because of course before... what, 1940?... that word had only one meaning. But it does become awfully amusing oftentimes.

Mike001 · Post by **Mike001** » March 3rd, 2013, 11:56 pm

Hobbit wrote:
Mike001 wrote:Mr. Hawthorne again (although I can't blame him for this one):

Clifford, as the company partook of their little banquet, grew to be the gayest of them all.
Oh, there's a lot of that in old books, because of course before... what, 1940?... that word had only one meaning. But it does become awfully amusing oftentimes.

Mind you, I can blame him for writing "partook of their little banquet" for "ate".

Maybe we should have a new thread just for bad style.

PatrickLondon · Post by **PatrickLondon** » March 4th, 2013, 1:13 am

because of course before... what, 1940?... that word had only one meaning.

In polite society. There was a slang meaning that respectable people would (officially) not know of, though I'm think it's in one of Somerset Maugham's early novels- a "gay girl" meaning at best a "good-time girl", a step or two down from a demi-mondaine. You can see the possible route of migration to the modern usage................

Hobbit · Post by **Hobbit** » March 4th, 2013, 6:01 pm

From a rather intense scene in Treasure Island in which a man who is trying to kill the main character with a knife trips over a dead body:

Blow and all, I was the first afoot again, for Hands had got involved with the dead body.

To listen to my attempt to record this phrase without laughing, see this: viewtopic.php?f=25&t=28787&start=465 (bottom of the page)

Mike001 · Post by **Mike001** » March 5th, 2013, 12:26 am

PatrickLondon wrote:... There was a slang meaning ...

This is what I'd understood, although I've never bothered to consult the OED on it.

I assume the Edwardian joke term Gay Paree was meant to indicate that some of the amusements of Paris tended towards the louche.

I think "happiness" tends to imply something more settled and quieter; "joy" something deeper, wilder, and more fleeting -- even ecstatic experiences. But "gay" in the traditional sense seems to carry implications of the carefree and the irresponsible. That doesn't in essentials mean anything more than a holiday mood, but one can see how such a word could tend to slide downhill.

I notice that Nietzsche's Die fröhliche Wissenschaft seems no longer to be given the title The Gay Science. But what did such a solitary, grim character ever have to do with gaiety anyway?

ExEmGe · Post by **ExEmGe** » March 5th, 2013, 12:56 pm

Hobbit wrote: before... what, 1940?... that word had only one meaning.

I would have said mid 1960s here. I first came upon the new usage in an American magazine in about 1967 and couldn't make out what they were on about.
But of course I was delicately brought up & have a very pure mind

Has anyone mentioned 'The Gay Lord Quex" (Pinero)?