modern phrases, and not so modern?

[celticdragonfly]

The question has come up in my household - what WOULD the Regency and/or Victorian equivalents of the phrases "TMI" and "roughing the listener!" be?

selenite says he can't imagine them.

Comments

[ciorstan.livejournal.com]

I studied a copy of the 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue a few years back because I'd written a murder mystery set in 1816-- Regency slang-- and I don't think there's a direct parallel.

Personal subjects were considered simply 'indelicate' and an improper topic of conversation. It was Not Done in public, and only under very particular circumstances in private. While the Regency wasn't as prudish a period as the Victorian, they still had definite lines of demarcation drawn.

[jazz007.livejournal.com]

Icon love.

[archangelbeth]

Perhaps a scandalized "

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Perhaps a scandalized "<speaker's name here>!" or "well, I never!"

Or a frigid, "We didn't need to hear that." Or "No one wants to know that."

Or simply the Cut Direct (more a Regency thing) of turning away from the speaker.

[technomom]

I think the only ladylike response would be a freezing gaze, possibly accompanied by a very cold, "I beg your pardon?" which implies that the speaker couldn't possibly have said what he said,and gives him the chance to say something totally different or apologize.