Regency Trivia – Dressing a Lady

I’m getting ready for a release and trying to meet a deadline. But I thought you might enjoy this video.

 

janeaustensworld.wordpress.com/2020/03/26/…

 

#RegencyTrivia #HistoricalRomance #HistoricalFiction #RegencyRomance

Read Full Post »

Regency Trivia – No Get Togethers

A little while ago I posted about the word picnic. Well, yesterday I was writing along and decided I really should look up the term ‘get together.’ I’ve know I’ve used it before, but for some strange reason I never checked it for accuracy. You can imagine my dismay when I discovered that as an adjective or a noun there was no recorded usage before 1898 and it was a US term.

From the OED: colloquial (originally U.S.).

1. adj. noun

Of a social function: that enables people to get together, esp. informally. Also (of attitudes, etc.): favouring social interaction and cooperation.

1898   Congregationalist(Boston, Mass.)  29 Dec. 982/1  The Get-Together Club is not really an organization; it simply gets together, eats, and talks. Some listen.

Ergo, I immediately clicked the thesauruses and found two synonyms. The first is

1761 ‘free and easy’ an informal gathering for singing or similar entertainment, at which drinking and smoking are also permitted; a smoking concert.

I found this interesting, but it didn’t match the type of entertainment I envisioned.

The second term was sans souci1781 lit. without care or concern also, †a free-and-easy social gathering.

#RegencyTrivia #HistoricalRomance #HistoricalFiction #RegencyRomance

Read Full Post »

Regency Trivia – Hello as a Greeting Was Not a Thing

Hello is ubiquitous and has become a common greeting in many countries in the world. Even in Germany, it’s become an excepted greeting when meeting another person. However, the more traditional greetings are still expected when meeting someone for the first time or when entering a small place of business or a restaurant. It was not, however, used as greeting during the Regency. I researched all of Jane Austen’s books, did a search on Google Advanced Book Search and found no reference to it at all. Then looked it up in the Oxford English Dictionary OED).

According to the OED, hello as a term to get someone’s attention or register surprise has been used since around the 1820’s in North America. There are no British references.

Hello as a greeting was first recorded in the US in the US Yankee Clipper in 1853.

It does not appear to have been in common use in Britain until around the 1920’s. The first recorded usage was by P. G. Wodehouse’s Money for Nothing iv. 76   ‘Hello, sweetie-pie,’ said Miss Molloy in 1928. Wodehouse, as some of you might know, was a widely read contemporary English writer. We generally believe that spoken usage preceded written usage by about ten years. That still does not take us back to the Regency.

So what did they say? They would have used the greetings we all used before “hello” wiggled it’s way into almost universal parlance. Good morning, good afternoon, good day, good evening. When meeting by chance, “well met” is fine.

Let me know what other greetings you think of.

Read Full Post »

Regency Trivia – Doorknobs Were Not a Thing

The turning doorknob was invented by the American inventor Osbourn Dorsey in 1878. So, it wouldn’t have been until sometime later that door handles actually turned. What did people during the Regency use? Latches were most common. Bars and locks were used as well. Now, that is not to say there were not round door handles. They just didn’t move.

 

#RegencyTrivia #HistoricalFiction #HistoricalRomance #RegencyRomance

Read Full Post »

Regency Trivia – Towels (Fluffy ones were not a thing)

During the Regency towels were either linen, cotton, or flannel. The weaving technique was first developed in France in 1841. This video shows how terry cloth was first woven: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2d5gwvUzAlI At the time it was used for clothing.

The technique was used on cotton in 1848, and in 1850 an industrial method for weaving terry cloth was developed. Once terry cloth was machine made, it began to be sold to be sold in lengths as toweling, and as pre-made towels. The industrial process made terry cloths affordable.

I haven’t been able to find anything concerning when fluffy towels were first made. From my own memory, I think it was sometime in the later part of the 20^th century.

My thanks to Doreen for this idea.

#RegencyTrivia #HistoricalFiction #RegencyRomance #HistoricalRomance

Read Full Post »

Regency Trivia – University or College

During the Regency as well as today the words university and college are not interchangeable. In England college comes before university. For example, Eton College is the equivalent of US and Canadian high school. A university a place of higher education such as Oxford and Cambridge. This is true in Europe as well.

Although it’s customary now for students at university to graduate with degrees, during the Regency that was not necessarily the case. In only a few areas, legal studies (to be a barrister) and studies for the clergy required that one completed a course of study. Most young gentlemen went to university to make contacts and have fun.

The first two images are of Eton. The second two are of Oxford.

 

#RegencyTrivia #RegencyRomance #HistoricalRomance #HistoricalFiction

Read Full Post »