Slang from 1888

I’ve been reading the old publications again, looking for slang and things.

And there’s this great collection of slang from 1888 in a journal called the Chautauquan.

The Chautauquans were like the TED Talkers of their age, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Going around doing speeches and the like.

Yeah, Chautauqua.

And then one particular list here, now these are amateur lists, not professional,

comes from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

And I wondered if any of our listeners were familiar with some of these.

We could find out.

Have you ever heard somebody use first to mean just?

As in, she is first eight years old, meaning she is just eight years old.

She just turned eight?

Yeah.

How about this?

Coffee soup?

Coffee soup.

Yeah, that’s bread with coffee poured over it.

Anybody in Pennsylvania use that?

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