Source for Regency erotica terms?

I'm going to give you a set, most of which are later than the Regency. If you find a word you want in some later reference, you'll need to go back and check it.

The Slang Dictionary. Hotten. 1859. here

Grose's Classical Ditionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Pierce Egan. 1823. Here.

A Physical View of Man and Woman in a State of Marriage. de Lignac. 1798. Here.

Dictionary of Slang, Jargon and Cant. Barrere and Leland. 1889Here.

The Works of Francis Rabelais. Here.

Slang. Badcock. 1823. Here.

A Dictionary of Slang, Jargon and Cant. Leland. 1890. Here.

De Sade Philosophy in the Bedroom. 120 Days of Sodom.Here.

The Lustful Turk. John Benjamin Brookes. 1828. Here.

A Night in a Moorish Harem. Anon. 1896. Here.

Aphrodisiacs and Anti-aphrodisiacs. John Davenport. 1869. here.

Autobiography of a Flea. Anon. 1901. Here.

My Secret Life. Anon. 1888. Here.


The Kama Sutra of Vatsayayana. Richard Burton et al. 1883. Here.

The London Bawd. Anon. 1705. here.

Memoirs of a Young Rakehell. Guillaume Appollinaire. 1907.Here.

The New Ladies Tickler. Anon. 1866. Here.

The Romance of Lust Anon. 1873. Here.

The Three Chums. Ridley. 1882. Here.

JoB

JBell said:

Wow, thank you so much!! What an incredibly comprehensive list. And may I say that I'm a huge fan of yours, so I'm particularly honored by your response! I LOVE your Spymaster books.

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Oh my. Thank you so much
<blush>

I had all these refs lined up for my own use. Setting them down for you gave me a chance to put the bibliography in order and post it on my blog, which I had been meaning to do.

So I have to thank you for lighting a fire under me.

I'm always impressed with the generosity of AW members, and their willingness to share information with other writers. Thank you, job.

JulieHowe said:

I'm always impressed with the generosity of AW members, and their willingness to share information with other writers.

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Me too. This is just a great place for asking questions and getting wonderful information.

This section, in particular, is a fund of industry wisdom.

Jo's resources are great ones!

Another book you should definitely take a look at is the best-selling English-language erotic novel of the late 18th and early 19th centuries: Fanny Hill, or, Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure by John Cleland (1749).

The first English translation of Les Liaisons Dangereuses, which (the translation, I mean) was published in 1784, is available online here.

IceCreamEmpress said:

Jo's resources are great ones!

Another book you should definitely take a look at is the best-selling English-language erotic novel of the late 18th and early 19th centuries: Fanny Hill, or, Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure by John Cleland (1749).

The first English translation of Les Liaisons Dangereuses, which (the translation, I mean) was published in 1784, is available online here.

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Both Fanny Hill and Moll Flanders are great sources of contemporary attitutes.

Your link to the translation of Liasons doesn't seem to work ... do you have another one? Gentlemen of the Regency would definitely have been familiar with this work in French. Greville, for instance, mentions it.

If you have a word in mind and want to know if it was used in the period this is a handy little tool.

ETA: I asked similar questions about period erotica here.

IdiotsRUs: Thanks so much for the etymology dictionary. I was just going to do a search for one of those.

joB: Those links are fabulous - glad I'm used to reading English before common spelling was in use. Thanks so much for sharing! My Lord and Spymaster is on my to-read list

Sorry about that link to Dangerous Connections--if you aren't connected to a library that subscribes to the Cengage/Gale 18th Century Studies thing, it won't work for you, and alas the text doesn't seem to be available online elsewhere.

Ardelie said:

joB: Those links are fabulous - glad I'm used to reading English before common spelling was in use. Thanks so much for sharing! My Lord and Spymaster is on my to-read list

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Thank you so much <g>. Oh my. I hope you enjoy it second time through.

I envy you the familiarity with C17 or C18 English. The alternate spelling doesn't bother me -- I cen't spulll ell thet will myseylf -- but the 's's that look like 'f's drive me crazy. Stops me dead in the water every time.

Not directed to you in particular -- because you're obviously reference-canny . . .

I'd recommend picking up C18 and C19 erotic wordage from the period literature rather than period dictionaries.
The couple few C18 slang 'dictionaries' are irreplaceable for confirmation of earliest date.
They're less reliable for showing usage.

What it is -- these early dictionaries were intended for entertainment rather than scholarly reference. They conflate clever one-offs, (a good many created by the author, I suspect,) with true slang.
So it's cute to call a coachman a 'Knight of the Whip'? as per Grosse, but it sounds like literary affectation, not what one character could say to another. And calling a whore an 'Athanasian wench'??
The slang, 'blowen' -- meaning a woman -- gets 630 hits on googlebooks for the 1700-1830 time period. 'Athanasian wench' appears only in Grosse.

So I'd check googlebooksearch for any term I wanted to use. I am just in love with googlebooksearch.

IceCreamEmpress said:

Sorry about that link to Dangerous Connections--if you aren't connected to a library that subscribes to the Cengage/Gale 18th Century Studies thing, it won't work for you, and alas the text doesn't seem to be available online elsewhere.

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I feared that.

You can get it in French . . .

job said:

I envy you the familiarity with C17 or C18 English. The alternate spelling doesn't bother me -- I cen't spulll ell thet will myseylf -- but the 's's that look like 'f's drive me crazy. Stops me dead in the water every time..

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I tortured myself with learning how to read old english (though I'd be hard pressed to do it now!) and then early medieval works. Now it just passes through the filter and most things seem easy from there Old cookbooks are even stranger than literature as far as language use is concerned.

job said:

So it's cute to call a coachman a 'Knight of the Whip'? as per Grosse, but it sounds like literary affectation, not what one character could say to another. And calling a whore an 'Athanasian wench'?? The slang, 'blowen' -- meaning a woman -- gets 630 hits on googlebooks for the 1700-1830 time period. 'Athanasian wench' appears only in Grosse.

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Yes to literary affectations! I always cross reference multiple sources and am still sometimes confused. And reading works of the time is so useful. Thanks for the tips, job. Will definitely have to use googlebooks more.