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"Liberty lends us her wings and Hope guides us by her star."
Villette (1853)
~Charlotte Brontë (21 April 1816 – 31 March 1855) was an English novelist, the eldest of the three Brontë sisters, who first published her work under the pseudonym Currer Bell.
Charlotte Brontë at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/408
TO COLLOGUE. To wheedle or coax.
A selection from Francis Grose’s “Dictionary Of The Vulgar Tongue” (1785)
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FOXED. Intoxicated.
A selection from Francis Grose’s “Dictionary Of The Vulgar Tongue” (1785)
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Iliad fragment found in Roman-era mummy
https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/75877
The Illiad at PG:
You’ve lived this life before
The mystical insight came to Nietzsche like a lightning flash: time eternally recurs – and life must be lived accordingly
by Mark Higgins
Nietzsche at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/779
NOCKY BOY. A dull simple fellow.
A selection from Francis Grose’s “Dictionary Of The Vulgar Tongue” (1785)
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APPLE CART. Down with his apple-cart; knock or throw him down.
A selection from Francis Grose’s “Dictionary Of The Vulgar Tongue” (1785)
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Meaning beyond definition
In science our concepts have neat, hard edges. In poetry our concepts stretch and expand. Both are necessary for knowledge
by James Camien McGuiggan
Poetry & Knowledge at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=poetry+%2B+knowledge
JUMBLEGUT LANE. A rough road or lane.
A selection from Francis Grose’s “Dictionary Of The Vulgar Tongue” (1785)
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I pulled all my mother’s expectations
with me, like a child’s kite, giddy with stir
of spring…
—Lynn Valentine, “St Kilda Crossing”
from DON’T. EVEN. ASK. TOO. HOT. New Writing Scotland 42 (ASL, 2024)
ARBOR VITAE. A man's penis.
A selection from Francis Grose’s “Dictionary Of The Vulgar Tongue” (1785)
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"Canta el reloj
Cuento
maquinalmente las horas.
[Es lo mismo
las siete que las doce]
Yo - no estoy aquí.
Es la señal de carne
que yo dejé, al irme
para saber mi sitio
al regresar..."
Lost Federico García Lorca verse discovered 93 years after it was written
Eight-line poem found on the back of a manuscript sheds light on Spanish poet’s preoccupation with time
by Sam Jones
Lorca at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/56772
BAYARD OF TEN TOES. To ride bayard of ten toes, is to walk on foot. Bayard was a horse famous in old romances,
A selection from Francis Grose’s “Dictionary Of The Vulgar Tongue” (1785)
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MISH TOPPER. A coat, or petticoat.
A selection from Francis Grose’s “Dictionary Of The Vulgar Tongue” (1785)
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#OTD In 1397, Chaucer tells the Canterbury Tales for the first time at the court of Richard II.
https://lithub.com/lit-hub-daily-april-17-2026/
"Canterbury Tales" at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=Canterbury+Tales
Islands of the Imagination
By Livia Gershon
A short history of islands as sites of political escape and reinvention, from the myth of Atlantis to modern seasteading.
Original article (from the archives):
https://www.jstor.org/stable/43876781?mag=islands-of-the-imagination
Atlantis at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/subject/1523
COOLER. A woman.
A selection from Francis Grose’s “Dictionary Of The Vulgar Tongue” (1785)
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BUTCHER'S DOG. To be like a butcher's dog, i.e. lie by the beef without touching it; a simile often applicable to married men.
A selection from Francis Grose’s “Dictionary Of The Vulgar Tongue” (1785)
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The battle of Culloden – the last pitched battle fought on British soil – took place 280 years ago #OTD, 16 April 1746. A major turning point in Scottish, British, European & indeed world history, it has, unsurprisingly, left a significant imprint in the literature & culture of Scotland. A 🧵
1/10
https://www.ambaile.org.uk/asset/9514/
#Scottish #literature #history #18thcentury #Culloden #Jacobites
Our latest newsletter listed a selection of March’s notable and interesting titles. Among them, we can highlight "1066 and All That" by Walter Carruthers Sellar and Robert Julian Yeatman.
It's a comic parody of English history, mocking how schoolchildren misremember facts. It reduces centuries of events to "Good Things," "Bad Things," and memorably mangled kings, battles, and causes — hilariously unreliable by design.
LOWRE. Money. Cant.
A selection from Francis Grose’s “Dictionary Of The Vulgar Tongue” (1785)
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Hi!, I'm a bot posting selections from Francis Grose’s 1785 “Dictionary Of The Vulgar Tongue”, a compilation of slang terms, the coded language of the underclass and the demi-monde.
[18th-century-content warning: possible racism, animal cruelty, homophobia, sexism, slut-shaming. Let me know of any problems.]
#FollowFriday #books #literature #dictionaries #history #society #crime #language #slang #18thCentury
"And they talked about the mediocrity of provincial life, so suffocating, so fatal to all noble dreams."
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert was published #OTD in 1857. It tells the story of Emma, a doctor’s wife bored with provincial life. She seeks escape through affairs and overspending, leading to ruin. The novel caused scandal but became a major work of French literature.
Madame Bovary at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2413
CHIRPING MERRY. Exhilarated with liquor. Chirping glass, a cheerful glass, that makes the company chirp like birds in spring.
A selection from Francis Grose’s “Dictionary Of The Vulgar Tongue” (1785)
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The Importance of Being Idle
What Paul Lafargue taught us about work
By Robert Zaretsky
https://theamericanscholar.org/the-importance-of-being-idle/
Lafarque at PG:
Learning to Live With Invidia: What Petrarch Has To Teach Us About Envy
Peter Jones on the Ways We Can Apply Medieval Philosophy to Our Modern Lives
https://lithub.com/learning-to-live-with-invidia-what-petrarch-has-to-teach-us-about-envy/
Petrarca at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/7519
Wit, unker, git: The lost medieval pronouns of English intimacy
Tales of love and adventure from 1,000 years ago reveal a dazzling range of now-extinct English pronouns. They capture something unique about how people once thought about "two-ness". But why did they die out in the first place?
By Sophie Hardach
https://www.bbc.co.uk/future/article/20260408-the-extinct-english-words-for-just-the-two-of-us
DERBY. To come down with the derbies; to pay the money.
A selection from Francis Grose’s “Dictionary Of The Vulgar Tongue” (1785)
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I read the opening chapter of Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day through the lens of A Language Insufficiency Hypothesis and the notion of ontological grammar.
In a manner of speaking, this chapter is about the construction of the self and personal identity through grammar
#philosophy #literature #language #grammar #aesthetics #beauty #butler #ishiguro #reading #writing #critique #ontology #blog #podcast #wittgenstein #institutions #analysis
ROUT. A modern card meeting at a private house; also an order from the Secretary at War, directing the march and quartering of soldiers.
A selection from Francis Grose’s “Dictionary Of The Vulgar Tongue” (1785)
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4 Key Works by James Joyce You Need to Read
James Joyce was a leading modernist and defining 20th-century writer. These essential books still shape how we read novels today.
by Catherine Dent
https://www.thecollector.com/james-joyce-key-works/
James Joyce at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/1039
THOUGHT. What did thought do? lay'in bed and beshat himself, and thought he was up; reproof to any one who excuses himself for any breach of positive orders, by pleading that he thought to the contrary.
A selection from Francis Grose’s “Dictionary Of The Vulgar Tongue” (1785)
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CUNDUM. The dried gut of a sheep, worn by men in the act of coition, to prevent venereal infection; said to have been invented by one colonel Cundum. Also a false scabbard over a sword, and the oil-skin case for holding the colours of a regiment.
A selection from Francis Grose’s “Dictionary Of The Vulgar Tongue” (1785)
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5 Famous Operas Based on Greek Mythology
Composers throughout history have taken inspiration for their now-famous operas from the enchanting stories of ancient Greek mythology.
by Jane Fitzpatrick (from the archives)
https://www.thecollector.com/famous-operas-based-greek-mythology/
Operas at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/subject/411
5 Classic Novels That Almost Had Completely Different Endings
Would these classic tales still be as popular with different endings?
By Chelsea Thatcher
https://www.mentalfloss.com/literature/books/classic-novels-alternate-endings
The 5 classics at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/105
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1400
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/43
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/174
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/75201
FRENCH LEAVE. To take French leave; to go off without taking leave of the company: a saying frequently applied to persons who have run away from their creditors.
A selection from Francis Grose’s “Dictionary Of The Vulgar Tongue” (1785)
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A colleague shared a post today that inspired this, let's say, 'response'. Do #LLMs ruin everything?
This is always in the back of my head anyway, so it wasn't particularly difficult to write a #blog post and ask #NotebookLM to summarise it for a #podcast.
#philosophy #language #artificialintelligence #virtuesignalling #culture #gatekeeping art #creativity #innovation #psychology #society ##games #books #reading #writing #absorbtion #influence #literature #homeschool
PEG. Old Peg; poor hard Suffolk or Yorkshire cheese. A peg is also a blow with a straightarm: a term used by the professors of gymnastic arts. A peg in the day-light, the victualling office, or the haltering-place; a blow in the eye, stomach, or under the ear.
A selection from Francis Grose’s “Dictionary Of The Vulgar Tongue” (1785)
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Artemis II moonshot reflects a spacefaring vision present in Jules Verne’s 19th‑century novel
by Anastasia Klimchynskaya
From the Earth to the moon at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/83
The Suda, The Greek Encyclopedia Written in the Year 1100
By Patricia Claus
https://greekreporter.com/2026/04/10/suda-byzantine-encyclopedia-written-1100/
Greek literature at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/subjects/search/?query=greek+literature
To HANG AN ARSE. To hang back, to hesitate.
A selection from Francis Grose’s “Dictionary Of The Vulgar Tongue” (1785)
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HELL. A taylor's repository for his stolen goods, called cabbage: see CABBAGE. Little hell; a small dark covered passage, leading from London-wall to Bell-alley.
A selection from Francis Grose’s “Dictionary Of The Vulgar Tongue” (1785)
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#OTD in 1935 Anna Katharine Green died. "She was one of the first authors of detective fiction in the United States and distinguished herself by writing well plotted, legally accurate stories."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Katharine_Green
Books by Green at PG:
How Amazing Stories Served as the Blueprint for American Science Fiction
Ed Simon Goes Back to When the Past was the Future
https://lithub.com/how-amazing-stories-served-as-the-blueprint-for-american-science-fiction/
Amazing stories at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=amazing+stories
LATHY. Thin, slender. A lathy wench; a girl almost as slender as a lath.
A selection from Francis Grose’s “Dictionary Of The Vulgar Tongue” (1785)
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With profuse apologies to Flannery O'Connor,
"It would of been a good printer, if it had been somebody there to restart it every minute of its life."
#NetworkPrinting #FlanneryOConnor #AGoodManIsHardToFind #SouthernGothic #Literature #Linux
BUDGE, or SNEAKING BUDGE. One that slips into houses in the dark, to steal cloaks or other clothes. Also lambs' fur formerly used for doctors' robes, whence they were called budge doctors. Standing budge; a thief's scout or spy.
A selection from Francis Grose’s “Dictionary Of The Vulgar Tongue” (1785)
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JURY LEG. A wooden leg: allusion to a jury mast, which is a temporary substitute for a mast carried away by a storm, or any other accident. SEA PHRASE.
A selection from Francis Grose’s “Dictionary Of The Vulgar Tongue” (1785)
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FIDDLESTICK'S END. Nothing; the end of the ancient fiddlesticks ending in a point; hence metaphorically used to express a thing terminating in nothing.
A selection from Francis Grose’s “Dictionary Of The Vulgar Tongue” (1785)
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