Category Archives: Victorian Life

Vitriolic Valentines!

While most people envision Victorian romance as courtly and idyllic, some Victorians welcomed the romantic opportunity to be quite cruel. Bullying was nothing new to Victorians who chose to send “vinegar valentines,” which would stay around for about the next hundred years. These vinegar valentines did not send sweet nothings and sugary words, they were […]

Time for Slang – the Origins of “OK”

Okay! Time to talk Victorian slang. Our modern version of slang incorporates abbreviations, purposeful misspellings and distortions of the misspellings! Most of us are familiar with LOL, TMI, Krispy Kreme, and Kool Aid. Contemporary young people recognize kew! (cool) and deez (these), which they will tell you is NBD (no big deal). Victorians were no […]