Word Choice Part 7: is it regency or modern?

I think a lot about word choice and language use when writing and my goal is to be as accurate to the time as possible. That means trips to Google Ngram and looking up etymology to see if the word I want was in use the way I want to use it when I set my book, usually 1811-1813.

Of course, readability trumps accuracy, and no word choice should hurt a modern reader. I'll use a modern word before I offend someone, no matter how accurate it might have been in Austen's day.

Words aren't the only thing to look up. Phrases and expressions are also things that can sound modern to readers when they've actually been in use for a long time. I could do an entire post on naval terms that have found their way into everyday English expressions.

(Does that sound interesting to you? Let me know and I'll do it!)

Austen uses a few phrases herself that you might be surprised are hundreds of years old. In chapter one of Persuasion, vain Sir Walter Elliot is contemplating how good he still looks in his late 50s and how old everyone else looks:

Anne haggard, Mary coarse, every face in the neighbourhood worsting, and the rapid increase of crow's foot about Lady Russell's temples had long been a distress to him.

Did you know crow's feet, meaning the fine wrinkles in the corners of our eyes, had been in use that long? Chaucer uses it in his poem "Troilus and Criseyde" from the 14th century.

How old would you guess the phrase "blown over" is, as in a storm or scandal to pass? It's not as old as crow's feet, but it had been around about two hundred years before Austen used it in Pride and Prejudice in the aftermath of Darcy and Elizabeth's engagement.

Lady Catherine had been rendered so exceedingly angry by the contents of her nephew's letter, that Charlotte, really rejoicing in the match, was anxious to get away till the storm was blown over.

I wanted to use the phrase "break the ice" in my book out early next year, and wasn't sure until I remembered that Lucy Steele thanks Eleanor for breaking the ice. This phrase is from the 1580s and comes from breaking river ice to allow boats to travel.

This is how I used it A Most Natural Consequence. Darcy has just said something unkind about Elizabeth that she overheard, and now they're stuck sitting next to one another at a concert.

She leant forward to look at Georgiana on the other side of (Darcy). She was a sweet girl, and Elizabeth wanted their friendship to continue. The only way that could happen was if she got along with her brother; they must move past his offensive comment. And she must be the one to break the ice. Although he was not timid like his sister, he was not a forthcoming, friendly man.

Later in the same book, I wanted to use the phrase "beg off", as in getting out of doing something. I went around with a few different phrases to try to get the tone I wanted, but then looked up to see how far "beg off" was from 1811. It turns out this use is from 1741.

On Friday morning, Darcy collected his sister and Mrs Younge and they made the short walk to Mrs Bennet’s lodgings for the excursion to Pegwell’s Bay. However, when they arrived, Mrs Bennet begged off.

“I am not much of a walker, and I have been unwell, you know,” she said from the sofa, looking as robust as she had Wednesday evening. “But Mrs Younge will be with you, and Mr Darcy, too. Have a pleasant time, girls.”

Darcy thinks it's weird that the perfectly healthy Mrs. Bennet won't walk one mile, but he keeps his mouth shut. Guess he'll have to talk with that Elizbaeth girl.

When you're reading JAFF or regency romance and stumble across phrases that sound modern, what do you do? Do you assume it's wrong? Do you think it was an author's choice for clarity? Do you ever look it up yourself to check? Let me know if you want to see more regency appropriate words that sound too modern to use.

Read my previous posts about the “Tiffany Problem” and to see other words and phrases that sound modern but were actually in use in Austen’s day.

• https://www.heathermollauthor.com/post/word-choice-part-1-is-it-regency-or-modern

• https://www.heathermollauthor.com/post/word-choice-part-2-is-it-regency-or-modern

• https://www.heathermollauthor.com/post/word-choice-part-3-is-it-regency-or-modern

• https://www.heathermollauthor.com/post/word-choice-part-4-is-it-regency-or-modern

• https://www.heathermollauthor.com/post/word-choice-part-5-is-it-regency-or-modern

• https://www.heathermollauthor.com/post/word-choice-part-6-is-it-regency-or-modern

https://www.etymonline.com/word/beg#etymonline_v_8244

https://www.etymonline.com/word/ice#etymonline_v_1469

https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=crow

Pride and Prejudice. Jane Austen. 1813

Persuasion. Jane Austen. 1817

Sense and Sensibility. Jane Austen. 1811