This is a list of
idioms that were recognizable to literate people in the late-19th century, and have become unfamiliar since.
As the article
list of idioms in the English language notes, a list of idioms can be useful, since the meaning of an idiom cannot be deduced by knowing the meaning of its constituent words. See that article for a fuller discussion of what an idiom is, and what it is not. In addition, the often-obscure references or shared values that lie behind an idiom will themselves lose applicability over time, although the surviving literature of the period relies on their currency for full understanding.
comity of nations – the name given for the effect given in one country to the laws and institutions of another in dealing with a native of it; see
extraterritoriality
corn-cracker – the nickname of a
Kentucky man; pejorative
corpuscular philosophy – the philosophy which accounts for physical phenomena by the position and the motions of
corpuscles
Ivan Ivanovitch – a term invoking a lazy, good-natured
Russian
J
Jack Brag – a pretender who ingratiates himself with people above him
O
The Open Secret – the secret that lies open to all, but is seen into and understood by only few, applied especially to the mystery of the life, the spiritual life, which is the possession of all (
Thomas Carlyle)
P
passing-bell – a
bell tolled at the moment of the death of a person to invite his neighbours to pray for the safe passing of his
soul; see
death knell
penny wedding – a
wedding at which the guests pay part of the charges of the festival
persiflage – a light, quizzing mockery, or scoffing, especially on serious subjects, out of a cool, callous contempt for them
This is a list of
idioms that were recognizable to literate people in the late-19th century, and have become unfamiliar since.
As the article
list of idioms in the English language notes, a list of idioms can be useful, since the meaning of an idiom cannot be deduced by knowing the meaning of its constituent words. See that article for a fuller discussion of what an idiom is, and what it is not. In addition, the often-obscure references or shared values that lie behind an idiom will themselves lose applicability over time, although the surviving literature of the period relies on their currency for full understanding.
comity of nations – the name given for the effect given in one country to the laws and institutions of another in dealing with a native of it; see
extraterritoriality
corn-cracker – the nickname of a
Kentucky man; pejorative
corpuscular philosophy – the philosophy which accounts for physical phenomena by the position and the motions of
corpuscles
Ivan Ivanovitch – a term invoking a lazy, good-natured
Russian
J
Jack Brag – a pretender who ingratiates himself with people above him
O
The Open Secret – the secret that lies open to all, but is seen into and understood by only few, applied especially to the mystery of the life, the spiritual life, which is the possession of all (
Thomas Carlyle)
P
passing-bell – a
bell tolled at the moment of the death of a person to invite his neighbours to pray for the safe passing of his
soul; see
death knell
penny wedding – a
wedding at which the guests pay part of the charges of the festival
persiflage – a light, quizzing mockery, or scoffing, especially on serious subjects, out of a cool, callous contempt for them