Old Time Vocabulary

 

Slang and even formal vocabulary change over time. As a writer of historical fiction, my challenge is to stay true to the period without confusing my readers with words they define differently.

Some slang is practically timeless. “Okay” has been around since at least 1840, and “kids,” as in little children, was in use as long ago as the seventeenth century. Since my characters and my readers have the same understanding as to the meaning of these words, I don’t have to think twice about including them in a manuscript.

Other words aren’t as clear. I ask my middle-grade beta readers whether there are any words they didn’t know and couldn’t figure out from the context. When I got back the evaluation forms for a novel set in 1925, one fourth grader included “fast” on that list. At first, I was confused. Who doesn’t know what that word means? But when I searched the manuscript looking for it, I came across a scene where my protagonist asks her mother if she can get her hair bobbed and the mother responds that short hair makes women look fast. Now I understood the beta reader’s comment, and I found a way to rewrite the scene using language today’s children are more likely to know.

Then there are the slang words that need careful handling. Historically the word “gay” meant cheerful or merry, and all of my characters would have understood it that way. Defined that way, it was in frequent use during the periods covered by my novels, so avoiding it seems a little stilted. But because my readers would give it a different meaning, “gay” doesn’t occur in any of my middle-grade manuscripts.

Then there is the question of when a particular slang word entered the American vocabulary. Would my character have used a particular word at the time of the story? Fortunately, about two years ago I found a used copy of the 3^rd edition of the Dictionary of American Slang by Chapman and Kipfer. If I look up a word, that dictionary may tell me whether it was in use at the time. If it doesn’t have dates, or if the word is not included, then I’ll do an Internet search for “[word] origin.” And if I still can’t figure out when it became popular, I won’t use it.

Writing historical fiction is always a challenge.

But it’s rewarding to get it right.

__________

For more on this subject, you can read my January 25, 2021 and February 1, 2021 blog posts.

"Please Sir, I Want Some More"

 

I was going through some old blog posts and found one from Thanksgiving 2011 that is still perfect today. So here is the reprint.

“Please Sir, I Want Some More”

Oliver Twist asked for more gruel because he was hungry—and because of peer pressure, but that isn’t the subject of this post.

I get hungry, too. If I haven’t eaten for four or five hours, I become so crabby that nobody wants to be around me.

Of course, Oliver’s definition of hunger was different from mine. He was near starvation, and I’m used to a full stomach.

Oliver held out an empty bowl and asked the cook for what he needed.

I hold out a full bowl and ask God for what I want. After all, why would I ask for what I need when He’s already given it? A loving family, good friends, a comfortable home, plenty of food for the table.

So when I say, “Please Sir, I want some more,” am I being ungrateful?

Still there are some things I do need more of. I need more contentment with what I have and more thankfulness to God for giving it to me.

That’s why my Thanksgiving prayer starts with “thank you” and ends with, “please God, give me more contentment and thankfulness.”

And that’s my prayer for you this holiday, too.

__________

The picture is George Cruikshank’s illustration for the first printing of Oliver Twist. The book appeared as a monthly serial in Bentley’s Miscellany, and this illustration probably accompanied a March 1837 installment.

Time Changes Travel

 

 All historical fiction travels back in time, but matching the story to an exact time can be tricky. The overland routes to the California gold fields changed quickly as more and more people followed them. Furthermore, no two routes were exactly the same since pioneers and prospectors explored different cutoffs in their attempts to reach California as quickly as possible.

So how much can I rely on personal experience stories from several years before or after the one I am writing or that take slightly different routes? Then there is the additional problem of how the writer views the world. One of the most helpful memoirs I have is A Frontier Lady by Sarah Royce, but that tells the story from the perspective of a young mother. The diary of fourteen-year-old Sallie Hester is a closer fit, but she is still a female. My twelve-year-old male protagonist just isn’t going to think the same way as either Sallie or Sarah.

Having several journals and memoirs to rely on gives me a fuller perspective. Besides, some things don’t change. The sight of Chimney Rock had the same effect on travelers in 1865 as it did in 1844, and it’s easy to assign the same reaction to my protagonist.

Still, if I want to be as historically accurate as possible (and I do), I must be sensitive to the author's status as well as to the year and the route in each journal and memoir. Dealing with the inconsistencies. required me to make some judgments, but that’s a necessary part of the process.

Because time changes travel.

Standing Out

 

I’m working on a trilogy that covers the three main ways people traveled to the California gold fields during the middle of the 19^th century. The first two routes (around Cape Horn and across the Isthmus of Panama) haven’t been written about much, at least not for children. However, the third route is from Missouri to California over the plains and through the mountains. This overland route has been almost done to death when you include the stories of pioneers who took the route looking for farm land rather than gold and the similar stories of those heading to Oregon rather than California.

As I’ve said before, I have two main criteria when choosing the setting for a historical novel. The first is that there must be enough personal experience resources so that I can sense the atmosphere (emotional, moral, and physical) of the time and place as well as gathering the dry facts. All three routes to the gold fields meet that condition. But the second criteria is that it must not have been done so much that people are tired of it or think there is nothing to add.

The overland book appears to fail this second criteria because it has been done many times. But if I want a complete series about traveling to the gold fields, I have to include it. So what am I to do?

Notice I said people think there is nothing to add. Although there is nothing new under the sun, there is always a different way to tell it.

Fortunately, I have some ideas about how to do that.

First, most of the children’s books about the California and Oregon trails have protagonists who travel with their family. The children may be orphans before the trip is over, but it starts out as a family adventure. That isn’t the case with my protagonist. Joshua runs away from an abusive stepfather and stows away in a wagon. That isn’t a spoiler because it happens at the very beginning of the story. Then he spends the entire trip looking over his shoulder and worrying that his stepfather or the law will catch him.

Second, most of the stories out there take place in a wagon train. Mine will start that way, but before long two wagons split off, and Joshua goes with them. While it wasn’t unusual for one or two wagons to travel by themselves, few children’s books cover that situation.

At this point, all I have is a short outline. As the story develops, I’m sure I’ll find other ways to make it stand out.

__________

The drawing at the top of this post is in the public domain because of its age.