Samuel Pepys’ Diary (1664 & 1667)

Samuel Pepys’ Diary (1664 & 1667)

Pepys’s “frolique” is a euphemism for a picnic, which did not exist as a word in English. It was among his favorite ways to spend an afternoon with friends idling. It was a favorite way for him to spend an afternoon with friends idling. We know this...
Lady Mary Montagu’s Cold Loaf Outing, a Picnic Euphemism (1752)

Lady Mary Montagu’s Cold Loaf Outing, a Picnic Euphemism (1752)

Montagu “ate a cold loaf,” which suggests a synonym for picnicking, a term that has not survived. She wrote the word in her diary for 1752 while visiting a ruined 12th Century priory in Berkshire being remolded as her residence. Emily J. Climenson, editor of Montagu’s...
May Boykin Chesnut’s  Diary from Dixie (1861)

May Boykin Chesnut’s Diary from Dixie (1861)

Coram’s View Of Mulberry in 1800 looks up to the rear of the house from the vantage point of “the street” because it was lined with slave quarters, of which houses are visible. Coram’s view suggests “the street” was a matter of...