Lost Early American Vocabulary

Eric Ferguson, who works with living history museums, wanted to spice the language of historical enactors with authentic early American phrases, so he turned to the 1830 memoirs of Joseph Plumb Martin, who fought in the American Revolution as an enlisted man.

Here are some of the forgotten gems he unearthed, demonstrating once again the fluidity of the English language. All page references are to Private Yankee Doodle, by Joseph Plumb Martin:

• The pinch of the game; the determining moment, the crucial point. "But the pinch of the game had not arrived yet . . ." (6).
• Graveled; perplexed. "And now I was completely graveled; my parents were too far off to obtain their consent . . ." (8).
• Mauger; despite. Appears to be a strong term. "I saw a simple incident which excited my risibility, mauger my fatigue" (16, 68).
• Pipe of wine; a large cask of about two hogsheads or 126 gallons (20).
• Cogitations; unpleasant thought. After being assigned to an unpleasant fatigue, "However, I kept my cogitations to myself" (22).
• Langrage; like grapeshot, except irregular in shape "The grapeshot and langrage flew merrily . . ." (35).
• The Pock; smallpox (66).
• Animalcule; microbe. "Had the animalcule of the itch been endowed with reason they would have quit their entrenchments . . ." (111).
• Raised his ideas; made him angry, aggressive. "This officer was a very mild man, but the old man had 'raised his idea' by abusing the soldiers, which he would not hear from anyone" (202).
• Fag end; last years, final part. ". . . many of the poor men who had spent their youthful . . . days in the hard service of their country, have been enabled to eke out the fag end of their lives too high for the groveling hand of envy . . ." (292).
• Obloquy; false accusation, malicious gossip (293).

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Private Yankee Doodle, by Joseph Plumb Martin, edited by George F. Scheer. Originally published in 1830. Little, Brown & Co, 1962. Eastern Acorn Press, 1988.