Alert Janeite Bonnie sent me this link:  Talk Like Jane Austen Day,

in Celebration of the 199th anniversary of the publishing of Sense and Sensibility, 30 October, 2010.  This site has a growing list of words and language customs that Austen used that have lost their meaning to us – the list will be added to, so check back again… some examples:

Nice ~  fussy, over particular, affected

Numbers ~ not “twenty four”, but “four and twenty” 

Only ~ use instead of “just” as in “Only think of the Marquis of Granby being dead.”

Own ~ use instead of admit as in “I own I think our political horizon still lowers” 

Scruple ~ To doubt, to have reservations, as in “We have talked of it again this morning, and I am convinced that if you can make it suit in other respects you need not scruple on his account.”

and a link to Dr. Johnson’s Dictionary in case you want to look anything up…

Thanks Bonnie for passing this on!

[Posted by Deb]