Being set in the late 1700s, the Captain She series is intense and action-packed but cannot lack Old English. One of my beta readers helped me cut out the modern phrases such as “dude” or “light at the end of the tunnel” or “10-4” into phrases that are easy to read, hold that Old English ring, and continue to keep up with the pace of the book in its Old English sass.
Here is a quick glimpse of Old English slang (whether to impress your friends, text your mom in a new fashion, or write your own novel; enjoy!):
| Cry you mercy | beg your pardon |
| Prithee | i beg of you |
| Mawkish | nauseating, no appetite, sick |
| Lusty | vigorous |
| Mardle | gossip |
| Hussy | immoral |
| Fry | young child |
| Dizzy | foolish |
| Dalliance | flirting |
| Clay brained | speaks for itself |
| Forswear | deny, repudiate |
| How do you do? | hello, greetings (usually with curtsy or bow) |
| Cast up one’s accounts | vomiting |
| Bark at the moon | uselessly agitate |
| To grin like a basket of chips | big smile |
| In bad bread | Inside disagreeable issues |
| Eternity box | coffin |
| Fallen away from a horse load to a cart load | became obese |
| Fegary | a prank |
| Fly in a tar box | excited while nervous |
| In a quandary | undecisive |
| Banns | a engagement publicly announced in church |
| Apoplexy | stoke |
| Black boots | out of someone’s favor, disapproved of |
| Darken his daylights | give someone a black eye |
| Watering pot | someone who overwhelming cries almost all the time |
| Handle the ribbons | drive the coach |
| Plant a facer | Hit the face |
| Under the hatches | in debt, penniless |
| Toad eater | one who flatters |
Did you know?
When the coach (many times mail carriers) departed or approached crowds and its destination, a guard’s job was to blow a long horn. Yep, like our car horn. People liked to call it the “yard of tin”.
Michala Woodruff 
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