These illustrations accompanied a story by W.W. Winans about slang use in Toronto 100 years ago. I don’t have any information on the author. Some of the slang and their definitions in the images:
- Big Fish = Important person
- Bird = Person
- Thirty Seeds = Thirty dollars
- Kisser = mouth or face
- “Know your onions” = to be knowledgeable on a particular subject
- “Crying out loud” = expressing surprise or impatience
- Six-bits = 75 cents (also meaning “a lot”)
- Applesauce = nonsense
Leave a Reply