Lexicographer Susie Dent has dug through historical dictionary archives to unearth rude terms for Moonpig – from the Shakespearean version of the F word to the Victorian slang for a drunkard.
Just nine months after Christmas, September is the most common birth month in England and Wales (we know what your parents did on Boxing Day…).To celebrate this, Moonpig has transformed Susie’s newfound jibes into a new line of birthday cards.
In an animated episode, Susie explains the words’ origins and how we can use them to rib our loved ones on their special day: https://youtu.be/wo2WBNH-WZU
The new (old) swear words include:
- ‘Sard’: If you really want to give your message the full whack, why not opt for the Shakespearean version of the F word? ‘Sard’, from the 15th century, is defined in the dictionary as ‘to know carnally’. But no need to be so coy in your special day greetings – Happy Birthday sard-face is surely worth a try.
- ‘Lubberwort’: A 16th-century word for an imaginary plant said to inspire extreme laziness, as well as for the slubberdegullion (that’s an idler to you and me) it produces. ‘Happy Birthday you lazy lubberwort’ has a rather nice ring to it.
- ‘Arf’arf’an’arf’: Comes from Victorian slang, where it described a drunkard who sank one ‘arf’ – or half pint – after another. Incidentally, the same tippler would also have been known as a tosspot – because they tossed back their pot of beer and immediately started on another.
- ‘Dunderhead’: Is one of those old-fashioned insults that makes everyone smile. Its origins may be elusive, but its meaning is clear: a bit of an idiot or blockhead who never quite gets it right. And all dunderheads need a good friend, which is why ‘Happy Birthday my dearest dunderhead’ might be the nicest greeting of all.
- ‘Blunderbuss’: A 17th-century word meaning a gun with a large bore but which slipped into metaphorical use to mean a blustering, noisy talker (and we all know one of those). From the Dutch for ‘thunder gun’, it can be used for anyone who loves nothing more than to hold forth on any subject for hours on end. ‘Happy Birthday you bloviating blunderbuss’ should do the trick.
Susie Dent, lexicographer and etymologist said: “Flowery, affectionate birthday greetings are all well and good, but we all know that if you really want to show your loved ones how much you care, there’s nothing better than lobbing a carefully-chosen insult their way.”
Sarah-Jane Porter, head of cards at Moonpig commented: “One of the fastest-growing categories this year has been our humour range, so we wanted to give people inspiration to have a playful dig at their loved ones and raise some smiles as the nation celebrates the most common birthday of the year; September 26th.”
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