I love old slang and this article is full of it! I was looking for an article containing the word bobbery (a noisy disturbance, a squabble, to raise a bobbery) and had to spend quite some time looking up the meanings of other words used in this very long article. It is a Friday, you have extra time over the weekend to squint at the tiny font (sorry!). Toggery was self-explanatory (clothing, put on your togs) and charley is often used to refer to police but James Carty’s ‘bird’s eye fogle, killingly twisted about his weasen’? What a wonderful string of words. But, what the?!
A bird’s eye fogle was, disappointingly, merely a silk handkerchief with eye like spots. Weason was much harder. There are references to it but not really a concrete definition (if you can find one please let me know!) I found ‘weasen faced’ and ‘ hideous little weasen face’ but I would say that they refer to the weasel-like countenance of the person being described and I don’t think his fogle was twisted about his head. I did find an ‘I’ll slit his weasen’ from 1910 so I would say that weasen would mean throat or neck. I thought it much more likely that ‘killingly twisted about his weasen’ meant his fogle was worn rakishly around his neck.
Gammon means nonsensical or misleading talk (also smoked ham, funnily enough) and a Virago is a mannish, bold or scolding woman. I think that Margaret DeCourey was probably a scary and grumpy woman when sober!
If only police reports were still published in the daily press. All we get now is sensationalistic news stories. These old police/court reports seem to be just an amusing account of actual events.
The Sydney Herald 13th June 1833-http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article12847011
I am just reading a letter from a friend where she has quoted an author, John Mitchell, writing about the Irish famine. ” Children met you …. their faces cramped and weasened like stunted old men”.
My friend then asked me if I had even come across the word “weasened”. And I hadn’t!
It is such a descriptive word, very evocative, and sadly, it is perfect to describe a famine victim. When I was trying to find the meaning of the word ‘weasen’ I kept coming across the way it was used to describe faces. I really felt that it wasn’t being used in that way in this particular instance as I hadn’t found references to hankies twisted about peoples faces as a fashion statement anywhere! It took me quite a while to find it used in reference to a different body part, since doing this post I have found necks called weasens in other articles, phew! I was right!
I came across the word “weasened” in “The Thing Invisible”, a story by William Hope Hodgson… “But to this, the old knight – a little, weasened, nervous man – would not listen for a moment.”
Based on this, and @mentan’s comments, I would guess it means “emaciated”.
Apparently, according to Merriam Webster, “weasand” means “throat” – they did not list an alternate spelling.
Since doing this post I have found other articles where the use of the word weasen is clearly referring to a throat (I’ll slit my weasen, etc) and I will post one next week. I think that this use of it is probably Australian slang of the times. Weasened really brings to mind a person resembling a weasel though, doesn’t it?