Learn English from Charles Dickens

Today’s English
August 3rd, 2017

Charles Dickens (1812-1870),one of the greatest novelists (perhaps, children’s novelists) of the Victorian era is best remembered for his novels “A Tale of Two Cities”, “Great Expectations” and “Oliver Twist".  Everyone would raise their eyebrows to know that how a boy who left school and worked in a factory could become later an editor of a weekly journal for 20 years and write 15 novels and hundreds of short stories. The words and phrases coined by Dickens are as great in number as those by Shakespeare and Milton and he is quoted for 9218 citations in Oxford English Dictionary.  Let’s try a few words and expressions coined and popularised by Dickens:

1.Word: devil-may-care

Meaning: careless,  not worrying about the outcome/consequences of your actions

Source: from the Pickwick Papers, 1837

Examples:
A.What I don’t like is her devil-may-care attitude that hurts everyone.
B.His devil-may-care response irritated me a lot.

2.Word: lummy

Meaning: cute, first-rate

Source: from Oliver Twist, 1839

Examples:
A.He arranged his party in a lummy restaurant. (=first-rate)
B.I still like to play with his lummy daughter Venya. (=cute)

3.Word: rampage

Meaning: to move through a place with lot of noise and causing damage

Source: Great Expectations, 1860

Examples:
A.The agitators rampaged through the street setting fire to cars.
B.Seventeen cases have been filed against the protesters who rampaged through the city yesterday.

4.Word: flummox

Meaning: to confuse somebody a lot

Source: The Pickwick Papers

Examples:
A.The last question in the quiz programme flummoxed me a lot.
B.I was completely flummoxed by her contradictory statements.

5. Expression: have someone’s number

Meaning: to know or understand someone more and get an advantage of that

Source: from  Bleak House

Examples:
A.Don’t worry! I have his number and he can’t cheat me.
B.Have you got her number? Yes, of course.

“There are books of which the backs and covers are by far the best parts.
-Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist