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What the Dickens?!: Distinctly Dickensian Words and How to Use Them
Featuring the quirkiest specimens in the Dickensian lexicon and culled from Charles Dickens' classic works, What the Dickens?! is a literary romp through the twisty alleyways of the Victorian vernacular.
What larks! Dive into the world of literature's ultimate wordsmith, Charles Dickens, in this literary romp through his finest quips, barbs, and turns of phrase.
Featuring 200 of Dickens' best-loved words, drawn from his fifteen novels and hundreds of short stories, What the Dickens?! is full of period-appropriate definitions, pithy commentary, and charming illustrations. Perfect for word nerds and book lovers of all ages, this volume will have you dragging your friends to the hippo-comedietta and bonneting your anti-Pickwickian adversaries like a proper Victorian in no time!
What larks! Dive into the world of literature's ultimate wordsmith, Charles Dickens, in this literary romp through his finest quips, barbs, and turns of phrase.
Featuring 200 of Dickens' best-loved words, drawn from his fifteen novels and hundreds of short stories, What the Dickens?! is full of period-appropriate definitions, pithy commentary, and charming illustrations. Perfect for word nerds and book lovers of all ages, this volume will have you dragging your friends to the hippo-comedietta and bonneting your anti-Pickwickian adversaries like a proper Victorian in no time!
224 pages, Hardcover
Published September 27, 2016
8 people are currently reading
417 people want to read
About the author
Bryan Kozlowski
5 books16 followersBryan Kozlowski is a lifestyle and British-culture researcher. Author of Long Live the Queen! and The Jane Austen Diet, along with three previous books, his works have been featured in Vogue, the New York Times and the Washington Post.
From Turner Publishing
From Turner Publishing
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
May 13, 2025
To be clear, I haven't read this entire book, nor am I likely to from start to finish. But I'll probably hit all of it piecemeal eventually, and I've seen enough of it to know where I stand on the rating. This is a short dictionary with 200 Victorian era words, some of which were made up by Dickens himself. It will come in handy as a reference book as I work though his catalog.
You get the word, the definition, an example where it's used in Dickens' work, and then further explanation which could be any number of things. Sometimes it's the etymology, or why Dickens liked it, or made it, some history, or how it was used by other authors, etc. Here's one example:
Growlery
[GROUL-uh-ree] A place of refuge where one goes to vent frustrations.
Mr. Jarndyce goes on to advertise his growlery as "the best-used room in the house." And, seemingly overnight, growleries were being added to the wish lists of many Victorian homeowners. In turn, enterprising architects of the day, like William A. Lambert, started stressing the importance of this new, must-have domestic sanctuary:
But for goodness sake, Lambert goes on to say, keep the decoration of the growlery as close "to the masculine heart" as possible, "without any bows or feminine nonsense."
It's pretty much an old-school man cave.
The only reason I'm not giving this five stars is the way it's laid out. There is no table of contents or index. You wouldn't normally deem that necessary in a dictionary since they're supposed to run alphabetically, but this is divided into several sections. Everything is alphabetical within the section, but if I want to look up a particular word, I have to look in one of these five different places:
"It was the best of times:" Words for making merry
"It was the worst of times:" Words for bleak days and bad company
"A London particular:" Street words and slang
"Mostly prunes and prism:" Words for the rich and ridiculous
"A most anomalous conjunction of words:" Vocabulary for the smart-sounding Victorian
Growlery was in the second part. It would be nice to look in one place really quickly to see if the word is even in the book. Having a section cross-referencing which work a particular word is found in would be nice also. I'm currently reading The Pickwick Papers, and it would be cool to glance in a Pickwick Papers section and see whether or not a word that stumped me is there, but even I think that's really asking a bit too much. First world problems, bitches.
A cursory perusal showed me the word "spoony!" Only an uber-dork in his late 30's/early 40's would get excited about this...,
...but I'll educate the ignorant on here right now. "Spoony" is the stuff of legends in the Final Fantasy franchise, even surpassing "licentious howler" which is another fave. These video games originated in Japan. The translations weren't always top-notch and led to many "what in tarnation" moments for players. (Or more likely "what the fuck." I was maintaining a clean mouth for a couple of years when I got this game, but I eventually got over it). "Spoony" technically works in this context, but the term was quite archaic by 1991 and nary a kid or teenager knew what to make of this line when Tellah trotted it out. It thrills me to no end to discover that Final Fantasy II (Final Fantasy IV in Japan) and Dickens have a link.
It's also nice to finally know what the Dickens Dickens meant by Mr. Fezziwig's "organ of benevolence" in A Christmas Carol. That's thrown me off for years, and I never would've guessed "head." Well, not the head typically found atop a neck, though the organ of benevolence that crossed my mind is considered to have a head on it.
This is a great book for anyone who likes words and Victorian literature, especially Dickens. Most others need not apply.
ADDENDA:
Personal ranking of novels:
This is a subjective ranking in terms of my personal enjoyment, and it's subject to change due to my whims and caprices of the day (though I doubt David Copperfield will ever move out of the top spot). I'm not smart enough to offer an objective ranking. (I also don't enjoy arguing about such things, and that kind of list is designed to invite disputes among people who know what they're talking about, and I'm afraid I'm not one of those.) However, I do know that most scholars agree that Great Expectations is considered his best crafted work due to everything working well to come together in the end, and themes, and imagery, and a bunch of other English lit stuff I don't understand. But, you'll note that it's not at the top of my list. David Copperfield has a couple of shortcomings that are absent in GE, but I still enjoy DC more. You'll also notice that my favorite book of all time, A Christmas Carol, is not on this list. That's because it's a novella and not a proper novel. If it were on the list, it would stand atop all. The Mystery of Edwin Drood isn't on the list because I have no plan to read it for now as it was never finished. Lastly: I enjoyed all of these, even those in last place. I don't think any of them are outright duds, though the ones at the bottom probably won't get a reread from me.
David Copperfield
Great Expectations
A Tale of Two Cities
Nicholas Nickleby
Barnaby Rudge
Our Mutual Friend
Bleak House
Oliver Twist
Hard Times
Dombey and Son
The Pickwick Papers
Martin Chuzzlewit
The Old Curiosity Shop
TBD:
Little Dorrit
Review corral:
This seems like as good a place as any for me to put all my Dickens reviews in one spot. The numbers following the reviews are for my own reference and indicate the page numbers in this book that have words from the book next to them... Someone call a sentence diagram expert to check that out to make sure I said what I meant to say; I suck at that sometimes.
If there are no stars, then I haven't read it yet, and the link goes to the goodreads book page. An "X" indicates a story I read that didn't have an entry in this book. The works are in chronological order. After that is a list of the words that weren't in one of the major works listed below.
Sketches by Boz: 12, 49, 76, 118, 127, 133, 136, 149, 151, 168, 169, 173, 174
A Christmas Dinner ★★★☆☆ (2.5): X
The Pickwick Papers ★★★✰✰: 19, 21 ,35 ,37 ,42 ,58 ,60 ,90, 98, 107 ,110, 115, 125, 129, 137, 141, 146, 189, 214, 216
The Story of the Goblins who Stole a Sexton ★★★★✰: X
Oliver Twist ★★★★✰: 69, 73, 82, 103, 111, 120, 135, 142, 197
Nicholas Nickleby ★★★★✰ (3.5): 14, 57, 61, 62, 84, 106, 126, 154, 165, 185, 196, 201, 218
The Old Curiosity Shop ★★★✰✰: 24, 38, 48, 59, 85, 93, 130, 134, 188, 210
Barnaby Rudge ★★★★✰: 16, 77, 112, 152, 167, 204
Master Humphrey's Clock: 217
A Christmas Carol ★★★★★: 11, 22, 23, 26, 33, 40, 138, 184
Martin Chuzzlewit ★★★✰✰: 75, 100, 131, 150, 171, 181, 199
The Chimes ★★★✰✰: 28, 50
The Cricket on the Hearth ★★★★✰: X
The Battle of Life ★★✰✰✰: X
Dombey and Son ★★★✰✰: 30, 44, 56, 88, 95, 102, 114, 170, 194, 202, 215, 220, 222
The Haunted Man ★★★★✰: X
David Copperfield ★★★★★: 15, 18, 45, 71, 86, 104, 128, 139, 143, 148, 163, 177, 186, 195, 203, 209, 223
A Christmas Tree ★★✰✰✰: 39
What Christmas Is as We Grow Older ★✰✰✰✰: X
The Poor Relation's Story ★★✰✰✰: X
The Child's Story ★★★✰✰: X
Bleak House ★★★★✰: 65, 67 ,70, 79, 83, 113, 116, 119, 123, 132, 156, 175, 176, 179, 205
The Schoolboy's Story ★★★☆☆: X
Nobody's Story ★★★☆☆: X
Hard Times ★★★★✰ (3.5): 20, 145, 190, 212
The Seven Poor Travellers ★★★☆☆ (2.5): X
The Holly-Tree ★★✰✰✰: X
The Wreck of the Golden Mary ★★★☆☆ (2.5): X
Little Dorrit: 43, 55, 66, 81, 101, 144, 158, 161, 180, 207, 219
The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices ★★★☆☆: 164
Going into Society ★★★☆☆: X
A Tale of Two Cities ★★★★✰: 54, 87, 206
The Haunted House: 208
Great Expectations ★★★★★: 34, 51, 80, 94, 99, 122, 159, 162, 191
Mrs. Lirriper's Lodgings ★★★★✰: 155
Mrs. Lirriper's Legacy ★★★✰✰: X
Our Mutual Friend ★★★★✰: 17, 27, 36, 47, 68, 78, 91, 105, 121, 124, 147, 160, 182, 192, 193, 198, 221
Doctor Marigold ★★★☆☆ (2.5): X
Mugby Junction ★★★★✰: X
No Thoroughfare ★★★★✰: X
The Uncommercial Traveller: 53
The Mystery of Edwin Drood: 25, 46, 109, 187
Words found in various letters, speeches, articles, notes, etc.:
13 - Bumper
29 - Moor-eeffoc
64 - Farm for Children
72 - Knacker
74 - Nellicide
89 - Ugsome
96 - Boz
153 - Honorificabilitudinitatibus
157 - Nobby
166 - Sabbatarian
172 - Tuft-hunting
213 - Post-prandial
You get the word, the definition, an example where it's used in Dickens' work, and then further explanation which could be any number of things. Sometimes it's the etymology, or why Dickens liked it, or made it, some history, or how it was used by other authors, etc. Here's one example:
Growlery
[GROUL-uh-ree] A place of refuge where one goes to vent frustrations.
Mr. Jarndyce called me into a small room next his bedchamber, which I found to be in part a little library of books and papers, and in part quite a little museum of his boots and shoes, and hat-boxes. "Sit down, my dear," said Mr. Jarndyce. "This, you must know, is the Growlery. When I am out of humour, I come and growl here."
-Bleak House
Mr. Jarndyce goes on to advertise his growlery as "the best-used room in the house." And, seemingly overnight, growleries were being added to the wish lists of many Victorian homeowners. In turn, enterprising architects of the day, like William A. Lambert, started stressing the importance of this new, must-have domestic sanctuary:
A study or growlery is just as dear to a man's heart as a boudoir is to a woman's; and the master of the house deserves to have some corner which shall be his very own, whither he can retire when he wishes to read or work, or simply smoke and rest, or receive business visitors, blissfully undisturbed by the rest of the household.
But for goodness sake, Lambert goes on to say, keep the decoration of the growlery as close "to the masculine heart" as possible, "without any bows or feminine nonsense."
It's pretty much an old-school man cave.
The only reason I'm not giving this five stars is the way it's laid out. There is no table of contents or index. You wouldn't normally deem that necessary in a dictionary since they're supposed to run alphabetically, but this is divided into several sections. Everything is alphabetical within the section, but if I want to look up a particular word, I have to look in one of these five different places:
"It was the best of times:" Words for making merry
"It was the worst of times:" Words for bleak days and bad company
"A London particular:" Street words and slang
"Mostly prunes and prism:" Words for the rich and ridiculous
"A most anomalous conjunction of words:" Vocabulary for the smart-sounding Victorian
Growlery was in the second part. It would be nice to look in one place really quickly to see if the word is even in the book. Having a section cross-referencing which work a particular word is found in would be nice also. I'm currently reading The Pickwick Papers, and it would be cool to glance in a Pickwick Papers section and see whether or not a word that stumped me is there, but even I think that's really asking a bit too much. First world problems, bitches.
A cursory perusal showed me the word "spoony!" Only an uber-dork in his late 30's/early 40's would get excited about this...,
...but I'll educate the ignorant on here right now. "Spoony" is the stuff of legends in the Final Fantasy franchise, even surpassing "licentious howler" which is another fave. These video games originated in Japan. The translations weren't always top-notch and led to many "what in tarnation" moments for players. (Or more likely "what the fuck." I was maintaining a clean mouth for a couple of years when I got this game, but I eventually got over it). "Spoony" technically works in this context, but the term was quite archaic by 1991 and nary a kid or teenager knew what to make of this line when Tellah trotted it out. It thrills me to no end to discover that Final Fantasy II (Final Fantasy IV in Japan) and Dickens have a link.
It's also nice to finally know what the Dickens Dickens meant by Mr. Fezziwig's "organ of benevolence" in A Christmas Carol. That's thrown me off for years, and I never would've guessed "head." Well, not the head typically found atop a neck, though the organ of benevolence that crossed my mind is considered to have a head on it.
This is a great book for anyone who likes words and Victorian literature, especially Dickens. Most others need not apply.
ADDENDA:
Personal ranking of novels:
This is a subjective ranking in terms of my personal enjoyment, and it's subject to change due to my whims and caprices of the day (though I doubt David Copperfield will ever move out of the top spot). I'm not smart enough to offer an objective ranking. (I also don't enjoy arguing about such things, and that kind of list is designed to invite disputes among people who know what they're talking about, and I'm afraid I'm not one of those.) However, I do know that most scholars agree that Great Expectations is considered his best crafted work due to everything working well to come together in the end, and themes, and imagery, and a bunch of other English lit stuff I don't understand. But, you'll note that it's not at the top of my list. David Copperfield has a couple of shortcomings that are absent in GE, but I still enjoy DC more. You'll also notice that my favorite book of all time, A Christmas Carol, is not on this list. That's because it's a novella and not a proper novel. If it were on the list, it would stand atop all. The Mystery of Edwin Drood isn't on the list because I have no plan to read it for now as it was never finished. Lastly: I enjoyed all of these, even those in last place. I don't think any of them are outright duds, though the ones at the bottom probably won't get a reread from me.
David Copperfield
Great Expectations
A Tale of Two Cities
Nicholas Nickleby
Barnaby Rudge
Our Mutual Friend
Bleak House
Oliver Twist
Hard Times
Dombey and Son
The Pickwick Papers
Martin Chuzzlewit
The Old Curiosity Shop
TBD:
Little Dorrit
Review corral:
This seems like as good a place as any for me to put all my Dickens reviews in one spot. The numbers following the reviews are for my own reference and indicate the page numbers in this book that have words from the book next to them... Someone call a sentence diagram expert to check that out to make sure I said what I meant to say; I suck at that sometimes.
If there are no stars, then I haven't read it yet, and the link goes to the goodreads book page. An "X" indicates a story I read that didn't have an entry in this book. The works are in chronological order. After that is a list of the words that weren't in one of the major works listed below.
Sketches by Boz: 12, 49, 76, 118, 127, 133, 136, 149, 151, 168, 169, 173, 174
A Christmas Dinner ★★★☆☆ (2.5): X
The Pickwick Papers ★★★✰✰: 19, 21 ,35 ,37 ,42 ,58 ,60 ,90, 98, 107 ,110, 115, 125, 129, 137, 141, 146, 189, 214, 216
The Story of the Goblins who Stole a Sexton ★★★★✰: X
Oliver Twist ★★★★✰: 69, 73, 82, 103, 111, 120, 135, 142, 197
Nicholas Nickleby ★★★★✰ (3.5): 14, 57, 61, 62, 84, 106, 126, 154, 165, 185, 196, 201, 218
The Old Curiosity Shop ★★★✰✰: 24, 38, 48, 59, 85, 93, 130, 134, 188, 210
Barnaby Rudge ★★★★✰: 16, 77, 112, 152, 167, 204
Master Humphrey's Clock: 217
A Christmas Carol ★★★★★: 11, 22, 23, 26, 33, 40, 138, 184
Martin Chuzzlewit ★★★✰✰: 75, 100, 131, 150, 171, 181, 199
The Chimes ★★★✰✰: 28, 50
The Cricket on the Hearth ★★★★✰: X
The Battle of Life ★★✰✰✰: X
Dombey and Son ★★★✰✰: 30, 44, 56, 88, 95, 102, 114, 170, 194, 202, 215, 220, 222
The Haunted Man ★★★★✰: X
David Copperfield ★★★★★: 15, 18, 45, 71, 86, 104, 128, 139, 143, 148, 163, 177, 186, 195, 203, 209, 223
A Christmas Tree ★★✰✰✰: 39
What Christmas Is as We Grow Older ★✰✰✰✰: X
The Poor Relation's Story ★★✰✰✰: X
The Child's Story ★★★✰✰: X
Bleak House ★★★★✰: 65, 67 ,70, 79, 83, 113, 116, 119, 123, 132, 156, 175, 176, 179, 205
The Schoolboy's Story ★★★☆☆: X
Nobody's Story ★★★☆☆: X
Hard Times ★★★★✰ (3.5): 20, 145, 190, 212
The Seven Poor Travellers ★★★☆☆ (2.5): X
The Holly-Tree ★★✰✰✰: X
The Wreck of the Golden Mary ★★★☆☆ (2.5): X
Little Dorrit: 43, 55, 66, 81, 101, 144, 158, 161, 180, 207, 219
The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices ★★★☆☆: 164
Going into Society ★★★☆☆: X
A Tale of Two Cities ★★★★✰: 54, 87, 206
The Haunted House: 208
Great Expectations ★★★★★: 34, 51, 80, 94, 99, 122, 159, 162, 191
Mrs. Lirriper's Lodgings ★★★★✰: 155
Mrs. Lirriper's Legacy ★★★✰✰: X
Our Mutual Friend ★★★★✰: 17, 27, 36, 47, 68, 78, 91, 105, 121, 124, 147, 160, 182, 192, 193, 198, 221
Doctor Marigold ★★★☆☆ (2.5): X
Mugby Junction ★★★★✰: X
No Thoroughfare ★★★★✰: X
The Uncommercial Traveller: 53
The Mystery of Edwin Drood: 25, 46, 109, 187
Words found in various letters, speeches, articles, notes, etc.:
13 - Bumper
29 - Moor-eeffoc
64 - Farm for Children
72 - Knacker
74 - Nellicide
89 - Ugsome
96 - Boz
153 - Honorificabilitudinitatibus
157 - Nobby
166 - Sabbatarian
172 - Tuft-hunting
213 - Post-prandial
May 19, 2020
I have to assume the author read nearly of all Charles Dickens's works. That alone is impressive. (I'm still working my way through them.) How much research went in to define the selected words I can't imagine. The only improvement I would like to see is the addition of an alphabetical index of the words and their page numbers.
Addendum: I can admit when I'm not quite right about something. My assumption was a 'tad' short of the mark. On the back of the book, which I read AFTER I posted my review, states "Bryan Kozlowski is an author, bookworm, and Dickens devotee. A member of the Dickens Fellowship, his writing on Charles Dickens' life and legacy have appeared in 'Slate', 'Country Life' magazine, 'Anglotopia', and 'Historic UK'. ..." I ask forgiveness, please.
Addendum: I can admit when I'm not quite right about something. My assumption was a 'tad' short of the mark. On the back of the book, which I read AFTER I posted my review, states "Bryan Kozlowski is an author, bookworm, and Dickens devotee. A member of the Dickens Fellowship, his writing on Charles Dickens' life and legacy have appeared in 'Slate', 'Country Life' magazine, 'Anglotopia', and 'Historic UK'. ..." I ask forgiveness, please.
March 16, 2019
For Dickens' fans, a really enjoyable book. This book has added much to my understanding and enjoyment of Dickens. It's a real feast of information, not just of the words it describes but also about Dickens and Victorian life. I read it as a coffee time book devoting fifteen minutes a day and this seemed to work for me.
My only criticism is that there is no index. The author has chosen deliberately not to order all the words in straight alphabetical order but group them in themes. This makes sense and works well but I feel an index would be useful as I am sure I would want to use this book when actually reading a Dickens novel. Consequently, I have created an index for anyone else who feels the need as I do. You can find it here What the Dickens Index
My only criticism is that there is no index. The author has chosen deliberately not to order all the words in straight alphabetical order but group them in themes. This makes sense and works well but I feel an index would be useful as I am sure I would want to use this book when actually reading a Dickens novel. Consequently, I have created an index for anyone else who feels the need as I do. You can find it here What the Dickens Index
July 6, 2017
If you love the works of Charles Dickens, you'll love this book. Full of definitions, explanations, and addendums to many of the most colorful and best loved Dickensian words. This book has it all for fans of Dickens-- allusions to characters and descriptions of scenes and settings from his best-loved books, as well as distinct explanations of Victorian customs and practices. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It will be an excellent reference as I continue to explore the rich literary world of Charles Dickens.
September 5, 2024
This makes me want to read Dickens. Considering I've only really finished two (A Christmas Carol and Bleak House) and found the others impossible to force myself to read, this is an interesting result that I was not expecting.
July 29, 2020
Victorian language. Word nerd. Snapdragon game. No index. Delightful.
February 13, 2017
Delightful book of Dickensian words.....flummoxed is my favorite that I actually use in everyday speech!
December 27, 2016
Full review here: http://dickensblog.typepad.com/dicken...
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews