The Many Words of Jane Austen

Last week I posted an article to our Facebook page called The Queen of Modern Slang which briefly discussed words and phrases coined by Jane Austen that we still use today. After I posted that article I saw another brief article, In Jane’s Words,  and a mention in an Editorial: There’s a Word for That (you have skim down the page a bit).

All three of these were discussing Oxford professor Charlotte Brewer’s talk at the Hay Festival.

…that while Austen had a great influence on the first Oxford English Dictionary publised in 1928, she is quoted 1,640 times in the most recent edition.

Entries include 321 phrases from her 1815 novel Emma… (from The Queen of Modern Slang @ The Daily Mail) 

Here is a list of the words and phrases shared in these three articles:

• dinner-party
• brace yourself
• if I’ve told your once, I’ve told you 100 times
• family portrait
• door bell
• morning room
• shut up
• dirt cheap
• dog-tired