dangleation

reesetee commented on the word dangleation

Dallying with girls, flirtation. "A pleasingly suggestive term which has sadly fallen into disuse in modern times, although the concept certainly remains very much alive. Flirtatious and womanising men were known as 'danglers' and were particularly active at court and in high society. In an 18th-century letter, Henrietta Howard, Countess of Suffolk, writes to a lady friend bemoaning the dreariness of court life in the early years of the reign of George II: 'Hampton Court is very different from the place you knew.... Frizelation, flirtation and dangleation are now no more....'" (From Foyle's Philavery: A Treasury of Unusual Words, by Christopher Foyle.)

October 3, 2007