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prettygoodwordgallivant (GAL-uh-vant, gal-uh-VANT) - v., to wander about for pleasure without a plan; to flirt, to romance, to go about with members of the opposite sex.
And here we have an instance of actual Regency England slang, first attested in 1819, and yet we rarely (if ever) see it in sub-Heyer Regency romances, or even in Heyer's own books -- primarily, I'm guessing, because it has become thoroughly nativized in the standard register. Like much slang, its origin is uncertain, but the bets are on that it's an alteration of gallant, in what's now an obsolete verb sense of to play the gallant, to flirt, to gad about.
---L.
And here we have an instance of actual Regency England slang, first attested in 1819, and yet we rarely (if ever) see it in sub-Heyer Regency romances, or even in Heyer's own books -- primarily, I'm guessing, because it has become thoroughly nativized in the standard register. Like much slang, its origin is uncertain, but the bets are on that it's an alteration of gallant, in what's now an obsolete verb sense of to play the gallant, to flirt, to gad about.
---L.
