What it really means
Some slang starts in the street. Afternoonified started at a shop counter.
In July 1897 the Daily Telegraph told a small story. A lady walked into a fashionable draper's, looked at everything, and liked nothing. The shopwalker — the man a Victorian shop sent in when an ordinary assistant had failed to make a sale — came over and asked whether the goods were not suitable. No, thank you, she said. They are not "afternoonified" enough for me.
The paper thought it had witnessed the birth of a word: what may prove a popular new adjective made its first appearance last week. The shopwalker, it reported, expressed his regret and beat a dignified retreat.
Twelve years later J. Redding Ware reprinted the story in Passing English of the Victorian Era, filed the word as society slang, and gave it a one-word definition: Smart.
The afternoon in it is the social afternoon. Green's Dictionary of Slang ties it to the calls that society women paid one another, the hours when you were seen, and dressed to be seen. Something afternoonified is ready for that inspection.
Whether the word really caught on is another matter. The only evidence we have is a single newspaper anecdote and a dictionary that quoted it. That is not much of a career. But it is a very good word for something everyone recognises: the outfit that is perfectly fine, and still not quite right for the occasion.
Where it comes from
the hours of social calls and visiting dress
to make into
turns it into a description
Green's Dictionary of Slang links it to the regular afternoon calls that society ladies paid one another — the time of day you dressed to be looked at.
- July 1897
The Daily Telegraph reports a lady at a fashionable draper's telling the shopwalker that his goods were 'not "afternoonified" enough for me', and calls it a new adjective.
- 1909
J. Redding Ware's Passing English of the Victorian Era quotes the report and files the word as society slang: 'Smart.'
In real life
- She took one look at the hired suit and sent him back upstairs: smart, yes, but not nearly afternoonified enough for her sister's garden party.
- The café had velvet chairs, tiny forks and a three-tier cake stand — the most afternoonified place on the whole high street.
- He ironed his only good shirt, polished his shoes and declared himself fully afternoonified for the interview.
Questions
Q01Is afternoonified a real Victorian word?
Yes. The Daily Telegraph reported it in July 1897, and J. Redding Ware put it in Passing English of the Victorian Era (1909), labelled society slang and defined as 'smart'.
Q02Where does afternoonified come from?
It is 'afternoon' turned into a verb and then an adjective. Green's Dictionary of Slang connects it to the afternoon calls society ladies paid each other, when looking well turned out was the point.
Q03Was it widely used?
The record is thin. The 1897 newspaper called it a new word that 'may prove a popular new adjective', and Ware's dictionary is the next place it appears. We found no evidence it ever became common.
Sources
- J. Redding Ware, Passing English of the Victorian Era (1909), full text — 'Afternoonified (Soc.). Smart.', with the Daily Telegraph report of July 1897.
- Green's Dictionary of Slang — afternoonified, adj.
- Wiktionary — afternoonified.