What it doesn't mean
It is in the standard dictionary of Victorian slang, but its own entry dates it 1800 to 1840. Victoria became queen in 1837, so by Ware's account this was Regency tavern talk that had all but run its course when her reign began.
What it really means
Nanty narking means great fun, and it is one of the best-sounding phrases on any list of Victorian slang. The trouble is the word Victorian.
The phrase comes from J. Redding Ware's Passing English of the Victorian Era (1909), and Ware is clear about its dates. His entry reads: Nanty narking (Tavern, 1800 on to 1840). Great fun. Queen Victoria came to the throne in 1837. By Ware's own account, then, this was tavern slang of the Regency and the years around it, and it was on its way out just as the Victorian era began. It is in a Victorian dictionary because Ware cast his net wide, not because the Victorians were saying it.
Ware also sends the reader to Pierce Egan's Life in London (1821), the rollicking tour of the town that gave the world Tom and Jerry. We searched the scanned text of the 1821 edition and did not find the phrase — though scans miss things, so that is not proof it is absent.
The words themselves are a small history of London. Nanty is from the Italian niente, nothing; Ware traces it through the slang of the city's Italian organ-grinders ('E's a nanty cove). It also turns up in phrases like nanty palaver — no talking. Narking means annoying. Put them together and Green's Dictionary of Slang reads the phrase literally as nothing irritating: no bother, no complaints, a good time with nothing to spoil it.
It is a lovely phrase. It just belongs to the age of stagecoaches and Tom and Jerry, a generation before the one the lists give it.
Where it comes from
nothing, no — Ware: a corruption of Italian 'niente'
annoying, irritating
Green's Dictionary of Slang reads it literally as 'nothing irritating' — no bother, nothing to spoil it: great fun.
- 1800–1840
The years Ware gives it, labelled tavern slang — mostly before Queen Victoria came to the throne in 1837.
- 1909
Ware's Passing English of the Victorian Era: 'Nanty narking (Tavern, 1800 on to 1840). Great fun. (See Egan's Life in London.)'
In real life
- The quiz night was meant to last an hour; four hours and a conga line later, everyone agreed it had been nanty narking.
- Grandad's stories about the old pub are pure nanty narking, even if half of them can't be true.
- Bring the cards and the cheap wine — it's going to be nanty narking.
Questions
Q01What does nanty narking mean?
Great fun. J. Redding Ware's Passing English of the Victorian Era (1909) records it as tavern slang.
Q02Is nanty narking Victorian slang?
Not quite. It appears in Ware's dictionary of Victorian slang, but Ware himself dates it 'from 1800 on to 1840' — the Regency, mostly before Victoria's reign began in 1837.
Q03Where does nanty narking come from?
'Nanty' is from Italian 'niente', nothing — Ware traces it through the slang of London's Italian organ-grinders. 'Narking' means annoying. Green's Dictionary of Slang reads the whole phrase as 'nothing irritating': no bother at all.
Sources
- J. Redding Ware, Passing English of the Victorian Era (1909), full text — 'Nanty narking (Tavern, 1800 on to 1840)' and 'Nanty (Italian organ-grinders')'.
- Green's Dictionary of Slang — nanty narking (under nanty, adv.).
- Pierce Egan, Life in London (1821), the book Ware cites — full text.
- Mental Floss — Victorian slang list (includes nanty narking).