404meanings / The Scriptorium / Younger Than They Look

real, but younger than they are sold as

Younger Than They Look

Real words that are shared online as older than they are. Each is on record, but later than the age it is sold as — dewdropper, passed around as Victorian slang, is first found in 1922. Each links to a page with the record we found and the old dictionaries we searched.

Shown: Merrymakers at Shrovetide — Frans Hals, ca. 1616–17 · The Met, public domain

  1. 1922Dewdropperinsult · nounA lazy person — in 1920s American slang, a man who dances all night and sleeps all day. Often sold as Victorian, but it is on record from 1922, not the 1800s.