Boston Globe language columnist, Ben Zimmer, has gathered clips from the British period drama,
Downtown Abby and criticized the accuracy of the show’s language on Thinkmap Visual Thesaurus.
Zimmer picked up anachronistic phrases in the show’s dialogue such as “What did you want me to do? Tell him to get knotted?” and “To me, Lady Mary is an uppity minx” and edited them into a video, which you can see below.
Una Maguire, a spokesperson for the production company has previously defended the lines.
Maguire told The Telegraph that the phrase “get knotted” in particular was common naval slang used in the 19th century.
What do you think? Is poetic license applicable here?
