Pride and Prejudice, a Brief Glossary and Primer for the Modern Reader

John Schwenk, early 2023

Pride and Prejudice takes place among the upper classes of England, perhaps some time around the year 1800. The culture and society is significantly different from modern American life. While it is considered an early classic of modern English, some words are also unfamiliar and some familiar words are used differently than we use them. If you're not already familiar with England and the language, culture, and conditions of this era, here are some brief explanations that may enhance your understanding and enjoyment of the book, especially if read in advance.

Sensible – Intelligent. Elizabeth Bennet and her friend, Charlotte Lucas, are sensible young women. Mr. Collins is not a sensible young man.

Mean – (for instance, “Mrs. Bennet was a woman of mean understanding.”) Means meager or wanting rather than nasty or cruel, as we use it today.

Presentation at court / coming out – In this society, young ladies are not allowed to go out in public unless they have “come out” or been formally presented to society. (More recently, this has been known as being debuted or being a debutante.) Younger sisters are not allowed to come out before their older ones have not only come out but been married. In a family of five girls fairly close in age like the Bennets, this can be quite a burdensome restriction on the younger girls (especially on top of everything else).

Miss – The eldest of a family's unmarried daughters who are present is referred to as Miss [surname]. The younger ones by their given names. Thus, if Jane Bennet (the eldest) is present with one or more of her younger sisters, she is the only “Miss Bennet” in the room. But if Jane is absent and Lizzy (the second eldest) is there, then Lizzy is referred to as the “Miss Bennet.” (See: Presentation at court.)

Town – Refers to London. As opposed to the country, where the Bennets live.

Let – Rented. Netherfield, Mr. Bingley's house, is let, aka, rented.

Visiting and introductions – According to the strictures of the higher social classes that these characters inhabit, ladies are not allowed to make acquaintance with male strangers or newcomers until their fathers or husbands have done so. Thus, at the very beginning of the book, Mr. Bennet must visit Mr. Bingley, a new arrival to the neighborhood, or it would be improper for the ladies to have any communication with him.

News – Gossip. I don't know if this was a euphemism at the time, but it definitely refers to gossip here. Gossip must have played a large role as entertainment since there was no TV, internet, magazines, etc..

Employment – Refers to needlework or related crafts that upper class ladies are allowed to do, not money-making or jobs.

Women's situation – Upper class England in this period is highly sexist. Women are allowed very little freedom in society. They are not allowed to work outside the home except in very limited circumstances such as governesses or schoolmarms (and even those jobs would represent a step down in respectability, being regarded as only a step above being a servant). The only truly respectable situation for a woman is to be married - and to a “gentleman” at that.

Women did not own property, in general, they were property – of their husbands and fathers. An exception in this book is Lady Catherine, who is a widow who inherited the estate of her late husband. However, her estate would, in general, be inherited by her first born son - and only he, assuming she had one.

Age – Things happened earlier in life, in general, or were at least expected to, 220+ years ago. Life expectancy was much lower, even among the rich, since medicine was primitive, often doing more harm than good (e.g., bleeding), the true causes of disease being unknown. Charlotte Lucas is unmarried at 27 and is already, therefor, considered an old maid, unlikely anymore to marry, a very unfortunate fate for a woman. Mr. and Mrs. Bennet are probably 40-ish, in other words, getting on in life. Our main characters are all in their 20s. The younger Bennet sisters are teenagers.

Gentleman – A gentleman owns property or has a noble rank. Mr. Bennet is a “gentleman farmer.” That is, he owns the farm, but he employs farmhands and servants to do the actual work. At most, he might keep the books or do some management.

Education – Gentlemen and gentlewomen are much more likely to receive an education and, therefore, be literate (literacy being not at all universal). This was before compulsory or state-funded public schooling. The Bennet sisters were home-schooled, probably by hired tutors or governesses. Bingley and Darcy may have, in addition, been sent to a university such as Oxford or Cambridge. (Women did not, in general, receive university education.)

Trade – In upper class society, there is a distinction between old and new money. You can't really be accepted as part of the gentry unless you have inherited your wealth (ie, you have old money) and you live off of the interest. Mr. Bingley is said to “have 5,000 a year,” meaning that he receives 5,000 pounds interest annually on his inherited wealth. Mr. Bingley's sisters look down on Lizzie's uncle, for instance, because he has earned his money in trade (ie, business). Disgusting. (We learn that there is some projection/hypocrasy in this attitude, however, as their own inherited wealth was also recently gotten “in trade.”) Likewise, another uncle is an attorney, also a kind of trade and not respectable.

Balls – Large dance parties. There are both private and public ones. Balls are one of the few ways in which unmarried young men and women are allowed to have any interactions, albeit in a rather formalized situation. Schools are segregated by sex. Keep in mind that amusements, social situations, and distractions, in general, are quite limited compared to our modern situation. There are no movies, TV, bowling alleys, electricity, computers, internet, and on and on. Balls thus take on great importance in the lives of unmarried young people.

A ball would be one of the only places where unmarried people might even touch one another's hands and maintain respectability.

Unmarried women and men – The ways in which unmarried young people can interact are very limited and formalized. You'll notice that Jane isn't allowed to correspond directly with Mr. Bingley, or even acknowledge fully that they are interested in one another. She must make friends with his sisters and correspond with them, not Mr. Bingley himself, even if she really wants to know him. When, later in the book, a letter is passed between two unmarried characters of opposite sex, this is quite unusual and racy and is kept quiet.

Allowing unmarried men and women alone in a room together is highly improper, let alone for them to travel or lodge together. That would be tantamount to illicit sexual intercourse and would bring utter disgrace to the entire family of the young woman. (Much more than the young man. Remember, this is a highly sexist society. Even our own society was that way a mere 60 years ago, ie, when yours truly was born.)

Class – This book takes place within one or two social/economic classes within a highly class-stratified society. In fact, they are the upper crust. Even the Bennets, despite having respectability due to Mr. Bennet being “a gentleman,” and some money (though they are not wealthy by the standards of Darcy and Bingley), are looked down upon by the wealthier characters. Technically, though, they're all part of the high society of the time. The bulk of the people, in contrast, are laborers, peasants, and servants. They are uneducated, speak in different accents, have no “manners” and are not “well-bred.” In this book, such people are barely even mentioned. All the action takes place among the elite levels of society. Some intermediate-level characters have roles such as soldiers and clergymen. Women are part of one class or another based on that of their fathers or husbands. The Bennet house has multiple servants and likely many more farm hands. Yet, if I'm not mistaken, only a single one, Mrs. Bennet's maid, is ever even mentioned by name in the book and, then, only by her surname, Hill.

Rank – In addition to class, old English society – with important remnants to this day – also has the concept of rank or nobility. The king and queen are, of course, the highest rank. But there are numerous levels of hereditary rank such as dukes, earls, viscounts, and barons, in this highly hierarchical system.

Knighthood is a kind of rank that can be conferred by the king or queen. In the book, Sir Lucas has been knighted (and, we're told, it's gone to his head). Often, inherited wealth goes along with inherited rank, but these are, technically, separate and it's possible to be wealthy without having rank and vice versa.

Countenance – Face and expression. English culture, especially at this time and in this social class, requires that one “keep one's countenance,” ie, not show inappropriate kinds or levels of emotion. Keeping a “stiff upper lip” and all that. It's very emotionally repressed. The display of only certain emotions are acceptable in polite society and our characters sometimes struggle to keep their countenance.

Fashionable – Refers to being rich (not just having nice clothes – which you'd have to be rich to have, anyway). “Fashionable society” is the society of the most wealthy.

Arch, Archly – Playfully sly or roguish. Lizzy Bennet is often described as acting archly.

Person – Refers to the body, as in, “having a fine person.”

Well-bred – Having good manners, refined, polite, cultivated.

Technology – This book presumably takes place around the late 1700s. This is just-pre-industrial society. Only a few decades later, when the Bronte sisters were writing for instance, were there “dark satanic mills,” machines, gas lights, the beginnings of electricity, and Luddites. At the time of this book, there were horses, carriages, candles for lighting, and hand tools. There was no insulation, no gas stoves, no central heating or plumbing. Water was hauled and people gathered close around the fire place to keep warm all winter. “Bed clothes,” thick drapes hung all around the bed, were used in an attempt to keep out drafts while sleeping. A ball or dinner party at night would require lots of candles and it would still be dim. For entertainment, there was no TV, radio, or recorded music. People played board or card games (in this book, games called Quadrille and Loo), read aloud to one another, or played live music and sang - if you had the talent, training, and instruments. Thus, these abilities were highly valued.

Transportation – Transportation is by walking, horseback, or a horse-drawn carriage of some sort. This is a bit before trains and there certainly weren't cars. Kind of carriages mentioned include the phaeton, chaise (“chaise and four” means a chaise drawn by four horses, a large and expensive conveyance), and barouche box (a smaller but very fancy one).

Carriages could be privately-owned (owning one or more, and the kind you had, was a true sign of wealth - just as it is today!) or rented/public ones, like taxis or buses today. “Post horses” were rented ones. They were exchanged at points along along a route since your horses would tire after some number of miles and need replacing.

Streets were unpaved and were, therefor, often muddy in rainy weather and dusty when dry. Ruts and bumps formed easily. Longs rides could be bumpy, cold, wet, and uncomfortable, as well as expensive.

In the book, Elizabeth chooses to walk – unaccompanied, no less – from her home at Longbourn to Netherfield, about 3 miles, on unpaved roads and through fields. This is rather shocking for an upper-class woman. Indeed, her clothes get dirty in the process and her face is flushed by exercise. She might even be tanned by sun exposure or be sweaty! None of these things are respectable as they are marks of uncultured lower-class people – and the occupants of Netherfield judge her for it. However, they are early clues to Lizzie's free and playful personality. She doesn't care what they think. She will do as she likes.

Estates, Parks, & Pemberly – An estate is generally a large property with a fine manner house on it. Likely, there is also a farm or gardens and fruit trees and such, as the food system was not like ours with foods being transported half across the world (sometimes multiple times) before landing on our tables. Estates are also inherited.

A “park” here is a private lawn, garden, or woods, or a set thereof (depending on how grand your estate was). It is the part of your property set apart for sitting, walking, and recreation. While we use the word park to describe public land, here the word is used for private land.

Mr. Darcy's estate includes a huge wooded park, miles 'round, and a grand old manor house called Pemberly. It is in the north of England in the county of Derbyshire (pronounced DAR – be – shir).

Entail – Some estates are entailed. An important part of the plot in Pride and Prejudice is that Mr. Bennet's estate is entailed, meaning that, at some point in the past, a restriction had been placed upon how the estate can be handed down or inherited. Specifically, in Mr. Bennet's case, the estate can only be inherited by a male heir. Since he has no sons, the estate must go to the closest living male relative, in this case, someone they start out not even knowing, Mr. Collins.

Connections – Relations. Aunts, uncles, spouses, and so forth.

Friends – This word includes immediate family members. Jane is one of Lizzie's “friends” even though she's her sister. Mr. Collins, a cousin, is one of her “connections.” People in this world are judged not just for themselves but by their friends and connections. This is important in this book.

Warmth – This word is used a couple of times to describe someone's speech and it does not mean with friendliness of heart, as we might use it. Quite the opposite, it means heatedly or with anger.

Dowry – While the word dowry isn't used, the concept is there. If the wealth exists, marrying can bring a payment from the bride's family to the groom. (I suppose it's a way of acknowledging the cost of taking on a woman in a society that forbids women from earning money of their own!) More than once in the book, the money a groom would or would not get, and when, as a result of marrying one person or another is discussed.

Money and Love – As many commentators have remarked, Jane Austen's novels are about love and money and how the two are inseparable in this society. Since upper class women can do very little to gain their own wealth, they are dependent upon marriage to make their fortune in the world. This, naturally (or unnaturally, as the case may be), sets up a tension between the need for love and the need for economic security. This is the basic tension that underlies much of Austen's work and other romance fiction of the era. Can the Bennet girls solve this dilemma? Can Charlotte Lucas, the “old maid” (at 27) who doesn't have good looks to recommend her?

Fortnight – Two weeks.

Sennight – One week (“seven nights”).

Twelvemonth – A year (not surprisingly).