BBC Sherlock Fan Forum - Serving Sherlockians since February 2012 / Victorian verbs in Doyle texts

**Posted by saturnR** January 30, 2015 10:13 am

Does it bother anybody else that Victorians like to ejaculate when they speak?

If you go through the verbs found in Doyle and Wodehouse and also I think in Agatha Christie though she's not a contemporary of the other two, some of the verbs they use in place of "said" would cause a modern reader to go WTF? But apparently Victorians were perfectly fine with literary characters ejaculating speech. Nope nothing sexual about that at all

Last edited by saturnR (January 30, 2015 10:13 am)

**Posted by SusiGo** January 30, 2015 10:31 am

I love these ACD quotes, especially the one where someone is ejaculating out of a window.

But it is not just the verbs:

"When a man does a queer thing, or two queer things, there may be a meaning to it, but when everything he does is queer, then you begin to wonder”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes

Last edited by SusiGo (January 30, 2015 9:06 pm)

**Posted by Harriet** January 30, 2015 3:36 pm

I think they ejaculate in moments when they are quite excited and rather exclaim something than speak. So to say

**Posted by Schmiezi** January 30, 2015 6:04 pm

Harriet wrote:
I think they ejaculate in moments when they are quite excited

Hm, I think I've read about that in fanfics too.

**Posted by Lola Red** January 30, 2015 6:56 pm

Schmiezi wrote:
Harriet wrote:
I think they ejaculate in moments when they are quite excited
Hm, I think I've read about that in fanfics too.

Why did I know I would find this exact comment as soon as I read the thread title?

**Posted by Schmiezi** January 30, 2015 7:19 pm

Lola Red wrote:
Schmiezi wrote:
Harriet wrote:
I think they ejaculate in moments when they are quite excited
Hm, I think I've read about that in fanfics too.
Why did I know I would find this exact comment as soon as I read the thread title?

Yes, it was kind of predictable.