ProbableNamed from the place
Covent Garden ague
noun · first attested 18th century
Georgian London named a venereal disease after a single square.
Old slang for a venereal infection caught in London's theater district.
51.5125°N -0.1225°W · Q55019
Record
- Relationship
- Named from the place
- Confidence
- ProbableThe conventional story is likely, with caveats.
- Attested
- 18th century
- Part of speech
- noun
Explanations here are written for this atlas. Dictionary text is not copied; the sources are linked so the claim can be checked.
- Step 1
Covent Garden
- In English
Covent Garden ague
Covent Garden was the center of the capital's sex trade in the eighteenth century, and the slang dictionaries of the period fill up with jokes built on its name. An ague is properly a fever with chills, so the phrase is a euphemism twice over.
Also pinned to Covent Garden
2 more from the same place
United Kingdom
All 108 entries 105 more words from United Kingdom
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