By Ralph Keyes When asked how he felt about being appointed Vice-President of Britain’s Board of Trade in 1841, William Gladstone responded, “Bathing feel.” Say what? Bathing feel turned out to be an expression used by members of his wife’s family to describe an antsy sense of anticipation when undertaking a formidable task, much like a baby about to be plunged into bath water. The family of Mrs. Gladstone, Catherine Glynne, had so many idiosyncratic words and expressions like this that in 1851, Lord Lyttleton—the husband of Catherine’s sister Mary—published…
[Article] Family Language
