Would your children know these words?

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Following the thread about children not knowing the word "velvet", and they should know what it means from reading books, let's have some fun with words that used to appear in books a lot, but are less often seen now. Would your own children know them? Some of these, I remember looking up when I came across them. Give your own examples too!

Perambulator
The baths (as in "I'm going to the baths").
Field glasses (The Famous Five)
Bosom (Roald Dahl is fond of it)
Splashery (The only place I've seen this is in the Chalet School books)
Crocodile (not the animal; what children do on school trips)
A PT lesson.

Canary was one that not even my teens knew recently!!!

No there wouldn’t. One is an accountant, and two are training to be doctor / vet and one is a teenager and your answer to all of those would be no. But they wouldn’t know who Cilla Black is or Ted Heath either.

Mine would yes, but she is an English teacher . They probably would have aged ten. Having looked up the Baths and splashery - they'd have made logical guesses. They would certainly have known what velvet was as grannie had velvet curtains, dd had a velvet dress, etc.

My adult sons wouldn't know those.

We had a conversation about 10 years ago re the phrase "spend a penny". Neither had a clue

Where did you look up "splashery"? I haven't found any reference to it on the internet at all.

I had lovingly kept all of my favourite childhood books in the hope I could read them with my own DC one day. OMG! It was so painful. So few of the words made any sense to them. I think the first one we tried was My Naughty Little Sister. No concept of washing day or a mangle etc. Then, over the years, we progressed onto Swallows & Amazons, Noel Streatfield etc and all were the same. The first page of Pigeon Post involved so many explanations and diversions that they completely missed the gist of the story line. Some Enid Blyton was more understandable but too slow so was also abandoned.

Im late 30s, an editor and stem PhD, and I only know the baths. I have primary kids (youngest starts in sept anyway), wtf is a crocodile?!

And no, my almost 7yo didnt know what velvet was! He does know about crochet, cross stitch and sewing machines though.

My 9 yo knew velvet but not any of the ones in OP's post. I'm not 💯 on all of them!

@Blessedbethefruitz A "crocodile" is a group of school children walking together, often in twos. "The children formed a long crocodile". And in the Chalet School, there is the threat "if you can't walk nicely, I'll have to make you croc".

Outmoded household items or rooms are understandable, such as scullery, mangle, blotter: I didn't know those until I was an adult.

I asked my 21 year old DD.

She recognised the baths, bosom and a PT lesson.

She didn't know the others.

I didn't but said the dc would have, aged 10. I just looked it up and it's there in google.

@TimeTime DD loved Streatfield. We went to see Ballet Shoes at the National before Christmas. She also loved my Naughty Little Sister and some of the Blytons. I was surprised that both DC found CSLewis numbingly dated.

Thanks - these terms were never used for us or my son's school within earshot at least, but ive done the school walks to church and they do still walk that way!

I knew about sculleries and mangles from reading old books :)

Google's not revealing the Chalet School meaning of "splashery" to me. (It's a lovely word!) In the Chalet School, it means a washroom.

My 9 yo did also say is it like "lollygag" and I was impressed she knew that old fashioned word

DD(12) would know some of them as she loves children’s historical fiction, and would have a good guess at the rest because she’s actually very good at using context to work out what words mean (and quite scathing of anyone who couldn’t! I mean if someone’s pushing a perambulator it’s not rocket science to work out what it could be…)

My children, young adults, probably would know 'the baths' and bosom and maybe perambulator but perhaps only if read in context. I think they've always known velvet, though I could be wrong. Maybe they would guess PT lesson and field glasses, even if they'd never heard them.

In the books it’s usually obvious from context - Joey and friends were heading to the splasheries to wash their faces etc; it doesn’t take a genius but equally it wasn’t a widely used word outside boarding schools

@HateThese4Leggedbeasts I've just learned Lollygag! I'd never heard that before. I remember my mum giving me an exercise in finding words in a dictionary. I give you:
Pillion
Higgeldy-Piggeldy
Ford (not the car. I had a driving pupil who had never heard of ford with a small f.)
Escutcheon. (Not a word you'd find in many children's books, admittedly.)
Wanton.

My kids wouldn’t know any of those (except velvet).

With the exception of the Enchanted Wood, they haven’t been particularly fussed about older ‘classic’ stories - I think they’re just a bit too far removed to be able to relate to.

Also “blotter” I think became “blotchy” in some school stories; completely redundant as a word, with decent pens

When I Googled, I found the following reference to Chalet School

I'm 57 and read the Chalet School books and splashery is new to me. My dd would know none of them I suspect. But then she grew up abroad and was shocked that Lollipop Ladies were a real thing and not made up for the tv. She would know what velvet was. And last week sent me an essay to read about propaganda in British education after WWII which was a bit dull (subject) but perfectly written so I know her English is fine (despite not being educated in it).

Your Google is not the same as my Google, then.

Hiding (as in a punishment)
Casing the joint
Poaching
To no avail (I learned that in a Ladybird book of Tom Thumb).
Blind man's buff: referenced a lot in children's books.
Aga
Lavatory
Complete one's toilet

Strange, isn't it!

I think mine would know Aga, lavatory and Blind Man's Bluff. Maybe poaching if they remember reading 'Danny the Champion of the World'.

What I find odd, is that when I read books as a child (early 1980s), terms like perambulator, scullery, mangle were already out of everyday use. I’d never come across a mangle in real life (we had a washing machine, as did everyone else I knew) or a scullery, and my mum definitely pushed a pram.

BUT I understood what the words meant, or was able to work them out, because they were in context in the story.

So I’m not sure why children reading similar books nowadays wouldn’t also be able to work out what most of the words meant.

Or is reading comprehension these days just much worse than it used to be?!