Schoolboy slang for swishings, lickings and birchings

 

Boys at elite English public schools at the turn of the last century had many slang terms to describe a thrashing. There were also various methods applied. As this detailed newspaper report from 1903 reveals.

At Winchester School at one time the most severe form of punishment was a ‘bibling’ and this was six strokes with a weapon composed of a rod handle to which were tied four long and supple apple twigs.

Most schools had at least two terms for the use of the rod to discriminate between the summary execution by a house master and the more severe punishment administered by the headmaster. The former is known as a ‘licking,’ while the latter is dignified as a ‘swishing’ or a ‘birching.’

As published in the Hardin News (Hardin, Missouri, United States) 21 May 1903.

Picture credit: Generated by Artificial Intelligence (A.I.)

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