Mudie a lending library.
"only eighteen" Cecily is the precise age to "come out" as a Society debutante. During the Season, 18-year-olds were introduced as marriage material for suitable men.
Oxonian someone who graduated from Oxford University.
perambulator (chiefly British) a baby carriage; buggy.
pew-opener a person who works for a church by opening the private pews of the wealthy.
sent down to act as a lady's escort for dinner.
sententiously full of, or fond of using, maxims, proverbs and so on, especially in a way that is ponderously trite and moralizing.
"Shropshire is your county" a reference to Jack Worthing's position as county magistrate.
"slight refreshment at five o'clock" known as light tea, served to people who visit at this time of day.
Temperance beverage a drink that expressly does not contain alcohol.
terminus (British)either the end of a transportation line, or a station or town located there; terminal.
The Albany Ernest Worthing's address on his calling cards was actually the home of George Ives, a friend of Wilde's and an activist for homosexual rights.
The Empire a theatre in Leicester Square, London.
the Morning Post a newspaper read by the upper class because of its reporting on engagements, marriages and social gossip.
the Primitive Church the pre-Reformation Catholic Church, whose priest remained celibate.
The Railway Guide an indispensable timetable of railway departures and arrivals, probably invented by Robert Diggles Kay in either 1838 or 1839.
three-volume novels Lending libraries circulated novels in three parts so that three different readers could be reading at the same time. This practice ended in the late 1800s.
Tories members of the more conservative political circles. Lady Bracknell and other wealthy socialites would approve.
Tunbridge Wells a fashionable resort in Kent.
University Extension Scheme The University of London began these extension courses that were early developments in adult education.
womanthrope a humorous word made up by Miss Prism for a person who hates women.
