The English Oracle

What do "orange" and "spindle-shanked beaux" mean in this quote?

--------------------------------------------------
Hire the world's top talent on demand or became one of them at Toptal: https://topt.al/25cXVn
and get $2,000 discount on your first invoice
--------------------------------------------------

Take control of your privacy with Proton's trusted, Swiss-based, secure services.
Choose what you need and safeguard your digital life:
Mail: https://go.getproton.me/SH1CU
VPN: https://go.getproton.me/SH1DI
Password Manager: https://go.getproton.me/SH1DJ
Drive: https://go.getproton.me/SH1CT


Music by Eric Matyas
https://www.soundimage.org
Track title: Puzzle Meditation

--

Chapters
00:00 What Do &Quot;Orange&Quot; And &Quot;Spindle-Shanked Beaux&Quot; Mean In This Quote?
00:32 Accepted Answer Score 25
01:35 Answer 2 Score 24
02:05 Thank you

--

Full question
https://english.stackexchange.com/questi...

--

Content licensed under CC BY-SA
https://meta.stackexchange.com/help/lice...

--

Tags
#meaning #britishenglish #slang #archaicisms

#avk47



ACCEPTED ANSWER

Score 25


The number of unfamiliar, archaic words collocated here makes it a challenge even to a native speaker.

In order of appearance (all definitions taken from ODO except where otherwise indicated):

Spindle-shanked means ‘having long, thin legs’. It’s rather a contemptuous term to use, whereby a person’s shanks (legs) are compared in shape to a spindle.

Beaux is the plural of beau, meaning ‘a rich, fashionable young man; a dandy’.

Close is a verb here, meaning ‘to come close together in contact or union; to join, unite, combine, coalesce, meet in a common centre’ (OED), in this case referring to close romantic/sexual contact.

Orange wench is an old-fashioned term for a young girl who sells oranges (and other fruits, presumably) in the streets.

In other words, the whole thing means, roughly translated into 21st-century English:

Our current race with its lanky, dolled up pretty-boys [who] would rather fiddle around with the greengrocer’s girl behind the local drive-in than get in on a backalley fight [for money] at a boxing match.

(See StoneyB’s answer for more details on the context of boxing matches)




ANSWER 2

Score 24


The context of this quotation is fisticuffs, and "Tottenham Court" refers to the school where James Figg taught boxing, fencing and quarterstaff.

An 'orange wench' was a woman who sold oranges and other refreshments at a playhouse, and to 'close' with her means to engage her in conversation, probably with dishonorable intentions.

A 'spindle-shanked beau' is a fashionable gentleman with thin calves. Muscular calves were admired in the 18th century, a period when men's clothing was designed to display the lower leg.