Vocabulary in Pygmalion

A covered entrance porch supported by columns, attached to the front of a building. Here it provides shelter from the rain for the crowd gathered outside the church.

Belonging to the gutter or street; crude and uneducated. Used here to describe the rough, unpolished English spoken by someone raised in poverty on the streets.

Able to speak clearly and expressively, forming distinct, well-pronounced words. Higgins uses it to contrast refined speech with Eliza's rough Cockney sounds.

Humming or singing softly in a low, murmuring way. Higgins uses it dismissively to describe Eliza's slovenly, tuneless vocal habits.

Relating to the working-class dialect and accent of the East End of London, marked by dropped consonants and distinctive vowel sounds that Higgins considers socially disqualifying.

The scientific study of the sounds of human speech — how they are produced, transmitted, and perceived. Higgins is a professional expert in this field.

A Victorian social label for poor people judged to be poor through their own fault or laziness, as opposed to the 'deserving poor' who were considered victims of circumstance. Doolittle uses it to describe himself with ironic pride.

The conventional code of respectable behaviour — thrift, sobriety, duty, and propriety — associated with the middle class. Doolittle resents it as a set of constraints that punish the pleasures of the poor.

Cockney dialect for 'up against,' meaning constantly in conflict with or blocked by something. It reflects Doolittle's uneducated speech pattern.

A scheduled afternoon when a lady of society formally receives visitors in her own home, a common upper-class Victorian and Edwardian social custom.

Light, polite conversation about trivial or uncontroversial topics, used to fill social occasions. Mrs. Higgins's guests remark on Eliza's performance of it.

A large outdoor rubbish bin for household waste. Higgins uses it figuratively and flippantly to suggest Eliza should simply be discarded if she causes problems.

Here used in a practical, not religious, sense: untouchable or off-limits. Higgins means a pupil must be treated as someone who cannot be punished or dismissed.

Boldly overstepping one's proper place or importance; arrogantly assuming credit that belongs to someone else. Higgins uses it to put Eliza firmly back in her place.

A person who uses power cruelly and unjustly, with no regard for others' feelings or rights. Eliza applies it to Higgins to describe his domineering, bullying treatment of her.

A bet; an agreement in which something of value is staked on the outcome of an uncertain event. Higgins's boast about transforming Eliza is framed as a competitive wager.

Money or property left to someone in a will. Doolittle receives an unexpected inheritance that forces him into the respectable middle-class life he despises.

A person who holds and expresses strong views about right and wrong conduct. Higgins uses it ironically of Doolittle, whose 'morality' is a cheerful rejection of conventional virtue.

Extremely foolish or absurd. Higgins uses it as a backhanded compliment, admitting he has learned something even from ideas he considers ridiculous.

In a modest, self-effacing way, without pride. Coming from the arrogant Higgins, the word signals a rare and significant moment of genuine self-reflection.

The way a person holds and carries their body; posture and physical bearing. Higgins trains Eliza in deportment as part of making her pass as an upper-class lady.

Here used in its older, stronger sense of deeply offensive and dispiriting, not merely sad. Higgins applies it to Eliza's accent as something that degrades everyone who hears it.

Trying to appear refined and upper-class in manners and habits, often while actually having little money. It describes the Eynsford Hills' social pretension despite their poverty.

Perfectly clean, neat, and flawless in appearance, with not a single detail out of place. It describes Eliza's transformed look when she enters Mrs. Higgins's drawing room.