--- title: Downton Abbey: Watch the Cast Guess Meanings of 1920s Slang description: Grab a cup of 'noodle juice' and watch canonical: https://time.com/4155212/downton-abbey-1920s-slang/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-12-21T17:00:22.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-30T11:57:05.880Z article:section: History og:title: Watch the Cast of Downton Abbey Guess the Meaning of 1920s Slang og:description: Grab a cup of 'noodle juice' and watch og:url: https://time.com/4155212/downton-abbey-1920s-slang/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc8ec13908249f5ca/6988761cf887dc25ffe93d2a/unknown1.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1920 og:image:height: 1080 og:image:alt: Downton Abbey still og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch the Cast of Downton Abbey Guess the Meaning of 1920s Slang twitter:description: Grab a cup of 'noodle juice' and watch twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc8ec13908249f5ca/6988761cf887dc25ffe93d2a/unknown1.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Watch the Cast of _Downton Abbey_ Guess the Meaning of Real 1920s Slang > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/), [Arpita Aneja](https://time.com/author/arpita-aneja/) and [Julia Lull](https://time.com/author/julia-lull/) Dec 21, 2015 5:00 PM UTC  TIME Video by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/), [Arpita Aneja](https://time.com/author/arpita-aneja/) and [Julia Lull](https://time.com/author/julia-lull/) Dec 21, 2015 5:00 PM UTC Don’t have an ing-bing (a temper tantrum) if your noodle juice (tea) gets cold while you’re watching this video — if you’re a whale (a competent person), you can just reheat it. Ahead of the Jan. 3, 2016, U.S. premiere of the sixth and final season of _Downton Abbey_, stars Hugh Bonneville, Michelle Dockery, Allen Leech and Kevin Doyle joined TIME at the Plaza Hotel—somewhere the Crawley family might really have seen if they visited New York City in the 1920s—to discuss the show’s take on history and to test their own knowledge of historical 1920s slang. (All terminology and definitions were found in the second edition of _Cassell’s Dictionary of Slang._) As _Downton_ approaches its end, the actors reflected on the moral of the story, and whether viewers ought to leave looking nostalgically backward, like Mr. Carson, or looking forward like Lady Mary. The answer is that, even if you preferred to look back, there’s not much point in it. “It’s about moving forward, yes, but I think ultimately the show’s about people just trying to be good or do good. They’re just kind of getting through life,” said Dockery, who plays Lady Mary. “That’s why it’s very sort of human, the show. I think that’s what people relate to. Even in spite of them being from a completely different time period. People can relate to them in some way.” And besides, as pretty as the period costumes and sets may be, there’s lots about the 1920s that we’re much better off without. “It’s nice to visit,” as Bonneville, who plays Lord Grantham, put it, “on Sunday night for an hour.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4155212/downton-abbey-1920s-slang/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4155212/downton-abbey-1920s-slang/"},"headline":"Watch the Cast of Downton Abbey Guess the Meaning of Real 1920s Slang","datePublished":"2015-12-21T17:00:22.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-30T11:57:05.880Z","description":"Grab a cup of 'noodle juice' and watch","url":"https://time.com/4155212/downton-abbey-1920s-slang/","keywords":["Television","language"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc8ec13908249f5ca/6988761cf887dc25ffe93d2a/unknown1.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Arpita Aneja","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/arpita-aneja/"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Julia Lull","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/julia-lull/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc8ec13908249f5ca/6988761cf887dc25ffe93d2a/unknown1.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Downton Abbey still","caption":"Downton Abbey still","creditText":"TIME Video","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4155212/downton-abbey-1920s-slang/","name":"Watch the Cast of Downton Abbey Guess the Meaning of Real 1920s Slang"}}]}] ```