In 1813, Jane Austen wrote to her sister Cassandra:
The invitation to the Fair was general; Edwd* positively declined his share of that, & I was very glad to do the same.-It is likely to be a baddish Fair-not much upon the Stall, & neither Mary O. nor Mary P.-it is hoped that the Portfolio may be in Canty* this morng*.Sackree’s sister found it at Croydon and took it to Town with her, but unluckily did not send it down till she had directions. Fanny C’s. screens can be done nothing with, but there are parts of workbags in the parcel, very important in their way.-Three of the Deedes girls are to be at Goodnestone.-We shall not be much settled till this visit is over-settled as to employment I mean;-Fanny and I are to go on with Modern Europe together, but hitherto have advanced only 25 Pages, something or other has always happened to delay or curtail the reading hour.-I ought to have told you before of a purchase of Edward’s in Town, he desired.
Language evolves, and words do not have the same meaning for us as they did in 1813. The author of Adventures in Reading posted an interesting article this week about the language Jane Austen uses. The post reviews a book, The Language of Jane Austen: A Study of Some Aspects of her Vocabulary (1991) by Myra Stokes. Ms. Stokes discusses, for example, that “morning calling hours” generally did not occur before noon*, that the words “London” and “Town” were often interchangeable, or that being sent up or down meant in relation to one’s position in London, not whether one was heading south.
I won’t go into much more detail, for the post is worth reading. As we pursue our love for all things Austen, it is good to be reminded how much the meaning of words have changed and that one must pay particular attention reading a Jane Austen novel, or any work of past times, referring frequently to anthologies or one’s dictionary to get the nuances just right.
*Update on the term ‘Morning Calling Hours’: In The Jane Austen Handbook, Margaret C. Sullivan defines the time when visitors may call in the morning: “between eleven in the morning and three in the afternoon, or the time between rising and eating dinner. “
Jane Austen's World 
After reading “Pride and Prejudice”, I went through a distinctly proper phase in which I tried to speak like a Jane Austen character. It didn’t go over too well in modern-day Southern California, but it improved my vocabulary and etiquette immensely. Instead of saying “It’s obvious,” I still go for “It’s a truth universally acknowledged…” which isn’t a very American thing to say, but I’m saving the phrase for whenever I vacation in Bath.