Current mericanisms c: Current Americanisms Current Americanisms A Dictionary of Words and Phrases in Common Use T. BARON RUSSELL CA uthor of " Last ] 'car" etc.) LONDON: HOWE & CO., Paternoster Row. The American Language. "Here will be an old abusing of God's patience and the King's Eng- lish ! " — (Shakespeare) Merry Wives of ]i''md)ior. We have everything in common with the United States, Mr. Oscar WiUle says, "except, of course, the language." The para- dox is daring, but not altogether extravagant. A very consider- able number of words, phrases, and conventional metaphors are not shared in common by the two brother nations ; and a still larger number of such expressions have been coined in America and gradually adopted here. It is an indisputable fact that America is more fertile in neologisms than the old country, and in these days of easy steamer transit, tlie importation of such words and expressions is inevitable. IMany of them have found so hos- pitable a welcome, that they are with dithculty recognisable as Americanisms. Among the most potent influences which have determined this blending of tongues, must be included tlie cur- rency wliich American humour has obtained here. There are literally scores of Englisli comic (or alleged comic) papers which subsist almost entirely on the crumbs which fall from the table of the trans-Atlantic joker ; and two American humorous journals (Texas Siftitu/s and The Detroit Free Press J have actually published special editions in Lomlon, though the former is now "dead." Under these circumstances it is not very surprising that numberless Americanisms have found their way into ordinary, if not into educated s])eech, and it is a wise word which knows its own fatherland. Probably ninety per cent, of the purely comic 5 ^ ICS???-! 6 THE AMERICAN LAXGUAGE. reading matter printed in English periodicals comes from the United States. "We are not a humorous nation, it would appear. Of course the standard of good English is the same in both countries, and American writers of the first rank do not write, nor do well educated Americans speak, what is jestingly called "the American language." Educated Americans are always more or less indignant at the way in which the speech and accent of their country- men are represented on the English stage. Perhaps dramatic truth permits a little exaggeration, or dramatic convention requires it, in this case. But, however this may be, the sjieech of an ordinary American man or woman of average education, certainly differs from that of well or fairly educated English people not alone in accent, but in the use of the peculiar words and phrases which we and they call Americanisms. Nevertheless, the two nations mix too freely for difficulties of comprehension to occur. One of the earliest writers on the subject, the Honourable John Picker- ing, however, quite seriously anticipated Mr. "NVilde"s trope. He gravely foreboded the evolution of a distinctive American language, and conjured up ^ a fearsome picture of tlie time when the writings of Milton, Pope, Swift, and Adilison should have be- come unintelligible to educated Americans without a dictionary. Americanisms have been defined by Mr. Andrew Lang as " modes of expression which vary from the standard of good English, and w^hich are either peculiar to America or chiefiy prevalent there." The following definition (in The Euri/clojxrdia Americana) is less neat, but perhaps more satisfactory: "In works by American writers, many words may be found which are not their inven- tion, but are taken from popular use, and wliich are either un- known to Englishmen or used by them in a different sense. These terms are occasionally really new words fashioned in a new country to represent new ideas or to name new tools ; or they are old English roots which have sent up suckers full of new meaning, though still bearing the image of the parent stock. To these must be added words of foreign tongues which the English of the Americans has adopted and amalgamated with its own stock." To the citizens of the United State?>, America is a term ordi- narily synonymous with that great country which has had the advantage of giving them birth. "When the encyclopaedist, there- fore, speaks of American writers, he means writers in the States, and I think the term Americanisms may be fairly restricted to the •I Vocal)idar!/ ; or, Collection of Words, etc. Bo5ton, 1S16. THE AMERICAN LANGUAGE. 7 lieculiar expressions of the United States. Nobody would dream of calling a woid used only in Canada (say) or among English speaking populations in the southern continent, an Americanism, though, of course, Canada and the Argentine are just as much parts of America as the States themselves. Even JMr. Goldwin Smith has lent his sanction to tliis restriction of the word "America," I find him writing that America is . . . "a continent extending from regions almost arctic to regions almost tropical (sic), embracing an immense variety of production, producing nearly everything, in short, except tea and spices, with a market of sixty-three millions." I have not thought it desirable to exclude fiom this glossary old English words which have survived in America tlieir obsolescence here. No doubt sucli words are not Americanisms in any aca- demic sense, liut then neither are any of the foreign words which have found their way into common currency from tongues other than English. These old English words would perhaps be excluded on Mr. Lang's definition, as not varying from the standard of good English- -at all events, the Americans who use them, have, at least, an arguable case for the defence. There are, then, jjlenty of Americanisms which were good sound English when tiie Mcujjiowtr sailed, and have a pleasant familiar ring on the listening ear to-day. The "American language"' clasps in its com[)rehensive embrace the provincialisms of all Eng- land. It is estimated by the best authorities that nine-tenths of the expressions usually classL'd as Americanisms can be shown to be provincial in some part or another of the mother country. English is the language of the United States, even as it is that of Great liritain ; and the standard of good English is the same in both countiies. lint until comparatively recent progress bridged the " fjeat gulf fixed " between England and America, language may be said to have developed independently on each side, the English of the Tudor period being their common base ; for, (as Lowell sarcastically remarks,) the colonists " unfoitunately " had no better language than Shakespeare's to take over with them. In some instances, expressions lost in England have survived in the United States, becoming thus, for all practical purposes, Ameri- canisms : ^ for instance, "in good season " for "early" is common 1 Mr. Scheie de Vera says, " It will be seen that the number of true Americanisms is, after all, very small, and many of these even will, upon careful investigation, be found to be either revivals of obsolete worda 8 THE AMERICAN LA SOU AGE. enough in America, though it wouM sound rather cumbrous here. Such expressions as this I have not hesitated, even in the face of Mr. Lang's definition, to include in the following vocabu- lary, and indeed it would be mere pedantry to exclude them. Even the peculiar pronunciation of English which we call the American accent can be traced to the old country. In the Tudor age, such persons as concerned themselves with matters of the k'nd. agreed in considering the speech of the Trent Valley the purest Saxon English of the day. It was being softened and rounded then, from various causes, in the South, especially through the influence of courtly refinements. The characteristic drawl of New England closely resembles even now the peculiar whining brogue of tlie Northern and Midland Countits, Avhich Avas evidently carried across the Atlantic bj^ the Pilgrim Fathers. "When that sturdy baud of pioneers set sail to seek religious tolerance in new lands, they took with them the un- tinctured speech of their own country, whine and all : and so it continues even to this day. Pronunciation varies considerably, however, within the limits of the Union. America was not colonized from one part of England only, and the descendants of Virginian cavalier settlers retain a distinctive accent and vocabulary. In the South, foreign influence has left its mark also, and, indeed, speech varies so widely tliroughout tlie States that a well-travelled observer can usually tell from what point of the compass a man has come. AVhat we know and wliat our actors endeavour to imitate, as the American accent, is always the nasal New England drawl or whine, the " peculiar high metallic ring of the voice "' mentioned by Sir Charles Dilke. Tlie pronunciation of the Southern American — that is, of thu flweller in the old slave States — is very different, and has been largely tinctured by French f nd Spanish influences. In describing a visit to the South after long absence, Mr Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain) says : "I found the half-forgotten Southern intonations and elisions as pleasing to my ear as they had formerly been. A Southerner talks music. At least, it is music to me ; but then I was born in the South. The educated Southerner has no use for an r, except at the beginning of a word. He says 'honah,' and 'dinnah,'and ' Gove'nuh,' and ' befo' the waw,' and so on. The words may lack charm to the eye, in print, but they have it to the ear. When did or imitations of well known terms."- Encyclopadia Americana (Art., "Americanisms"). THE AMERICAN LAXGUAGE. g the r disappear from Southern speech, and how did it come to disappear? The custom of dropping ic was not borrowed from tlie North, nor inherited from P^ngland. Many Southerners — most Southerners — put a // into occasional words that begin with the A' sound. For instance, they say Mr. K'yahtah (Carter) and speak of playing k'yahds or of riding in the k'yahs. And they have the pleasant custom— long ago fallen into decay in the North— of fre- quently employing the respectful 'Sir.' Instead of the curt Yes, and the abrupt No, they say ' Yes, Suh,' ' No, Suh.' "But there are some infelicities. Such as 'like' for 'as,' and the addition of an ' at ' where it isn't needed. I heard an educated gentleman say, 'Like the flag-officer did.' His cook or his butler would have said, ' Like the flag-officer done.' You hear gentlemen say, '"Where have you been at?' And here is the aggravated form — heard a ragged street Arab say it to a comrade: ' I was a-ask'n' Tom whah you was a-sett'a' at.' Tlie very elect carelessly say 'will' when they mean 'shall;' and many of them say, 'I didn't go to do it,' meaning ' I didn't mean to do it.' The Northern word 'guess' — imported from England, where it used to be common, and now regarded by satirical Englishmen as a Yankee original — is but little used among Southerners. They say ' reckon.' They haven't any 'doesn't' in their language; they say 'don't' instead. The unpolished often use 'went' for 'gone.' It is nearly as bad as the Northern ' hadn't ought.' Tliis reminds me that a remark of a very peculiar nature was made liere in my neighbourhood (in the North) a few days ago : 'He hadn't ought to have went.' How is that ? Isn't that a good deal of a triumph ? One knows the orders combined in this half-breed's architecture without inquiring : one ])arent Northern, the other Southern. To-day I heard a schoolmistress ask, ' "Wliere is John gone ? ' This form is so common — so nearly universal, in fact — that if she had iiscd 'whither' instead of ' where,' I think it would have sounded like an affectation." ' Peculiarities of pronunciation and of spelling, however, I have not attempted to discriminate in the following pages. " "Wagon," "traveler," " installmont," "honor," "color,'' "program,"' "theater," "center," etc., are exami)les illustrating various J From L'ife on the Mhaisn'iipi. For permission to quote this, antl a number of illustrative extracts from works by Mark Twain and Mr. Francis Bret Harte, published by Messrs. Cliatto & Win(i':s, my cordial acknow- ledgments are hereby paid. 10 THE AMERICAN LANGUAGE. types of mis-spelling wliicli American journals affect, and with which they have partly dowered the mother country. "When Mr. Brander Matthews asserts, however, that what Americans call a "farm-hand," the English call an "agricultural laborer,"" he says what I trust is not true. "We have not been very kind to Hodge always, despite the three acres and the "lady- bullock" which one hears of ; but I hope we still spell him a little better than Mr. Matthews thinks. The London evening daily called Th". Star has a friendly leaning towards such abominations as "honor'' and "program," and is gently patronized by ]Mr. Pitman accordingly. But, thanks to general good taste, even this initiatory stage of the suggested spelling-reform is not likely to make much ]jrogress, and we may hope that common orthography will for many a kng daj continue to bear its witness to the history of language and the birth of words. Perhaps the distinctive religious character of the settlers may also have something to do with the survival of archaic forms among their descendants. The language of the then new English Bible was constantly on their lips : we might be sure of the fact, if only from the speech of their progeny. Thus the verb " to tarry '" is in quite common use in its old Biblical sense, and so are the correct par- ticiples, "liolpen," "gotten,"' and "holden."' Any kind of jug is called a "pitcher"' ^ — even a small one — and the first day of the week is often called not "Sunday,"' but the "Sabbath." The Puritans had something of the Quakers" prejudice against Sun-day, Moon-day, "Woden"s-day, etc. But perhaps the most noticeable of Biblical Americanisms is the fine old phrase "in good season" for " early,"' to which allusion has already been made : " Thou openest Thine hand, and givest them their meat in due season." To the Pilgrims the works of a mere play-actor would present no very great attraction, and indeed they would have, no doubt, been almost air abomination. Yet, to the general reader, Shakespeare may often act the part of a gtiide to the archaisms of American diction. Thus, when a door drags on its hinges, it is said to " sagg "' — an ex- pression quite obsolete here, and one which might well be puzzling, but for the familiar lines in Macbeth : " The mind I sway by, and the heart I bear. Shall never sagg with doubt nor shake with fear." 1 A jug in America means one of those narrow-mouthed stone jars, often covered with wicker, used for holding spirits. The jug and basin of bed- room furniture are called " a pitcher and wash-bowl." THE A M ERIC A N LA NG UA GE. i i The beautiful old English " fall '' for "autumn'' (used by Dryden) is in universal use, and curiously enough, I note that ]Mark Twain and Bret Harte constantly quote the old-fashioned pronunciation "tetch"for "touch."' "Tetchy" for "touchy," "peevish," or " fidgety," was familiar in Shakesi^eare's time ; Juliet's nurse uses it. It need scarcely be remarked that, to regard all local dialects as corrupt defections from the well of English undefiled, is a vulgar error. The Scotch accent and diction, for example, are not at all the fruit of unsuccessful effort to sj)eak Englisli "as she is writ " ; and good Scotch, so far from being the illegitimate offspring of standard English, is rather its twin-sister. Similarly, as the provincialism of the United States does not differ from classical English any more widely than the provincialism of the London streets, the name which we apply to it is simply a term of geographical descrip- tion, and not (as Mr. Brander Matthews seemed recently to suppose)! of reproach. Americanisms may be very good and useful words indeed, but they are not less Americanisms on that account. The growth of language is an evolution just like any other organic development. New words are "sports," to borrow the slang of natural history, and survive or die, according to their fit- ness, in the struggle for existence. On the other haiid, however, it must be borne in mind that in any evolution, the qualities which determine the fate of variations may not always be those which the tasteful observer would regard as the most desirable. Many vulgarities and corruptions deface the English of the United States : on the other hand, old and new expressions have often kept or obtained currency in direct ratio to their wit, picjuancy, or usefulness. Broadly speaking, it may be said that neologisms are to be con- demned in proportion to the convenience and i^recision with which the same meaning can be conveyed by existing expressions. Thus, even a purist can hardly object to words like "telephone," "phonograph," etc., the names of objects newly brought into existence. Neither is it always possible to secure that such names shall be the same in all English-speaking countries. New words for new things liave often been coined independently in England and America. Railway nomenclature differs widely. The American rides in a "passenger car" in preference to "a freiglit train " when he sets forth from the "depot" for an excur- 1 Haricr, July, ISO]. 12 THE A M ERICA N LA XG f "A GE. sion on the " railioatl."' The train is taken charge of by the "conductor"' (who is a much more gorgeous iiKlividual than our English ' ' guard"), and runs up or down "a grade," " where in England it would perform those feats on a gradient. There are a good many grades on an American rnilroad. Instances might be multi- plied ad libitum. A lift in America is called an "elevator" (■'ascending chamber" appears to be the latest Briticism for the same contrivance). A keyless watch becomes a " stem-winder " as soon as it crosses the Atlantic, and a stop-watch a " fly-back.'' The most interesting Americanisms of all, perhaps, are those ■which have a story to tell. Considering the shifting nature of the population, it is curious to note how the distinctive provincial character of different dialects in America has been preserved — making it quite easy, for instance, to distingniyh the descendants of the Mai/jioicer fathers from those of the Virginian cavalier colonists, and the speech of the latter, again, from that of persons who descend from the French settlers of Louisiana and Lower Canada. The New AVorld, almost since its discovery, has been the great ab- sorbent area of the globe. Foreigners of every speech throng to its hospitable gates, which only recently have failed to open wide in welcome to all nations. But what is most remarkable of all is the way in which local words, among the most rtstless civilized popu- lation in the world , mark beyond the possibility of error the history of the districts to which they belong. Thus the Dutchman, who was the first-comer in what is now the State of Xew York, has still his history writ large in the land over which he cast out his generously proportioned shoe. " Stoop," for the porch of a house, is readily recognisable as Dutch ; "cookies"' are small cakes — Dutch both in name and in origin. The now universal "boss," for a person in authority (there are no masters in America), or, in general terms, a superior individual, was, and is. "baas," in Holland. It has grown apace in its new home, and has taken on adjectival functions : "Yes, sir I I've been all around Yurrup [Europe] seeing the elephant, and I've had a boss time, you bet I " It is also a verb — " to boss the show." If any- thing could be consiiiered aristocratic in that intensely democratic country, a Dutch surname (particularly with the j^refix, '" Yan ") would be so. But as there are no aristocratic things in America (at all events in Xew England), one must be content to record the fact that to possess a cognomen Avith a "Van " in it is "real high-toned " in the State of Ss'ew York. Very curiously, a Dutchman in America means a German [dcutsche) ; the real Dutchman is called THE AMERICAN LANGUAGE. 13 a Hollander, an expression difficult to surpass on the ground of inelegance. Louisiana, as its name hints, was colonized, like Lower Canada, by the French, and the same localisms are foiind in both. ' ' IJankit " (banquette), the footpath of a street (usually called in America tlie "side-walk"), "bayou," and " crevasse " are instances. Tracts of land between two rivers, over which l)oats or lumber (uusawn timber) have to be conveyed by traction, are called in both Canada and the Southern States of the Union "portages." But of all civilized foreign tongues, Spanish has probably lent most to the xVmerican language. Li all parts of the South and South-AVest, innumerable local words betray a Spanish origin, the long Mexican frontier exposing large surfaces to the corrupting influence of the stranger's voluble speech. Of purely local uses, sahe ! (whose equivalent is our own elegant "twig?"); pasear (a short walk or excursion — also local in the Falkland Islands) ; adobe (3 syll. — a kind of miburned clay, used for roofing in Mexico and the South-"\Vest), and many others, have been made familiar wherever English is spoken, and breezy rhythmic diction admired, by the works of Mr. Bret Harte. "Lariat," "broncho," "lasso," "ranch," " stampede," and most expressions native to the cattle industry, are also Spanish. " Vamoose," for ' ' go away " or "go away from," is the pure Spanish Vamos. " Vamoose the ranch," figura- tively, is, leave the premises. "Canon " (pronounced, and I regret to fay, sometimes spelled, canyon) is another purely Spanish word familiar to Mr. Bret Harte's readers. The well-known " bon- anza " is likewise Spanish. It is applied in California to tlie dis- covery of a ricli vein of gold or silver ; in other places (as Proctor pointedly observes), to any big scheme by whicli, honestly or other- wise, mucli money is made. It has furnished a name to countless mining enterprises, and is current slang among stock-jobbers and mining speculators ail over the States. A i)lay called "The Big Bonanza " had a tremendous run there some years ago. The aboriginal inhabitants of North America possess a nnmber of dialects, rich in poetry and comprehensiveness, and generous in loans to the invaders' speech. It is odd that the original error of Columbus (who imagined that he had discovered the extreme east of India) in calling the natives " Indians" should have been perpetu- ated to our own day. I'he lied men, no longer noble, are fast being starved, debauched, and cheated out of national and individual exist- ence ; very soon all that will remain of them will be their mark on the language of the exterminator. Geographical names are naturally 14 THE A M ERICA N LA NG UA GE. the most numerous class borrowed from the aboriginal tongues, having been first adopted locallj', and afterwards officially recog- nised, a procedure infinitely preferable to the common and detest- able practice in America of adopting European and Biblical proper names, without reference to the prior use of the same names by residents in otlier localities, often within a short distance. Erie, Michigan, Huron, C.iuandaigua, Massachusetts, Chicago, Con- necticut, and Chattanooga are examples of Indian nomenclature. The names of indigenous plants and animals are, similarly, mo tly Indian still. "Opossum"' — whence " 'possum '"("' "We'll hunt no more for the possum and the coon"); "raccoon" ("coon"' — vide ^upra — to which race belonged the astute quadruped which "came down" when threatened by the settler's " shot-gun ") ; the expressive word "skunk,"' the ai^pellaticn of an animal poetically known as " tlie essence-peddler"'; "persimmon " (a kind of nut), "maize," "to- bacco," " tapioca," " manioc," and "pemmican,"' are all examples of Indian origin. The names of articles used by the Eed man have retained their original names with more or less of accidental corruption. " Hammock "and "moccassin"" are instances. "Canoe " comes fiom the Caribbean Isles through the Spanish. It is hoped, by students of comparative philology, that the phonograph may save from ntter oblivion some of the aboriginal dialects ; and but for its timely assistance, place-names and a few words of the other classes above-mentioned might have been the sole survivals of some very beautiful and copious dialects, which in not many years will, in all human probability, have become dead languages. Mrs. Eichard A. Proctor ("Stella Occidens"'), widow of the well-known lecturer and astronomer, has collected and preserved with loving hands the mythology of the tribes ; it is much to be lioped that some competent persons may rescue from entire loss tlie languages in which their legends were told. As the Indian, conquered as he is, has left his mark in the speech of his conquerors, so the Negro slave has his revenge in the introduction of numerous grotesque words and expressions — first humorously quoted, but at last adopted altogether, by the domi- nant race. The Xegro"s tendency is directly contrary to that of his quondam proprietor. The latter clips, abbreviates, and shortens ; the Negro revels in redundancy and reduplication. His are " com- busticatron " (for burning), "conniption-fit" (hysterics), " cata- wamptious " (angrilj' eager), "absquatulate"' (to depart), and the reduplicative "do-don't" — a nice derangement of epitaphs. The erroneous use of lengthy and high-sounding wor>ls, quite in Mrs. THE AM ERIC A yj LANGUAGE, 15 Malaprop's manner, is a standing joke at the Negro's expense, and ladies and gentlemen of colour liave conventionalities and i)ro- prieties all their own. Captain Marryat relates in one of his books the incident of the modest coloured lady, whose delicacy was outraged by the offer of a cut from tlie hraist of a turkey : " Me take lilly turkey bosom, sah ! " Even a few Chinese i)hrases have gained currency, usually in California only; but "first-chop " (first-class, excellent) is universal. Many local words liave gravitated into geneial use from political circumstances, often owing their vogue to the same kind of hu- morous imlulgence which gives currency to grotesque Negroisms. Politicians in America, as with us, are expected to "stump the country " at various times, addressing whatever hearers can be got together by the local organizers, anil preaching the doctrines of tlieir party. In this p:oc3ss an orator, desirous of winning the ear and comprehension of an audience, will sometimes use local or cant plirases to convey meanings wliich would otherwise not easily be brouglit home to illiterate hearers. Any amusing, forcible, or successful word or phrase which he may have adopted or devised, will naturally impress itself upon the speaker's memory, and, b?ing repeated in different situations, will unconsciously sidle its way into his vocabulary, until some day it slips out in Congress or the Senate. Being reported presently in the newspapers, it will thus, in proportion to its fitness, survive in political and general plirase- ology, and be adopted by journalists and speakers. The same thing does not occur in this country, English audiences being rather inclined to resent " talking down." Among Americanisms of this class arise most of the false deri- vatives which often have so peculiar an effect to an English eye. "Donate" (verb), from "donation"; "approbate" (also verb), from "approbation," and "obtusity" for "obtuseness" are in- stances : "betterment " (of which the London County Council knows somewhat) is, of course, "improvement." "Burgle" was derived from "burglar" long before Mr. AV. S. Gilbert used it; and "to l)eddle," from "pedlar," has taken so firm a foothold as to react: a pedlar is usually spelled "peildler"— one who peddles— now ! Bartlett charges the clergy with this kind of iniquity, and instances "donate" (which doea sound feasible), "doxologizo," "funeralize," and the shocking verb "to fellowship." For the last I can vouch as a clerical expression : let us hope that it is a theologism rather than a regular American word. "Reliable" for "trust- worthy " (relyo«able) proves to have been used by Coleridge, so 1 6 THE A M ERIC A N LA NG UA GE. that it is not (as many of us supposed) an Americanism after all, — • even (alas Ii in the sense of being chiefly used in the United States; and Mr. Brander ^latthews says that "scientist" was coined by AVhewell in 1840, though I have not been able to verify the refer- ence. "Webster refers it to Gould. Perhaps the clergy are responsible indirectly for the numerous euphemistic exclamations and '• Pretty oaths by yea and nay, " in which American speech abounds, and of which examples are not needed. Tlie modesty of the Western hemisphere is a fear- some thing, and one recollects the awkward position of the English fisherman in a novel, who committed the shocking obscenity of alluding, in polite society, to the spotted hack of a trout he had captured. The American girl, as is well known, has nobody, even as the Queen of Spain has no legs; a "waist" is the most one may credit her with. Even a bodice is not a nice thing to mention in high-toned circles (so called). The refined call it a "waist,"' also. It is agreeable to note, however, that this ridiculous and vulgar mock-modesty is not really as universal as some have pre- tended, as an instance in Dr. Holmes' charming chats "Over the tea-cups " will remind many readers. Of course, the real favt is, that truly refined people in America, as all the world over, are superior to those insincere pruderies, the mark of nothing more than an intensely vulgar mental attitude. In one of the Break- fast-table series the genial autocrat gently ridicules the "retiring time" of the landlady's daughter. Bartlett says that "'Bull' is 'refined' beyond the mountains, and perhaps elsewhere, into 'cowcreature," ' male-cow,' and even ' gentleman-cow " '"—the last, surely, a supreme triumph of culchaw. One sometimes sees a ' ' lady-dog " offered for sale in England, but "male-sheep," ' ' male- hogs," "gentlemen-turkeys," and "gentlemen-game-chickens" be- long to the natural history of refined Boston only. There are, of course, many other ways in which Americanisms have been evolved, and I have not even hoped to do more than indicate roughly how such expressions arise. Innumerable words, phrases, and proverbs which obtain a temporary currency originate in newspapers (as distinguished from other periodicals, which are far less frequent sinners in this regard). It would be a fruitless task to record these ephemeral neologisms. Mr. Farmer has collected a large number of those indiWdualisms which chanced to be in use when he constructed his glossary of Americanisms, THE AMERICAN LANGUAGE. 17 Old and Nev). I have endeavoured to exclude both ephemeral, individualistic, and local words, except where the last have been expressions of exceptional permanence or interest. While I have not scrupled to defend the use of expressions which appeared to me defensible on grounds of convenience, antiquity, or precision, and certainly have aimed at avoiding tliat "certain condescension in foreigners" deprecated by Mr. Lowell, I hope that I may not have apjieared wanting in reverence for the standard of correct English, lb is hardly needrul, perhaps, as a plea for the defence, to remark that the object has been to record rather than to criticize ; I am not bound to take up the cudgels for every or any word defined. It is worthy of note that the first writer on the subject, the Rev. John "Witherspoon, D.D., LL.D., President of Princeton College, New Jersey (who printed thei'eon three essays in a kind of periodi- cal series called The Druid, in 1701), as well as most of his successors in the work, speak always deprecatingly of the use of Americanisms. "SVitherspoon Avas not of American birth, having been born and educated in Great Britain. Though not mention- ing the date of his emigration, he takes occasion to remark that he was not transported. He cites several Americanisms which are still in use, notably the distinctive use of "clever" to mean good- natured, which Webster marks as peculiar to tlie United States. ^ He likewise notes the omission (which was only then beginning to be general) of tlie words "to be" after the verb " to order '--" these things were ordered delivered." He gives also "equally as good as " (which is probably not an Americanism in any sense) : " spell," for a turn of work, or a short period (which he rightly thinks is nautical)-: "chunk" (which he says meant a brand of half-burnt wood): "mad," for "angry,"^ "considerable " in the present (Ameri- can) use : and " tot " (now spelled tote; thought by Webster to be of African origin) for the verb "to carry." •* The Hon. John 1 Proctor refers to the case of an English lady, tohl in America tliat a servant was "clever, but not smart," who tliougiit slie had found just the girl she wanted— handy but not dressy ; she found the girl kindly, but stupid. --A'/io(/-/e'?(/»', April, 188G. - Webster illustrates it by "A spell at the pumps." 3 Used somewhat in this sense, however, in Acts xxvi., 11. 4The collected works of Dr. Witherspoon, containing the Druid Essays, weru published in 4 vols., Philadelphia, 1^U1. In the list of subscribers at the end is the name of Oliver Wendell, Esciuire, of Boston— after whom, doubt- less, the ' 'Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table" may have been christened. There is a copy of the book in the British Museum, 'Jnd edit., 1602. Witherspoon i8 THE AMERICAN LAXGUAGE. Pickering, already mentioned in this introduction, i)ublished a Vocahulary, or Collection of Words, such as we should call Americanisms (Boston). He thinks the want of polish among his literary compatriots due to the lack of professional authors, and, like SVitherspoon, deprecates the use of words such as he has noticed, quoting on his title-pago (from Cicero) the words, '' Atque, lit Latine loquamur, rivendiim est, tit verba efferamus ea quce nemo jure reprehendat'' (De orat.). Pickering visited London from 17!)!) to 1801, and, noting the differences of speech then existing, commenced to collect instances of Americanisms. His final dictum on the subject is worth quoting. He says : " As a general rule, we should undoubtedly avoid all those words which are noticed by English authors of reputation as expressions with which they are unacquainted, for, althoug'n we might jjroduce some English authority for such words, yet the very circumstance of their being thus noticed by well-educated Englishmen is a proof thnt they are not in use at this day in England, and, of course, ought not to be employed elsewhere by those who would sjieak correct English."' A letter from Xoah AVebster, the lexicographer, to Pickering, on this subject was published as a pamphlet in 1817 (Boston), but the British ^Museum, I regret to say, does not possess a copy, nor have I been able to refer to it elsewhere. A paper read by Dr. T. Komeyn Beck before the Albany Institute (Albany, State of New York) on March 18th, 1820, annotates Pickering's Vocahularii, and gives several additional words. Beck agrees witli Pickering in thinking accessions to the language undesirable. " If we permit these last," he says, "we shall never arrive at a higher honour than to be placed among those who use dialects. AVe may, and ijrobably shall, in a few years, present the spectacle of exceed- (who was one of the signatories to the Peclaration of Independence) claims to have originated the word " Americanism.' He says : '" [By] American- isms, ... I understand, an use of phrases or terms, or a construction of sentences, even among persons of rank and education, different from the use of the same terms or phrases, or the construction of similar sentences, in (ireat Britain. It does not follow, from a man's using these, tliat be is ignorant, or his discourse upon the whole ineleirant ; nay, it does not fol- low in every case, that the terms or phrases are worse in themselves, but merely that they are of American and not English growth. The word Americanism, which I have coined for the purpose, is exactly similar in its formation and signification to the word Scotticism. By the word Scotticism is understood any term or phra-e, or indeed anything either in construction, pronunciation, or accentuation that is peculiar to North Britain."— L'ri88. Alienism. I The condition of being an alien. Given by Alienage. J AVorcester and AVebster. Law term. All. All summer, all winter, etc., are used (just as we say "all night '"' for all the night), in place of all tlie summer, etc. All-fired. That is, hell-fired: enormous: excessive. "A low expression,"' says Bartlett, innocently. Allot, to. To consider. " There must have been a charming climate in Paradise. The temperature was perfect, and connubial bliss, I allot, was real jam- up." — (Sam Slick) Nature and Human Nature. Allottee. One who acquires or receives an allotment. Allot upon. To decide. An expression which has gained ground since Pickering, writing in 181(3, described it as chiefly used in the interior of New England and never among persons of education. "Some use the verb 'to count upon' in the same manner," he adds. Allo"W. To declare, to assert, to maintain, without any sense of admitting. Proctor says of this expression, that it is often put by English writers into the mouth of Yarkees, but really used only in the South and middle States. All-possessed. (Perhaps hell-possessed.) Mad : possessed by demons. "P.ill Jenkins was a dreadful mean man; used to get drunk everyday, and swore like all-possessed Avhen he got mad." — Widow Bedott Papers. All sorts of. Excellent : first-rate : ''' out-and-out good." All there. Familiar with a siibject : correct. All through the piece. Altogether. Borrowed from cloth trade obviously, f scd by Sam Slick. See Cloth and Piece. All to pieces and All to smash. Excessively : utterly. "I lickel him all to pieces." Die TIOXA R y OF AMERICA NISMS. 25 Almighty. (Adj.) Excessively great or excessively power- ful, e.^/. " Tlie almighty dollar." (Adv.) Exce sively. A kind cf " forcible " qualification, having some of the comforting quality of strong language without the disadvantage of sounding unequiv- ocally profane. Alone. (Adj.) Sole: only. "The alone God."— P/c/eri«i/. See Seldom. Along-. Tse 1 redundantly and without meaning, in expres- sions of time: "along at first," "along three weeks ago," etc. Not to be confounded with " to be along," which means simjily to be present, or, as Americans say, to be around. " "We had church Sundays. Xot many there, along at first ; but by-and-by pretty good turnouts. I've seen service stop a minute, and everybody sit quiet— no voice heard, pretty funeral-like then — and all the more so on account of the awful boom and crash going on outside and overhead ; and pretty soon, when a body could be heard, service would go on again. Organs and church- music mixed up with a bombardment is a powerful queer combina- tion—along at first." — (Mark Twain) Life on the M ississippi. " A glance at these tourist books shows us that in certain of its aspects the Mississippi has undergone no change since those strangers visited it, but remains to-day about as it was then. The emotions produced in those foreign breasts by these aspects were not all formed on one pattern, of course ; they had to be various, along at first, because the earlier tourists were obliged to originate their emotions, whereas in older countries one can always borrow emotions from one's predecessors." — Ihid. Along-, to get. To get along is simply to get on, just as to look around is to look round. " I have a pr.judice against people who print things in a foreign language and add no translation. When I am the reaprove. Also, in speaking of a minister, one who is approbated means one licensed to preach. In this latter sense perhais a different word separately derived from Lat. "probo,"I test or examine. Todd's Johnson gives "approbate, adj. {obsolete), approved." Approbated. (From "approbate.") Licensed to preach. Arbor Day. A day set aside in the Western States for the planting of trees and festivities connected tlierewith, a ceremony which has proved of great service in unwooded districts. Originated in Nebraska about twelve years ago. Arctics. Fur-lined foot-gear. Argufy. To argue. " I listen to a preacher and try to be the better for his argufy- ing."— (Sam Slick) Nature and Human Nature. Arkansas toothpick. A bowie knife with closing blade. Proctor had never seen an Arkansas l)owie actually used as a toothpick ; but after what lie liad seen in that way, could believe anything. Armory. Not an armoury, or place where weapons are kept, but a gun factory. Around. Near or by. Proctor heaid a preacher speak of Mary as "standing around the Cross." Sec At. Arrette. A decree or proclamation. [Vrcnch, "arret.") "In si)ite of arrettes and commands to the contrary, he found means secretly to convoy a letter." — (Trumbull) History of the Discovery 0/ America, 1810. 28 D/CTIOXAKY OF AMERICAXISMS. As long- as. Because : since, " As long as you re going there you might as well tote this along with you." Associational. (Adj. ) False derivative from "association." At, For '* by." " .^ales at auction," " Positively no goods at retail," are common announcements in American warehouses. The American use of prepositions is always worth noting. They walk, and houses are built, on the street : they arrive, when punctual, on time : they stand or walk around. At that. A sort of intensifying expression, thought by Proctor to have been abbreviated from "'added to that." (Doubt- ful. ) Aiinty. Familiar salutation of plantation origin. The old negresses were often tenderly attached to the children of their owners, who addressed them as "aunty,"' "uncle," etc. "Uncle Tom," for example. Authoress. Pickering regards this word (and any patriotic Briton must wish to agree with him) as an Americanism. Perhajs manageress, tailoress, and similar abominations are so likewise — a consolation devoutly to be wished. Available. ~| Classed as Amedcanisms by Bartlett. Ob- Availability, jjectionable on the same ground as " reliable " : should be "availo/able," " availo/ability '■— if anything. Availed of. Informed of : also, accepted. "The members of a pojmlar government should be continually availed of the situation and condition of every part." — Wilherspoon (example). "The newspapers sometimes say 'an offer' (for instance) 'was made, but not availed of.'"— Bartlett. Avails. Proceeds of goods sold. A"way, Meaningless prefix to certain adverbs : as " away up," "away down," " away back," etc. Sometimes written, and alwjiys pronounced, icay up, down, back, etc. Away from the pack. Out of the common. A"wful. Disagreeable : detestable : ugly (Xew England) : also, excessive ("Peculiar to the West," says Bartlett. "In the Eastern and Middle States one often hears, 'awful handsome, aw- ful hungry,' and so on," says Proctor.) Probably a universal DICriOXARY or AMERICANISMS. 29 vulgarism, which it is an awful pity to have imported into this country. Ax, to. To ask. Very old English ; common in Chaucer. Lowell often puns upon it, as in the following example : " I fill believe in any plan O' levyin the taxes, Ez long ez, like a lumberman, I git jest what I axes.' — Biijloiv Papers. Azequia. See Acequia, Zequia. Back, to talk. To answer impudently. Backbone. Moral courage : firmness : will-power. Of poli- tical origin. Back down. To withdraw [a charge or accusation]. Back-house. A w.c. Back of. Behind. Back-out. ( V. and N.) V. To abandon a position : N. the said abandonment. Si/non>/m — "To take the back track." Back seat, to take a. To admit failure : to retire : to " weaken." " Since Clay Ewing ste])pod out of the race for the supreme bench, Jefferson City has taken a back seat."' — (J. "NV. Beverley) Missouri Ilcpuhlicdii, 1(S. Back teeth afloat, to have one's. Tobe (metaidiorically) full of li(pud, either from excessive drinking or other causes. Badg-er State. Wisconsin. Bad lands. "Waste ground. Bag-g-age. Passengers' luggage. Bag-g-ag-e-car. Luggage-van. Bagg-ag-e-smasher. A porter (erroneously) supposed to take care of luggage. With delightful unconsciousnes.s of the humour of it, Bai tlett defines it thus: "A man wlio transfers l>a^gage to and from railroad cars, steamboats, etc. So cilU'd from the reck- less manner in which those persons handle the proi)erty of tra- vellers," 30 DICTIOXARY OF AMERICANISMS. Bail your own boat. To "paddle jour osvn caiioe"" : to rely upon your own exertions. Bake oven. Oven. Bake-shop. ) .,1,1 Bakery. » ^"^^'^^^^^^"^^^V- Balance. Eemainder. A mercantile term adopted into or- dinary phraseology. Proctor heard " Peter and Andrew, with the balance of the Twelve, stood around."' "The word is used in Congress," says Pickeiing, "but only by the Southern members, in the following manner : A member moves, that the first section of a bill should be amended, and the balance of the bill struck out." Bald eag-le. The national emblem is a bald-faced eagle, and the term "bald eagle"" has been used as a nickname for seve'^al political orators to whom the adjective ha^ipened to apply. Bald-face. Common whisky ; or, as Mr. Farmer says. " A villainous compound, which only by courtesy can be recognised as whisky." Also called "Eed-eye whisky," a name which Bartlett finds figurative and appropriate. "Forty rod lightning " is whisky supposed to kill or intoxicate in the time that distance can be traversed. Balloon, to. To raise the price of commodities or stocks by illegitimate means : to fraudulently inflate prices. Ballot-box stuflang'. A form of political dishonesty, now- rendered impossible, by which the party holding office at the poll- ing stations was enabled to falsify or add to the electoral vote. Bang. A curl [of hair]. Bang up. First-rate. Bankable. Negotiable : susceptible of being received or dis- counted at a bank [of bills, notes, etc.]. Banner. (Adj.) The best. See Banner State. Banner State, etc. The State, city, or other political division giving the largest number of votes to a candidate for election. Bankit. 1 p^otpath, or " side-walk," as Americans say. Banquette. J ^ " The young coloured population of Xew Orleans were much given to flirting at twilight on the banquettes of the back streets." — (Mark Twain) Life on the Mississippi. Bar. For "bear." A mispronunciation originally. DICTIOXARY OF AMERICANISMS. 31 Barbecue. Properly speaking, the act of cooking a pig, sV.eep, or other animal, whole (de barbs a queue), in which sense Pope and "Ingoldsby '' use it. A " barbecued" hog is a frequent attraction at ]Jolitical open-air meetings in the South and West, and a "barbecue"' has come to mean almost any out-of-door meeting. itrteriztto. } To fulfil tl.e functions of a Fi.jaro. Bark up the -wrong- tree, to. Hunting expression, taken from tlie example of a dog making a mistake, and barking against the wrong tree to attract attention to game which he supjioses to be hiding above him. "If you think to run a rig on me, you have made a mistake in the child, and barked up the wrong tree." — Sam Slick. "'I raytlier guess there's i)etticuts goes with them mud- mashers.' The gal she flamed up at that, and says she : ' I guess youre bavkin' up the wrong sapliu".' '' — Orpheus C. Kerr. Bar'l. Barrel. A supply of money for purposes of corruption. Barn-burners. A section of the Democratic party in the State of New York, in 1842-1848, at the time of Dorr llebellion. Barrel boarder. A tramp. Bar-tender. Tlie attendant in charge of a public-house. Si/nonym — "bar-keeper"; and familiar, "bar-keep'." A very "high-toned" and gorgeous individual generally. Bawdy. Used in the old English sense of indecent. Bayou. The outlet of a lake. Bay State, the. Massachusetts. Beach-comber. A long wave ru nning in from the ocean along the shore, "lieach-combers" are defined in Smyth's Sailors^ Won! Book as loiterers around a bay or harbour, and "beachcombing" as loafing about a i)ort to filch small things. Beaker. Atumblcr. {Dutch, "beker")— arcmnantof thcDutch influence. A glass vessel shaped somewhat like a drinking-glass is termed a " beaker" by cliemical analysts in England : in the sense of a tumbler the word is now obsolete except in America : " Then fill to-night with hearts as light To loves as gay and fleeting As bubbles that swim on the beaker's brim And break on the lips while meeting." —C. F. Hoffman. Bear State. Arkansas, 32 Die TIOXA R Y OF A M ERIC A NISMS. Beat. To surjiass : to astonish. — Dead-beat : a wortbless fellow, who has nothing and will earn nothing lionestly. Beautiful. Used, as an Americanism, in exactly the same (incorrect) manner and with the same (erroneous) meaning as "elegant," which sec. Bedrock. (Fihyry ; the stem was six feet in length, de- corated with tufts of horse hair dyed red. The pipe bearer stepped within the circle, lighted the pipe, held it towards the sun, then towards the different points of the comjiass, after which he handeil it to the principal chief. The latter smoked a few whiffs, then, holding the head of the pipe iu his hand, offered the other end to their visitor, and to each one successively in the circle. When all Die riONA RY OF A ME RICA iXISMS. 45 had smoked, it was considered that an assurance of good faith and amity had been interchanged." CaSpSre. i ^^^^V^'^'- -^ ^"^^^ corruption. Camp Meeting-. A sort of religions pic-nic, often lasting for several days. "An American way of advertising religious char- acter," says Proctor, who regarded all American institutions of the kind with great disgust, " They're holding Camp Meeting in Hickory Swamp, Oh, let my people go ; De preacher's so dark, dat he carry um lamp, Oh, let my people go. De brudders am singing dis jubilee tune, Oh, let my people go ; Two dollars a year for de U'eeMij Tribune, Oh, let my people go I " —Orpheus C. Kerr. Can. (I^.J A tin for preserving meat, vegetables, etc. (y.) To preserve in that way. The word " tin " is never applied in this sense. See Cannery. Canada. (Pronounced "canyada.") A small gorge or ravine. (Sjmnif-h.) Candidate, to. (^'-J To be a candidate. Candle-lighting-. Evening. Rather a pretty expression. " Locking up my Kangaroo and wax wurks in a sekure stile, I took my departer for Paldinsville, 'my own, my native Ian,' which I got intwo at early kandle litin on tlie follerin nite, and just as the seller-brashun and illumernashun ware commcnsin." — (Artemus Ward) Celebration at Baldinsville. Candy. Any kind of sweetstuff. Canebrake. A thicket of canes. " His nails was longer than de cane in tlie brake. He had no eyes for to see, He lost all his teeth a eatin' lioe cake, So was forced to let de hoe cake be." — Negro Song. Caney. Made of cane. Given by Scheie de Vere as an Americanism. It is used by Milton [Paradise Lost) : " Where Chineses drive With sails and wind their cany wa;:gons light," 46 DICTIONARY OF AMERICA XISMS. Cannery. A factory where tinned (which Americans call '•' canned '") goods are put up. Cant, to. To tilt up. Canon. (Pronounced, but only very erroneously spelled, " Canyon.") A narrow gorge or ravine in mountains. Cantankerate. (V.) (From "cantankerous."') To become (inti-ans.) or to make someone else (trans.) disagreeable, ill- humoured. (Annlo- Norman, "contek," says Farmer.) — Cantan- kersonae : cantankerous. Canuck. See Kanuck. Canvas-back. A kind of wild duck, chiefly found in Chesa- peake Bay and the neighbouring streams, and so called from the colour of the back. '• Highly esteemed for the delicacy of its flesh,'" says Bartlett. " Somewhat overi)raised in America," re- plies Proctor. Canvass. The ofiicial counting of votes after an election. Never used for the solicitation of votes beforehand. The latter is called in America, I believe, " bribery,"' or, at least, that appears to be the method in vogue. Cap all, to. 1 To surpass everything. Cap the climax, to. i ' ' The AVestern hunter, when he wishes to cap the climax of braggadocio with respect to his own prowess, says, ' he can whip his weight in wild cats.' " — (Thorpe) Backicoods. (In which connection see Bon GauUier Ballads.) Capper. A piece of medico-ethical slang, meaning the same as " steerer,'" which see. Caption. Title heading in a newspaper. The selection of these sensational headings is considered very important, and the results are certainly startling. For example, the execution by electricity of a batch of criminals was thus announced in a New York daily : — " DOWN THEIR DAJIXED SPINES FLASHES THE LURID LIGHTNING'S EARTHLY PEER." Captivate. To take prisoner. Given by Pickering, and Bartlett, following him, as an Americanism. Lord Brougham is cited by the latter. "The word captivating will be reckoned an Americanism, but it has undoubted English authority." — (States- DICriOXARY OF AMERICANISMS. 47 vien of George III. ) In the original draft of the Declaration of Independence, prepared by Mr, Jefferson, the enslaving of Negroes is spoken of as " captivating and carrying them into slavery in another hemispliere." This use of the word appears to have become obsolete, and is not noticed by Proctor. It is, of course, used, as with us, in the sense of charming or delightful. It 'is, however, given in the other sense by Johnson and Webster. The Edinhuryh Review (1810) calls this use a Gallicism, as Beck points out. Carlicues. See Curlicues. Carom. (Billiards.) A cannon. Carpet-bagger. Originally, a Western term for a fraudulent or "wild cat" banker (which see). Applied later to numberless Northern speculators who overran the South after the war, and were looked upon with abhorrence by the Southerners, whose im- poverished and ruined condition, nevertheless, compelled them to receive the new-comers in business relations. Cars, on the. On the railway, " railroad carriages " are called "cars," and, indeed, the same name is applied in England to carriages built on the American plan, viz. " Pullman cars." Casket. A coffin. Casten. Cast. (Old Enfjlish.) See Gotten. Catawamptious. Eager. (Negro.) Catch on to, to. " To catch on to " an idea is to understand (grasp) it. Caucus. A private society of politicians for party purjioses, especially wire-pulling and what is euphemistically called " man- ipulation '' ; we call it " l)ribery " here. A very old word, said to be of Indian derivation, useil as early as 1724. AVebster derives it from "calker," a nautical term for a man whose work is to .stop the leaks in the seams of a ship, the analogy being that the caucus is supposed to strengthen weak places in party organisa- tion. Proctor says that a caucus is generally formed for some rascality, and that the word has a consequent unpleasant sound in American ears. It is, of course, thorouglily acclimatised in Eng- land now, and is chietiy used in an injurious sense. Cave in. ( V.) To give way : to collapse : to break in. Navvies' word. " Sez he, ' Tliat's all very well fur you to say ; but I tell you, old man, that that Judas Iscarrot can't show Lisself in Utiky with 48 DICTION AR Y OF A .1 lERlCANISMS. imi:)unerty by a darn site ! ' with which observashun he kaved in Judassis hed. The young man belonged to 1 of the first famerlies in Utiky. I sood him & the Joory brawt in a verdick of arson in the 3rd degree." — (Arteraus Ward) High-handed Oiitva'jc at Utica. Cavort, To caper about. Centennial State, the. Colorado (admitted in 1876 — 100 years after the Declaration). Chained lightning-. Forked lightning. (Western.) Also ' ' bad whiskey. " (Fi'j. j Change. (V-) To alter or correct anything written. To change an invoice is not to exchange it for another, but to make some alteration in its tenor. Chaw. To chew. (Good English, and found in Johnson's Dictionary. Used by Spenser and Dryden.) Chaw up, to. To utterly demolish or defeat. Check. A cheque : a ticket. (Baggage check is a numbered ticket given to the owner of luggage conveyed by passenger train, a system much superior to the haphazard want of system in vogue here. Luggage is said to be checked when it is booked through.) A counter at cards : at the conclusion of a game, gamblers return their counters and receive money for them. At the end of the game of life the dying American ''passes in his checks." Checkers. The game of draughts, and also, of course, the draughtsmen. The board accordingly is termed a " checker- board. " Chemiloon. The article of female underwear known to effete Europe as a combination garment. America and Dr. Mary "Walker have given it a local habitation and an appropriate com- bination-name—the title being compounded from "cAf/uise" and "panta?oo/j." Proctor heard this lady in lecturing, say, "I wear suspenders, and I feel awful good in my chemiloon."' Chestnut. An old story. Farmer quotes from the Phila- delphia Press a plausible legend of its origin. It is attributed to Mr. W. Warren, a veteran Boston comedian : " It seems that in a melodrama, but little known to the present generation, written by AVilliam Dillon, and called The Broken Hu-ord, there were two cliaracters, one a Captain Xavier, and the other the comedy part (sic) of Pablo. The Captain is a sort of Baron Munchhausen, and in telling of his exjiloits, says : ' I entered DICTIONARY OF AMERICANISMS. 49 the woods of Collowaj', when suddenly from the thick boughs of a cork-tree—' Pablo interrupts him with the words : 'A chestnut, Captain, a chestnut. ' ' Bali I ' replies the Captain ; 'Booby ! I say a cork-tree.' 'A chestnut,' reiterates Pablo; ' I should know as well ae you, having heard you tell the tale these twenty-seven times. ' "William "Warren, who had often played the part ot Pablo, was at a stag dinner, when one of tlie gentlemen present told a story of doubtful age and originality. 'A chestnut,' murmured Mr. AVarren, quoting from the play : ' I have heard you tell the tale these twenty-seven times.' The application of the lines pleased the rest of the table, and when the party broke up each helped to spread the story "and Mr. AVarren's commentary." '"The Nexc York Herald has for months past had the following paragraph in its editorial columns [here follows the j)aragraph, which is unimportant] : — " For a leading journal to Avaste so much space does not tend to elevate it in the opinion of business men ; and instead of this very stale chestnut, we will offer the Herald a ])aragraph.'' — Advertiser's Guide, 1891. "Not a Soap Ad. — Smith: 'Good morning. Do you use — ' Brown: 'Oh, come now! That's played out. Awful chestnut!' — Smith : ' Beg your pardon. I was going to say, do you usually get to town so early in the morning ? ' " — Art in Advertising/, 18'Jl\ Chewallop (or Kerwallop). A bow-wow word (onomato- poesis) to exjiress the sound of a falling body. Generally spelled with " ker " ; but the other has the authority of Judge Haliburton. Chewing'-guin {or Cha^wing-g-uni). A compound which ministers to the apparently innate craving of young America for something to chew : a substitute for tobacco. It api^ears to be made of india-rubber (often called, without qualification, gum, in the States,) incorjiorated with sugar and other flavouring material. The latter, dissolving, leaves a viscid mass of moist india-rul)ber in the mouth, which, like the widow's cruse of oil, does not waste, and which may be chewed indefinitely, greatly enhancing the facial charms of the o]Krator. It is not swallowed, and would lirobably cause intestinal obstruction if it were ; but the effect on the digestive organs is, in any case, serious, as the excitation of the alimentary tract by the chewing leads the stomach, meta[)hori- cally, to expect food and tlirow out gastric juice, which is thus wasted. An obscure paralysis of the jaw is distinctly traced to the same practice, aiul has been termed by physicians addicted to new names, "gum chewers' disease." 50 Die TIOXA RY OF A^ /ERICA XI SMS. Chicken-fixing'3. A chicken "fixed'' in an '''elegant'' manner. See Fix and Eleg-ant. Bartlett says "fricassee," but the derivation is obviously needless. In a figurative manner the term is used for any kind of fare regarded as luxurious, in opposi- tion to common-doings, or ordinary food. "I guess I"ll order supper. AVhat shall it be? Corn-bread and common doins, or nheat-bread and chicken-fixings?" — Sam Slick. See " Corn " for an explanation of the last phrase. Child, this. 3Iyself : I. Chinee. A marble (child's toy). Chinch. A bug (in the English sense). (Southern.) Chink, to. To fill up the interstices between the logs in a log-hut or cabin, usually with clay. Chin-music. Talk. Proctor reports a conversation which annoyed him at a theatre, which began thus : — "'Them girls in tights is having a good deal of chin-play." '"What in Hades [he was more monosyllabic, says the reporter] is it all about, any way ? (A pause.) That little one ain"c got no manners — not to saij manners— she ain"t." '"' Chip-in, to. To subscribe money : to intervene in a con- versation, fight, or transaction. Chipper. Brisk : lively : frivolous. Used by Legree in Mrs. Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cahin. " The German word for hell — ' Htille ' — sounds more like helly than anything else ; therefore, how necessarily chipper, frivolous, and unimpressive it is. If a man were told in German to go there, could he really rise to the dignity of feeling insulted ? " — (Mark Twain) A Tramp Abroad. Chirk. (Adj.) Lively: comfortable: in good spirits. (V.) To enliven : to inspirit : or to become lively. (Anglo-Saxon, " cercian."") Chock, to. To fill to overflowing : to choke. Chock-full. Ke])lete: full-up : choke-full. Choke off, to. To dissuade from anything: to forcibly obstruct. Chop. Quality. First-chop. First quality : excellent. (Chinese.) Chore. (Pronounced " Tshoro.") A piece of domestic labour. (sing, and Plural). Akin to the English " charwoman." DICTION A R V OF A M ERICA NISMS. 5 1 **I giv my collar a hitch, and sez I, 'I'm Mister Smith, one of the Smitheses of this decstiict, an always -svillin for a female in distress.' Then she made a curtsey, and was goin to say somethin, when Bob Tomkins steps np, and sez he, ' Thers goin to be anotlier buryin in this settlement if some folks dont mind their own chores, and quit foolin with other folkses company ! ' This riled me right up, an sez I, 'There's a feller in this deestrict that hain't had a spell of layin' on his back for some time : but he's in immediate danger of ketching the disease bad.' Bob took a squint at the width of my chist, and then he turned to Sal, who was shakin like a cabbage leaf in a summer gale, and sez he, ' Sal, lets marvel out of bad company before it spoils our morials ! ' "With that he crooked one of his smashin' machines, and Sal was jest hookin on, when I put the weight of about one hundred pounds under his ear, and sez I, 'Jest lay there. Bob Tomkins, until your parients comes out to look for your body.' He went down as if he had been took with a suddint desire to examine the roots of the grass, and Sal screamed out that I'd murdered the rantankerous critter. Sez I, ' The tombstun that's for his head aint cut yet ; but I calki- late it'll be took out of the quarry if he comes smellin round my heels again.'" — Orpheus (J. Kerr. Chouse, to {aho Chousle, Chowzle). To cheat, or de- ceive. (English.) Cho^wder. A (reputed) delicacy of varying composition, in which the fundamental ingredients appear to be lish, pork, onions, and biscuits, boiled together, either with or without cider and champagne —though, surely, without these two, this fearful com- pound would not attain its full atrocity. (French, " chaudicre.") One is irresistibly reminded of the ^N hite Knight's pudding (which saddened him with a fear that it never would be cooked, perhaps not unjustly). " It began," he said, "with blotting paper." "That wouldn't be very nice, I'm afraid," said Alice. "Not very nice alone," said the White Kniglit, who proceeded to ejiumerate var- ious other incongruities.— — Clam-chowder. A chowder whose horrors have been enhanced by tlie addition of clams (a kind of Bhellfish). Christian Scientists. Tlie faith healers, better known here as the " Peculiar People" — a name/w//^ justified. Chromo. Achromo-lithographed picture : regarded as a term of admiration or disgust, according to taste. Chromo-civili- zation, a term invented by tlie late J. R. Dennett, is, perhaps, 52 Die TIONAR Y OF A MERICANISMS. best defined by the mongrel word "parvenuism : " — piuchbeck re- finement — tawdriness. Chunk. A small piece of anything. In ^Vitherspoon's essay, however, it is explained to mean a brand of half-burned wood, and as being peculiar to the Middle States. It is now uni- versally used in the sense first above given. Chnnk-y, Thick : stout : thick-set. Chute. An inclined plane, used for lowering merchandise by sliding: a shoot. (Pure French.) See also Take a Chute. Cider. " All talk and no cider " : •'' much cry and little wool " : vox et pratcrea nihil. Said, by Scheie de Vere, to have originated at a party in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, which was convened to drink a barrel of cider, as a bait to a political meeting, when the malcontents withdrew, saying it was a trap into Avliich they had been lured — "All talk and no cider. " Cideris ingreat favour in theUnited States, where it is prepared largely, and is of excellent quality. Cinch. A tight hold. Used by Kipling and Balestier in The A'aulahka. Cincinnati oysters. Pigs' feet. Cipher, to. To estimate or consider a subject, not necessarily, or indeed generally, in an arithmetical sense. See Figure. Circumstance. A trifle. Not a circumstance. A thing of no account. "I never saw so lean a gal as Miss since 1 was raised. Pharaoh's lean kine warnt the smallest part of a circumstance to her. I had to look twice before I could see her at all." — Sa}n Slick: " ' I wish thar was winders to my sole,' sed I, ' so tliat you could see some of my feelins. There's fire enuff in here,' sed I, striking my buzzum with my fist, ' to bile all the corn beef and turnips in the naberhood. Versoovius and the Critter aint a circumstans.' " — (Artemus "Ward) The shoicnuuis Courtship. Citess. Citovcnnc: citizeness. Almost obsolete; used during the French Revolution as a translation of citof/enne. Webster gives " citess" — "a city woman,"' in which sense the word occurs in JJryden. City. Almost any collection of dwellings large enough for its inhabitants to despise the name of village. City is appended to the name of a town to disthiguish it from that of the State when identical. City of Brotherly Love. Philadelphia. (^iko; alo.io;). City of ChuTches. Brooklyn. City of Colleges. Toronto. City of a Himdred Hills. San Fran- DICTIONARY OF AMERICANISMS. 53 Cisco. City of Magnificent Distances. Washington. City of Notions. Boston.— City of Soles. Lynn. City of Spindles. Lowell. City of the Straits. Detroit City of Witches. Salem. Cream City. Milwaukee. Crescent City. Xew Orleans. Elm City. Newhaven, Conn, Em- pire City. Xew York. Falls City. Louisville, Ky. Federal City. "Washington. Park Mountain City. Green- ville. Quaker City. Philadelphia. Claim, to. To assert : to state as a new fact. Claim. (N.) A piece of land marked out by a settler, Claim-jumper : a land-grabber. Clam. Acertain shell-fish. (For "clam-chowder," see Chow- der.) "Happy as a clam," or "as a clam at high-water " : contented. Old clam. Term of reproach, " fool." The acme of abuse in this groove is, however, " Oh, you're a sardine I " -Clam-bake. A pic-nic, at which the .staple delicacy is a dish of clams baked on the spot. Clarity. Clearness : precision (in diction). Clawhammer. A dress coat. Clean thing;, the. What is right. Called by Bartlett a "low expression," a criticism from which Proctor most properly dissents. Clear. [Adj. ) In speaking of liquids the word "clear " is often used to mean " undiluted," just as we speak of si)irits " neat." "Bathe the parts with the Pain-killei: clear," — Patent Medicine Advertiaenient. Clerg-ywoman. A female minister : also, sometimes, a district visitor. See Authoress, Clerk. (N.) A shop assistant, rr,j To perform the duties of a clerk. Clever, Kindly : agreeable : good-natured : also honest (of persons only). Purely American in origin and use. Climb down, to. To retract, Clomb. Past tense of climb, (Old Emjlish.) Cloth, out of the whole. A thing is said to bo " made out of the whole cloth " when it is quite beyond any chance of sophis- tication. " And, mind you, emotions are among the toughest tilings in the world to manufacture out of whole cloth. It is easier to D 54 Die TIONA RY OF A MERICA NISMS. manufacture seven facts than one emotion.-' — (Mark Twain) Life on the Mississippi. Clothes, in. A man is said to have money or any other article "in his clothes," in the same way as we say that he has money "about him." (Western.) Coast, to. To slide down a frozen or snow-covered hill in a "sled" or "toboggan," which see. Used here by cyclists in the same sense. Cobbler. (1) A drink consisting, or supposed to consist, of wine, sugar, lemon, and powdered ice (not rice, as Proctor's type- setters have made him say) : (2) a kind of open fruit tart. (Western.) Cocktail. A drink composed of spirit (and the particular variety employed gives the name to the compound, as " gin cocktail," "whisky cocktail," etc.), Angostura bitters, sugar, and ice, with a suspicion — very vague — of water. ]S'ever known, even in the most refined cu'cles, as a "rooster-tail," which seems strange. Cold. As ' 'the cold truth," /. c. the exact, or, as we say (a little analogously), " the naked truth." "There is a popular notion that the habit of prevarication goes along with warmth, or with a debilitating atmosphere, and that cold is a tonic, a sort of stimulant for truthfulness. "We have, in- deed, in the phrase, 'the cold truth,' a recognition of this." — (C. D. AVarner) Harper, July, 1891. " Furthermore, it would appear that every jiublisher owes it to himself to see to it that in the case of a competing journal all attempts at fraudulent circulation ratings are exposed and made known, not by innuendo, but by evidence — the production of cold facts."— PW»fers' Ink, 1891. To "Have anyone 'cold'" is to have found out their little games beyond all denial — even as little Miss Jenny "Wren detected the shortcomings of her parent. Had she been born in Xew England, " I know your tricks and your manners " would have be- come " I've got you cold, and don't you forget it : yes, .S'«r / " "As schoolboys say, you've got me cold." — (J. Kendrick Bangs) Hai'per, June, 1891. [Allusion perhaps to roasted chestnuts, which can only be "got," i.e., handled, with impunity when com- paratively cold.] DICTIONARY OF AMERICANISMS. 55 Cold day- Used in a manner which can only be explained by example, "It will be a cold day when such and such a thing occurs," means that the event in question is very im])ro- bable. Why a "cold " day is not very apparent, since cold days are not rarer, except in the South, than hot ones, and the expression does not apjiear to be of Southern origin. Collect, to. To receive money, without any connotation of gathering together. A man who calls for a single account is said to collect it— if successful. Now imported by us, as a commercial ex- pression. (See Bring" on.) Combination Lock. A keyless lock opened by turning a dial or dials in succession to various numbers on a vernier. Combine. (N.) A combination of persons for a common object : a trade union. Come to stay, to. To obtain a permanent vogue. " Year after year has since rolled by, And now her hair is grey ; Yet I love her still because I know My love lias come to stay." —Clarence Stetson. Committee of one. A dictatorship. Complected. Having a certain com])lexion. Coniposulst. A writer, or a com])oser of music. College slang, given by I'ickering, and now sometimes, though but rarely, found in newspapers. Conclude, to- Americans often say "conclude" for "de- cide." Confidence, to. To confide in : also, to play the " confidence trick. " Conflrmate. To confirm. Conflagrate. To burn. (False derivative from "conflagra- tion." — ( .\e in America. Loo, to. To defeat. (From the game of " loo.") Lot. A piece of land. See Across lots. Love, to. To like. (Feminine.) Lovely. Pleasing in any way. " A lovely pie," etc. etc. (Feminine.) G 1 02- Die TIOXA RY OR A MR R I CAN IS MS. Low doun. (^.-^rfy. and Adv.) Term of degradation. To "play it too low down on the boys/" means to attempt a mean or shabby piece of sharp practice in dealing with one's associates. " AVay down" and "way back'' are also adjectives of similar import. Lumber. Timber, sawn or split for sale. L™blrman. I" ^ "'^^ employed in the timber trade. Lumber State. Maine. Lyceum. A lecture hall : a literary association. Lynch law. An irregular and revengeful species of justice, administered by the pojjulace or mob, without any legal authority or trial. "The will or decree of a mob or multitude, as a substitute for the common or the civil law." — Worcfstcr. The origin of the name is not definitely known, and it would be a thankless task to judge between some half-dozen exi)lanations which have been set forth. It has been supposed that the term is of great antiquity, one account dating it back to 1498. A writer in JSotcs and Queries refers it to a Judge Lynch sent to America to repress piracy in 1687 ; but it is a remarkable fact that the name appears neither in ^Vitherspoon nor Pickering. Ma'am. For "mother" in the vocative case: more rever- ential than the latter. Also as an adj. " Ma'am school "—a dame school. A '■ school ma'am," of course, is a schoolmistress, and the term does not convey the satirical or contemptuous sense which is rather suggested by it to the English eye. Machine. (Adj.) Mechanical. Political— & "machine voter," one who votes blindly in accordance with loarty instructions. fN.J a fire engine. Mackinaw blanket. A heavy coarse blanket. Mackinac, pronounced as " Mackinaw," was formerly the centre of trade and barter with the Indians, who are great users of blankets. Mad. Angry. " Jeeminy I fellows, I was so enormous mad, that the new silk handkercher round myjieck lost its colour." — (Rohh) Squatter Life. Pickering calls this use of " mad ' a "low word, " and "Witherspoon says it is perhaps an English vulgarism. It is certainly common Th Ireland, and is, as a matter of fact, good Elizabethan English. ^'ee Acts xxvi.. 11. . - Die TIONA R V OF AMERICA NISMS. 103 " Afy lady would have the last word, and Sir Murtagh grew mad." — (Miss Edgworth) Castle Rackrent. More often used for irritated : vexed : annoyed. " ' Wiltist thou not tarry hear in the Promist Land ? ' sed several of the miscrabil critters. ' He see you all essenshally cussed be4 I wiltist ! ' roared I, as mad as I cood be at their infurnal non- cents." — (Artemus Ward) Visit to Briyham Young. Mad, to. To make angry. "A mere vulgarism," says Pickering. Madam. In his book of travels, Kendall says : "Here [Ply- mouth, Mass.] and in some neighbouring places it has been, and still is, the practice to prefix to the name of a deceased female of some consideration, as the parson's, the deacon's, or the doctor's wife, the title of Madam." "This practice," adds Pickering, " (like that of giving magistrates the title of 'Sijuire), prevails in most of the country towns of New England ; but is scarcely known at the present day in the sea-]iort towns." It is defined by Halliwell ( Dictionarjj of Archair and Provincial Words) as "a title used in the provinces to women under the rank of Lady, but moving in respectable society."' Kendall was evidently in error when he thought the term applied only to deceased persons, and Pickering in classing it as of American birth. The expression in this sense is old-fashioned in both countries. Tom Brown's mother was called "Madam Brown." There is, however, a distinctive and useful American usage mentioned by Sir Cliarles Lyell, namely tliis — the mother of a married man is called " Madam So-and-so," which removes the inconvenience and confusion which otherwise often arise in the circumstances. Maidenland. Land wliich a man gets with his wife, and surrenders at her death should slie predecease him. Confined to Virginia— a curious coincidence, or sort of accidental pun. Mail. For " post." " Mail ' and "freight " are in England used generally with the connotation of ocean passage : a "mail " means an ocean mail, and "freight," ocean carriage. In America both are used without this implication. Formerly, the "bag" in whicli letters were conveyed [French, "malle"); and, before that, any sort of bag, as " No I'envoy, no salve in the male, sir." —Love's Labour's Los'. Act iii. Sc. 1. This passage has been rather necllossly amended by tlie com- mentators, as the old use of mail or male = Lag makes (juite clear 104 DICIIONARY OF AMERICANISMS. the reading of the second, third, and fourth folios. In the quartos and first folio there is by accident a second " e " misprinted in the definite article : but all quartos and folios give "male."' In America ones "mail" means the letters one receives. "Give me my mail," to a clerk at the ''poste restante," would be equiva- lent to "give me my letters. ' To '-mail " a letter or parcel is to post it. The head of the Postal Depaitrneiit is not, iiowevcr, called the Mail-Master General, but bears the same title as our own — Post-.Master General. Mailable. Suited for conveyance by post. Maine law. A stringent code of legislation for the sup- pression of the liquor tratfi--. Mango. No relation to the trojjical fruit, but applied to "cantaloupe,"' or musk-melon, when pickled. Manicure. The care of the hands. An art in which a largo number of persons are engaged in America. Special instruments, called •'manicure appliances," are sold for trimming, smoothing, polishing, and tinting the nails, etc. Manners, to make. To bow or salute a superior : to do obeisance. Maple sugar. A sugar crystallized from the sap of the sugar maple, and esteemed as a great delicacy. Marooning- party. A seaside pic-nic. (Southern States.) Marvel. To go away or depart. Sometimes, but more rarely, ''marble." ( Pennsyh-ania.) For an illustration see Chores. An old word. Maryland end. The small end of a ham. The other ex- tremity is called the " Virginia end." Mason and Dixon's line. The boundary which formerly divided roughly the free from the slave-holding States, being about twenty miles south of latitude 40'. Surveyed in 1760 by two Englishmen, Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon. It was intended to mark the boundary between Pennsylvania and ^Maryland. Massa. Sometimes "Mars' "or " Mas' ". !Master ; a Xegro vo- cative for any white man. It is interesting to note that one form, '' Mas","' is a very old En.dish colloquialism, though the fact has no probable relation to the Negro use. Ben Jonson uses the word more than once. See The New Inn, iii. 1 : — Die TIONA R Y OF AMERICANISMS. 1 05 " Mas Bartolmew Burst, One that hath been a citizen, since a courtier, And now a gamester." Match. (V-) To kindle or set fire to. Materialize. To be forthcoming. Borrowed from tlie sjnritualists, one of whose prodigies is tlie production by occult means of tangible articles, quite in Malame ]ilavatsky's best method, and considerably in advance of her alleged performances of this kind. Matter. "That's what's the matter with me." "That is the kind of person I am " : or, "that is what I want," according to context. Maybe. Perhaps. Meadow. Applied only to damp grass land. J]tymologi- cally, of course, a '"meadow" is any land which can be mowed. (Anglo-Saxon, "mawan," to mow; Old German, " meidan,'' whence A mjlo- Saxon ; " maedewe,' or more ordinarily, "mjed," a meadow.) "Meadow grass" is the name of inferior hay, and tlie term " meadow" has always an implication of inferiority i 1 America. Mean. Unworthy : poor in character or quality ; as " mean wliites, ' — term of reproach apjdied to non-slaveholilers in the ►South before the war. "JNIean" does not convey any necessary sense of stinginess, but is a term of general contempt, which is, of course, the correct usage. " Mean enough to steal acorns from a blind hog ' is a proverb in common use. Medicine. Indian expression often without meaning, when joined with an adj., as "good medicine" or "bad medicine" for anything good or bad. The "medicine-man" was, of course, the tribal sorcerer. Meech, to. To sulk. Originally very old English, and used l)y Shakespeare, lieaumont and Fletcher, and otiier p]lizabethan writers in the same sense, and also in that of " to act by stealth," usually with a connotation of illicit courtship or im])ropriety ; see the use of " JVIiching malicho " {Hamlet, iii. 2.) and " Sure, she has Some meeching rascal in her house." (Beaumont and Fletcher) The Scornful Lady, v. 1. Mr. Hensleigh AVedgwood compares it to a (I'ri.sons word " miit- schar " or " mitschar " — to slip away ; and tlie Suisa ' ' schmauchen " — to do in secret (whence "smouch.") Used in New England : un- To6 DICTION A RY OF AMERICANISMS. common, but not obsolete, ''Meech" in Somersetshire is com- mon, and means to "slink away." [Compare also the French slang word michet or miche.] There is no ground that I have been able to find for tlie definitions " to pilfer, ' "to lay in wait for : '' " to lurk."' The quotation from Bigloii' Papers — " But I ain't of the meechin' kind, that sets and thinks for weeks. The bottom's out o' th' Universe, 'cos their own gillpot leaks," — would be justified by the definition given above — "to sulk." Meeting--house. A church. In America, "The church" always means the incorporated fraternity of the congregation, and not the building in which divine service is celebrated. A relic of Puritanism. Merchandise, to. f^^-) To enter into commerce or busi- ness. Merchant, to. (l''-J Like " to merchandise " : to enter into commerce or business. Metate. A kind of rude mortar, of oblong shape, used by the Mexicans for grinding cocoa, etc. (Mexican, "metatl.") Ivjilea^e. A distance traversed. Also, the allowance made by the United States Government to members of the legislature for travelling expenses. A " mileage ticket " is a kind of season ticket issued on American railroads. The passenger purchases a ticket entitling him to traverse a certain number of miles ; the ticket is available at any station, and the number of miles travelled is signified on the ticket, either by endorsing the number upon it, or by removing a portion, if the ticket is divided up, its coupons re- presenting so many miles each. A convenience highly appreciated and largely used. The tickets are transferable. "I extract this beautiful passage from the forthcoming speech of a fat Congressman, who is a friend to the human race, and charges the Administration with imbecility and mileage." — Orpheus C. Kerr. Militate, to- To act. Used in America in the sense of co- operation — to militate with, as well as, in the opposite sense, to militate against. The former use is an Americanism purely. Milk ranch. A dairy farm. Mill. (J^^-J One of the few distinctive terms in the cattle trade, not of Spanish origin. Cattle when confused will often crowd together in a mass and tear round and round at a great speed, each trying to reach the centre with his horns— a vagary Die TIONAR V OF AMERICANISMS. toy infinitely injurious and dangerous to the beasts, and proportionately vexatious to tlu cowboys. "NVlien cattle commence milling, it is a very difficult operation to quiet them. Mill, to g-o throug-h the. To undergo any experience : chiefly in the past tense—" to have been through the mill." Million. A melon. (Xegroism.) Mint stick. Peppermint rock. Miscegenation. The mingling of "White and Negro blood. Miscegenationist. One who advocated or approved the mingling of AVhite and Negro blood, as a number of people did just after tiie war, hoping to solve the Negro question by absorption. So far as it can be said to have been attempted, it was an utter- failure, and a very good thing too, for the White race. Misceg"ene. A person descended from both AVhite and Negro ancestry. Tiiere are names for every degree of hybridism in this regard, which are too numerous and too technical to be given. Misery. A pain. Missing-, to turn up. To be absent. (Jocular.) Missionate. To perform the services of a missionary. J^ very old abomination, called by Pickering, with ample justifica- tion, "a low ecclesiastical word." Miss lick. A stroke which misses its mark. (Western.) Misrecollect. ) To forget— also " Disremember," which Misremember. j is common in Ireland. Mistress. " I\Irs. '' is sometimes so pronounced in full in the Southern States. Mitten, to. To "give the mitten." See Get the mitten. Mobility. (Short o.) Used in precisely the same sense as Mobocracy. A grotesque piece of word-coining of obvious purport : government by " mob law." Mob Town. lialtimore. Always rather noted for the active quality of its " rowdies." Moccassin. An Indian shoe, of soft leather, the sole not stiffened. Molasses. Treacle. A perfectly correct word, but one now rarely heard except in America. I c 8 Die TION'A RY OF AMERICA NISMS. Molly Cotton-tail. A rabbit : (not peculiar to Uncle Remus.) JIL^ Molly MagTJ.ires. An unlawful society in Pennsylvania, broken up in IS"", after causing much anxiety and committing several atrocious murders. Monkey, to. To play about: to toy with anything. Not recessarily to play malicious tricks. Monroe doctrine. The doctrine condemning the extension of European power in the "Western Hemisphere, and the inter- ference of the United States in the affairs of the Old "World. Pro- pounded by James 3Ionroe, in his presidential message, 1823. Monte. (2 siiU.) A game of pure chance, played with cards. The Spanish Americans are much addicted to it, as indeed to every pastime affording a reasonable chance of gambling. Monumental City. Baltimore. Mortal. Excessive : also, as an adverb, excessively. (Pro- vincial in Eastern Counties of England, especialhi Essex. ) Mosey, to. To go away. (.S}ja?2is7<, "vamos.") See Vamoose. Bartlett refers it to a defaulting postmaster named Moses, but Bret Harte's use of the word seems to favour the Spanish deriva- tion. " And whereas, and seein', and wherefore, The times bein" out o' jint, The nigger has got to mosey From the limits o' Spunky Point."' —John Hay (Banty Tim). Most. For "almost." Very common. Mother of Presidents. A name applied oratorically to the Stati of Pennsylvania. Mouse, to. To wander about here and there without ap- parent object, like a mouse. Not connected in any way with "iMosey," which has the definite connotation of departure, and never means anything else. Moving day. ^lay 1. " In the Spring the housewife's fancy Lightly turns to thoughts of move.' Movy stars. Bad lands : uncultivable soil. {French, " mauvaises terres.") Mudsill. Railway term. A sleeper. Also called correctly, as in technical English, a "cross-tie." Die TIONA RY OF A iMERICANISMS. 1 09 Mugwump. An independent politician, especially a de- serter from his party. "What used to be called in English politics a " cave man " or Adullamite. Traced by Mr. C. L. Norton to the IinlianapoUs Sentinel, 1872 ; but admitted to be of much older colloquial use. It is said to be an Indian word, and occurs in Indian translations of the Bible, in the form " JNIukquomp," for the word "duke,' in Gen. xxxvi. 40, and for "mighty man,"' in 2 Sam. xxiii. 8. — (Dr. Hammond Trumbull) A'civ York Critic, Sept. 6, 1884. Murth. An abundance. Related to the Suffolk word ''mort,'' which is used by Kichardsou in Pamela. "Murth," plenty, is given by Halliwell as provincial in the North. Mush. Crushed maize boiled in water as a sort of pudding, and eaten with syrup or molasses. Music, to face the. See Face. Muslin. Sometimes used for "calico." Muss. Corruption of mess. A muddle, mess, or state of confusion. A feminine colloquialism. Mustang. A wild prairie horse. The horse was unknown in America until introduced from Europe, and the Mexicans on seeing Cortes' horsemen, imagined that man and horse were one monstrous animal. — Prescott. These wild horses or "mustangs" are all, therefore, of European descent. Mustang grape. The fruit of an inferior native vine, indi- genous to Texas. Comijare our " Horse chestnut." Nail to the counter. (V.) "To nail anything to the counter " is to expose it as a fraud, beyond appeal. Naked possession. The undisi)iited occupier of land for an extended period is called in Texas a "naked possessor "if ho hohls his tenure only on the strength of such occupancy and without definite title-deeds. The security of sucli persons is especially l)rovided for in the laws of the State of Texas, and the term "naked possession" is emi)loyed in the Statutes. Pickering quotes the term "An act of naked trust," from a collection of tracts published in New York in 180.3, but had not met the term elsewhere. The citation becomes interesting in view of the facts here set forth just above it, however. 1 1 Die TIONA RV OF A MERICANISMS. Nan. AMiat ? eh? (Welsh.) Perhaps akin to the Irkh "anan ' (see Latham's Johnson). Nary. Not any. A corruption of " ne'er a." 'Nation. D — nation. An economical blasphemy. National. In its distinctive sense, this word serves to dif- ferentiate the attributes of individual States and the Federation at large. The first "a is usually pronounced long in Xew England, thus " Xaytional. ' Navigation. A collective noun used for a number of ships. Obsolete in England, though used by Shakespeare. Quite common in America still. Ned. To "raise particular (or promiscuous) Ned," like to '• raise particular Hell,"" is to make a fuss, or a disturbance. See also To raise Cain. " It'll break up the Union, this talk about freedom, An' your fact' ry gals (soon ez we split) '11 make head, An' gittin' some Miss chief or other to lead 'em, "11 go to work raisin' promiscoous Ned." ■ — (Lowell) Biglov: Papers. Needcessity. Need : necessity — from which two words it is of course constructed. ( Xegroisia. ) Neig-hbourhood. ' ' In the neighbourhood of," means about : "It cost in the neighbourhood of five dollars," etc. Nervy. Having strong nerves. Compare Erainy. Netop. A friend. Not quite obsolete, but nearly so. It is an Indian word, and was already old when Pickering wrote. "A friend informs me [that it] is still used, colloquially, in some towns in the interior of Massachusetts to signify a ' friend ' or (to use a cant word) a ' crony,' " he says. Now rare. New and novel. Xew, simply. For some reason the re- dundant expression, " new and novel,"' is rather affected by com- mercial writers, though it is happily not met with in literature. New Soutti. The Southern States after the war. Newsy. Abounding in news. (Journalistic argot.) N. G. Xo good. Canting abbreviation. Compare the an- tithetical expression, " O. K." Nifty. Smart, in the English sense : quick : intelligent. DICTIONAR Y OF AMERICANISMS. 1 1 1 Nigger. An agreement is said to " have a nigger in it ' when there are facts, known to one side only, disadvantageous to the other side, or when there is any element of unfairness or dis- honesty. The full phrase (which has the authority of a dialect story-teller in Scrihner), ajipears to be "a nigger in the fence." Nigg-ers' heaven. The gallery of a theatre. Nigger out. f Agricultural tej-m. J To cultivate land for what it will produce, without making any sacrifices to secure its con- tinued fertility, a method once pursued largely in the planta- tion States Nigh-upon. Nearly. Night-key. The latch-key of a dwelling-house. " And now, my boy, the march for Mannassas commenced, being timed by the soft music of the band. This band, my boy, is sui (jeneris. Its chief artist is an ardent admirer of Rossini, who performs with great accuracy upon a night-key pressed closely against the lower lip, the strains being much like those emitted by a cart-wheel in want of grease." — Orpheus C. Kerr. Nip and tuck. (Sportiwi expression. ) " Neck and neck." Nippent. Impudent : impertinent. No account. (Adj.) Worthless : undervalued : unre- specteil. A person or thing " of no account " is old English, and as common in Europe as in America ; but the adjectival use, as " a no account man," is an Americanism. Nooning. The middle of the day. Non-committal. (Adj.) Reticent. A "non-committal" policy is one which enables a politician to change sides with ease and impunity at any moment most convenient to himself. "The time has now come when a man may see himself, his friends, and the human race, with another's eyes, as in the case of the one who had his own defective orbs replaced by the beautiful brown ones of a rabbit. If some intelligent animal's brain were now to be substituted for his own, we might obtain a very accurate idea of the manner of our appearance to the reserved and non- committal brotherhood." — Texas SiftiiKjs, 18t)l. Nop. {Lonn 0.) iSo. Used in west of England but with a difference, as having a playful inflection of meaning. An illustra- tion of the American use occurs under Bluff. Norther. A severe north wind which blows at certain 1 1 2 Die TIONA RY OF A MERICANISMS. seasons in the Gulf of Mexico, and is extremely trying on the lirairies. Nothing else. See Anything" else. Nothing to noboly. Nobody's business. — 8am Slick. Notify. To give notice, or information, to. In English, "Witherspoon justly observes, we do not "notify" the person of the thing, but "notify" the thitig to the person. ( Chieliy legal and commerciaL) .Johnson gives: "to declare," "to make known," "to i^ublish," with several examples in that sense only. Notional. Fantastic : fastidious. "The Bostonians are very notional." — Address on Beauties of Libert y (Adams), 1773. Notions. Small wares. No two ways about it, there's. There is no doubt of the fact. Usually following the inevitable " that's so.''' Numerosity. The quality of being numerous, or abundant. " Yit as a faitliful historian I must menshun the fack that on rainy dase white peple cant find thier way threw the streets with- out the gas is lit, there bein such a numerosity of cullerd pursons in the town.'" — (Artemus Ward) Oherlin. Numerous. Belonging to a large class. A new vulgarism, apparently coined to supply a converse to "seldom" (which see), in the sense of rare, " The man who can run a newspaper to suit everyone went to Heaven long ago. But Hell still yawns for the numerous indi- vidual who thuiks he can run it just that way." — Quoted from an "Exchange" in Texas Siftinr/s. Nutmeg State. Connecticut, said to be the home of the ligneous nutmeg, as of the sawdust ham. Oath, to take the. To take a drink. One of the many synonyms for this act. It seems almost an individualism of Orpheus C. Kerr (Mr. R. H. Xewell), who constantly uses it ; at least I have not met it in any other works than his. Oheah. See Oheyah. DICTION A R Y OF AMERICANISMS. 1 1 3 Obeyah-man. ) xV sorcerer of a particular kind. The Obeyah-wom an- I word appears to belong to some African language, and is still used in the dark continent. Obligate, to. Given by "Webster, and defined as "to brirg under obligation : to hold by a constraining motive : to bind or firmly hold to an act." The word is also sanctioned by Worcester, and appears in Johnson. It is reproved by Pickering, wlio quotes The British ( ritic, which characterizes it as " a low collo- ([uial inaccuracy." Much more common in the past tense than the present. Obligement. Obligation. An archaism, which, though de- scribed as " antiquated " in 1810, is still not at all uncommon. It is usod by Milton, but not provincial in any part of Great Britain, so far as I can ascertain. Obstination. Prejudice. " .She thought of running after him, but of what use would that be, seeing his obstination against treating diseases on the mortal plane?" — (Edward Eggleston), "The Faith Doctor," Ctntum, Au- gust, 1891. Obtusity. Obtuseness. (A false derivative, evidently of the would-be elegant kind.) Occurrings. Occurrences. {Journalistic slany.) Comimre Happening's. Offal. A dish of such parts as the liver, kidneys, etc., is called in America "'offal," with a shocking effect on European ears. Offen. Off. (Negroism.) Ofiace-hunter. ) A hanger-on of politicians. Term of re- Ofiace-seeker. (proach. In the United States tlie whole civil service is changed with a change of administration, and the adherents of the incoming party who look for personal advantage become office-seekers. Even the country post-offices change hands on these occasions. Offset. To settle accounts by contra. Off the handle, to go. To die. The allusion is to the head of an axe flying off. See Fly off the handle. Oil, to strike. To invent a lucrative scheme : to have a stroke of luck. Owners of land on which oil springs were unex- 1 1 4 Die TIONA R V OF A ME RICAiVlSMS. pectedly discovered often became suddenly very rich — as in the case of Gilead P. Beck, in The Golden Buttevily. O. K. Right: authorized. For "oil korrect," said by De Vera to have been the spelling ascribed to General Jackson : and he adds that "]Major Jack Downing" had no difficulty in convincing his readers that the President favoured this spelling. Sometimes (but rarely) used as a verb. Farmer quotes the following astounding pronouncement on the subject, which appears, as an answer to a correspondent, in tbe Missouri Republican, 1888 : — *' The expression ' Please O. K. and huiry return of my account," is grammatically correct. The noun "account" is governed by the preposition '"of," and is also the object of the active transitive verb, "O. K. " Old Abe. Abraham Lincoln. An affectionate nickname. Old bread. Stale bread. Old CoTintry, the. An affectionate term, shared by Ameri- cans with almost all British emigrants, for Great Britain. Tbe use of such phrases is a pleasant reminder tliat blood is, after all, thicker than water, and that the old relationship of the two nations is still well enough remembered to be perhajis some day revived in some great confederation of the English-speaking world. Old Dominion. Virginia . Old Hickory. General Jackson. (Of O. K. fame. See O.K.) Old Line State. Maryland. The only State which had regular troops "of the line '' at the time of the Revolution. Old man so-and-so. A common colloquialism not confined to any particular district. " Old man Barnum used to say : ' I don't care what thought is expressed, what verdict is given ; all I ask is that the newspapers shall not forget me, that they shall keep my name constantly before the community.' " — Printers' Ink; 1891. Old North Stats. North Carolina. Old rye. Rye whisky. Old sledg-e. A card game. Old South. The Southern States of the Union before the war. On. In many ways used where we should use "in."' "On DICTIOXAR V OF AMERICANISMS. 115 time," "on the street," " on the raih'oad car." "To catch on" has been defined under Catcla. "To be on hand" is equivalent to " to be aroand." "To be on it," is to be acquainted with a subject, or an adherent of a theory. " My desire was to exhibit my grate show in Salt T^ake City, so I called on Brigliam Young, the grate Mogull amung the Monnins, and axed his permishun to pitch my tent and onfurl my banner to the jentle breezis. He lookt at me in a austeer manner for a few minits, and sed : 'Do you bleeve in Solomon, Saint Paul, the im- maculateness of the Mormin Churcli and the Laiterday K e vela- shuns ? ' Sez I, 'I'm on it.' "--(Artemus "Ward) A Fisit to Briyhani Youn(j. On eend. In a rage : astonished. See End. One horse. (Adj.) Small, or poor, or in a small way. "A one-horse little town " is a small place. If it submits to being called a town the reader may safely class it as a " one-horse show." Nearly every town is a " city " in America. Operate, to. To conduct any piece of business. Thus a stock-jobber is said to "operate" in stocks, a type-writing expert to ' ' operate " a writing machine, etc. Orate, to. To deliver an oration, an exercise of which Americans are very fond. Correctly derived, and given in Annan- dale, and Whitney. The lat+er quotes from Fortnvihtly Beviciv : but it is so much commoner in America than here that I include it. Order. *' Such and such a thing is ordered done," — with the auxiliary "to be " omitted. Given by Witherspoon only, but cer- tainly an Americanism of the purest blood. (Chiefly commercial. J Compare Contrive, (q. v.) Ornery. Contraction of ordinary. Ill-looking : worthless : shabby. Ouch ! Au interjection, expressive of disgust or annoyance. (Southern Hatei:) 8Stl?.} O^^^^f- (^^'<^Oroism.) Outfit. Everything belonging to any particular pursuit, as " a shooting outfit," which would include not merely clothing, etc., but guns, ammunition, shooting bags, dogs, and the like. Outside o". Except. A contraction evidently meaning " outside the category of." 1 16 DICTIONAR V OF AMERICANISMS. Over. (Adv.) For "over again." "Het over," re-heate«]. '•Madeover'"(dressmakers'word), re-made or "turned "for economy. Over a signature. A curious piece of journalistic American- ism. A man is said to " write over liis signature " when his name is printed beneatli an article, a strange reversal of the order of facts, since the affixing of the signature obviously follows the writing of the article. Overly. Very. Overture, to- To make overtures : to open negotiations. Paas. (Pronounced "pa wee.") Easter. (Dutch, "paasche," akin to our " paschal," and French, " paques.") Painted box. Tasteful synonym for a coffin. Painter. A panther. (Mispronunciation simply ) Palmetto State. South Carolina. Panama. A hat made of fine grass. (Southern.) " "Neath a lagged Palmetto a Southerner sat, A twisting the band of his I'anama hat, And trying to lighten his mind of a load By humming the words of the following ode : ' Oh I for a nigger, and oh I for a whip ; Oh ! for a cocktail, and oh '. for a nip ; Oh ! for a shot at old Greeley and Beeclier ; Oh I for a crack at a Yankee school teacher ; Oh : for a captain, and oh I for a ship ; Oh I for a cargo of niggers each trip ; ' And so he kept oh-ing for all he had not, Not contented with owing for all that he'd got." — Orpheus C. Kerr. Pan out, to. "To see how a thing pans out " is to ascertain what it is good for. A gold digger's expression, from the washing of auriferous earth in a pannikin, which allows the metallic grains to sink to the bottom, after vigorous agitation. Pants. Trousers. Not, as with us, under-drawers, but the external garments which are still exhibited to the public eye, though not always mentioned to the modest ear. See Belongings. Pap, Pop, or Poppa. Father. Pard. ) Partner, literally, and often so used ; but also Pardner. ) a term of kindly address not confined to those ia that relation to the speaker. Originally a digger's word. DICTION A R V OF AMERICANISMS. 1 1 7 Paris of America. Cincinnati. Parlor. Parlour : a reception-room. The oflSces of mani- curists, spiritualists, etc., are also so called in the advertisements with which some American newspapers are crowded. Parole, to. To release on bail. Parquet. The pit of a tlieatre. (French.) Passage"way. A passage, or aisle. Passenger, to wake up the ■\Arrong'. To mistake one's man: "to get the wrong ])ig by the ear" (as Henry VIII. said). Passengers in a sleeping-car who are awakened in error have, it seems, been sufficiently resentful to furnish the language with a proverb. Pass, to. To decline an offer. Jiorrowed from the game of draw-poker. Patentable. Susceptible of being patented. Patented. An article for whose manufacture a legal monopoly is secured by the inventor is usually said in America to fce " patented," not simply " patent," as with us. Patent outside. A term of journalistic introduction. The country newspapers of America are very numerous, and many are in a chronic state of struggle. A "patent outside " is a great help to such : it consists of half a paper (printed on one side only) con- taining general news, stories, etc., and supplied to various news- paper offices daily by wholesale firms in different centres. Tlie local printer adds the local news, matching the type of the "patent outside " as best he may. Patrolman. A constable. Paw the ivories, to. To play the piaiio. A charming piece of realistic description. Peach butter. Stewed peaches mashed together. Pea nut. The ground- or earth-nut (Arachis hypogcva). These delicacies are roasted and sold in large quantities at street stalls, etc. Pea nut tricks. Underhanded proceedings (espe- cially in politics). The pea nut grows underground. ( See i\ho\'c.) Peart. Prisk : lively. This is the very old English word " peark "—brisk r I^^e/-"*^' , "pert" — smart, dapper, tine, pretty.) "Pert " (impertinent) is the old French "apert " = ready, over-con- fident, nimble; usel in this sense by Chaucer : "And she was proud H Il8 DICTIONARY OF AMERICANISMS, and pert as is a pie " (i.e. , " magpie "). " Peart " and the modern "pert" are evidently not identical. (Chaucer uses "peart" else- where in the exact American sease. Moreover, the arctiaic form " perk " was known to Pickering. It is provincial in various parts of England, and given by Halliwell in his Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial. Words. The Avord occurs, but is spelled " piert," in Silas Marner, chap. xi. Peculiar institution, the. A term applied to Southern slavery before the war :— " the peculiar domestic institution of the South." Mr. Norton finds it in the Aexi; York Tribune, Oct. 10, 18.54, but says it had been used about two years earlier in the South Carolina Gazette. Peddle, to. To sell anything peripatetically, in small quan- tities. Verb formed from ' 'pedlar." Peddler. One who peddles. The American verb " to peddle " seems to liave been first manu- factured from the correct English "pedlar," and the present sub- stantive then re-formed from the factitious vtrb. Our own Star, which rather affects the worst kinds of American corruptions in language and spelling, seems to have ado^jted permanently this barbarous derivative. "Peddlers and some unscrupulous grocers will tell you 'this is as good as," or ' the same as Pearline.' It is False — Pearline is never peddled, and if your grocer sends you something else in place of Pearline, do the honest thing— send it back.'' — Advt. '' All day we swung along down the river, and had the stream almost wholly to ourselves. Formerly, at such a stage of the water, we should have passed acres of lumber rafts^ and dozens of big coal barges ; also occasional little trading-scows, peddling Stlong from farm to farm, with the pedler's family on board ; possibly, a random scow, beari»g a humble Hamlet and Co. on an itinerant dramatic trip." — (Mark Twain) Life on the Mississippi. Pedicure. As "manicure" {g. v.) is to the hands, so is " pedicure " to the feet. Pelican State. Louisiana. Pemmican. Buffalo beef, dried and pounded roughly. Pen name. X nom-de-[jl>.'.me. (Literally translated.) Penny. A cent, the hundredth part of a dollar. Thus the American penny is worth about a halfpenny sterling. Percy-and. An ampersand (the sign *' & "). (Corruption.) DICTIONAR V OF AMERICANISMS. 1 19 Pernicketty. Fastidious. *' The grammarian, the purist, the pernicketty stickler for trifles, is the deadly foe of good English, rich in idioms and racy of the soil." — (Brander Matthews) "Briticisms and Americanisms," Harper, July, 1891. Persimmon. A nut tree. (Diospyros virginiana.) The nut is greatly relished by the Negroes, and has given rise to numer- ous proverbs of obvious signification. To rake up the Per- simmons. To secure the spoils of victory, whether in business, or at the gaming-table, or elsewhere. (Neijrohm.) Persuasion. For " class." Jocularly adopted from the legiti- mate religious use, as "persons of our persuasion," Vi^hich means persons of the same belief as ourselves, the speakers. Pesky. Plaguy : an intensitive expression, connoting a sense ot annoyance or disapproval. " The S(|uires wife didnt jine in the festiverties. She sed it was the Tarnulest nonsense s!;e ever seed. Ses she to the Squire, ' Cum into the house and go to bed, you old fool, you. Tomorrer you'll be goin round half ded with the rumertism, & wont gin us a minit's peace till you get well.' Ses the Squire, 'Betsy, you little appresiate the imjiortense of the event which this nite I commcm- erate.' Ses she '(Jommemerate a cats tail — cum into the house this minit you pesky old critter.' ' lietsy,' said the Squire waivin his sword, 'retire.' " — (Artemus AVard) Cdehration at Baldinsvillc. Peter out, to. To become exhausted : to trickle away. Philadelphia lawyer. To show one's self as " smart as a Philadelphia lawyer " is to exhibit a very great deal of cunning. Picayune. (N.) Anything ])eculiarly small and contemp- tible. Formerly the name of a coin (the Spanish " demi-real "). (Adj.) Mean : pitiful. Pickaninny. A baby : a little cliild, with a sort of a friendly connotation. ( Necjroism. ) Pick-me-up. A stimulating tonic drink ; generally bitters of some kind. Pie. All fruit tarts are " pies " in America, as in old English, and in Essex and Suffolk now. Pie-plant. Khubarb. Piece, the whole. Same as " the whole cloth " (q. v.) 1 20 Die TIONAR V OF AMERICANISMS. Pile. One's stock of money. A " pile" = a fortune. Pillow sham. A pillow-case. Pinch, to. To arrest. Pine Tree State. Maine. Pink tea. "Whisky. Pirate, to- To perform an act of infringement : to infringe an invention or a copj'right, the latter a proceeding greatly favoured by some Ameiican publishers, and not undefended in high places. It must be admitted that English publishers and editors reciprocating the attention are not wanting. There are dozens of papers published in London which are made up almost entirely from cuttings, illustrations, and stories, extracted from American journals. Pitcher. Any jug, even a small one. Placer. A locality where alluvial gold is found. {Spanish, " plaza. ■■) Plain folks. This does not, as it would with us, signify persons lacking in personal attraction (who would be called '■ homely ''), but simply w liite men and women as opposed to Negroes and Negresses. The antithesis is between "plain"' and " coloured." Planter. Formerly, in the South, a slaveholder : the owner of a plantation. Also, on the Mississippi, a piece of timber or a tree trunk imbedded in the bed of the river and reaching to or near the surface ; a very dangerous obstruction. See Snag". Platform. The principles, religious or political, on wliich a public man takes liis stand. The metaplior ■nill be obvious. Played out. Exhausted : concluded. [From the card table.) " By this the torches was plared out, And me and Isrul Parr Went off for .some wood to a sheepfold That he said was somewhat thar." —(John Hav) Little Breeches. Plenty. (ArJj.J Abundant : plentiful. "The General of the Mackerel Brigade hastily wiped his mouth with a bottle, and then says he : ' Madam, if sandwiches are not plenty where you come from, it aint for the want of tongue.' " — Orpheus C. Kerr. DICTIONAR V OF AMERICANISMS. 121 Plug. A " chew " of tobacco. Plug- hat. A tall hat. Plum. (Adj.) Perpendicular. From a "plumb line." (Aih\) Exactly. Plum in the middle : right in the centre of anything. Plunder. Sometimes used for luggage, or personal effects when packed for carrying. A very old English word, as Disraeli shows. Pocket-book. A purse. Pocket veto. The President has a direct "veto," which is freely employed in all legislative measures. But as a " bill " need only be signed or rejected by him within ten days, he can virtually cancel an enactment at the end of the session if the legislature is allowed to rise while the "bill" is still unratified. First devised by President Andrew Jackson about 1830. Point. A piece of practical information : a hint. (Also, Pointer.) "To be able to give anyone points" — to be superior. (Borrowed from the slang of billiard rooms and card tables.) "To get anything down to a point" (or, "a fine point") is to define its exact conditions and limitations. Poison. Any kind of beverage, if intoxicating. A euphemism chosen with admirable regard to the appropriateness of things. Poker. A card game resembling brag. Pokerish. Gruesome: frightful. {Old Danish, " pokker " — the devil, according to De V'ere.) Pone. IMaize-meal bread. Pony up, to. To jiay up. Pool, to. To combine with another for commercial purposes : to agree on a common tariff, either for self-protection or to coerce a common rival, as in the case of the Cable war of a year or two ago. Poor folksy. In the manner of a poor person. (Southern. ) Pop, o/- Poppa. (Sec Pap.) Father. Popular. In New England this word is used for " conceited," though the other meanings are well understood in combination, as in " popular rights," etc. Porkopolis. Cincinnati— the centre of tlie pork-packing trade. 1 22 Die TIONA RY OF AMERICANISMS. Portage. A piece of land between two navigable waters, over which boats and canoes have to be conveyed by read. (Louisiana and Loioer Canada.) Posse. A body of men, especially if armed and bent on active proceedings of some kind. The police escort of a sheriff is officially so called. 'Possum. The opossum. Postal. A post-card. This improper expression, "post-card," is never used by Americans. "Postal-card,"' which is, of course, the correct word, is common, but it is more frequently contracted to ' ' postal " simply. Posted. Well informed, "lie spoke eight languages, and seemed to be equally at home in all of them ; he was shrewd, prompt, posted, and punctual ; hn was fertile in resources, and singularly gifted in the matter of overcoming difficulties."— (Mark Twain) A Tramp Abroad. Prairie State. Illinois. Pre-empt for, to. To claim a right to anything. (From the Law of Pre-emption in landed property, now superseded.) Premium. A small "present," on the " given-away-with-a- pound-of tea '' principle, offered by periodicals as an inducement to subscribe and obtain other subscribers. Most periodicals are in America sent direct to the readers by "mail" or otherwise, and paid for by the year, the more prosperous kind in advance, the others whenever the money or any sort of equivalent (all the way down to water melons), can be wrung oat of tlie subscriber. Presidential message. The exact counterpart of the "Queen's speech,'" except that a "presidential message" maybe uttered at any time, and not only at the beginning or end of a session of Congress. Pretzel. A kind of biscuit, much beloved of the German- American. It is like any other biscuit, but has an incrustation of salt upon it. "Pretzel bread" is the name of small round rolls, with the salt incrustation and a few caraway seeds on the crust. Supposed to excite thirst and minister to the great German capacity for the consumption of lager-beer. Proceosion. Any proceeding or act. The Americans are DICTIONAR V OF AMERICANISMS. 1 23 great at "processions," and (as in the case of "funeral") the word gets lent, as it were, to other uses. Pronouncement. A statement of opinion : a decree. {Spanish, " pronunciamento.") Prospect, to {or To go prospecting)- To set out, more or less at random, in search of gold or silver, trying various localities on chance. Publishment. Publication, especially of banns of marriage. Pull. A profit— of the kind which is not without honour in America, where success in business or industry is very properly and sensibly valued far more highly than the inheritance of wealth. Pull, to. To fire on anyone, viz., to pull trigger. "They'd shoot one another down, right in the presence of the family. They didn't hunt for each other, but when they happened to meet, they pulled and begun. Men would shoot boys, boys would shoot men." — (Mark Twain) Life on the Missitssipjji. Pull do'WTiyo'ur vest! Make yourself easy! don't excite yourself ! A slangy adjuration to anyone wlio is observed to be growing angry, and one admirably calculated; it may be sujiposed, to aggravate further an increasing choler. One of the " grievous words " wliich " stir up anger." "They craned their necks and laughed at me (for a raven can laugh, just like a man), they squalleil insulting remarks after me as long as they could see me. They were nothing but ravens — I knew that, — what they thought about me could be a matter of no con- sequence, — and yet when even a raven shouts after you, ' AVhat a hat !' ' O, pull down your vest ! ' and that sort of thing, it hurts you and humiliates you, and there is no getting around it witli fine reasoning and pretty arguments.'' — (Mark Twain) A Tramp Abroad. Pull-foot, to. To make haste. Pumpkins, some. Sec Some pumpkins. Pumpkin-squash. \ ^ ■,■ ■, r ^ , ■ ^ . . , } A tlisli of i)rei>ared pumiikin. Punkm-squash. ) 1111 Put! Go! An urgent exhortation to immediate departure, not without a certain threatening sound. Sec Git. Put up the money, to. To pay in advance, ;. 1 24 DICTION A RY OF AMERICANISMS. Put it there I Shake hands ! (the speaker holding out his hand and indicating by the words quoted his desire to enclasi) that of his interlocutor). Quaker City. Philadelphia. Quarter. A twenty-five cent piece, or \ dollar. "Too much affected to speak, I drew a coin from my pocket and handed it to him. The dying man clutched at it convulsively, and stared at it feverishly. 'This,' said he, 'is the first quarter I've seen since the fall of Sumter ; and, had I wounded you, I should have been totally unable to give you any quarter. Ah ! how beautiful it is ! how bright, how exquisite, and good for four drinks! but I have not time to say all I feel.' The expiring soldier then laid down his gun, hung his cap and overcoat on the branch of a tree, and blew his nose. He then died." — Orphtiis C. Kerr. Queen City. Cincinnati. Queer. Never used in America in the sense of " not very well,"' but always in that of insane or crazy. Quite. An adverb, meaning "distinctly," but not "very." In continual use. Raccoon. In the Eastern States the Procyon lotor : in the South (where it is much esteemed by the Negroes) and "West the Procyon Hennandezii : a carnivorous animal, something like a small bear in the face, but having a bushy tail carried like a fox's brush. Name often sliortened to " Coon," and used as a type of craft and artfulness of any kind, though I have not been able to ascertain that the animal is itself remarkable for sagacity, though it certainly shows (like other animals) a decided aversion to being killed. Rag-s. Paper money. " ' Say $100, and Til take it with my eyes shut.' * It's yourn,' says I, 'give us the rags.'" — Orpheus C. Kerr. Raid, to. To make a raid on. Rail. A piece of timber, cleft, hewn, or sawn, used in feajing. Not necessarily a round piece, as with us. DICTION AR Y OF AMERICANISMS. 125 Rail, to ride. A mob punishment. The victim of popular resentment or elementary justice is carried round for purposes of exhibition, seated on a thin pole, preparatory to being ducked, tarred and feathered, or otherwise pleasantly dealt with. Railroad. Eailway. Railroad track. The permanent way on a railroad. Raincloak. A macintosh or waterjiroof garment. Rain or shine. In any event. Used of the weather, in the literal sense, but also, figuratively, of other circumstances. Ra^.se To breed cattle (or, formerly, Negroes): to grow crops : to fraudulently increase the amount of a cheque : to stake a higher amount than your ojiponent at cards. Raise Cain, to. ^ To make a fuss or dis- Raise Hell, to. rinrbancP Raise particular Hell, to, etc. J ^"^i^ance. Rake, lean as a. Very thin indeed. Ranch. A cattle farm. Hence, almost any kind of estab- lishment ; often compounded very amusingly, as in "milk-ranch " for a dairy, etc. Range. The ground over which cattle are allowed to ])asture. This is not a corruption of "ranch," but a distinct word. Rantankerous Perverse : malicious : piobably a mere corruption of cantankerous, wliich appears to be English and has the authority of Goldsmith, Sheridan, and Thackeray, thougli the rer}), "to cantankerate,'' is an Americanism. Rare. (Ofhicatattahlc.) Underdone. Probably a delicate mispronunciation of "raw." I once heard a clergyman (piote the psalm thus : "So let indignation vex him, even as a thing tl)at is ' rare.' " Rat. A "blackleg," in the trade unionist's sense of that word : a workman who deserts the common cause, from cowardice or otherwise, and accepts lower wages or less advantageous condi- tions than his fellows hold out for. Rating. The estimated wealth of a person as stated in Bradstreet's or any of the Commercial Enquiry Companies' Lists : the estimated circulation of a journal in the American Newspaper Directory, etc. Rats ! Interjection of contempt. 1 26 DICTION AR V OF AMERICANISMS. Rattle, to. To confuse or muddle anybody. Rawhide. Undressed leather. Also, a whip. (^F.^ To whip. Real estate. Used everywhere in its correct le?al sense of "land," "house property,'" and the like- A very convenient and comprehensive term, which has the advantage of being good legal English accurately employed. Reata. See Lariat. (La reata.) Rebs. The confederates. (Civil War.) Also Johncy Rebs. fq. V.J A sort of tolerant and familiar designation. Reckon, to. To calculate : to form a judgment after con- sideration. See Guess, for some remarks on this group of words. Recommend. (N.J A recommendation. Reconstruction. The policy of recuperating the resources of the country which had been so terribly exhausted during the Civil War. Record. (Pronounced "rek'kud.") The known actions of a public or private individual. In sport or athletics a man i.s said to make a " record " when he achieves a higher success in any particular pursuit than has previously been authenticated. Such authentication is therefore called " record"" also, and anyone who surpasses it "breaks the record." Ihus, as the A>it" York World ingeniously remarked, in a passage quoted by 3Ir. Farmer : "It is one of the most curious facts in regard to sporting events, that when a man breaks the record he makes the record." Red. "To paint the town red " means to indulge in some particularly boisterous jollification : the less creditable the spioe, the "redder"' the town is held to be painted. Tiiis is probably the only connection in which an American "city" would alluw itself to be called, without protest, by the humble name of " tovvn." Red cent. Sometimes abbreviated to "red" simply. To be worth not a "red cent'" is to be utterly worthless, the cent (called red to distinguish it from a nickel or silver coin) being the smallest coin current. For an example see under Bluff. Red eye. Yet another synonym for whisky. Red man 1 A North American Indian, sometimes de- Red skin- I risively called " noble " by those who have done whatever lies in human power to divest him of the last remnants of his once reputed nobility. Die TIONA RY OF A MERICANISMS. 1 2 7 Regret. A note declining an invitation. Releasement. ( ^.) Release. A very old Americanism. Used by A. Bancroft. Pickering mentions having noticed it in the Index to Smollett'' s History, but it is not given even in the old dictionaries, and has certainly never been as common in England as it still is in American speeoh and literature. Rent, to. f^-) To hire a house or premises. "For rent," in announcements of land agents, etc., is used where we should say (of a house or property) " to let." Reportorial. Belonging to the functions of a reporter. (Jo H ma list ic si a ivj. ) Representatives, House of. The Lower House in the U.S. Congress, corresponding to our House of Commons. It has a Speaker, and its procedure is very much like that of the latter institution. Resolute, to. (Last syllable accented.) To pass a resolution — as at a public meeting. Resurrect, to. To revive or bring to light a second time. Riata (or Reata). A " lariat," which see. "There was a stake driven near its summit, with the initials, L. E. S. Tied half way down was a curiously worked riata. It was George's." — (Bret Harte) The Luck of Itoari)i(j Camp. Ride, to. To carry. When a man is punished in the manner described under Rail, he is said to "be ridden on a rail." Right away. Immediately. Noticed by Dickens. Right here. At once : on this very spot. Rile, to. Rile up, to. " 8ez I, ' When Sal and I is married we'll drop a tear for the early decease of an individual who never would liave been born if it hadn't been for your |)arients.' This riled Bob up awful, and he came right at me like a mad bull at a red shawl.' " — Ovjthcus ('. Kerr. Rile up, to. (V.intrans.) To become angry. Literally, to render any fluid turbid by stirring or sliaking up its sediment. Ring. A trade combination of merchants or manufacturers — called, when openly organized, "a trust " — to raise prices or secure - (V. trans.) To annoy, or exasperate. 128 DICTIONAR V OF A MERICANISMS. other advantages. Also a political combination. Term of mild re- proach as American politics go. Rip. To let anything "rip" is to let it take its natural course without interference. It is not easy to trace the origin of the expression. Mr. Farmer quite gravely accepts Cuthbert Bede's farcical conjecture that it may have been derived from the letters, R.I. P., on tombstones. Can it be, "let it ripe" — that is, let it mature itself naturally ? Rip around, to. To rage and swear, and make a fuss generally "Rap and rend and pilfer" occurs in Hudibras, "To rap and rend," is to seize and destroy. (Latin, "Rapuere.") Roach. A cockroach. Road agent. A highway robber ; particularly a coach robber. ( Western. ) Roasted ears. Half-ripened cobs of Indian corn, roasted and eaten with butter ; a dish much beloved in America, and re- garded as " elegant doings.'' Robber. Any kind of thief : no necessary connotation of violence, as with us. Robustious. Hardy : robust. (Xee/roism.J Rock. (X.J A stone (even if a small one). V. to stone. Rocker. A rocking chair ; which fidgety contrivances are very much in vogue among Americans. Rolling country. Undulating lands. Rolling prairie. A stretch of undulating country. Room, to. To occupy a room. (College term.) Rooster. A male fowl. Rope in, to. To tie up a horse or other animal. Hence, fiijuratively, to get a hold on anyone, or of anything. Rostrum. A palpit, or place for speechifying of any sort. Rot-gut. Bad whisky. Rounder. A man of low moral character and habits. Round up. A periodical stock-taking and inspection on cattle ranges. Rouser. Anything startling or abnormal. Roustabout. A common labourer : a doer of odd or un- Die TIONA RY OF A M ERIC A iV/SMS. 1 29 skilled jobs. An illustrative use of the word will be found under Gret so. (q. V.) Rubber. India-rubber. Rubbers. Any garments made of India-rubber ; used in the same way as Gum, which see. Ruination. Ruin. (Negroism.) Ruinatious. Ruinous. (Negroism.) Rum. Generic term for intoxicants of any kind. "The difficulty is, that the alcoholic virtues don't wash ; but until the water takes their colours out, the tints are very much like tliose of the true celestial stuff. ... A 2^€^'so)i at table asked me whether I 'went in for rum as a steady drink?' — His manner made the question highly offensive, but I restrained my- self, and answered thus : — ' Rum I take to be the name which un- washed moralists apply alike to the product distilled from molasses and the noblest juices of the vineyard. Burgundy, " in all its sun- set glow," is rum. Champagne, "the foaming wine of Eastern France," is rum. Hock, which our friend the Poet speaks of as — '' ' " The Khine's breast-milk, gushing cold and bright, Pale as the moon, and maddening as her light," ia rum. Sir, I repudiate the loathesome vulgarism as an insult to the first miracle wrought by the Founder of our religion.' " — (O. W. Holmes) Autocrat of the Breakfast Table. Rum-bud. A pimple, carbuncle, or outbreak of acne, sup- posed to be caused by excessive drinking. A " grog-blossom." Rum-sucker, A habitual drunkard. Run, to. (Intrans.) To stand for election to congress or to any elective office. (Trans.) "To run" a newspaper or other enterprise is simply to conduct or manage it, with a slightly con- temptuous connotation. Rustle, to. To behave energetically : to rise to an occasion. Rustler. X\\ energetic or capable person. Rye. AVhisky distilled from rye. Very common expression. See also Old rye. " I beheld a sight to make the muses stare like the behemoth of the Scriptures, and cause genius to take another nip of old rye." — Orpheus C. Kerr. 130 DICTIONARY OF AMERICANISMS. " At Ann Arbor, bein seezed with a sudden faintness, I called for a drop of suthin to drink. As I was stirrin the beveridgeup a pale- faced man in gold sjiectacles laid his hand upon my shoulder & sed, ' Look not upon the wine when it is red ! ' Sez I, ' This aint wine. This is Old Kye.' ' It stinfjeth like an odder and hiteth like a serpent,^ sed the man. ' I guess not,' sed T, ' when you put sugar into it. That's the way I allers take mine.'" — (Artemus Ward) On the Wing. Sabe? n^- inter. J Do you know ? f^V.) Common sense. Sag. To swerve : to warp : to sink. Used especially of a door which drags its hinges out of i^lace. The word is good old English and occurs in Macbeth (Act v., sc. 3) : " Shall never sag with doubt nor shake with fear." In commercial use it means " to fall in price." " It seems to be more a matter of tendency than anything else. Is she sagging towards Eealism or rising towards Idealism ? Is she content to be the woman that some of the novelists, and some of the painters also, say she is, or would she prefer to ap- j)roach that ideal which all the world loves ? It is a question of standards." — (Charles Dudley "Warner) Harper, 1891. Sag-e Brush State. Nevada. Salamander safe. A fireproof safe. Saloon. A public-house. Salt lick. A vein of rock-salt on the surface of the ground. Salt River. A politician who has been defeated is said to "have been rowed up Salt Kiver." Salt Kiver, a tributary of the Ohio, was once a stronghold of ])irates, and property which was rowed up Salt River was not often recovered. Similarly, a poli- tician who has navigated the unpropitious stream is not expected to reappear. Sambo. Any "man of colour." Correctly, the child of a full-blooded African and a mulatto. Sand, to have. Equivalent to our expression, "to have gr-it," to which it is closely allied. Sap head. A soft-headed person ; a "mollycoddle." Die TIONA RY OF AMERICANISMS. 1 3 r Saratoga trunk. A large travelling box. From the popular watering place. Sardine. Term of reproach. A dullard. See Clam. Sauce. For some reason, or none, vegetables, when eaten with meat, are sometimes called " sauce." Sauce marketer. A market gardener or greengrocer. Save, to. To hit one's game in shooting : meaning, perhaps, that the ammunition is saved and not wasted. Savvy- See Sabe, with which it is identical in meanings. "Savvy '■ is the French " savez-vous." Sawbuck. A sa wing-stool. Sawyer. The trunk of a tree which has by some natural convulsion been torn from its roots and thrown into a river, sub- sequently becoming loosely embedded in the bed or bank of the stream, so as to move in the current in a " sawing"' manner. A source of much peril to rapid craft, esi)ecially on the Mississippi. Say! Interjection. Sometimes used for " Do you say? "'or " What do you say?"' but quite as often meaningless, save as an interjection calling for attention. " My river runs to thee : P.lue sea, wilt welcome me? My river waits reply. Oh sea, look graciously ! I'll fetch the brooks From spotted nooks, — Say, sea. Take me 1 " —(Emily Dickinson) Poems. Scab. A non-unionist workman ; a blackleg. Scads. Current coin. Scalp, to. The Indian warlike practice of removing the hair and scalp of a fallen foe is described by this rcrh, which hence means, X'/-, to defeat, to anniliilate, etc. It also means to capture. " "\V. H. Haskell to-day gave H. E. Elliston formal notice that he was carrying a knife for that gentleman's political scalp." — (Atchison) Globe, 181»1. Scart. Scared. (xMso called, and written in dialect nar- ratives, "skeert.") Scat ! Equivalent to " put I "' (nck Fanshaw, who said that that worthy "never shook his mother. ' In this sense, "to shake," means to abandon or discard. "He said he was the son of an English nobleman — either an earl or an alderman, he could not remember which, but believed was both ; his father, the nobhunan, loved him, but his mother hated him from the cradle ; and so while he was still a little boy 1 134 DICTIONARY OF AMERICANISMS. he was sent to ' one of them olJ, ancient colleges' — he couldn't re- member which ; and by and by his father died and his mother seized the proj)erty and 'shook" him, as he phrased it. After his mother shook him, members of the nobility with whom he was acquainted nsed their influence to get him the position of 'loblolly- boy in a ship."' — (Mark Twain) Life on the Mississippi. *'Peneloi:)e — I hear you are engaged to Miss Dingbatts at last. Eeginald — Yes ; she refused me six times, but I persevered. Pene- lope — Then you were well shaken before taken.'' — Brooklvn Life, 1891. Sban3"tiai, to. ( V.J To drug a drunken sailor for the pur- pose of carrying lum off unwillingly to serve on board ship, when hands are scarce. Sbank, the. The residue : in fact, '" the balance '' of any- thing (which see). Shape. Used in athletic sporting parlance in the same sense as our own sporting word, '• form." Shave, to. To discount a security with the implication of extortion, or illegal interest. The States have various usury laws which forbid interest abo\e certain rates, on a penalty of fines, forfeiture, and sometimes even imprisonment (which punishments vary in different States). Shebang-. Any establishment or place. There is no satis- factory explanation of the word in the published glossaries, De Yere's suggestion that it may be the French "cabane*' (which would require a good deal of corruption) being obWously untenable. "\Yith diffidence, I have not the least doubt that it is the Irish " shebeen '" — a grog shop. Sheep-skin. A college diploma. Shenanegan. Blarney : bounce. Xo satisfactory etymology has been suggested. It sounds like a sailor's word, bat is not given by Smyth. •' Cinan '" in Analo-Saxon is " to gape open," but this can hardly be a derivative. Possibly Celtic. Shilling". A twelve and a half cent piece ; value in English money about G^d. Shimmey. " As interesting as a shimmey {i.e. a chemise] in a wash tub." A simile for "very interesting indeed." Used in Dole's Sermons, and pretty common still. DICTION A R V OF AMERICANISMS. 135 Shin, to. To climb. To " shin " up a tree is to climb up it. Also, to walk. Shin-dig-. A rough country dancing-party. S-iine. " To take a shine "' is to take a fancy. Shingles. "Wedge-shaped pieces of wood, used instead of tiles for roofing. A shingle is often a plank, and especially a sign- board, of any kind. " To swing your shingle," is to set up in busi- netis. The word shingle, for beach pebbles, is given by Webster, but is apparently not in ordinary use. Fvjiirativehj, " To bs short of a shingle,"' is to be crazy — in fact, to "have a tile loose." Sbinner. A tradesman in difficulties, who is rushing about to borrow the means of meeting liabilities. Shinplasters. Paper money. During the war, the Con- federate paper currency deteriorated to such an extent as to be a byword, and it was said (I hardly think on any trustworthy authority) that the soldiers dressed their wounds with bank notes, as being cheaper than other paper, that commodity be- coming very scarce and expensive in the South towards the close of the war. Newspapers printed upon wall paper are extant. Shoes, ^ee Boots. Shoot, r^ .^ A shooting-party. Shootist. An adept in shooting. Shoot the rapids, to. To go over a waterfall in a boat Fqiurativebi, to successfully encounter a difficulty. Short metre. (Adv.) Quickly. Short sauce. See Long sauce. (New England.) Shot-gun. A fowling-piece, as distinct from a rifle for bullets. Shouting-member. A religious terra, meaning a church member who takes a prominent part in leading the service of prayer and music. Tlie peculiar elegance and suital)ility of tlie expression will commend it to every tasteful reader. Show. ( •^') An opportunity to exhibit one's powers. An importation from the stage, " show "' being theatrical slang for a diamatic or other performance. Shuck. The "shock" or husk of corn: the cob on which Indiin corn grows. i^i^Mraftre/?/, anything worthless. (Esp. j)lura\) 1 36 Die TIONA RY OF A MER ICA \ 'ISMS. Shucks, oh ! An interjection of contempt. ^'' A shuck, aiiusk or shell, as bean-shucks, bean shells,"' — (Bailey English Dialects. Shut one's head, to. To be silent. Elegantly derived from the closure of the lips. Shyster. A worthless fellow ; a blackguard. Applied mostly to dishonest lawyers. De Vore offers an amazing etymo- logy ; he says that these " shyster" lawyers are so called because they "fight shy " of their clients. The wo; d is probably the Avglo- ,Sixon, Middle E mjUsh, smd Old French '"cliiche" ('"parsimoni- ous ''), which occurs in the Romeiunt of the Rose, etc. " Chiche " is also found at least twice in "Wyclitfe's Bible. *' Chiche,"" with the suffix ster (which had sometimes a sinister sense, as mentioned by Skeat, who instances " gamester," J/er;7/ Wives iii., i. 37) would make a word very like " shyster."' An old Australian digger tells me that a shaft sunk without result was called a '" shyster " at the gold-fields, and he derived the name from a use to which these worthless holes were often j)ut. I must own to a preference for the older derivation. " Shyster " is a term of opprobrium rather affected by Jews, though without apparent cause. Sick. Ill, without any connotation of nausea. "To feel %\ck,'\li(jurativehi means to be disgusted with one's self, usually on account of some supposed lack of acuteness ; a ground, however, on which the native American seldom has occasion to feel sick. Sideline, to. To tie a cord from the fore to the hind leg of a horse, thus hampering the animaUs movements enough to jjrevent straying. Sideling-. A railway siding. Side-^valk. The foot pavement of a street. Sign. A signboard. Also, a spoor or trail. "Buffalo-sign," "bear-sign," etc. (Wedern.) Signalize, to. In addition to the ordinary use this often means in America " to make signals." 'Simmon. »Same as Persimmon ('q. v.) Singist. An adept in singing. Sir. "Sir "is constantly being dragged into conversation as a kind of resting word or interjection, as though it served to help the speaker on with his talk. It is es^^ccially used thus by i DICTION A R Y OF AMERICANISMS. i y] Southerners, and the practice has been characterized by an American writer as a graceful and respectful English usage. So far as I know, only commercial travellers, and \ erhaps snobs, interlard their conversation with "sir," however. One's barber usually infuses a good deal of " t-ir " into his unescapable re- marks, it is true, but tliis hardly makes the practice an English one and nothing can make it graceful. The South, doubtless, learned it from the Negroes. Siree. "Yes, siree," "no, siree," (accented on the last syllable). Yes, or no, sir. Emphatic only. Sit up, to. To be startleauy their husbands to sea." One admiral declared, adds Smyth, that he was literally thus cradled, under the breast of a gun carriage. Soph. ) A freshman. (College i-lang.) Said bv Sophomore. ; p^of. Goodrich to be compounded of (to^'o; and Sort o' I ^^^^ adverbially in the natural sense. Sot. Vulgarly used as the past tense of the verl to set. So, to be. To be true. " That's so ! "' That is true. "The thing which is not so," an untruth. Sovereign people. The citizens of that "great country,'" the United States of America. Span. A pair of horses, with a connotation of good match- ing, in size and colour. Sparking. Courtship. Spat. A petty squabble : a trifling disagreement. Special partnership. A usage unknown to English law, by which an investor may furnish funds to a trading concern, receiv- ing a share of profits, but committing himself thereby to no general partnership nor to any liability beyond the amount of such investment. Spelling-bee. A public contest in spelling— familiar enough in England not long ago. Spider. A frying-pan with legs. Spindle City. Lowell, Mass. Spit-curl. A lock of hair curled down on the forehead or temple, after the manner of the late Lord Beaconsfield, Some- times called a "soap-curl." The allusion is in either case obvious. DICTIONAR Y OF AMERICANISMS. 143 in the former truly "elegant." The Boston Transcript has an ex- pression quoted by Bartlett, appropriately used in a poetical extract, which caps it, however. " You may prate of your lips, and your teeth of pearl, And your eyes so briglitly flaslung ; My song shall be of that saliva curl Which threatens my heart to smash in." Splurg-e. A dash or display of elegance. To cut a " sjilurge " is precisely to cut a dash. Spoils system. The system under which all offices of the Civil Service are held by political supporters of the party in power. The expression is stated to have originated with the Hon. "NV. L. I\Iarcy, who, in 1832, declared in the United States Senate, that " To the victors belong the spoils of the enemy." Spondoolicks. Money. (Sometimes Spondulicks.) Spook. A spirit : a ghost. Dutch, " spook " ; German, " spuk." Perhaps allied to ■4'tJX'^ oi" to our own pixie. Spread. To "spread one's self " is to assume airs, to lay one's self out for admiration. An allusion to the way in which a peacock spreads his tail. Spread-eag-lism. Arrogance, especially in diplomacy —the correlative of wliat we call " jingoism." Spry. Nimble : brisk : quick in action : sprightly. Square. Honourable : ample : upright. A very old and rather fine expression. "Can an honest man — a square man, find any work on God's green earth? " — Advertisement in Neio York Daily. Squash. A vegetable like our own vegetable marrow. Squatter State. Kansas. Squa'W-naan. A white man who has taken a wife — or wives — from the Indians. A ruffianly class. Squeeze. To embarrass. (Htock Exchange term.) Squirm. To writhe about, as in pain. Stag- Dance. A rough kind of dancj by men only. (Bartlett.) Stag Dinner. 1 A dinner or party for men exclusively. Stag Party, j For an example see Chestnut. 1 44 Die TIONA R Y OF A M ERICA NISMS. Staging". The scaffold in front of a building. Stalled.. Stuck in the mnd. (Applied to a waggon or horse.) Stampede. (2^.) A panic among horses, cattle, or human beings, resulting in a simultaneous rush. A herd in this predica- ment is said '■ to stampede,'" or "to be stampeded." (Sjxiniyh, " estampado," a stamping.) Stay, to come to. To be a p3rm;inent institution. Steep. High in jirice : difficult to believe : almost anything that '' tall ■' means in American slang. Steerer. A gambler's decoy. Also a doctor's tout, the employment of whom is, of course, a grave offence against profes- sional etiquette. Stem-winder. A keyless watch. Stick, to. There is a peculiar use of the verb "to stick."' which is found in one phi'ase only — "it won't stick" — which is applied to any plea, claim, or argument, and means that it is dis- credited, or (as we say) " wont go do.vn.'" "To stick anyone with an expense,"' is to saddle him or her therewith. Stiff. A corpse. Could anything be more elegantly allusive ? " Thev piled the stiffs outside the door ; They made, I reckon, a cord or more ; Girls went that winter, as a rule, Alone to spellin" school." — (John Hay) Mystery of Gilgal. Stock. Domesticate 1, or half tamed, cattle. Stock, lock, and barrel. Altogether : the whole. "Take it by and large, lock, stock, and barrel, and its a dandy." — Sam Slick. Stool. (^y.J A decoy duck. iT.J To shoot wild ducks by the aid of a decoy. Stoop. Door-step of a house. (Dutch, stoep.) Chiefly used in New York. " I boarded exclusively on a front stoop on Pennsylvania Avenue, and used to slumber, regardless of expense, in a well-conducted aiihhox.''—07'pheus 0. Ken-. Store. A shop of any kind. Die TIOXA R Y OF AMERICA X/S VS. 1 45 Store clothes. Clothe? not made at home, as a good many garments are in the unsophisticated West, but purchased. "I brandished my new sixteen-dolkir huntin cased watch round considerable, and I was drest in my store clothes. & had a lot of sweet-scented wagon greese on my hair. I am free to confes that I thawt I looked pretty gay." — (Artemus "Ward) On the Wing. Straight. " A straight drink " is an uncompounded spirit, as opposed to mixed liquors, the generic name of those seductive and mysterious compounds in which thirsty America takes delight. Streak. A flash of liglit or of lightning. " P'rom the frequent addition of a new upper room here, a new dormer window there, and an innovating skylight elsewhere, the roof of the mansion had gradually assumed an Alpine variety of juts and peaks somewhat confusing to behold. Local tradition related that, on a certain showery occasion, a streak of lightning was seen to descend upon that roof, skip vaguely about from one p ak to another, and finally slink ignominiously down tlie water pipe, as though utterly disgusted with its own inability to deter- mine, where there are so many, which peak it should particularly perforate.'" — Orpheus C. Kerr Papers. Streaked. Alarmed Stripe. (X.) Kind or pattern. Two men who resemble each otiier in character are said to be of the same "stripe," just as we should say, " of the same stamp." Study, to. To consider. (Intrans.) Also / of the Uiuted States, tells a circumstantial story of its having originated with a contractor, one Samuel Wilson, called "Uncle Sam" by his associates, the initials "U.S." for United States on a barrel of provisions being thus jocularly interpreted. The story is generally believed, and may, or may not, be true. Die TIONA RY OF A MERTCANISMS. 1 53 Underground railway. Smuggling : any surrejititiovs method of prjcedure. Originally an organized system by which fugitive slaves were assisted to escape. Underpinners. Legs. Unfellowship, to. To " unfellowship " a person is, in Puritan theological practice, almost equivalent to excommunication or the major anathema, Uppertendom. Fashionable or rich people. (Journalistic slanri. ) Upset price. The reserve price of merchandise in an auction. Up-to"wn. The fashionable part of any city. (Provincial in Essex, England.) Use, no. " To have no use for anything " means not to like it, or, not to be in the habit of using it. Two i)erfectly distinct meanings, each as common as the other. Valedictory. Contraction of ''valedictory address." An instance of the American tendency to make the most of a long word, by obliging it (after Humpty Dumpty's famous method) to do as much work as possible. The American has a commendable distaste for long words at all times, though he manifests no particular objection to " tall talk." Valise. (Pronounced "valeez'.") Any kind of hand-bag, " Baldinsville was trooly a blase of glory. Near can I furget the surblime speckticul which met my gase as I alited from the staige with my umbreller and verlise." — (Artemus Ward) Celebra- tion at BahUnsviUe. Vamoose. To go away. (Spanish, ^^ ws^mos.") "Vamoose the ranch," i^uit the house. (Imperatire,) Variate. To vary. A rare word, but a very old one, being noticed by Pickering, who attributes it to the clergy, quoting a prayer, "Variate of Thy mercies according to our circum- stances and wants," a strange form of approach to the Throne of grace, Vigilarce committee. A combination of citizens to carry out magisterial duties wliere neglected by the constituted authori- ties. Also called "vigilantes." 154 DICTIONARY OF AMERICANISMS. Vim. Energy; spirit. {Qj. Latin, ''\is," accusative, "vim," strength ?) Virg-inia end. The large end of a ham. The other is called the "iNJarylaud end. " Vital statistics. Statistics of births and deaths. Wad. 3Ioney, ?/-., a "wad of paper currency." "Shoulder your wad of greenbacks and come to the fields of peace." "Wain. A waggon (which the Americans, by the way, spell " wagon.") " "Wain ' is very old English, Tennyson's May Queen calls the Great Bear " Charles' "Wain," and the constellation is certainly more like a waggon than a bear. This is the old popular designation of this constellation. Waken snakes, to. To make a fuss. See Snakes. Wake up the wrong passeng-er, to. See Passenger. Walk on yotir shoe-strings, to. ) To be "way down,*' "Walk on j'our uppers, to. ) that is to be so poor that your shoes are sujipostd to be worn dowii to the extent indicated, before you can affora to have them renewed. Wal! "Weill (Interjection.) "Walking papers. To take " ones walking papers '' is to re- ceive one's con[/i — to be dismissed. Also, " walking tickets." Walloper. Term of contempt, mostly \ised in combination — as "box-walloper," an itinerant agitator or low-class preacher: "dock-walloper," an idle longshoreman, etc. Compare English slang, "pot-walloper," for a poor, ignorant voter, nsed by Carlyle. Wall Street. The centre of Xew York financial business. "Want. (N.J A small advertisement of a personal require- ment, such as a demand for a servant, or for a situation, an an- nouncement of a loss, etc. "Most wants, most circulation, most advs. ^an Francisco Call \G3ii\.s.'— Advertisement, ISDl. Want to know, I. An expression of surprise, purely. An elegant equivalent is " Wal, bust me up a gum-tree backards ! " DICTIONAR Y OF AMERICANISMS. 155 War-path, to be on the. To be active : to liavc business in hand. Washerlady. A washerwoman. There are no "women " in some parts of America : the saleswomen are salesladies : even the forewomen are foreladies. Waterwitch. A person, of either sex, claiming a power of divination exercised by means of dijiping-rods, which are sui^posed to indicate subterranean springs. Way back, \ Often written ' 'away back," etc., but always Way down, V pronounced as above. Back, down, or up, Way up, etc. j as the case may be, with an intensitive sense. Ways. Distance. "When way is used for distance in Ame- rica it is usually made plural, thus : — "Ten cents worth of humor goes a great ways." — Printers^ Ink, 1891. Wayward sisters. A term still sometimes applied to the Southern States. "When the secession was first mooted (1801), some politicians were in favour of allowing tlie disruption to take ])lace, rather than undertake the war which was otherwise seen to be inevitable. The expression originated in a correspondence between General Winfield Scott and Mr. W. H. Seward, in which the former wrote : " Say to tlie seceder States, ' Wayward sisters, depart in peace.'" The expression is so entirely beautiful and appropriate that it at once took classical rank, and is even now sometimes met with. Weaken, to. To grow weak : to give way. Welconiely. Adrcrh from welcome. Very commonly used, even by writers who ought to, and in fact do know, better ; as in the following instance : — " Mr. Putnam's interest in the cause of International Copyright is as clearly a matter of inheritance as his interest in the publish- ing house that brings out this book, for his father was one of the earliest and most active workers for the result so tardily though so welcomely achieved." — New York Critic (!), 1891. Well. (Adj.) Healthy. Not only, as we use it, thus — "I am quite well," "I hope you are well," etc. — but also "A well man," etc. 156 DICTIONAR Y OF AMERICANISMS. Whiflaetree. The crossbar of a vehicle, to whicli the traces are attached. Wliip, to. To beat (literally) without any connotation of instrumental assistance : to defeat or surpass in any respect. Whip the devil all around the stump, to. To palter with one's conscience — viz., by making excuses to one's self for wrong doing. Whisky mill. A spirit shop. (Western.) WTiite. Used as synonymous with "good " when applied to persons. This has generally been understood as a fling at the Negro race, a white man being a good person, as opposed to the despised black. As a matter of fact this use is much older, and is doubtless derived from the irhite of an archery-butt, which was the ring immediately surrounding the pin, or buirs-eye. Thus a white man would be a man who always shot straight, and, fiyurativehi, a straightforward man. A "white boy" is used to mean a darling, of- favourite, as in Ike Knight of the Burning Pestle, "What says my white boy?" etc.; and" in The Tico Lancashire Lorers (1G40) : " AVill such a brave spark as you, that is your mother's white boy, undo your hopes?" A " white man " is (1) a good man, (2) an ordinary person, as distinct from anyone peculiar in any way. The two meanings are illustrated respectively by the two following quotations : — ""When he knew a fellow was very dry, he'd just set the decanter afore him and managed to be called outer the room on business. Xow Bob Hushbrook's bout as white a man as that." — (Bret Harte) A Mcecenas of the Pacilic Slope. " The Shakers is the strangest religious sex I ever met. I'd hearn tell of 'em, and I'd seen 'em, with theer broad brimmed hats k long wastid coats ; but I'd never cum into immejit contack with 'em, and I'd sot 'em down as lackin intelleck, as I'd never seen 'em to my show — leastwaz if they cum they was disguised in Avhite peples close, so I didnt know 'em.'' — (Artemus "Ward) The Shakers. "Whittle, to. To cut a chip with a knife. At one time, Ameri- cans are said to have had a fidgety trick of continually notching anything which might be handy. This detestable practice was called "whittling." ""Whittle," for "a knife," is good English, DICTIOXARV OF AMERICANISMS, is? and is used by Macaulay (Virginia) ; and before him by Shake- speare and Dryden. Whole cloth, made out of the. ) n^„„;.,^ q^^ /-n^+v. Whole piece, made out of the. } Genuine. See Cloth. Wild-cat. (Adj.) "Worthless. From a Michigan bank, whose notes, which became discredited, bore an engraving of a panther. Wipe off, to. To wipe, simply. (T)'ans. verb.) ""Wipe off that table " is simply 2oipc it. not necessarily remove anything from it. Purely American, and almost exclusively colloquial. Wipe out, to. To kill or utterly annihilate anyone. Wolverine State. Michigan. Word g-o, from the. A senseless expression, meaning alto- gether, entirely, or in one operation. " There now, smell them, taste them, examine the bottles, in- spect the labels. One of 'm's from Europe, the other's never been out of this country. One's European olive oil, the other's Ameri- can cotton-seed olive oil. Tell 'm apart? 'Course you can't. Nobody can. People that want to, can go to the expense and trouble of shipping their oils to Europe and back — it's their privilege ; but our firm knows a trick worth six of that. "We turn out the wliole thing— nlean from the word (io—\n our factory in New Orleans : labels, bottles, oil, everything. Well, no, not labels: been buying them abroad — get them dirt-cheap there." — (Mark Twain) Life on the Mississippi. Workingman. I note a new practice of printing this as a single word, just as lovingkindness is joined in the Pible. Worrisome. Annoying : tiresome. Worst kind. The strongest variety of anything. Tlic " worst kind of a licking "' would mean the severest beating possible, etc. Yank, to. To jerk or hoist. Yankees. Tlie inhabitants of the New England States. Said to be a corruption of " English " by the Indians. It is only 158 DICTIONAR Y OF AMERICANISMS. foreigners -who call all Americans " Yankees '" : among themselves, the term is confined strictly to Xew Eriglanders. Yard. The garden attached to a house, whether in front or behind, is always called in Xew England a "yard." The follow- ing extract, from a pathetic little story called "The Front Yard,'' illustrates the way in which "yard'' completely displaces our word garden, even when a flower-garden is expressly meant. "And now when at last, after thinking of it for sixteen years, she was free to begin to save daily and regularly, she saw as in a vision her front yard completed as she would like to have it : the cow-shed gone : ' a nice straight path going down to the front gate, set in a new paling fence ; along the sides currant bushes ; and in the open spaces to the right and left a big flowerin' shrub— snow- balls, or Missouri currant ; near the house a clump of matrimony, perhaps ; and in the flower-beds on each side of the path bachelor's- buttons, Chiny-asters, lady's slippers, and pinks ; the edges bor- dered with box.' She heaved a sigh of deep satisfaction as she finished her mental review. But it was hardly mental after all ; she saw the gate, she saw the straight path, she saw the currant bushes and the box-bordered flower-beds as distinctly as though they had really been there." — (Constance Fenimore "NVoolson) '•The Front Yard," Harper, Christmas, 1888. Yep. "Yes." See Nop. Youans. ) Ye or you, plural. Continually used by ^Iv. You 'uns. J Bret Harte's heroes. " I've heern the tale a thousand ways, But never could get through the maze That hangs around that queer day's doins, But I'll tell the yarn to youans." —(John Hay) Mystery of Gilgal. Ti. The last letter of the alphabet is called Zee and not Zed by Americans. Zequia. Corrupt Spanish. An irrigation ditch. See Acequia. " As the mustang sprang over the zequia." — (Mayne Reid) The War Trail. Uniform in Size and Price with "AMERICANISMS." MERRY MINSTRELSY Everybody's Book of Humorous Poetry. Edited by W. SPEXCER JACKSON. 320 pp., Cloth, Bevelled Boards, Gilt Edges, 2s. 6d. The Glasgoio Herald. — "There is not a line of misery in the book, but many a verse to heal the intellectual ' blues.' " The Leeds Mercury. — " Perhaps never before has so much genuinely humorous verse been brought together or presented in so convenient a form as in ' Merry Minstrelsy : Everybody's Book of Humorous Poetry.' " The Scotsman — " Here will be found favourites old and new. " The Literary World.— ^' Deserves a kind reception." The Scottish Leader.—'' A delightful little volume of humorous poetry. The selections have been judiciously made." EVERYBOI3Y'S Book of Wit and Humour. Compiled by W. H. HOWE. Red Leather, \ 2/6 j Section 1.— English. Rounded Corners, |- NEARLY -! „ 2.-Scotch. Marbled Edges, ) 600 PAGES, i „ 3.-Irish. This Book comprises Volumes 5, 0, and 7 of " Everybody's Series," and in each section the examples of Wit anJ Humour are classified under appropriate Subject Headings, with, in many cases, a reference to a Table of Authors. This Hook will be found to be a genial companion in loneliness, or for a long IJailway Journey, or as a means of enjoyment in the Social Circle. For a Fit of Despondency or a Disordered Liver its influence will be un- equalled by any patent medicine known. HOWE & CO., Paternoster Kow, LONDON, £.0, Lord Tennyson and The Bible, By GEORGE LESTER. CONTENTS. Part I. — Lord Tennyson's Knowledge and Use of the Bible. (1) Not a New Idea— (2; Previous "Workers — (3) The Allusions of various kinds— (4) Not a Creed — (5) Value of the Allusions— <6) Devout Use of Scripture— (7) An Atmosphere Eather than a Phraseology^S) Scope of the Present Enquiry : Tennyson's Limi- tations— (9) Elements of Popularity -(10) Guarantee of Lasting Fame. Part II. — The Bible in Tennyson. (1) The Old Testament— <2) The New Testament: (a) The Birth and Infancy of our Saviour ; (h) Our Lord's Public Ministry ; (c) Our Lord's Passion, Death, and Eesurrection. Part III. — A ppendix. (1) Passages containing Biblical Allusions, not now included in Tennyson s Works— (2) Magazine Articles on the subject— (3) Index of' Poems from which Quotations are given. The following letter has been received from Mr. Gladstone by the author of '* Lord Tennyson and the Bible" : — "Dear Sir, — 1 thank you for the work you have kindly sent me. I have examined it with sincere pleasure. In my opinion it does honour to the poet by showing how his mind is anchored in the Christian faith, and it may dogood to some who are tempted to doubt about the Bible, by indicating how largely it supplies mental food to the choicest and richest spirits.— Yours very faithfully, "W. E. GLADSTONE." Cloth, 23. 6d.. ; Calf Gilt, 6s. ; Russian Gilt, 7s. 6d. LONDON: HOWE & CO., 23 ST. PAUL'S BUILDINGS, E.G. University of California SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1388 Return this material to the library from which it was borrowed.