Read American Language Supplement 2 Online
Authors: H.L. Mencken
American Language Supplement 2 (123 page)
After American cities and towns, and American territories and possessions.
After ships formerly on the Navy list, gems, and with “logical and euphonious words.”
After characters in mythology. Aircraft repair ships were also named after “personnel associated with naval aviation” and destroyer tenders after “localities and areas of the United States.”
After volcanoes and with terms “suggestive of fire and explosives.”
After astronomical bodies.
After astronomical bodies or “counties in the United States.”
After “historical places pertaining to aviation.”
After islands in the United States or in American territories and possessions.
After astronomers and mathematicans.
After mountains in the United States or in its territories and possessions.
With “synonyms for kindness” or “other logical and euphonious words.”
After monitors formerly on the Navy list.
After the Indian names of rivers.
After the names of American counties, “places of historical interest, deceased commandants of the Marine Corps and deceased Marine Corps officers, signers of the Declaration of Independence, famous women of history, famous men of foreign birth who aided our country in her struggle for independence.”
After the names of American counties.
After deceased surgeon-generals of the Navy.
After the names of island possessions.
“Names descriptive of their functions.”
“Names of pioneers in submarine development; characters in mythology.”
Names of birds.
Names of Indian tribes.
Names of straits, bays and inlets in the United States and its possessions.
Names of places of historical interest.
Names of vessels formerly on the Navy list, and of animals.
Oil-field terms.
Names of trees, or of Indian chiefs “and other noted Indians.”
“Names of Indian chiefs, other noted Indians, and words of the Indian language.”
In 1897 Prince Louis of Battenberg, then a captain in the British Navy,
1
published a little book in which he discussed the names of British warships and of those of fifteen other countries, but not including Japan.
2
In his preface he said that nearly all the names on the current British list had “a long record of past services, covering three centuries in some cases.” One ship, the
Vesuvius
, was the eleventh since 1693, and another, the
Lion
, was the fourteenth since 1546. The
Dreadnaught
of the time, a second-class battleship, launched in 1875, was the seventh since 1573. The revolutionary
Dreadnaught
of 1904, with its turbine engines, its speed of 21 knots, its ten 12-inch guns and its displacement of 17,900 tons, was the eighth. The English seem to follow no set system for the naming of their warships, but a glance at their Navy List is enough to show that they have a liking for saucy names, calculated to scare the foe,
e.g., Furious, Terrible, Invincible, Powerful, Victory, Inflexible, Wildfire, Bulldog, Conqueror, Daring, Devastation, Haughty, Hercules, Hotspur, Intrepid, Aggressor, Thunder, Infernal, Shark,
Wolf, Tiger
, even
Hyena
.
1
The Japanese, in their heyday, apparently preferred more romantic ones,
e.g., Siranui
(Phosphorescent Foam),
Yakaze
(Wind of an Arrow’s Flight),
Natusio
(Summer Tide),
Urakeze
(Wind in the Bay),
Kasumi
(Mist of Flowers), and
Asagumo
(White Cloud of the Morning).
2
All naval ships are given nicknames by their crews, and some of those in use in the American Navy are picturesque and amusing. The cruiser
Salt Lake City
is the
Swayback Maru
, the battleship
California
is the
Prune Barge
, the battleship
Tennessee
is the
Ridge Runner
, the
Idaho
is the
Spud Peeler
, the
Milwaukee
is the
Milk Wagon
, the
Mississippi
is
Old Miss
, the
Missouri
is
Misery
or
Old Mo
, the
Nevada
is the
Cheer Up Ship
, the
Brooklyn
is the
Teakettle
, the
Dayton
is the
Blue Beetle
, the
Boise
is the
Reluctant Dragon
, the
Marblehead
is
Old Ironsides
, the
Brooklyn
is the
Busy B
, the
Cincinnati
is the
Can Do Ship
, the
South Dakota
is
Battleship X
, the
New York
is the
Old Nick
, the
Franklin
is
Big Ben
, the
Pope
is
Honest John
, the
Langley
is the
Covered Wagon
, and the
Guam
is the
Mighty G
.
3
One of the curious byways of homicidal nomenclature takes us into the names of battles, and history shows that the contesting peoples often call the same one by different names.
Waterloo
is
Belle Alliance
to the French and even to the
Germans who fought with the English, and the battle which Grant called
Pittsburg Landing
became
Shiloh
to the Confederates and is now
Shiloh
to most other Americans. These differences were thus discussed by the Confederate General D. H. Hill in one of
Century Magazine’s
“Battles and Leaders of the Civil War” series:
1
The conflict of September 14, 1862, is called the battle of
South Mountain
at the North and the battle of
Boonsboro’
at the South. So many battlefields of the Civil War bear double names that we cannot believe that duplication has been accidental. It is the unusual which impresses. The troops of the North came mainly from cities, towns, and villages, and were, therefore, impressed by some natural object near the scene of the conflict and named the battle from it. The soldiers from the South were chiefly from the country, and were, therefore, impressed by some artificial object near the field of action. In one section the naming has been after the handiwork of God; in the other section it has been after the handiwork of man. Thus, the first passage of arms is called the battle of
Bull Run
at the North – the name of a little stream. At the South it takes the name of
Manassas
, from a railroad station. The second battle on the same ground is called the
Second Bull Run
by the North, and the
Second Manassas
by the South. Stone’s defeat is the battle of
Ball’s Bluff
with the Federals, and the battle of
Leesburg
with the Confederates. The battle called by General Grant
Pittsburg Landing
, a natural object, was named
Shiloh
, after a church, by his antagonist. Rosecrans called his first great fight with Bragg the battle of
Stone River
, while Bragg named it after
Murfreesboro
’, a village. So McClellan’s battle of the
Chickahominy
, a little river, was with Lee the battle of
Cold Harbor
, a tavern. The Federals speak of the battle of
Pea Ridge
, of the Ozark range of mountains, and the Confederates call it after
Elk Horn
, a country inn. The Union soldiers called the bloody battle three days after
South Mountain
from the little stream,
Antietam
, and the Southern troops named it after the village of
Sharpsburg
. Many instances might be given of this double naming by the opposing forces.
2
The first study of church names ever undertaken in the United States was published in 1891 by two anonymous laymen of Rhode
Island.
1
They were pious Episcopalians, and confined their inquiry to churches of their own communion. They found that there were then 3918 in operation in the United States, and that all save 54 of this number bore the names of saints, of higher personages in the heavenly hierarchy, or of salient events, objects or doctrines,
e.g., Ascension, Atonement, Mount Calvary, Incarnation
and
Advent
. Not less than 385 were dedicated to
St. Paul
– 18 more than were dedicated to
Christ
. The latter, however, were reinforced by 67 churches called
Good Shepherd
, 38 called
Redeemer
, 26 called
Our Saviour
, 21 called
Messiah
, and perhaps a score more of similar names.
St. John
followed
St. Paul
with 366 churches, and then came
Trinity
with 354,
Grace
with 279,
St. James
with 178,
St. Luke
with 142,
St. Mark
with 136 and
St. Peter
with 122. The Episcopalians fight shy of Mariolatry, so there were only 97 dedicated to
St. Mary
and three to
St. Mary the Virgin
. But 87 were dedicated to the First Person of the Trinity, 85 under the name of
Emmanuel
, one under that of
Emmanuelo
and one under that of
Our Father
. The dedications to the Third Person numbered 8, all of them called
Holy Spirit
. The anonymous ecclesiologists found but 54 Episcopal churches in the whole country which lacked pious names, nearly all of them in Virginia and Maryland. In both States it was the custom, in colonial days, to name churches, not after saints, but after the communities in which they were built, and those old names have survived. Some of the curious church names unearthed by this inquiry were
House of Prayer, Gloria Dei, Reconciliation, Bread of Life, Holy Fellowship, Regeneration, St. Ansgarius, Saint Esprit
(French for
Holy Ghost
) and
St. Mary Magdalene
. To it was appended a survey of British churches, which turned up, in England,
Charles King the Martyr, Saint Cross, SS. Cyricus and Julieta, St. Gaffo, SS. Gluvias and Budoke, Holy Paraclete, St. John in the Wilderness, St. Peter Port, St. Ursula and the Eleven Thousand Virgins
, and
St. Delta
, and, in Wales,
St. Cwfig, St. Cyffelach, SS. Dyunog, Iddog and Menw, St. Llanwddog, St. Tyclecho, St. Wrthwl
and
St. Ynghednoddle
. The English are much less shy of Mariolatry than American Episcopalians, so they have 2453 churches
named
St. Mary the Blessed Virgin
, and perhaps a hundred more showing
Mary
in other combinations.
1
The authors of this study reported, with ejaculations of satisfaction, that they could find very few Episcopal churches named after the persons who built them, but they had to add that this was a common custom in the early days, when the founder was usually promoted to sainthood later on if his church turned out well.
2
The Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians and other such non-conformists still honor founders in this way, and sometimes a process not unlike canonization follows. They use actual saints’ names sparingly, but name many churches after streets or neighborhoods, or numerically. All the Christian Science dispensaries are numbered, and in such citadels of the faith as Los Angeles they have gone into high figures. The colored brethren have some favorite church names that seem to be peculiar to them,
e.g., Shiloh
(not the battle, but the village in Palestine where the sons of Benjamin got themselves wives by making off with the female dancers at a vintage festival),
3
Ebenezer
(a monument set up to mark the site of Samuel’s victory over the Philistines),
Canaan, Sharon, Bethel, Berea, Macedonia, Abyssinia
and
Zion
. Some of the Negro store-churches in the South
4
have extremely curious names. I once found one in Baltimore whose sign showed that it was the
Watch-Your-Step Church of God
.
5
Catholic Churches usually have saints’ names, though such forms as
Corpus Christi, Immaculate Conception
and
Sacred Heart of Jesus
are common. They are never called after streets, neighborhoods or founders. Of late the cult of the
Little Flower
has multiplied places of worship dedicated to her, but they are called
shrines
, not churches.
6
The tendency to seek mellifluous euphemisms for such terms as
cemetery, churchyard, burial-ground
and
graveyard
, noted in Supplement I, p. 570,
1
long ago influenced the naming of cemeteries, and there are many
Heavenly Rests, Memory Groves
and
Sweet Homes
throughout the country. Among the colored people of the South some bizarre names are in use,
e.g., Furnace Hill
, in Lowndes county, Mississippi. Miss Lila M. Herring, of the State Bureau of Vital Statistics at Jackson, has collected many others from the State,
e.g., Saint’s Rest, Last Hope, Evening Star, Twilight, Mount Comfort, Wonder Home, Love Joy, Harmonia, Pleasant Dreams, Tribulation, Peter Rock, Sunflower, Little Hope
and
Traveler’s Rest
.
2
In the South, as elsewhere, many cemeteries bear the names of the local communities. The aforesaid
Furnace Hill
is probably an example, and others from Mississippi are
Corn Cob, Red Bone, Freewill, Toe Nail, Stockfarm, Jumpertown, Society Hill, White Cloud, Yellow Leaf, Pickle, Remus, Turtleskin
and
Cistern Hill
. To the bucolic regions of the country also belong the traditional names of quilts, though here the original inventors were probably all Caucasians. A large number from the Ozarks were listed by Vance Randolph and Isabel Spradley in 1933,
3
and more from other regions by Carrie A. Hall and Rose G. Kretsinger in 1935,
4
e.g., Turkey Tracks, Star in a Mist, Joseph’s Coat, Ham Shank, Widower’s Choice, Leap Frog, Rose of Sharon, Spider Web, Spider’s Den,
High Wind, Grandmother’s Fan, Rattlesnake Shake, So Mote it Be, Mill Wheel, Rob Peter and Pay Paul, Hearts and Gizzards
, and
Steps to the Altar
.
1
