American Language Supplement 2 (162 page)

1
In this sense, apparently an Americanism and a relatively recent invention of Hollywood press-agents. In the early days of photography it was used for
photographic
, and in that sense is traced by the NED to 1839.

2
First used, I believe, by
Variety
.

3
Said to be a repunctuation of Hebrews XIII, 8, thus: “Jesus Christ! The same yesterday, and today, and forever!”

4
From Lexicon of Trade Jargon.

5
From Lexicon of Trade Jargon.

1
From Speech in the Post Office, by Paul Bisgaier,
American Speech
, April, 1932, pp. 278–79, and Lexicon of Trade Jargon. I am also indebted to Mr. Hartford Beaumont.

2
Apparently from the German
nichts
. Traced by the DAE to 1879. See AL4, p. 157, n. 2.

3
From Lexicon of Trade Jargon. Many other potters’ terms are in a poem, From Clay to Roses, by Harry Brokaw,
Congressional Record
, May 2, 1946, p. A2568.

4
Pugilists as a class are far too stupid to invent an argot of any interest. What passes as such is mainly produced by sports writers. Many of its terms are given in Jargon of Fistiana, by Robert E. Creighton,
American Speech
, Oct., 1933, pp. 34–39. I offer a few samples here. A number of pugilistic words and phrases have got into the general speech,
e.g., to hit below the belt, knockout, to throw up the sponge
, and
to take the count
.

1
Obviously suggested by the resemblance of a
cauliflower-ear
to the vegetable.

2
Traced by the NED to 1606.

3
Partridge calls it an Americanism and says that it was first used after 1900. Not in Alfred H. Holt’s Phrase Origins, New York, 1936.

4
Westbrook Pegler’s column, March 11, 1947.

5
Traced by Farmer and Henley to 1857.

6
Probably borrowed from the racetrack, where it signifies a sorry nag. It may be related to the synonymous
palouser
, which may be derived from the name of the
Palouse
Indians of the Northwest. Holt, before cited, suggests that it may come from the Spanish
peluca
, a term of reproof.

7
Dr. Harrison S. Martland says in
Punch Drunk, Journal of the American Medical Association
, Oct. 13, 1928, p. 1103, that “the basic lesion is due to traumatic multiple hemorrhages.”

8
Coined by the late Abraham Lincoln Herford. See my Heathen Days; New York, 1943, p. 101.

9
It was with a blow which shook the
solar plexus
that Robert Fitz-simmons knocked out James J. Corbett at Carson City, Nev., March 17, 1897, but Peter Tamony says in The Advent of
Solar Plexus
, San Francisco
News-Letter & Wasp
, Oct. 27, 1939, p. 18, that the sporting fraternity did not become aware of the term until the effects were explained by Dr. John H. Girdner, of New York, two days later. The old-time English pugilists called the pit of the stomach the
mark
.

10
Its origin is discussed in
White Hope
, by Steven T. Byington,
American Speech
, April, 1943, pp. 156–68.

11
These come mainly from English As She is Spoke Where Nags Run, by Hugh Bradley, New York
Evening Post
, May 15, 1936; Race-Track Lingo, by Charles H. Dorsey, Jr., Baltimore
Evening Sun
, April 15, 1940; A Billion Across the Board,
Fortune
, Sept., 1944, pp. 202–14, and Horse English is Very Simple, by Arthur Siegel, Boston
Traveler
, May 26, 1946. I am indebted here to Mr. Bradford F. Swan.

1
“When a jockey has such an allowance,” says Dorsey, “it is indicated on the programme by an asterisk, hence the
bug
.”

2
Dorsey says that the word is apparently derived from
gipsy
, and “has no derogatory significance whatever.”

3
“Because,” says Bradley, “Kentucky trainers used to tell a client his horse finished fourth when he was way out of the running.”

4
The Living Language, by Dwight L. Bolinger,
Words
, May, 1939, p. 74.

5
Defined by Webster 1934 as “one that enters any competition under false representations as to his identity, past performance, or the like; esp., a horse entered fraudulently in a race under a false name to obtain better odds in the betting.” The term seems to be an Americanism, for it does not appear in the NED, and Partridge omits it from his Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, though he admits the verb
to ring
in the sense of “to manipulate, to change illicitly,” and
to ring in
in the sense of “to insert, esp. to substitute, fraudulently.” The DAE unaccountably overlooks it, but it is to be found as
ringer-in
, in the sense of an interloper, in
Harper’s Magazine
, Feb., 1857, p. 421.

6
“The species,” says Bradley, “is about as extinct as a New York starter who knows his business.”

7
This elegant euphemism got a large play in the newspapers at the time of the racing scandals in Maryland, 1946.

8
Dorsey says that it is derived from
tackle
.

1
The NED says that this is a misuse of the word. It actually means having an eye “the iris of which is whitish, streaked, parti-colored or different in hue from the other eye, or which has a divergent squint.”

2
Some of these terms have been borrowed from the English, just as racing itself was borrowed. Others have entered into the common speech, sometimes in figurative senses,
e.g., ringer, horse-sense, well-groomed, also ran, to set the pace, tight rein
, and
walk-over
.

3
From Lexicon of Trade Jargon.

4
i.e
., tunnel excavators.

5
I take these from The Idiom of the Sheep Range, by Charles Lindsay,
American Speech
, June, 1931, pp. 355–59; Stock Jargon, in Nevada: a Guide to the Silver State; Portland (Ore.), n. d., and Lexicon of Trade Jargon. See also
Cattlemen
.

6
My authorities here are Lingo of the Shoe Salesman, by David Geller,
American Speech
, Dec., 1924, pp. 283–86, with a vocabulary by J. S. Fox; Shoe-store Terms, by Erik I. Bromberg, the same, April, 1938, p. 150; a United Press dispatch from Lincoln, Neb., July 2, 1936, describing an investigation made by students of Miss Mamie Meredith, instructor in business English at the University of Nebraska, and Lexicon of Trade Jargon.

1
Yiddish
mie ken zie
, I know her.

2
i.e
., one who says “Show me this; show me that.”

3
Ger.
schlacht
, a battle.

4
Apparently from a Yiddish word meaning a misfortune or curse.

5
“The term is used,” says Geller, “to impress the customer with the fact that he is being given more attention for his money.”

6
Yiddish
tochus lekker
, arse-kisser.

7
See also
Department-Store Clerks
and
Instalment-House Salesmen
.

8
These come mainly from Lexicon of Trade Jargon.

1
St.
Crispin
is the patron of shoe-makers. Both he and his brother, St. Crispinian, practised the craft in Gaul, and both were beheaded at Soissons in 285 or 286. The first trades-union of American shoe-makers, formed in 1868, was called the Knights of St.
Crispin
.

2
The
soda-jerker
or
jerk
or
hopper
calls himself a
soda-dispenser
(his trades-union is the Cooks, Countermen,
Soda Dispensers
and Assistants Union) or
fountaineer
(Supplement I, p. 360). His jargon is very much like that of waitresses. (See
Food-Dispensers
.) It includes a number of terms of true cant, designed to prevent strangers understanding what is communicated, and some of them are simple numerals. Thus,
thirteen
or
ninety-eight
signifies that the manager is in sight, and
ninety-five
or
ninety-six
is a warning to the cashier that a customer is getting away without paying his check.

3
On Oct. 8, 1936 the Red Network of the National Broadcasting Company put on an interview with several
soda-jerkers
from Radio City, with Dr. W. W. Beardsley as the interlocutor. The advance notice, dated Oct. 6, said: “The
soda-jerker’s
behind-the-counter speech almost amounts to a code, covering any number of subjects in addition to that of dispensing sodas and sandwiches. In recent years its use has become nation-wide.” I am indebted here to Messrs. Theodore R. Goodman and William Feather.

1
These come from Slang of Steel,
Fortune
, Dec., 1935, p. 44, and Lexicon of Trade Jargon.

2
From
dolomite
.

3
See Supplement I, p. 604.

4
Some of these terms are now virtually obsolete, for the setting up of the Securities and Exchange Commission, on July 6, 1934, greatly crippled constructive salesmanship in Wall Street. Most of them come from Financial Racketeering and How to Stop It, by William Leavitt Stoddard; New York, 1931, pp. 4 and 5. I am also indebted here to Messrs. Dent Smith and Edward L. Bernays.

1
Stockbrokers and their clerks have some amusing nicknames for conspicuous stocks,
e.g., Father Divine
, International Telephone & Telegraph;
Nipper
, Northern Pacific;
Monkey
, Montgomery Ward;
Jumpy
, Johns-Manville;
Knockout
, Coca-Cola;
Old Woman
, New York, Ontario & Western;
Betty
, Bethlehem Steel;
Big Steel
, U. S. Steel;
Minnie Mouse
, Marine Midland;
Mop
, Missouri Pacific;
Widow
, West Indies Sugar;
Ukulele
, Union Carbide & Carbon;
Rebecca
, Republic Steel;
Rockies
, Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific;
Sopac
, Southern Pacific;
Whiskey
, Wisconsin Central. I am indebted here to Mr. C. MacCoy, of the New York Exchange and to Traders’ Tongue,
Investor’s Reader
, Dec. 15, 1943, pp. 4 and 5. Some bond issues have special names,
e.g., Saps
, San Antonio Public Service 4s;
Sows
, South Carolina Power 5s;
Miserys
, Missouri Power & Light 3 1/4s;
Scarlett O’Haras
, Southern Bell Telephone 3s.

2
I am indebted here to Mr. Carl Kastrup, of Rockford, Ill. I have added a few quarrymen’s terms from Lexicon of Trade Jargon.

3
A crew consists of a
heater
, who heats the rivets; a
catcher
, a
buckaroo
and a
driver
.

1
I take all these from Lexicon of Trade Jargon.

2
So far as I know, there is no study in print of the argot of tanners, but the Tanners’ Council of America issues a Dictionary of Leather Terminology; third edition, New York, 1941, that lists some of the terminology used in the trade, as opposed to the craft. Says the preface: “Many leathers are known commercially or popularly by names of hides or skins of which they are not actually made.… Names of some skins (like
chamois
) have come to mean a finish as much as a kind of leather. It has even been necessary to insert the word
genuine
before some kinds of leather (like
buckskin
) to distinguish it from its imitators.”

3
From Lexicon of Trade Jargon.

1
These come from Tobacco Words, by L. R. Dingus,
Publication of the American Dialect Society No. 2
, Nov., 1944, pp. 63–72, and Language of the Tobacco Market, by Robert J. Fitzpatrick,
American Speech
, April, 1940, pp. 132–35. They were all gathered in the Southern tobacco area, where cigar tobacco is seldom if ever grown.

2
So called, says Fitzpatrick, before cited, “because its freckles resemble those of a
Guinea
-hen.”

3
Mr. Leonard Rapport, of Chapel Hill, N. C., tells me that the term has been traced to the 70s. It may be related to
pin-hook
, a bent pin used as a fish-hook, traced by the DAE to 1840.

4
I take this definition from Fitzpatrick. He says that “the practise is said to have originated at Smithfield, N. C.”

5
The more seemly terms in use by union men are listed in Labor Terminology, Bulletin No. 25 of the Bureau of Business Research, Harvard University; Cambridge, 1921. I am indebted here to Messrs. James F. Bender, Harry F. Bruning and John S. Grover.

6
Apparently picked up from Alice the
Goon
, a character in Elzie Crisler Segar’s comic strip, Popeye the Sailor. As a verb it is an obsolete form of
to gun
, and is in Chaucer’s The House of Fame, III,
c
. 1380. As a noun, defined as “a person with a heavy touch,” it was used in The
Goon
and His Style, by Frederick L. Allen,
Harper’s Magazine
, Dec., 1921. Mr. Allen tells me that it was used in his family before this, and may have been either picked up elsewhere or invented.

1
Associated Press dispatch quoted in
Word Study
, Feb., 1937, p. 4.

2
Miriam Allen deFord, in
American Notes & Queries
, Nov., 1946, p. 127, says that it “was used in the Socialist party at the beginning of the century.” Upton Sinclair made it the title of a novel in 1919.

3
Word Study
, Feb., 1937, p. 4.

4
Pork-Chopper
, by Miriam Allen deFord,
American Notes & Queries
, Nov., 1946, p. 127.

5
See Among the New Words, by I. Willis Russell,
American Speech
, Dec., 1946, p. 298. His earliest example is from
Time
, Oct. 25, 1943, p. 21.