| Show J f A A 6 F f 1 SOME SOCALLED AMERICANISMS I y v VW rw v v w l r Prom All the Tear Round We are accustomed to hear of Amer JcanJsms a of something altogether t different from the Queens English but i a little examination of current words f and phrases wH show that many so t called Americanisms are merely transplanted trans-planted English provincialisms Many i an expression that seems to us so Yankee was probably carried across In the Mayflower We are indeed too Tapt to forget the English origin of the genuine Yankee or New Englander 5 that we receive back with surprise a foreign products what are really of our own exportation No doubt the t American genealogists owe much to Indian i In-dian associations < mixed immigration i immigra-tion and t the new haJbics of a new land but a very large proportion of reputed Americanisms originated in the mother country And Americanisms f American-isms apart the educated American r speaks the English language as correctly I i cor-rectly as the ctlvebora Briton The average American may have a some i Tvhat pronounced or distinctive accent ac-cent but is it more unEnslbh than the differing accents of even the best t educated people of our own provincial towns or of the genuine Londoner r America of course is a wide term stretching from the arctic to the L tropic regions and local peculiarities are not t be classed comprehensively as Americanisms What is usually meant by an Americanism is a mode of exprrssion varying from the standard stand-ard of good English and prevalent throughout America A somewhat wider definition is given in an American Amer-ican enc opaedIa In works by American writers many words may be ound which are not their invention but are taken from popular use and which are either unknown t Englishmen English-men or are used by them in a different differ-ent sense These terms are occasionally occasion-ally really new words fashioned in anew 1 a-new country to represent new Ideas or to name new tools or they are old I I English roots which have sent up suckers ull of new meaning though I still Hearing the image of the parent I stock To these must be added words stoc tese I of foreign tongues which the English of the Americans has adopted and amalgamated with its own stock Further It will be seen that the number num-ber of true Americanisms is after all I very small and many of these even will upon careful investigation be found t be either revivals of obsolete words or Imitations of wellknown terms I We propose to pick out a few examples I I L ex-amples in order to correct some current cur-rent fallacies about current Americanisms I 1 American-isms but we shall not attempt any philosophical disquisition unsuited to these pages Atoout right as a synonym for well or thorough is not peculiar to America We have met with it frequently fre-quently in many parts of England not as an importation but as a native I expression I keets for skates Is supposed to I I ti be an Americanism and we have seen many a smile when a Transatlantic visitor announced his intention of go inff to skeet Yet he was right if 1 the word be the English equivalent of the Dutch scheet but however that may be Evelyn wrote in his diary upwards of two hundred years ago of the performances of sliders with scheets in St James 7jark and Samuel Penys too records how he did see people eliding with their skeates which Is a very pretty art On the etump and stumporator stump speech and so on are now common com-mon enough expressions which we are supposed to have imported from l erica But It is not difficult to seethe see-the root connection ivith stir your stumps and stumps a a word I ior less was used In English literature > quite three hundred years ago Old i lialliwell gives stump and rump F viz leg and thighas the equivalent of completely We take It that a I stumporator In American phrase 1 Qiofry was not one who used the stump of a tree for a platform a k some people have laboriously esp I es-p Blamed out one who was constantly I on the move from place to place work lag up a cause stirring his stumps t us It were for political or other purposes pur-poses t posesHeap Heap as connetlng a large Quan J < tity is an awkward enough expression y expres-sion as in a heap of people a heap of time I like him a heap and soon so-on But It is not of American origin and was used in provincial England before ever it was heard across the seas Indeed a heap of thoughts k occurs in Surreys poems Gent a a familiar and vulgarized r term for gentleman may have come t f us from Americabut Mr Eggleston has recently pointed out that It was r used a long ago a 1754 by no less a fl representative or culture than the r president of Princeton college not asa L as-a slang word hut in respectful description de-scription of a famous divine Yet toy r < > to-y the Slang Dictionary defines gent a a contraction of gentleman In nor < senses than one a dressy sho rv foppish man with a little mind who vulgarizes the prevailing fashion i I guess Is often spoken of as a purely Yankee L e New England expression btt It was used In the southern states as well without any obvious derivation from the north ow guess in the sense of the American use of the word is used by Chaucer and Shakespeare and many other old English writers I has more the meaning of suppose or think than of conjecture but an educated American Ameri-can will use the word Judge more frequently than guess That guess was used In the colonial days of America 13 known but when calculate cal-culate or calclate first came to be used as a synonym l not very clear Mr Eggleston says that calclate is exclusively Yankee and Is limited to the substratum of folkspeech So on the Ohio river guess is genteel enough for colloquial use but lows low-s lower class I allow or rather I low in Its commonest senses sense-s equivalent to I guess 1 calculate 1 reckon and the Englishmans I fancy Reckon however Is more distinctively distinct-ively southern than guess Indeed Mark Twain says The > northern word guess Imported from England where Jt used to be common and now regarded re-garded by satirical Englishmen a a Tankee original is but little used anvons southerners They say reckon They havent any doesnt in their language they say dont instead I in-stead The unpolished often use went for gone It Is nearly a bad as the northern hadnt ought But do we not find the same expressions expres-sions here Listen to the conversation conversa-tion in I thirdclass railway carriage or on the deck of a holiday steamer end you will hoar as many wents and hadnt oughts and didnt oughts as is 1 America Nay you may hear in England or Scotland the TCT triumph o7 Yankee word twisting er Hark Twain thought hadnt I ought to Shave went Mark Twain also refers to what he calls certain infelicities i style as examples amples of southern Americanisms L such as the dropping of the r sound in war honor dinner and so forth and the ube of the word like for as like SoandSo did But does the i average Cockney ever sound his rAnd r-And even in books written by reputedly reputed-ly educated English people do we not frequentlY find the vulgar misuse of the word like Certain peculiarities of spelling however how-ever are essentially American such as traveler for traveller theater and center for theatre and centre honor and labor for honour and labour pro > gram for programme catalog for catalogue rM alogue and BO on These are distinct = mcrcanlSfl1S which ore defended p Y c F J St J r American but proprieties philologists a not oddities The fall for the autumn is an expression which has extended from New England all through America It I now in common use there but it is not a native Americanism I was indeed in-deed employed by Dryden and has obvious and not unpoetical association associa-tion with the fall of the leaf Tetchy for touchy or irritable has been spoken of as an Americanism but it may be found in Shakespeare and can be heard yet in daily use in the west of England In some glossaries pie is given a an Americanism for tart but it is not so No doubt pie is more uni xrersally usedand perhaps more universally uni-versally consumed in the United States than in Great Britain but in the north of England and probably in many other parts pie is as often made with fruit as with meat Indeed we should toe disposed to call fruit tart quite a modern Americanism for who does nor know the timeworn story of Aapple pie Absauatulate is given in Bart letts Dictionary of Americanisms asa as-a facetious vulgarism but It seems to have originated with the colored gentlemen gen-tlemen of the south and to have come into use In the same kind of playful way as some or us might use uno forrarder The disposition of the American negro to multiplication and cSnfusion of syllables is well known I do admire at in the sense of I wonder is an American expression expres-sion hurt It has authority in Milton I should admire to do so in the sense of I should Uke to is regarded re-garded as an American vulgarism but one may hear the expression in eastern England to which it was certainly not brought from America Around in the sense of being near or on the spot strikes one no doubt as peculiar Ill be around on time He vas standing around etc have certainly a distinct Transatlantic Trans-atlantic flavor But when Uichard A Proctor tells us he once heard an American preacnar suaaking of Ms i y as standing around the Cross he recalls memories of the Irishman who surrounded his cottage Again Hal there or all there when the bell rings are expressions to suggestive sug-gestive of an English racecourse to have been wholly Americanborn expressions ex-pressions And again to talk back given In some glossaries a a American I Ameri-can equivalent for to answer impu dently is a fault which many a British housewife has frequently to lament In her maidservants certainly wit more idea of using American ese than of speaking Chinese Awful means ugly in New England Eng-land and excessive in the west west according to Bartlett In the eastern and middle states says Proctor one often hears awful handsome awful aw-ful hungry and so on Quite so but may one not hear the same expressions just as often in England And what about the awfully jolly awfully pretty thanks awfully etc of young England To belittle to depreciate is called a Americanism because Webster Web-ster says that is itnot used in England Eng-land a remark which shows that Webster cannot be accepted as an authority on English phraseology The word is if ndt very common at al events very familiar here You bet is more a western than a Yankee expression and has eminated naturally enough from a community where gambling was prevalent But it has so rapidly commended Itself to all speakers ot the English language in search of some pithy way of emphasizing empha-sizing confidence in a fact or statement state-ment that dt can now hardly be regarded re-garded as an Americanism And as an Intensatlve it has a good deal more to be said for i than the curious intonation intona-tion of the words A think with which a South Torkshlreman will clinch an assertion by which he conveys con-veys absolute certainty while seeming to suggest doubt America one constantly hears is the land of liquors and big things big hisk etc are cited a Americanisms American-isms But to look big and to talk bIg are very old English slang expressions ex-pressions we have had bIgwig for generations and big with fate for centuries And has the gentleman who thought it odd to hear of big whisky In the United States never I I heard a connoisseur at home comment on a big vine Why our cellars have been filled with big clarets and ports long before the American spirit was distilled Is bum a In the whole Dllln or the hull bilin a Yankeeism It Is to be found as much In use in eastern England as in eastern America Then while < to blow in America i means to brag and here it means more I usually to blab yet is the American blower not own brother to the Eng llshman who blows his own trumpet From to blow naturally comes to bluff I Bobbery row given in some glossaries glossa-ries of Americanisms is elsewhere putdown put-down as an AngloIndianism somebody Some-body has tried to trace its origin to the Hindu harbari but as a matter of fact it is a common word over the greater part of England We have heard at sometimes altered to Bobs adyin and Bobsdelight Perhaps Per-haps it may have something to do with the slang name of the suppressor of rows and Bobby for peaceofficer Is certainly much older than Sir Robert Peels Peeler or policeman Bogus appears in the Slang Dictionary Dic-tionary as an American term for anything pretending to be that which it is not such as bogus degrees bogs titles etc And Webster gives it two meanings first as an adjective signI fying spurious a cant term originally applying to counterfeit coin and hence denoting anything counterfeit and second as a noun a liquor made of rum and molasses Bartlett attributes I attrib-utes the origin to a foreigner called Borghese who gained some notoriety passing counterfeit In America by counterfei notes but Lowell thought the word was French and came from Louisiana where the useless refuse of the sugarcane sugar-cane is called bagasse The one theory is a likely or as unlikely as the other but whatever its origin bogus i5 now quite as much English a Amen can Bully for excellent bully for you is not of American origin though I a word frequently in American mouths especially in stories Now bully has with us usually a disagreeable meaning mean-ing but Shakespeare uses It once or endearment and it twice as a term of endearment t is probably the same word as the old Scotch Gillie or billy n term a expressive of affection Jamleson says afecton and familiarity In one glossary of Americanisms we Call and invitation to a I have seen Cl invitton church minister to occupy the pulpit of a given place of worship as its regular regu-lar pastor Needless to tell Scotch readers that the term in this connection connec-tion has been common property In Scotland from time immemorial Chaw as In the wellknown verses The way that critter chawed up rats was gorging for to see is really good old English Johnson has i and both Spenser and Dryden use it The clean thing for c right proceeding pro-ceeding may or may not be an Americanism Ameri-canism but it is certainly suggestive of the clean potatoe of English slang Elegant is by Americans used with regard to scenery and food a well as applied to attire or to manners But then have we not also elegant extracts ex-tracts Galluses for braces otherwise called suspenders is supposed to be an 4 Americanism We remember the word forty years ago in the north of Eng land where it was regarded r a local vulgarism Yet in a dictionary ot Americanisms we have seen it described de-scribed an elegant figure of speech peculiar to the south and west of America To go for something or somebody is merely an American form of the universIty mans go in for honors We have here little goes and great goes and rum goes and pretty goes and no goes If the Ameri cans can go one better or go it blind or go Democrat or go the whole hog Not much choice in the way of elegance It must be confessed Gotten as the participle of the verb to get is common enough in the states but it is a strictly correct old English form One commentator we notice gives hypothecate a < 5 an Americanism derived from the German a an equivalent equiv-alent for pledge or mortgage Evidently ently he had never heard of the Scotch law of hypothec Let ben is not an Americanism though more used In America than I here I is good old English and occurs i curs in the Bible Similarly when an I American gets licked he owes his description to old Tudor English familiar t every English schoolboy today Even big licks are not an American invention tad for angry Is called an American vulgarism I was not so regarded in the days of good Queen Bess and one may even find the same use of the word in the refined pages of Miss Edgeworth An American when he receives his letters by post gets his mal but so also does an AngloIndian A New Englander who sulks is said to meech and a Somersetshire man would have no difficulty In knowing what was meant Shakespeare knew the word and so did Beaumont and Fletcher and other old writers From i doubtless comes the word smouch to steal Mugwump Is not a pretty word and it is essentially American as applied ap-plied to a politician who separates from his party and sets up an Independent Inde-pendent faction Yet curiously enough I Is taken from the Bible for in the Indian translation it was the word < ilukquomp used for the Dukes ofc Edom Pearl in America means lively not pert or cheeky But It was used by old English writers In the same sense and is still so current in many parts of rural England Real estate meaning land and house property Is the American application cation of good legal English in a comprehensive com-prehensive manner An American who speaks of sagging sag-ging markets Is derided yet the expression ex-pression Is quite English and legitimate legiti-mate To sag means to warp or to sink and any English or Scotch joiner will tell you what a sagging door or ceiling means A market which is drooping is certainly sagging Mac beth knew what It wa to sag with doubt doubthebang Shebang is n word that has puzzled puz-zled many American commentators yet any constable in Scotland or in Ireland would have no difficulty in describing de-scribing a shebeen To shin is given as an Americanism American-Ism for to climb but what Scotch boy does not know how to shin a tree Shyster in America is a black guarding lawyer and in Australia means a worthless digging The word i only a variant of the English slang or cant word shicer which means a mean worthless individual who will not work but who to beg Is otI ashamed I I Skedaddle adopted Into the American Amer-ican language after the battle of Bull Run is a LowlandScotch word for spill which seems to have come from the AngloSaxon Sceadan to separate sep-arate An American who is scared is either skeert or mart but ask a Scotch boy what it Is to scant his buttons In a Ittle book about Current Americanisms < by Mr T B Russell from which we have taken some of the above examples we read The Dutchman who was the first comer in what Is now the state of New York has still his history writ large in the land over which he cast out his generously gener-ously proportioned shoe Stoop for the porch of a house readily recog nizable as Dutch cookies are small cakes Dutch both In name and in origin ori-gin The now universal boss for a person in authority there are no masters mas-ters in America or in general terms a superior individual wa and is baas in Holland I has grown apace in its new home and has taken on adjectival adjec-tival functions Yes sIr Ive been al round Turnip seing the elephants and Ive had a boss time of it1 I is also a verbto boss the show This may be and certainly stoop Is suggestive of the Afrikanders stoep i Nevertheless in Scotland we have I stoop or stoup for a prop or support and the porch of a house Is something propped against I The stoup of the kirk has a somewhat different meaning but I Is the same word And then as to cookie why to this day it is the name of a small I sweet bun well known in Scotland I No doubt the American language has derived much from both Dutch and i Spanish and French and Indian but it is only a branch of the English language lan-guage after all and as we have shown many of Its apparent novelties are really of English or Scotch origin Even the peculiar drawl of the Yankee was taken over in the Mayflower by the pilgrims from the English northern counties where something very like it may be heard even unto this day |
