Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1871-08-18
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line Au1eIlC1H Aoakuoh0s
be presumed that by this he merely
means those words which have been
adopted into the English by Americans
for their own purposes, for In reality
these amount to very few, and could
be spared. He asserts that the Ameri-
cans obtained their language by a pro-
cess exactly the same as that which
gave the English theirs : that Is to say,
the ground-work OF the tongue was
brought to England by certain enter
prislng filibusters and large importa-
tions have been made from other Ian
guages. The writer forgets that the
English language was long In form
ing, and that 1t was forced upon the
people by successive conquering races,
who left their own marks upon It
Celtic, Roman, Saxon, Dane and Nor
man ; 50 that It Is compound Of all
these, with Greek, French, and few
words from other languages superad-
ded. Now, the so-called "American
language" Il all this, but 1t ISIS con-
quering and absorbing one; 1t has
nearly exterminated the Indian dla-
lects, and Is celebrating BY absorption
all the languages ofall the immigrants.
Il Il, however, true that, in many parts
of this country, there are many words
daily used which are uniutelllgtble to
a large number Of Eng!ishmen. Such
are the Spanish-American words {:
"Pickaninny,i" from peqaeno nfao. a
small child; "creole," from eriollo,
the name given by the Spaniards TO the
native white inhabitants Of their colo
MES; lagoon" from laguna, a lake
"placer," a place (for gold; SIERRA"
a saw, or chain Of ragged mountains ;
"mustang," wild horse coyote"
a prairie wolf; "sombrero,"a broad
brimmed straw hat "canyon," a
deep cleft in rocks, a marrow mountain
gorge; "ranche," q cattle farm ; "va-
nose" to disappear all these words
are derived from the Spanish. But the
writer In Putnam is mistaken In say
ing that "99 Britlshers out of 100 do
not know the meaning Of "flibuster,"
savannah" "prairie," "garrote,"
"mulatto, =" stampede" lasso, land
"fandango." On the contrary, these
have long been in familiar use In Eng
land, and are adopted into the Ian
guage none but the most uneducated
are ignorant Of their meaning. The
same cannot be said Of certain words
In use here, derived from the French ;
such as gopher" from gagfre, the
prairie dog, whence the Western ex-
preston "to gophlr," |. e., to dig or
burrow "cahoot" from cohorte, a
company, or, In partnership "calu-
met" from ~e1lanss, a reed or pipe;
~"calash," from ealeche, a vehicle;
portage" land carriage at water
falls ; bayou" a small bay ; ''leyee,"
a dyke" But the words "barbacue,"
from bar6e q cal, "beard to tall, ian OK
roasted whole; and "voyageur," ira
Weller, have been In use in England for
centuries. Not so with many words
borrowed from the Dutch; such as
"boss," from b1ds, an overseer or mas
ter; whence the verb "to boss" to
overlook; "stoup," from stoep, the
porch over a doorstep; ITO muss, "
from morsen, to soil or disorder "over-
slaugh," from orsrslaaa, to hinder or
stop; "kill," a creek "hook," from
hook, a point Of land ; "hunkey," from
hoak, a post, place, OF home; whence
"Hunker" means, In political par
lance, a man who clings to the home
stead or to old principles it Is a term
applied to those identified with the
more conservative wing Of the Demo-
cratic party, In opposition to the young
Democracy, or Baruburners," and Is
now applied In some places to all who
oppose innovation upon the established
principles Of the party. Among the
naturalized German wordsare 'lagcr,"
from lager, a camp; "kriss-K ingle,"
from the Christ-kindchsn or little Christ
child; "loafer. from laufen, to run ; a
runner; one who leads an irregular
life; "noodle," from nosdeL, vermi-
celli, . dumping; "plunder," bag
gage, from pluadsra, to carry on;
"bummer," from 6Snimea, to hang
about or lolter, Among the words
which We have adopted from the In
dams, are "hickory," the name the
Indians of Virginia gave to the white
liquor Of the hickory nut ; "raccoon,"
squash" ''squaw," from :quah ''pa-
poose," from papses; "moceasin,"
"pow-wow," from po~aa, q conjuror {;
"wigwam," "wampum," from ~ans-
pa, white; "tomahawk," the name
originally given by the Algonquin
tribes to their ~war-clubs, meaning
beating thing" "skunk" Is a con-
traction from secanen. The name Of
Chicago Is the French way Of msun-
Outstanding the Potowotamlss' words,
shecau-oaa. Key West Is derived from
the Spanish Cdyo Hueso, "Bone Inlet;'
"moose" Is an Abenaki word, and
"wapiti" Is from the Iroquois. From
the Amerlcanized negroes have been
taken the words "skedaddle,' to run
away; "boust" to hoist or liz; ''tote,"
to carry, and n few others. There are
also some which derive their origin
solely from the American mind, such
as .absquatulate," to disappear lie.
sant, TO take ones self OF ''snigger,"
10 laugh at ; "whip." in the sense Of
overcoming; "reckon," guess ; zeal
culate," 'sexpect," instead Of ''think."
But the national genius has been pecu-
lisrly exercised In inventing names for
drinks, many Of which have become
on.r In Enoland- suoh as ueye-