Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-11-05
SLANG IS coon SOCIETY.

We allow ourselves TO say of rich man
that he has got STAMPS" of the drunken
man that he is eight" r-"bOozy;" of any
thing that pleases us or is satisfactory that
iL is ststunning;" "aYful" is considered a
better word than very, and we are
awful cold, or hot, or sick, or
jolly, as the case may be; it is finer to say
''you bet" than to answer question by a
simple yes; everything that annoys us is
'.infernal," or ''beastly;" bank-bills are
'fgreenbacks." heard lady in good So
ciety say, recently, that her dreSSmaker had
disappointed her, and that in consequence
she was regularly up tree" we threaten,
not to humiliate or to mortify man, but
''to take the starch out of him." we rack
our brain to invent slang words for various
drinks, and bring out such names
as sforty-rod,' s.tangle-foot," ssrot-gut,,
'sblue RUM and "Jersey lightning"
words that would more than puzzle for
eigner; man is not cheated, but sdone
brown" or 1bamboozled;'' railroad con-
ductors do not steal Gin fact We are getting
a little sensitive about using the word), but
'sknOck down. bank cashiers do not
swindle and steal, but commit 'sirregulari-
ties" we hear of house being "burgled,"
anu lll4l LhO lOOi-Jduc hEAlL LLHOuEA a
belated traveller; fair dealer is spoken OF
as a square man. a most wonderful
IuSus nature; a substantial dinner
is spoken of as a square meal" We hear
invitations given, not 10 take a drink. but
to ''hoist in some poison" anything an
tiquated or exhausted is s'played out;" an
Insignificant excuse is said to be 'too thin,"
or we are told that it ''will not wash" we
l,,rx- al-r ggfr,a =
''short, :" or "bull" the market; or stake a.
flyer" or scoop in long line Of stOcss;'L
We do not stake a sum of money, but s'be
our pile;n after a cOnviyial party we mex
morning find ourselves "precious seedy;'
our railroad trains telescope or
pullman" breaks wheel;
a party of rowdies s'clean out" drinking
saloon; big man threatens to ''wipe OUT
a little one; we do not Outwit or circum-
vent another, but 'euchre'' him; we stake
the shine out of rival, and 'fiS his flint"
for him; a carpenter ''runs up" a cheap
house in a week; an investigating commit
tee in Congress "WhitewaShes" the charac-
ter of some defaulter, and so on and so
forth in all the departments of business
AMI trade and social intercourse we permit
ourselves to use words and phrases which
are of no authority, often vulgar and always
needless.
1t may be objected to the purist that the
spoken Language is of no consequence so
long as we write correctly and with ele-
gance. But alasi that evil communications
corrupt good manners is no more true than
that slangy conversation leads TO slip-shOd,
slangy writing; and it often happens that
some detestable word of no authority, and
having no right in the language, slips from
conversation into print and usurps a place
foHitself. Here again the modern newspaper
has much to answer for in the
deterioration of language. Slang usurps the
place of wit, and cant phrase is often
made the poor substitute for the witty
repartee. 1t is untrue to say that slang is
only used by the low and illiterate. On
the other hand, its use pervades all the strata
of society, from the clergyman to the street.
beggar, each, of course, using slang of a
different order, but both too often indulg-
ing in the use Of words which no dictionary
explains. And just here is something TO be
said. We hear every day, in all social cir
cles, a multitude Of words and phrases
that have, so to speak, no legal existence,
and which must sorely puzzle a foreigner,
as he turns in vain from one dictionary to
another. He has no authority but usage
and usage is perpetually changing-as to
what is lawful English and what is not;
what he can use in polite circles, and what
he must shUn, and to this lack of authority
half his troubles in learning to speak
English are due. And the Englishman
himself, it mas been well said, has never
done learning his own language. He is over
whelmed by the multitude of new words.
and he has no undisputed authority TO
guide him in the use of old ones. "They
manage these things better in France
The dictionary Of the French Academy
supplanted now, perhaps, by Littre's-has
been held to be model of elegance and
prOpriety in speaking and writing the
French language. Every pretender to
literary eminence models his language
upon the Academy's dictionary, and the
language, too, has become the language of
diplomacy over all Europe and in
Russia. A Russian gentleman's children
learned to speak French as an
indispensable part of their education, and
the acquisition of such a knowledge as will
enable them to carry on an ordinary con-
versation is regarded as a matter Of course.
A traveller, if he can speak French, will be
tolerably at home at St. Petersburg, Con-
stantinOple or Berlin in the upper ranks
of society. The French tongue has gained
that high position, not so much by Its own
inherent merit as by reason of its having a
standard and a court of last appeal. As
language it is not so full or so digni1ed
as German orEnglish, but it is good c0in-so
to speak-it is fixed in its value and passes
everywhere. Accent excepted, foreigner
may speak as good French as a native, for
the simple reason that he and the French
men have a common and undisputed au-
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