Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1879-06-13
SnObs and Swells.

OF words which have two clearly dis
tinct senses in both countries, the COM
monty used, but yet slaugish and not
very pleasant, s"oL is an example. This
word, like s,rell, in the sense of distin-
gnished, elegant, imposing. has not yet,
l believe, been admitted into any die
tionary of the English language and
yet both are in constant use among all
sorts of people in both countries, sreli
being even much more frequently
heard in England than here in the very
best society. One of the most fastidi-
ously correct Englishmen that met in
England said to me, "Oh, it's no use
any mans trying to be swell in Lon
don /; for however big swell he may
be, the Duke Of Westminster is big
ger swell than he" Another of the
same sort said of distinguished bar
rister who had already achieved title,
"He is sure to be a SWELL" 1t is thus
used by ladies of tho highest rank and
breeding, and pervades the "polite
literature of the day.
To turn to our unpleasant Sn06. 1t
first appears, l believe, in Crosses elias
steal dictionary of the vulgar tongue,
1885, (of which, o book-hunting reader,
l possess an original copy of the first,
unexpurgated edition, in which it is
defined as ga nickname for a shoe
maker" In the Modern Flash diction-
airy, tiny volume published in 1925,
and intended for the waistcoat pocket
of the "bucks" of George Tvs day, it
does not appear, nor in my own copy,
which was Interviewed by some curious
gentleman of that time for the addition
in manuscript of some two hundred
slangs and cant phrases then prevalent,
is the omission supplied. In this little
glossary SueU which is not found in
Grose, appears, and is defined as ga
genteel dressed man." Snob crept grad
ually into vogue in England among the
gentry as a recognized, but permitted,
slang word for low-born, vulgar,
"base mechanical" person. This sense
it retained, exclusively, believe, until
the appearance in Punch of Thackeray's
"Snob Papers," before which time it
was not used and was almost unknown
in this country. In these humorous
and savagely satirical papers Thackeray
applied the word to all vulgarly pre-
tentious persons, however high their
rank or large their wealth and this
sort of snob, he said, was plenty in all
countries. "There are snobs in China"
he remarked. Had he seen Dickens
book plate with its crest, knowing
Dickens origin and early habits of life,
he would have called that; snobbish.
In this sense the word came rapidly
into vogue in the United States. Here
it has, in New York, at least, been sub
jected to yet another modification in
certain circles, where it is used to mean
person who somewhat pretentiously
affects the society of persons of condi-
ton and wealth. But in England, par
ticularly among the aristocracy, it still
retains something of its Thackeray
meaning. I heard an American gentle.
man say loosely of himself to peeress:
"I'm a snob." She looked at him in
amazement, and replied: "You've q
very happy faculty of concealing it,
then" I understood him at once as
meaning jestingly that, although re.
publican, he was exclusive in his 30
cial tastes she regarded it as an incom-
prehensible admission that he was of
low origin and habits of life.A This
word, by the change in its meaning,
and by its elevation into vogue among
the best speakers, is an example of the
power which writer of genius may
exert in language; and it is also wit
ness of the variation in significance
given to one word by the society in
which it is used.