Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1884-06-06
Curious IntcrjectiOns.
tLolaon Standard.l


An odd thing about interiections is that
very few people know what they imply when
they use them. Ore Of the most familiar of
all is the cry Dear me ~ which, as a come
dy that had very LONG run some years ago
went to prove-though proof was not neces-
ssry-is susceptible of many interpretations
when differently spoken. Few people are
perhaps aware that Dear me is believed to
be corruption of the, common French
Mon Dieu' through the italian "Dio Mo. -
| These words when quickly pronounced
sound much like the often heard Dear me,
and arc supposed to have originated the
phrase while the compauior. erf. 80 dear
Inc y is said to be the English form OF 'Al
How it happens that words and
! phrases from all countries have been y. eoo.,.
, into service by English speakers is a matter
which it would be very difficult to explain
but the fact remains. One frequent cXclam-
alton is borrowed from 1.-THE unspeakable
Turk, as Mr.. Gladstone used TO call the
subjects Of the Sultan few years ago This
ie 'bosA y for ''bosh' is the pure Turkish
| for "empty. There ere. SO mcny ways Of
telling man he is mistaken, or is talking
nonsense, that 1t is strange that the Turkish
method should have been adopted. "Jingo'
is another Oriental term, corruption OF
"Jepco" which means the devil "By lingo"
Is employed by many people who never sup
pose that they approach to what is compre-
hensively called swearing, or to the use OF
bad language. Many innocent sounding ex-
presslons have strong meaning. while, on
the other hand, many strong-soundng ex-
pression9 are perfectly innocent. If lit tic
boy said for instance, that he didn't care q
dam, he would probably get into trouble
yet there is no harm in the phrase except, OF
course, that "dont care" comes to bad end
A dam is a small Indian coin of trihing
value not to 'care a dam" is not to care two
pence. Among the lower classes, "drat EN-
OF drat him or her, as the case nav be
Is very often employed to give vert to dis
content or reproof and this hos O serious
significance. 'Drat EN- is contraction OF
May the gods uproot them" and the now
extinct "Od' rot em"-extinct unless by
chance 1t fingers among some old-fashionet
people IN out-of-the-way districts-is another
form OF the same imprecation. Fools, 'ot
rot were "the last words of Higginbot
tom IN famous poem, but it is Hprobabl,
that since liigginbottom not very man,
people have used the phrase. "Hurrah - i
another interjection that hadla powerfu
significance, 1t was an appeal to the 90,
J Thor, and was derived from the words 'Iu
+ aid. or Thor aid" Utttering this batt
cry believers in tho god dashed upon thei
! foes Little does they young lady who erie
"Hurrah " to celebrate some such littl
triumph as the return or failure to return
ball at lawn tennis know that she is invoking
the aid OF the mighty divinity and proclaim
ing herself to be a heather. Few huntsmel
would be ready to credit the assertion tina
, they talked French to their hounds. 1t
Y not possible to guess what Mr.. Jorrock
would have said any one had told him tina
= when he cried "Yoicks I" to the Handles
? cross pack, he was adopting the language c
nation Tor which he had a profound cor
.. tempt. In one OF his burlesques Robson
after remarking that some one had bee
talking in heroics, used to pause to in
qnlre with the air of one who sought th
t solution of puzzle, Il wonder what tina
huntsman meant by yo-icks p That is not tn
orthodox pronunciation, nor are the cries {
= huntsmen and whips to be translated int
the alphabet but 'hoix"-or yoicks, as
g is more generally spelled is form {
a "hautici' md "ha loo !" is ''auloup !"--to th
4 wolf. The meaning of the halloo, therefor,
= has in no way altered. When a wolf wa
found the Normans cried "Aul0up I" to guild
the wolf hounds to their quarry When
u fox Is viewed away at the present time ba
a loo is given by the whip or by somebody ell.
a 80 a somebody very often who halloos in Ii
J. wrong place. and does far more harm tha
good--but this is by the way. To the snort
l. men the TWO shouts sound much alike, and
d hounds, ancient and modern, who do N,
q discriminate in the matter of spelling, the
s can have been no difference at all 'Ha,
- forrard y agaiu, is derived from the old or
J. "a qui forbeT,"