The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-08-14
SLANG AND ITS ORIGIN.
How Some Popular W ords and Phrases
Came Into Being.

This may be called in one sense the age Of
slang. But after all what is called slang is
frequently the giving of a new meaning TO
old words or the invention of new words
from old roots. The slang of to-day be-
comes the elegant language of tomorrow.
1t is interesting to note how many of the
commonest words and even prases which
were once regarded as slangy and inelegant
became part of the polite language of the
times. Words, like lives, have q biography.
Many words, indeed have histories which
are histories Of important personageS and
events in the affairs of the world. This
makes the history Of a word often as in
teresting and as valuable as that of iudi-
vidualS.
"Dunp is word now whose meaning is
known to every one who understands the
English language Too many wish they
did not know it. Yet, at the beginning Of
this century it was unknown as a verb.
About that time constable i'll England
named John Dun became celebrated as a
first class collector of bad accounts. When
others would fail to collect bad debt,
Dun would be sure to get it out of the
debtor. So well known did this become,
that people from all the surrounding coun-
try sent him their accounts when they
could not collect them. 1t soon passed into
a current pin aSs that when person owed
money, and did not pay when asked, he
would have to be "Dunned." Hence, 1t
soon became common In such cases to say,
You will have to Dun so-and-so if you
wish to collect your money"
OUTSIDERS AND POLITICAL BOOMS.
Until the nomination of Franklin Pierce
for the presidency the word outsider" was
unknown. The committee on credentials
came in to make It's report and could not
get into the hall because of the crowd of
people who were not members of the con-
ventlon. The chairman of the convention
asked If the committee was ready to report
and the chairman of the committee an
swered: Yes Mr.. Chairman; but the COM
mittee is unable to get inside on account of
the crowd and pressure of these outsiders"
The newspaper reporters ever ready to ap-
preciate good word or phrase. took up the
word and used it. Since then it has been a
common word and we could not do without
1t. Boom" IN its new sense of meaning a
popular elamor for man, or for any ques-
ton or movement, IS recent word-being
first used as such in 1880. Grant was being
ri for third term. This bl ought out a
bitter opposition, even among the republi-
cans. One paper said the movement was
like boom across q swollen stream, taking
i'll all that was worth having. A St. Louis
paper took it up and said tho third term
movement was properly called a boom, as
1t raked in everything on the top of the
muddy stream of politics, mostly trash and
scum. This gave a new meaning to the
word. Since then it has been in common
use as such.
HOW CHESTNUTS CAME INTO BEING.
'Chestnuts," in reference to repeating
stories which are old, is a new word, and
not much can be said in its favor except
that, being word that is not inelegant
either in sound or origin, and expressing so
much in two syllableS, it has probably come
to stay with us. Its origin is not positively
known, and only two probable sources are
given. One is that some shrewd wit, seeing
an analogy between the propensity of a
j Ike 10 become stale and fiat quickly and
the chestnut to become wormy in few
days, applied the word "chestnuts" to q
joke when repeated too often and ralmed
oil as new on company which
had heard it SO frequently as to be-
come bored This may be its origin, but
l am inclined to attribute it to the other
alleged source, to wit: That a theatrical
party, travelling on train, and trying to
begulle the weary hours by reading and
telling Stories bought lot Of chestnus at
a station to help pass the time. A member
OF the company proposed that they tell
stories, and that whoever told a story which
had been told recently should be pelted
with chestauts A little bell in the party
was to be rung whenever a stale joke was
perpetrated as signal t. at all were to
fling chestnut at the offender. This is
said to be the origin both of the phrase and
of the chestnut bell craze which ragged over
this entire country four years ago.
DAVID CoPPERFIELD CALLED A DAISY.
you are daisy" is considered very
slangy by those who use it Unfortunately
aud often times it is. But, if used in the
sense in which its inventor, if | may so
speak of a word, Charles Dickens, intended
1t, 1t IS good and forciOle word. In
David Cooperfeld" it is first used in the
sense OF calling person daisy in a way to
express admiration, and, at the same time,
to laugh at ones creddlity. Stserforth
says to young Copperfield: David, my
daisy, you are SO innocent of the world
Let me- call you my daisy, as it is so refresh
Ing to ind one in these corrupt days SO in-
noceaU and unsophisticated. Ny
dear Copperfeld, the daisies Of
the field are not fresher
than you" Hence, when conveying the
idea that person is artless and innocent
amid skeptical and scheming condition of
society, to say You are a daisy" is not
slang. 1t is forcible and elegant. The same
passage gave us the other word, meaning
the same thi &, though sounding a little
harsher, fresh" We often hear the ex-
preston, You're too fresh.n This, too,
was originally meant by Dickens to mean
an innocent ignorance of the ways of the
"OAAAs IL as 81 uSGQ by III
reference to David Co2perfeld. But when
used to mean that person is impudent or
forward, as is too frequently the case now,
1t becomes slang, as such a meaning is in
reality senseless.
TOO THIN NOT SLANG.
TOO thin" is a two-worded phrase heard
IN all classes of society. by some it is used
in vulgar sense, and is Objectionable slang;
by others it is used in the manner which
gave it to us as good word. To say, when
speaking of an action, "Oh, that is too
thin" is vulgar slang. because an action
can not be thin. But to say, when per-
son makes statement which is calculated
to mlslead, "Oh, that is too thin" is not
slang. 1t was given currency by the Hon.
Alexander Ii. Stephens of Georgia, in the
United States congress in 1870. Some
member had made reply to Mr.. Stephens,
and the latter had his chair wheeled out in
the aisle and said in that shrill, piping
voice which always commanded silence:
Mr.. Speaker, the gentlemBn's arguments
are gratuitous assertions made up of whole
cloth: And cloth, sir, so gauzy and thin
that it will not hold water 1t is entirely
too thin, sir.
SEEKING BROTHER JoNATHAN's AID.
"Brot or Jonathan" as a name for the
fafo Sc all -, Il