News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1889-09-12
ORIGIN OF SLANG.
HOW SOME POPULAR PHRASES
CAME INTO BEING.
Pat EXPRESSIONS Which Found Favor
and Still Stick-When Chest
nuts" " BOOM" Too Thin"
Daisy and other Words Started.

nuIS, DOO1hg AOO hAAA)
"Daisy', and other Words Started.
This may be called in one sense the
age of Sang. But after all what is called
S 'ang is fire. uently the giving of new
meaning to old words or the invention
of new words from old roots. The slang
of to-day becomes the elegant language
of tomorrow. 1t is interesting to note
how many of the commOnest words and
even phrases which were once regarded
as slangy and inelegant became part
of the polite language of the times.
Words, like lives have a biography.
Many words, indeed, have histories
which are histories OF important persons
AMI affairs zaf the world. This
makes the history of word often as
interesting and as valuable as that of
individuals.
"Dun 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 begin
ming of this century it was unknown as
a verb About that time constable in
England named John Dun became cele-
brated as q 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 we'll known
did this become that people from the
surrounding country sent him their ac-
counts when they could not collect them.
1t soon passed into a current phrase that
when person owed money and did not
pay when asked, he would have to be
"Dunned. Hence, it soon became
c,,ah IN 60 Won Ny1f II
have to Dun so-and-so if you wish to
collect your money"
Until the nomination of Franklin
Pierce for the Presidency the word ''Out-
slider" was unknown The Committee
on Credentials came in to make its re-
port and could not get into the hall be-
cause of the crowd of people who were
not members of the convention. The
Chairman of the convention asked if the
committee was ready to report, and the
Chairman of the committee answered:
eyes, Mr.. Chairman; but the commit
tee is unable to get inside on account of
the crowd and pressure of these out
siders." The newspaper reporters, ever
ready to appreciate a good word or
phrase, took up the word and used it.
Since then it has been common word,
and we could not do without it.
''Boom, in its new sense of meaning
popular clamor for a man, or for any
question or movement, is recent word
first used as such in 1850.
Grant was being run for a third term.
This brought out bitter opposition,
even among Republicans. One paper
said the movement was like a boom
across a swollen stream, taking in all
that was worth having. A st. Louis
paper took it up, and said the third term
was properly called boom,
as it raked in everything on the top of
the muddy stream of politics, mostly
trash and scum. This gave new mean
ing to the word. Since then it has been
in common use such.
"Che stnuts. - in reference to repeat
ing stories which are old, is a new word,
and not much eau be said in its favor,
except that, being word that is not in
elegant either in sound OF origin, and
expressing so much in two syilables, it
has probably come to stay with US. Its
origin is not positively known, and onl y
two probable sources are given. One is
that some shrewd wit, seeing an analogy
between the propensity of joke to be-
come sale and fiat quickly and the
chestnut to become wOrmY in few
days, applied the word "chestnuts' to
a joke when repeated too often and
palmed off as new on n company which
had heard it so frequently as to become
bored. This may be its origin, but l am
inclined to attribute it to tie other
alleged source-to wit: that a theatrical
party travelling on train, and trying to
beguile the weary hours by read ng and
telling stories, bought a lot of chestnuts
at station to help rass the time. A
of the company proposed Tia
they te' stories, and that whoever told
a story that had been to recently
should be pelted with chestnutS. A little
bell in the party was to be rung when
ever stale joke was perpetrated rs q
signal that all were to fling a chestnut
at the offender. This is said to be the
origin both of the phrase and of the
chestnut bell craze which ragged over the
entire country four years ago.
"You are daisy" is considered very
slangy by those who use it indiscrimin
atelv; and, oftentimes, it is. But if
used in the sense in which its inventor,
if I may so speak of word, Charles
Dickens, intended it, it is n good and
MOIu. LII blNlNl SODtJClllClNN
it is first used in the sense of calling
ration, and, at the same time, to laugh
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 find one in these corrupt days SO
innocent and unsophisticated. Ny dear
Copperfeld, the daisies of the field are
not fresher than you" Hence, when
conveying the idea that person is art
less and innocent amid skeptical and
condition of society, to sa
"You are a daisy" is not slang. 1t is
forcible and elegant. The same passage
gave us the other word, meaning the
same thing, though sounding a little
harsher, ''fresh. We often hear the
"You are too fresh. This,
too, was ori9ina ly meant by Dickens to
mean an innocent Ignorance of the ways
of the world. 1t was 50 used by Steer
forth in reference to David Copperfield.
But when used to mean that person
is impudent or forward, as is too fire.
quently the case now, it becomes slang,
as such a meaning is i'll reality senseless.
Too thin" is a two-worded phrase
heard in al classes of society. BY some
it is used in q WI gar sense, and is OBJ
iectionab e slang; by others it is used in
the manner which gave it to us rs q
good word To say, when speaking of
an acton, "Oh, that is too thin," is
WI gar slang, because an action can nos
be thin. But to say, when person
makes q atement ca Gu ated to mis-,
lead, "Oh, that is too thin," is not
slang. 1t was given currency by the
Hon. Alexander H. Stephens, of Georgia,
in the Uni ed Sta es Congress in 1870.
Some member had made reply to Mr..
Stephens, and the latter had his chair
wheeled out III the aisle and said in that
shrilI, piping voice which a'ways com
manded silence: "Mr Speaker, the
gentleman's arguments are gra III ous
assertions made out of whole cloth
And cloth, sir, so gauzy and thin tina il
will not no water. 1t is entirely too
thin, sir.
'.Brother Jonathan" as q name for
the United S es, is much oder than
this, and was given by Washington him
self. though that individual had no idea
of making ang phrase for name to
his country at the time. Jonathan
Trumbull, Governor of Connecticut,
furn shed the struggling Colonial army
with funds and supplies on many an
occasion. One time the army was in sore
I 4 ~ - l.