The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-07-12
SINGING FRENCH SLANG
MRS. FRANK LESLIE WRITES ON
FRENCH SOCIETY SLANG.

FRENCH SOCIETY SLANG.
Most of 1t Eits the Nail Right on the
Head So to Speak-How a Person
May Have ga Gnawing Worm at
the Door''-"It is Possible to Put
Ones Legs on Els Neck"-"A Pepin
in a sapin" is NO Unusual Occur
rence-A Legged Man "squlnts
With Els Legs"
(CopyriGhtl
New YORK, July 11.-Whether it ia CIV
ing to the French origin of my family to the
fact that the French tongue was
as familiar to me as English
when was child or simply
because of my many visits to the CITY Of
Light,n as its inhabitants proudly call
Paris, l do not know; but it has always
been one of my favorite amusemeuts to in
vestigate the picturesque Iutricacies of the
French language in all its qualifications,
and surely no more amusing study can exist
than the branch of a language which is
known as slang.
French slang is wonderfully replete with
imagery. Is man very keen and impossi-
BILE to hoodwinks French slang wilt in
form you that she has not caught cold in
bis eyes" This, of course. illustrates med
ical truth, that people with indamed eyes
are temporarily blind, therefore that the
person in question is clear-sghted in the
extreme. To express that one has an excel
lent opinion of ones self, it is casually re-
marked that the person docs not wipe his
noss with his FOOT That curious action
seems Co denote moral and physical self
abasement. Tnis phrase is classic, since
Mohere uses it in "Tartuffe.n
Actors complain bitterly In France that a
comrade insists on pulling the bed. quilt
toward him" which means that he tries to
concentrate attention on himself to the
exclusion of others, as a selfish person rolls
himself up in the bedclothes regardless of
his companions discomfort
Retiring for the night is characterized es
"wrapping up the meat in its cloth.n This
rather obscure expression is derived from
tae fact that in France butchers hang legs
Of mutton in front of snowy background
of white napkins, ana at nightfall carefully
envelop the aforesaid legs Of mutton in the
aforementioned napkins, and tuck them
away for the night. Chic an expression
which in its broad meaning Of good style,
is now Incorporated in the language con-
sidered as slang, describes something non
existent An author writes "de CHEZ when
he discourses Of something whereof he
knows nothing; an artist who paints a
picture without model says that he did it
"de chic.n
Many French slang phrases are very
commonly used in polite society. 1t Is by
no means unusual to hear a lady taking
leave of her hostess remark casually: II
cannot stay, for l have gnawing worm at
the door" This mysterious announcement
simply means that she has a carriage by the
hour, and of course the longer it is kept
the larger the hole gnawed in the finances
Another generic name for a Gao is q
"sapln" pine tree, alluson to the fact that
they are built OF pine wood. Umbrellas
are christened "pepins," as they we're sup.
posed, on what authority do not know to
have been invented by Pep:n, one of the
early kings Of France. l have seen for
eigners, deeply learned in classic French
stunned and distracted by the to them in
comprehensive remark that some one had
left pepin in the sauin,n which meant
that an umbrella had been found in a cab.
An expressive slang phrase is the one by
which you gently intimate to person that
his presence is unwelcome you request him
to 'go to the boulevards and look il l am
there" This, although indirect, is most
certainly categorical. II a thing is utterly
impossible of execution, it is said that there
is no wick" which would undoubtedly pre-
vent lamp from being practicable. A
wild-goose chase is called "a search for a
bluebird," and thing that will never hap
pen is announced as waiting for 1.-THE week
of four Thursdays" aud when you say
something that were best unsaid, you "put
your foot in the dish" The hight of CON
domination is reached when you say of any
one, lie is as stupid as the good Lord Is
good" Unhappily, with the present mania
for abbreviating the words us good" are
sometimes omitted TO the horror of the
uninitiated, which is intensified by the
placidity OF those who knew the whole
saying.
To give useless advice is "to stab water
with sword" and to go on an expedition
and be disappointed is ito break your nose
against Closed door" The holy name of
little dog is a very emphatic oath and
to call Frenchman q canary bird is
deadly insult, for which complaints are
sometimes lodged in courts Of justice. If
you are in a very unpleasant predicameu5,
they say you are spinning bad
cotton and IL you come definitely
to grief in. any way, you are said
to- be 'in the water" If anything at
once surprising and disagreeable occurs,
the shock is supposed to leave you with
your tour-horse shoes in the air. If you
refresh exhausted nature with drink Of
absinthe, its green color causes the remark
that you are ''strangling parrot" aud if
YOU drink champagne Of the ClicQuot
brand, they say you make eyes at the
widow" in allusion to Neuve CIicquot,
whose name adorus the bottle.
The word pig" is considered most vul-
gar in French. If you wish to designate
the animal, you refer to him as 1.-The gen tie
man dressed in silk as the companion of
st. Anthony; and yet the express on my
little pink Pig is term Of endearment
among pleblans, as is also the term my lit
tie cabbage If one suffers from nausea,
they say one is ''as sick as a walrus," and if
you die, that you have broken
your pips." unless you have been guilo-
tined, when they say you have sneezed in
the basket, in alluslon to the fact that the
criminals head drops into a wicker recep-
tacle prepared for IL; and it, you are hanged,
you are supposed to have danced jig
without any floor" A man condemned TO
be beheaded is said to be "about to be
shortened if for murder because "he
cooled of an individual and the cart
which takes the criminals body to the
grave is graphically described as the "cold
meat wagon
Servants who leave a place are said TO
have given back their aprons" and when
they dip unduly into the marketing money
and charge large prices for small things,
they are said to ''sst the handle of the mar
ket-basket dancing" The derivation of that
phrase no ons seems to know. An unrei-
able person is designated as basket with
q hole i'll il - aud bore is termed a shaver"
II any one protests loudly against anything
kaaT ue nfI 60 1a, nVrnG Of