Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1893-09-07
so-cALLEp AMERlcANlsMs.
Many of Them Have q Highly Legitimate
Parentage In Old England.


Parentage In Old England.
The slang of a people is one thing
and its language another Most of the
Americanisms are simply slang; many
of them have been adopted by the slang
lovers in England. The phrase like"
for ssas, .SShe can not live like can,
is at least as common in England as in
America, and has been defended on
good and old poetical authority by
William Morris, if we are not mistaken.
Still there is no actual harm or crime
in using "as''-s'she can not love as
do"-if we happen to prefer it, like we
do. We may call a keyless watch
keyless watch. 1t is free country.
Americans call it a 'stem-winder, land
who shall throw the first stone at them?
1t is graphic expression; so is 'stwo-
shoot scatter-gun'' for a fowling-piece.
There are American words for Ameri-
can things, like chewing gum''-an
Accumulation very well known to
Scotch boys, but they call it india-rub-
Der. However, they..chew it, nobody
knows why, or rather we do know
why. By chewing a piece of india
rubber for months it becomes a viscous
solid, and can be used to produce
cracking noises, but whether this is
the end and aim of 'schewing gum is
another question.
Some words are not American at all,
but English. ssChirk'' is used by Mr.
Swinburne in the ''Masqne of Queen
Bersabe," and no doubt he has old
authority. sChouse' is perfectly good
English. ''Curlicues' is rendered
'pranks,' sscapers.'' It is no more
American than, "chouse'' or s'cllirk''#
Andrew Fairservice. living in 'sthe.
Fifteen" applies 'curlicue' to the
architectural ornaments of Glas-
gov cathedral. The phrase is
in "Rob Roy" and no doubt is good
Scotch; the sense of the term may have
been altered in America, s'F F. W. is
only the initials of First Families of
Virginia How far from distinguished
some of them may have been the reader
of De Foes ''Moll Flanders is very
well aware. "My Juvenile Union Blue
reads like form of Mr.. Weller's INV
Proosian blue The guess is En-.
glish. He was a lovely youth, /
guess" says William Wadsworth, quite
seriously as ever, and Chaucer uses the
phrase, though perhaps in more COM
mon sense. Honey" phrase of en-
dearment, is, Scotch. Limb means
''leg" in American-we do not
know what is American for back
or whether it is recognized at all.
Mr.. Howells blames an English
lady in one of his moral tales for
naming her back. 1t would be useful
to know what she ought to have; called
t. Americans do not, if polite. go to
bed they retire. They do not take
the view of bed proclaimed by Anatole
Frances latest hero. To loan for to
| 'slend" is Chaucerian, but undesirable
MAD" for angry is Scotch and Irish
both races thinking that SRA est
brevis Juror as the Latin grammar
says. ss1'o meech'' is, of course, old
English and Shakespearian. 'Moboc-
racy' ought to be "ochlocracy,"
but is not particularly Ameri-
can. ''Mugwump' is difficult, but
is said to be red Indian =
''mukquomp, "a superior person. .
like the Phairshon. Naturally mug
wump is ever in the minority. ''Netop,'
a friend, is obsolete, and is Indian.
Fla, Nitzchi, shangawaba,' . is the way
to address an Indian-''Ho, friend,
whisky" admire" is used by Milton,
and, in fact, is not uncommon in the
American sense. The anxious bench, .
or moaning BENCH at religious
revival is not the stool Of repentance.
Burns occupied the latter; the former,
never. The protesters introduced in
Scotland about 1862 the phenomena of
revivalism-the ventriloquial moan
ings, and crowds, and excitement-as
Principal Baltic saw and remarked.
But the stool of repentance is some
thing perfectly different. - London
News.