The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-09-08
SO-CALLED AMERICANISMS.
many OF Them Have Highly Legitimate
Percentage In Old England.

Many Of Them Have a Highly Legitimate
Percentage 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"
Tor "as, "She 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"-''she can not love as 1
do"-if we happen to prefer it, like we
do. We may call a keyless watch a
keyleSs watch. 1t is free country.
Americans call it ''stem-winder,' - and
who shall throw the. first stone at them?
1t is a graphic expressions; so is ''two-
shoot scatter-gun" for fowling-piece.
There are American words for Ameri-
can things, like chewing gum''-an
abomniation 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 viscous
solid, and can be used to produce
cracking noises, but whether this is
the end and aim of chewing gum" is
another question.
Some words are not American at all,
but English. "ChirlS' is used bv Mr.
Swinburne in the ''Masque of Queen
Bersabe," and no doubt he has old
authority. ''Chouse" is perfectly good
English. ''Curlicues' is rendered
''pranks," "capers." 1t is no more
American than, ''chouse" or ''chirl.''
Andrew Fairservice. living in 1.-The
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. ''F. +. "" is
only the initials of First Families of
Virginia" How far from distinguished
some of them may have been the reader
of De Foes Mol Flanders" is very
well aware. "My Juvenile Union Blue
reads like form of Mr.. Wellers INV
Proosian blue" The guess" is En-
glish. "He was lovely youth, I
guess" says William Wadsworth, quite
seriously as ever, and Chaucer uses the
phrase, though perhaps in a more COM
mon sense. Honey" a 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
''lend" is Chaucerian, but undesira BILE
"Mad" for angry is Scotch and Irish
both races thinking that ira est
brevis Juror" as the Latin grammar
says. ITO mech" is, of course, old
English and Shal1espearian. "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,"
q friend, is obsolete, and is Indian.
''Ha, 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 a 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-thc ventriloquial moan
ings. and crowds, and eXcitement-as
Principal Baillie saw and remarked.
But the stool of repentance is some
thing perfectly different. - London
News.
I'll.