Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1894-10-18
SLANG PHRASES.
Some OF Recent Coins4e That Are
Highly Expressive.

lowing the Scriptural injunction to in
| crease and multiply and thus replen-
ish the world with words and phrases
Some of these additions To the verbal
| family, says the New York World, are
black sheep, slang that offends ones
sense OF the fitness of things. but
many of them become Incorporated.
not only in daily speech, but in litera-
ture, and after a while lose the twang
of SlangineSS and acquire a smooth
and pleasant flavor. Men are con-
stantly inyenting new words inten,
tionally, and new terms spring into
popularity by accident, or from the
name Of the man who first invents
something.
For instance. the terms in the sci
ence of electricity: A volt comes from
Volta, an early electrician, and am
phere, another term of measurement
was the name of a French expert
menter. The word boycott, which in
the last twenty years has been so de-
servedly popular, was the name of a
captain in Ireland. The term pan
! tata" is a recent humorous addition
which will probably for years to come
be applied to the police force. Cox,
eyite," as the name for a tramp, and
a Commonwealth" are fresh in
stances, though one might suppose
that the latter would be applied more
truly to a bicyclist.
| 1t is only in the last twenty years
that we have had the word natural
iSt'' applied to that school of writers.
with lola at the top and Albert Ross
at the bottom, who find their satiSfac-
ton in depicting the most coarse, ugly
or nasty conditions of human life.
''RealiSt," too, is a word Of recent ORR
gin, and "veritist'' is still more fresh.
very fresh indeed, being the invention
Of the school of Hamlin Garland for
the sake of describing itself and con-
tanning a somewhat esOtiStic aSsump-
ton, as if the only truth in literature
belonged to it.
| "Cinch" is another word that has
recently come to us, a very expressive
metaphor taken from the Mexican
"cincha," meaning the tightening of Il
saddle-girth. Hence to get Il cinch on
one is to have grip as tight as the
saddle on mustange. The true sig
MITIGATION of the metaphor appears in
that amusing western poem Zone Of
the Palls," written by Jonah LIE Roy
Robinson, of Watertown, S. D.:
Joe he'd no sense o the time to quit;
Stunted discretion and Stalled grit
Helped him onbuckle many a cinch,
Whar sensible men 'ud have died in
the pinch.
Among the slang phrases, some of
which have really been assimilated
into the language and are frequently
used by editorial writer's, great
many have come from the race track
in recent years, showing that, in this
country, Mr.. Crocker's private college
is beginning to have almost as much
"infiooence'' Oh our daily life as in
England, where some wag has re-
marked that in point of intrinsic popu-
lar interest the human race is nothing
to a horse race. For example take
the terms Ito have the inside track, )"
''to make the running" Ito set the
pace "a point "a straight tip "a
GUTTER" meaning a coward; "touting."
a word that almost explains itself; ito
win hands down. "a pony meaning
$50, and "a monkey" meaning $500.
"a century" for 500 is one that has
quite a classic flavor.
ITO give one the go-by" also comes
fbo
haha' and recently the "Merryhaha'
are recent improvements on the go-by
Just as Congressman William Everett,
OF classic fame, amplified the phrase
put me in a hole to deposit me in
cavity" "To give one the laugh" has
theatrical addition to ''give me the
dirty laugh" signifying some mean
heart for the cold shoulder is quite
expressive-a sort of poetic quartz.
''The con smile" and the glad hand"
are picturesque expressions taken
from the life of the confidence man,
"The glum viz and the hurry touch
is a phrase applied to the man who,
with a long face, strikes one for
small loan and vanishes rapidly.
To speak of striking young lady as
a "killiloO" is the same thing as to
call her a 'pin-feather," which, going
back a few years, is equivalent to say
ing ooh, she's a Bird Brooklyn's ia
vorite instrument for the commission
of a new variety of popular murder
by unpopular corporations, the devas
tating trolley, has furnished us with
the phrase ooh, he's off his trolley"
that supersedes in pavement parlance
the older phrase ''off his base" which
has gone into the language as toler
ably good English. A new piece of
slang to express the same thing is the
saying, ooh, he has wheels" This
may be taken from the use of the BIZ
cycle running to a craze with some
people, or possibly from the trolley
also.
Englishmen used to laugh at Amer
leans, even cultured Americans like
Emerson and Lowell, for saying Il
guess not instead Of No" A recent
English phrase for mo- very current
among the chappies and eXtraordin-
arily appropriate is Il don't think"
An odd phrase that has a good deal
of philosophy wrapped up in it's four
syllables is the expression There are
Others"
This is to be used when anybody has
poured out a TRADE of abuse or de-
nunciation of some person for com.